NABARD Grade A Current Affairs — 2 August 2026

Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) are areas notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, around Protected Areas to act as transition zones between high-protection forests and human-use lands. The Supreme Court in 2022 mandated a minimum one-kilometre ESZ around every Protected Area. Western Ghats ESZ, recommended by the Kasturirangan Committee across six states, remains contentious — Kerala, Goa, and Karnataka oppose strict boundaries, citing impacts on farmers and settlements in over 56,000 sq km of ecologically sensitive land.

Eco-Sensitive Zones are regulatory buffers declared under Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the nodal authority for notifying ESZs. Their purpose is to create a graduated land-use transition — preventing abrupt shift from strict wildlife habitat to unrestricted development.

The Western Ghats ESZ story has two key layers examiners test:

1. KASTURIRANGAN COMMITTEE (2013): Recommended ~60,000 sq km of the Western Ghats be declared Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), covering parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. This replaced the earlier Gadgil Committee (2011) recommendation of ~64% of Western Ghats as ESA — which states rejected as too restrictive.

2. SUPREME COURT ORDER (2022): The court directed that every National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary must have a minimum 1-km ESZ. This created immediate conflict in densely populated states where villages exist within this radius.

Within ESZs, activities are classified as: Prohibited (mining, quarrying, large hydroelectric projects), Regulated (felling trees, establishment of hotels), and Permitted (ongoing agricultural practices, rainwater harvesting). The distinction between 'prohibited', 'regulated', and 'permitted' categories is a classic UPSC MCQ angle.

For NABARD, the livelihood dimension matters — ESZs affect farmers through restrictions on land conversion, logging, and infrastructure, directly impacting rural credit needs and agricultural expansion in forest-fringe communities.

Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone and inaugurated multiple development projects worth over ₹17,900 crore in Bhogapuram, Vizianagaram district, Andhra Pradesh. The centrepiece is the Bhogapuram International Greenfield Airport, developed under public-private partnership. Other projects span road infrastructure, drinking water supply, and industrial corridors. The event marks a significant push for Andhra Pradesh's post-bifurcation development, with projects spanning aviation, connectivity, and urban infrastructure under various central and state government schemes.

The Bhogapuram International Greenfield Airport is a landmark project for Andhra Pradesh, positioned to serve as an alternative to Visakhapatnam's existing airport and handle growing passenger demand in the region. It is being developed under a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model, consistent with India's UDAN scheme objectives of regional air connectivity and the broader National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) framework. Greenfield airports require clearance from multiple bodies — the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Airport Authority of India (AAI), and environmental regulators — making them complex multi-agency undertakings. Vizianagaram district, where Bhogapuram is located, falls in the coastal Andhra region, which the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 (bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh) identified for accelerated development. The ₹17,900 crore package also includes projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission (drinking water), national highway expansion, and industrial linkages. For exam purposes, the key static anchors are: the PPP model for airport development, the role of AAI, the UDAN scheme's mandate for regional connectivity, and Andhra Pradesh's special category status debate post-bifurcation. NABARD aspirants should note the rural infrastructure and drinking water components, which align with NABARD's Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) mandate. The examiner will likely blank out the total project cost, the district name, or the specific scheme linkage.