Protecting biodiversity: Strategy improves, but outcomes remain uncertain

A key concern is the gap between restoration and degradation: while 24.1 mn hectares are restored against a 26 mn target, nearly 30% of India's land still faces degradation

India recently submitted its Seventh National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, offering a detailed stocktaking of its biodiversity commitments at a critical point in the runup to 2030. It is the first full progress assessment since the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in 2022. While India has built a wide-ranging institutional and digital-data architecture, marking a shift toward systematised governance and biodiversity conservation, several outcomes still remain uneven. India’s updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2024-30), aligned with the Kunming-Montreal framework, includes a biodiversity-monitoring system with 142 indicators mapped to 23 national biodiversity targets (NBTs). On the ground, there has been visible progress in spatial planning and ecosystem monitoring under NBT-1. India’s remote-sensing programme, led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), under the National Natural Resources Management System, has created the capacity for large-scale spatial and temporal assessments of forests, wetlands, and coastal ecosystems, thereby supporting area-based conservation planning. 

Environmental governance has also been streamlined through the PARIVESH (Pro-Active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive, Virtuous, and Environmental Single Window Hub) platform, a single-window facility based on the Geographic Information System, or GIS. This system integrates forest, wildlife, and environmental and coastal clearances while tracking compliance. More recently, the expansion to PARIVESH 2.0 reflects an attempt to combine technological efficiency with regulatory oversight. Data-driven approaches are also being put to use to achieve progress under NBT-2 on ecosystem restoration. For instance, Isro’s Space Applications Centre has mapped desertification and land degradation across multiple time periods. A pilot land degradation vulnerability assessment conducted across 30 districts, integrating socioeconomic, climate and soil data to identify high-risk areas, is helping restoration efforts. Despite the expansion of restoration programmes, ecological stress continues alongside recovery efforts. 

A central concern is the gap between restoration and degradation. While India reports that 24.1 million hectares have been restored or are under restoration against a target of 26 million hectares, nearly 30 per cent of its geographical area continues to face land degradation. Conservation coverage also remains limited, with only a little over 5 per cent of India’s land under formal protection. While flagship species such as big cats and rhinos show recovery, the report provides limited data on lesser-known species and other taxa, making it difficult to assess broader biodiversity health. Agricultural ecosystems remain a weak link. Although agroforestry now covers about 8.65 per cent of India’s geographical area and trees outside forests contribute significantly to total tree cover, excessive pesticide use and nutrient runoff remain concerns. 

Data weaknesses, ranging from non-standardised indicators to fragmented collection systems, complicate the assessment of real progress. Besides, external pressures are intensifying. Climate-related events are affecting ecosystems, compounding existing stresses from land-use change, infrastructure expansion, and urbanisation. Much of this biodiversity loss occurs outside protected areas, where regulatory oversight is weaker. Taken together, it is clear that biodiversity loss increasingly intersects with climate risks, food security, and livelihoods. Thus, monitoring systems should be matched with regulatory enforcement while conservation activities should move beyond protected areas into agriculture, infrastructure, and urban planning.