Social Issues and the Environment
What this domain tests
Social Issues and the Environment tests how environmental costs and benefits are distributed, how development conflicts arise, and how movements and institutions respond. Expect questions on sustainable development debates, displacement and rehabilitation, environmental justice, and Rajasthan's ecological traditions.
Core rules and concepts
- Environmental issues are also social issues: who bears the cost, who receives the benefit, and who decides.
- Development conflicts: dams and displacement (Sardar Sarovar, Tehri), forest protection (Chipko, Appiko), wildlife versus grazing, mining versus Aravalli conservation.
- Rajasthan: the Bishnoi tradition of protecting khejri trees and blackbuck; the Khejarli sacrifice associated with Amrita Devi; sacred groves (orans) and village commons.
- Environmental justice: disproportionate burden on poor, tribal and women-headed households; access to clean water, fuel and sanitation.
- Participation and informed consent; rehabilitation and resettlement; compensatory afforestation; benefit-sharing.
- Consumerism drives resource throughput; 'sustainable' means maintaining natural capital, not zero use.
Worked example
A dam generates 1,000 MW and displaces 20,000 people, mostly tribal households, while most power goes to distant cities. Even if total monetary benefits exceed costs, the distribution is inequitable: those bearing displacement and forest loss are not the main beneficiaries. Reasoning: a cost–benefit total hides distribution; environmental justice asks who bears which cost and whether consent and rehabilitation were adequate.
Traps
Treating environment and development as an either/or choice; calling every protest anti-development; ignoring women's and tribal stakes; assuming compensation equals rehabilitation. In answers, name the affected group and the mechanism, not just 'people suffered'.