Environment & Ecologyv2 · 2 versions
India at UNCCD COP17
At UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, India launched its first national guide to grasslands and other open natural ecosystems, reported 21.76 million hectares brought under restoration in 2011-2020 under its Bonn Challenge pledge, and used four ministerial dialogues to argue for community-led rangeland repair, drought resilience over drought relief, and predictable international finance for land.
Last updated 27 August 20267 min read
Latest update
Added India's four ministerial interventions at COP17: the 21.76 million-hectare restoration record for 2011-2020, the 26 million-hectare Bonn Challenge pledge, the rangelands, drought-resilience and land-finance positions, and a UNCCD backgrounder.
- UNCCD COP17
- grasslands
- open natural ecosystems
- Land Degradation Neutrality
- Ulaanbaatar
- ATREE
- Bhupender Yadav
Read the full living note — free
The complete note in both exam lenses (UPSC analytical / fact capsule), its full version history, and “what changed since you last read” — plus tonight's quiz.
Open in CA·WikiAI-assisted, human-reviewed · sourced from PIB, RBI & ministries · editorial policy
More living notes in Environment & Ecology
- India's Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) RegimeAdded the 22 August 2026 release: ₹2.82 crore to 27 State boards, 3 UT councils and ICAR-IIHR, the first microbial-strain payment with a 30 percent institute share, and the cumulative total now at ₹185 crore (up from ₹166 crore).
- Snow Leopard Conservation in IndiaNew card: India presents its snow leopard science — counting, radio-collaring and genetics — at a Russia-India roundtable in Moscow under the Irbis-IBCA partnership.
- Monsoon 2026, El Nino & Climate SignalsPut the mid-August flood emergency on the record without losing the season's shape. On 14 August 2026 IMD held Chhattisgarh under a red warning for very heavy to extremely heavy rain, with Odisha, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh a step below - the red that had sat over Odisha days earlier having moved west as the system tracked inland. In Odisha the Baitarani ran above its danger mark at Anandapur and Patna, the Budhabalanga reached parts of Baripada, a bridge in Mayurbhanj was washed away, and Sundargarh and Keonjhar carried district-level red warnings; a further low-pressure area is expected around 20 August. The season itself is unchanged at 12 percent below the long period average on 2 August, which is the point: the shortfall is an average, the damage arrives in one catchment at a time. Restored too: the weekly crop weather watch the agriculture ministry runs off IMD's rainfall data.
- Elephants - Census & Human-Wildlife ConflictAdded the 13 August 2026 national elephant event at Visakhapatnam - the Gaj Gaurav Awards 2026, and, more substantially, a Rs 500 crore Regional Action Plan that puts human-elephant conflict in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka on a single landscape footing rather than four separate ones. New too: Project Elephant's 1992 start as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, the 30 Giant Steps record of 2020-2026, the 23rd Steering Committee's Phase II conflict study across five States, Andhra Pradesh's H.A.N.U.M.A.N. wildlife-care units, and a school campaign that reached over 20 lakh children.
- India's Groundwater ResourceIndia draws 247 billion cubic metres of groundwater a year against 408 BCM that can safely be extracted — a 60.63 percent extraction stage, exceeded in nine States and UTs and in 281 districts.
- Restoring India's Degraded ForestsTracks how India repairs degraded forest land: 1,84,467 hectares eco-restored under the Green India Mission across 17 states and one Union Territory, the urban Nagar Van push on CAMPA money, and the 45-species invasive-plant list states work from.