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Despite massive commitments to meet the Biodiversity Plan, this year’s budget has reduced the allocations for key areas of biodiversity. The Plan was adopted in December 2022 at COP15 in Montreal and India had shown full support to this.
Overall, the allocation for the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which handles biodiversity conservation — under the larger ambit of conservation and survey of flora, fauna, forests and wildlife; prevention and control of pollution; afforestation and regeneration of degraded areas; protection of the environment; and ensuring the welfare of animals — has gone up from Rs 3,079.4 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 3,330.37 crore in 2024-25. However, within this, the outlay dedicated to biodiversity-linked work has shrunk.
The budget for the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), a statutory and regulatory body under the ministry, has been reduced to Rs 16 crore from Rs 16.4 crore. NBA was established in 2003 by the central government to implement India’s Biological Diversity Act (2002).
It was recently amended and one would expect that more money would be needed to implement the amended work plan, at least in the initial phase.
Instead of overall biodiversity protection, money available for species conservation has increased. For example, funds available for the National Tiger Conservation Authority have gone up from Rs 11 crore last year to Rs 35 crore this year. This authority is in charge of a single species only.
In case of autonomous bodies involved in carrying out research, overall funds have increased to Rs 391 crore from Rs 309 crore but funds for forest management have taken a cut. The Indian Institute of Forest Management allocation has dwindled to just Rs 13 crore from Rs 17.5 crore.
Overall allocation for centrally sponsored schemes has gone up to Rs 3,330.37 crore from Rs 3,079.4. But specific centrally sponsored schemes such as those on environment, forestry and wildlife are seeing a budget cut. This has gone down to Rs 713.5 crore this year from Rs 758.8 crore last year.
Specific programmes such as the Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems also saw a budget cut. In 2023-24, Rs 47 crore was allocated to it. But this year, the allocation was just Rs 43.5 crore. Biodiversity conservation, which was getting a mere Rs 7 crore earlier, is now down to Rs 5 crore.
In case of conservation of aquatic ecosystems, while allocation has reduced to Rs 35.5 crore from Rs 38.4 crore, the Externally Aided Projects component has gone up from Rs 1.6 crore to Rs 3 crore.
The Biodiversity Plan has a funding component which mandates developed countries to support developing countries in their efforts to meet the 23 targets and 4 goals set under the Plan.
However, funding has been only a trickle so far and the onus of protecting biodiversity falls on national governments. In this light, this year's Union budget does not bode well for India’s biodiversity.
