NABARD Grade A Current Affairs — 23 August 2026

MoEFCC and the National Biodiversity Authority have launched a five-year project to strengthen biodiversity governance at the grassroots level, focusing on Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya. The initiative aims to reinforce Biodiversity Management Committees at the local level, improve People's Biodiversity Registers, and align community-level conservation with India's commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The project reflects India's push to operationalise the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 at the panchayat and local body level.

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 created a three-tier governance structure: the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) at the state level, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local body level. BMCs are mandated to prepare People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) — living documents that catalogue local biological resources, traditional knowledge, and land use practices.

Despite being legally mandated, BMC functioning has been uneven across states. This five-year project directly addresses that implementation gap by strengthening BMCs in Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya — two ecologically significant states. Tamil Nadu falls within the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, while Meghalaya lies within the Indo-Burma hotspot, both among the 36 global biodiversity hotspots identified by Norman Myers.

The project also connects to India's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and specifically the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted at COP15 in December 2022. The GBF's Target 3 — the '30x30' goal of protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030 — requires robust local-level data and governance, precisely what PBRs and BMCs are designed to supply.

For exam purposes, the key institutional chain is: CBD → Biological Diversity Act 2002 → NBA → SBBs → BMCs → PBRs. The nodal ministry is MoEFCC. NBA is headquartered in Chennai.

The Ken-Betwa River Link Project, India's first National River Interlinking project, received Cabinet approval and has entered active implementation. It transfers surplus water from the Ken River in Madhya Pradesh to the water-scarce Betwa basin, benefiting Bundelkhand's drought-prone districts across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The project includes the Daudhan Dam, a 221-km link canal, hydropower generation capacity of 103 MW, and aims to irrigate 10.62 lakh hectares while providing drinking water to 62 lakh people.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is the first project under India's ambitious National Perspective Plan (NPP) for river interlinking, originally conceived by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA). The NPP envisages 30 river link projects — 14 in the Himalayan component and 16 in the Peninsular component. Ken-Betwa falls under the Peninsular component.

Both rivers are tributaries of the Yamuna. The Ken River originates in the Vindhya Range (Madhya Pradesh), flows through Panna Tiger Reserve, and joins the Yamuna near Banda in Uttar Pradesh. The Betwa River also rises in the Vindhyas near Bhopal and meets the Yamuna near Hamirpur, UP.

The core engineering involves building the Daudhan Dam on the Ken River, creating a reservoir whose surplus water is transferred via a 221-km canal to the Betwa basin. This directly addresses the chronic water deficit of Bundelkhand — a plateau region straddling MP and UP notorious for droughts and agrarian distress.

The project has a controversial environmental dimension: the Daudhan Dam submerges part of the Panna Tiger Reserve, raising biodiversity concerns. The Supreme Court granted wildlife clearance conditionally, requiring compensatory afforestation and tiger relocation. This tension between development infrastructure and ecological conservation is a recurring UPSC theme.

Financing is shared between the Centre and both states, with the National Ken-Betwa River Link Authority (NKBRLA) overseeing execution. Total project cost is approximately ₹44,605 crore at 2021 prices.