Insights in Biodiversity Management and Conservation in India: Structure and Role of Multi-tier Legal System

Abstract

India, a mega varied nation with merely 2.5% of the earth’s total land region, shelters approx. seven to eight % of entire documented species, comprises of 45,000 floral species and 97,000 species of animals. Although, India can exhibit a notable variety of life diversity but there is barely any possibility for sense of security. The biodiversity experiences a variety of threats like overexploitation of natural resources, climate change, land use changes in natural habitats and spread of invasive species. Number of actions comprising facilitating strategy and official framework, have been put in place to mainstream environment, together with biodiversity. To attain the goals of Convention on Biodiversity, Indian government proclaimed the ‘Biological Diversity Act’ in 2002. The NBA founded under this act operates controlling, advisory and facilitative roles on matters of conservation, balanced usage of biological resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits of use. The NBA operates through SBBs at the state level and BMCs at the regional level to execute biodiversity policies via development of People's Biodiversity Registers. All these efforts will help in moving forward in the direction of attaining objectives for biodiversity protection and human development. This review summarized the structure of multi-tier system of National Biodiversity Authority with focus on Biodiversity Management Committee and their roles in conservation.