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APSC Mains GS Paper 3: 2023: Explain the causal links between environmental degradation and vulnerability to disasters. Suggest four steps that can be taken to minimize environmental degradation. (15 Marks, 250 words)

Model Answer:

According to the UNEP Global Environment Outlook, ecological degradation acts as a severe threat multiplier, systematically stripping away natural defensive buffers and transforming routine natural hazards into unmanageable, catastrophic disasters.

Causal Links: Environmental Degradation & Disaster Vulnerability

Deforestation & Hill-slope Instability: Rampant logging and unscientific earth-cutting destroy root networks that bind topsoil, directly causing catastrophic mudslides and landslides during heavy precipitation.
- (Example: Ecological damage in the Barail Range triggered the devastating 2022 Dima Hasao railway washouts in Assam).
Wetland Encroachment & Urban Flooding: Concreting over natural water sinks and drainage channels drastically reduces ground absorption capacity, resulting in severe pluvial floods.
- (Example: The systematic shrinking of Deepor Beel exponentially magnifies Guwahati’s recurrent urban flooding).
Riverbed Mining & Channel Avulsion: Unregulated sand mining alters river morphology and degrades natural embankments, accelerating sudden flash floods, changing river courses, and worsening bank erosion.
- (Example: Increased vulnerability of communities along the Jiadhal and Pagladiya river basins).
Mangrove Destruction & Coastal Cyclones: Depleting coastal ecosystems (like the Sundarbans) removes critical friction buffers, intensifying the velocity, tidal reach, and inland devastation of cyclonic storm surges.

Four Steps to Minimize Environmental Degradation

Enforcing Nature-Based Solutions (NbS): Mandate wetland rejuvenation and riparian buffer zone plantations, scaling central initiatives like Amrit Dharohar to restore natural hydrological cycles and act as bio-shields.
Institutionalizing Carrying Capacity Studies: Strictly enforce independent Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) to cap infrastructure expansion and tourism in fragile terrains (like the Eastern Himalayas) at their ecologically sustainable thresholds.
Transitioning to a Circular Economy: Implement robust Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks to minimize single-use plastics, toxic industrial discharge, and resource depletion, shifting away from the ‘take-make-dispose’ model.
Community-Led Conservation: Empower indigenous populations through the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, integrating traditional ecological knowledge to manage community forest reserves and halt extractive poaching or logging.

Fulfilling the constitutional mandate of Article 51A(g) to protect our natural environment will anchor development in climate justice, guaranteeing intergenerational equity and ecologically sustainable prosperity.

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