IAS Prelims Syllabus:
General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization.
IAS Mains Syllabus:
Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Environment and Ecology (Analysis)
Now since 2011 when this topic was specifically mentioned the number of questions that are, they can be allocated to this particular topic is actually very high. In 2014 as many as 18 to 20 questions were there from this section only. The reason for this is very simple, Indian Forest Services examination prelims process was introduced in that examination and the prelims process is basically merged with the Civil Services examination. So, when you appear for the Civil Services examination some of you also appear for the Indian Forest Services prelims examination.
Now, since the paper is same the weight of Environmental Ecology topic has gone up and that is why this has became an important portion of the paper. We can basically see that in 2015 the number of questions were around 11 to 12 but from this small topic/chapter is actually very significant. So, now we will try to identify that How and Why you should study Environment & Ecology so as to cover most of the things that you want to do for scoring 80 to 90 percent marks in the questions from these sections.
First and foremost you need to understand that Environmental Ecology is a subject which is combination of three different subjects and they are independent too. An inter-disciplinary approach that includes:
- Biology
- Ecology and
- Geography
Since, the approach is inter-disciplinary in nature many times we find the questions are also on the margin of different subjects. For example if we talk about Ecology & Environment we will be focussing on biosphere, biology, animal kingdom or plant kingdom, so there will be things which are inter-disciplinary in nature. Some times it will refer to biology, some time refer to ecology and some times it may refer to geography as well. So we have to be very clear what we are doing and focussing on just one topic will not suffice. Also, this is one of the greatest concern of our times so current updates and developments are again very important. We have to abreast with what is happening in the world, what has happened in last 20 years and what future course of action will be.