September 2025
In short: India's wildlife, climate and conservation news this month — distilled for SI/Constable Prelims.
Current Affairs — India › Environment · 11 min read · Free to read · English & Telugu
Bilingual study notes for the Andhra Pradesh Police SI & Constable exams (SLPRB AP) by AP Police Hub, a product of Anvil Academy.
September 2025's environment round-up beyond the Science digest — the UN 'High Seas Treaty' crossing its 60-ratification threshold, the Great Nicobar Island Project's tribal-rights row, CPCB's polluted-river-stretches report, an EIA exemption for nuclear and critical-mineral mining, and the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Amendment Rules, 2025.
September 2025 — At a Glance
September 2025 saw global ocean governance cross a historic threshold, a decades-old island-development project face fresh tribal-rights scrutiny, and India's rivers show incremental — but incomplete — recovery. Separately, the Environment Ministry moved to fast-track nuclear and critical-mineral mining by exempting select projects from public hearings, while a forest-law overhaul cleared the way for faster linear-infrastructure approvals.
1. Global Environmental Governance
The UN 'High Seas Treaty' crosses its 60-ratification threshold
- What — The treaty on conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction — the BBNJ Agreement, informally the 'High Seas Treaty' — secured its 60th ratification on 19 September 2025, triggering entry into force 120 days later.
- Legal status — BBNJ is the third implementation agreement under UNCLOS, after the 1994 Part XI Agreement (deep-seabed mining) and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement.
- India's status — India signed the treaty in September 2024 but had not yet ratified it as of the September 2025 milestone.
- Key pillars — Establishing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the high seas; sharing benefits from Marine Genetic Resources (MGRs); capacity-building and marine-technology transfer to developing countries; mandatory Environmental Impact Assessments for high-seas activities like deep-sea mining.
- Scope — Covers nearly half the Earth's surface and 95% of the ocean's volume — currently only about 1% of the high seas is protected.
- Significance for India — Complements India's Blue Economy Policy and Deep Ocean Mission; supports SDG 14 and the global '30×30' target (30% of land and sea protected by 2030).
- Exceptions — Does not apply to warships, military aircraft or naval auxiliary vessels; fishing is regulated separately under other international law.
2. Conservation vs Development
The Great Nicobar Island Project — a fresh tribal-rights row
- Why in the news — The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs sought a factual report from the Andaman & Nicobar administration after complaints that tribal forest rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 were not settled before forest land was diverted for the project.
- About the project — A mega-infrastructure project conceived by NITI Aayog and approved by the Union Cabinet in 2021; nodal agency is ANIIDCO (Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation, est. 1988).
- Four components — An International Transshipment Port at Galathea Bay, a Greenfield international airport, a 450 MW power plant, and a township.
- Strategic value — Sits near the Malacca Strait, through which about one-third of global sea trade passes; would let India station ships, aircraft and drones near this Indo-Pacific chokepoint.
- Ecological concerns — Galathea Bay is a Ramsar-protected wetland and a key nesting site for the endangered leatherback sea turtle; the port would require dredging millions of cubic metres, threatening coral reefs and seagrass meadows; roughly 9.6 lakh trees face felling, and Great Nicobar retains over 85% tropical rainforest cover.
- Tribal concerns — Risks displacing the Shompen (a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) and the Nicobarese, and exposing the isolated Shompen to diseases they have no immunity to.
- Disaster risk — Great Nicobar lies on the same megathrust fault line that triggered the devastating December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
3. Pollution & Water
River Pollution in India — CPCB's 2025 report
- What — CPCB released 'Polluted River Stretches for Restoration of Water Quality — 2025', identifying 296 polluted river stretches on 271 (of 645 assessed) rivers across 32 states/UTs — down from 351 in 2018.
- Criteria — A stretch is classified 'polluted' where Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) exceeds 3 mg/L; stretches are further graded into five priority classes by severity (Priority I: BOD > 30.1 mg/L, the most polluted).
- Geography — Maharashtra has the most polluted stretches (54); named examples include the Yamuna (Delhi), Sabarmati (Ahmedabad), Chambal (Madhya Pradesh), Tungabhadra (Karnataka) and Sarabanga (Tamil Nadu).
- Sources of pollution — Over 60% of urban sewage flows untreated into rivers (~72,368 million litres/day generated against far lower treatment capacity); untreated industrial effluent from chemical, sugar, paper and leather industries; agricultural run-off and sand mining.
- Legal/institutional framework — The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 set up CPCB/SPCBs; river-rejuvenation programmes include Namami Gange (replacing the 1985 Ganga Action Plan) and the Yamuna Action Plan (1993).
4. Environmental Regulation in the News
EIA public-consultation exemption for nuclear and critical-mineral mining
- What — MoEFCC (on 8 September 2025) exempted mining projects for atomic minerals (uranium, thorium, monazite) and critical/strategic minerals (lithium, cobalt, rare earths) from the mandatory public hearing under the EIA Notification, 2006 — though they remain subject to central-level appraisal.
- Rationale — Aims to speed up domestic critical-mineral production and reduce import dependence, and to support India's nuclear power programme (uranium for Stage I, thorium for Stage III).
- Concerns — Critics say it weakens environmental democracy and public-participation principles, citing past cases like Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel collapse (2023), where an EIA exemption was involved.
Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Amendment Rules, 2025
- What — MoEFCC notified amendments to the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 (framed under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980).
- Key changes — Makes prior notification of compensatory-afforestation land optional; mandates double the area of compensatory afforestation on degraded forest land for critical/strategic mineral mining; empowers states to grant early 'working permission' for select linear projects (roads short of blacktopping, rail tracks, transmission lines) before formal Stage-I forest clearance.
- Background — Builds on the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, whose narrower 'forest' definition was contested against the Supreme Court's broader 1996 T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad judgment.