India one of worst performers in conservation efforts, ranked 176 out of 180 countries: Report

CHENNAI: Farmers of Parandur are protesting against the Greenfield Airport. Environmentalists oppose mining of atomic minerals from the sensitive beaches of Kanniyakumari. Tribal folks of Chhattisgarh are intensifying their fight against proposed coal mining.

While the protests are being held across the country to safeguard the environment, the first-ever global Nature Conservation Index (NCI), released this month, has justified such protests.

The NCI has ranked India at 176th place with an abysmal score of just 45.5. The country is one of the worst five performers along with Micronesia (177), Iraq (178), Turkey (179) and Kiribati (180). Moreover, all the neighbouring countries are ranked above India.

Luxembourg, Estonia, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdoms are top five best performers. Pakistan is in 151th position and even the war-torn Afghanistan is above India at 160th position.

The NCI has been prepared based on four key pillars – land management, threats to biodiversity, capacity and governance, and future trends, apart from a framework of 25 performance indicators to provide a detailed, quantitative analysis of biodiversity and sustainability. The parameters cover a wide range of factors, including protected area coverage, species threat levels, conservation legislation, and projections of future trends.

India’s low score and ranking is mainly due to its poor land management and higher threats to biodiversity. The country ranked 154 and 177 respectively in land management and threats to biodiversity pillars. As far as capacity and governance, and future trends pillars, India is ranked 115 and 133 respectively.

The Index explained that land conversion for urban, industrial, and agricultural purposes has reached 53%, stressing the need for sustainable land use practices. Soil pollution, indicated by the sustainable nitrogen index at 0.77, requires attention to maintaining soil health. Additionally, the relatively high pesticide use score of 2.46 needs careful management to minimize environmental impacts.

Numerous factors such as habitat loss and fragmentation by agriculture, urbanization, and infrastructural development, pose risks to India’s biodiversity. An alarming 23,300 sq km of tree cover was lost between 2001 and 2019 due to ongoing deforestation. Sensitive ecosystems like coral reefs and alpine regions are impacted by climate change, the NCI added.

It has warned that the country’s biodiversity richness is under constant threat due to a population density that equals some of the world’s most congested areas and a doubled population since the late 1970s. Merely 5% of India’s land is officially protected. Further, India ranks fourth globally in illegal wildlife trading, worth over 15 billion Euros annually, demanding stricter enforcement and international cooperation.

Prof Yaron Ziv of Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, says, “There’s a saying – You can’t manage what you can’t measure. With that in mind, we created the NCI as an unbiased and straightforward tool to show how well countries handle conservation challenges. A small tool with a grand vision!”