KSLU Solved Question Papers
Environmental Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2024 Aug Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Environmental Law 2024 Aug Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2024 Aug examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2024 Aug examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2024 Aug examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all the five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problems is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answers should be written either in English or in Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)What is Ecosystem ? What are ecosystem services ?[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: Part I, the ecosystem: meaning and definition (Tansley; Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity), its structure (abiotic and biotic parts; producers, consumers, decomposers), how it works (food chains and webs, energy flow, nutrient cycles, balance), and its types; Part II, ecosystem services in four groups with examples; Part III, how Indian law protects ecosystems, with cases; and a conclusion.
Part I: what an ecosystem is
Meaning. An ecosystem is a community of living organisms together with their non-living surroundings, interacting as one working unit. A pond, a forest, a grassland, a mangrove swamp and a coral reef are all ecosystems. The term was introduced by the British ecologist A.G. Tansley in 1935.
Legal definition. Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992 defines an ecosystem as "a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit". India is a party to that Convention.
Structure. Every ecosystem has two parts:
- Abiotic (non-living) components: sunlight, temperature, air, water, soil and minerals.
- Biotic (living) components:
- producers, mainly green plants, which make food from sunlight by photosynthesis;
- consumers: herbivores that eat plants, carnivores that eat herbivores, and top predators; and
- decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi, which break down dead matter and return nutrients to the soil.
How it works.
- Food chains and food webs. Energy passes from plants to herbivores to carnivores. Many chains interlink to form a web.
- Energy flow. Energy flows one way, from the sun through each level. Much is lost as heat at each step, so there are fewer animals at the top than plants at the bottom.
- Nutrient cycles. Carbon, nitrogen, water and phosphorus move in cycles between living things and their surroundings, and are used again and again.
- Balance. A healthy ecosystem keeps its populations roughly stable. Remove one link, such as a predator, and the balance is upset.
Types. Ecosystems may be terrestrial (forests, grasslands, deserts), aquatic (ponds, rivers, lakes, seas, estuaries) or man-made (farms, cities). India's Western Ghats and Himalaya are among the richest in the world.
Part II: ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems, free of cost. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005 grouped them into four kinds:
- Provisioning: food, fresh water, timber, fuelwood, fodder, fish and medicinal plants.
- Regulating: control of floods, purification of water, pollination of crops, control of pests, storage of carbon and regulation of climate.
- Supporting: soil formation, photosynthesis and nutrient cycling, on which all other services depend.
- Cultural: recreation, tourism, education, beauty, and religious value, as in sacred groves and sacred rivers.
Take a forest on a hill. It gives timber (provisioning), holds the soil and feeds the springs (regulating), and builds soil over centuries (supporting). It may also be a sacred grove (cultural). When it is cleared, all these benefits are lost at once, though only the timber had a price.
These services are rarely counted in the price of a project. A wetland that absorbs a flood saves a town money, but its owner earns nothing for it. That is why ecosystems are lost unless the law protects them directly.
Part III: how the law protects ecosystems
- Protected areas under the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, such as sanctuaries and national parks.
- Central approval for diverting forest land under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam 1980.
- The Biological Diversity Act 2002, and Rules under the EPA for wetlands and coasts.
- The courts' reading of Article 21 and the public trust doctrine.
K.M. Chinnappa v. Union of India, (2002) 10 SCC 606. An iron ore company was mining inside the Kudremukh National Park in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, under an expired lease. The Supreme Court accepted the Forest Advisory Committee's view and allowed mining only until the end of 2005. It was confined to the area already broken, on ecological conditions. The ecosystem of a national park was put ahead of continued mining.
M.K. Balakrishnan v. Union of India, (2009) 5 SCC 511. A petition sought protection of the country's wetlands. The Supreme Court read wetlands to include ponds, tanks, lakes and rivers, and noted that many had been filled and built over. It treated the right to water as part of the right to life and pressed the Government on measures to solve water shortage.
T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India, AIR 1997 SC 1228. Trees were being felled in the Nilgiris. The Supreme Court held that "forest" bears its dictionary meaning, whatever its ownership or legal label. So every forest ecosystem, not only notified reserves, needs Central approval before it is diverted.
Conclusion. An ecosystem is a dynamic unit of living organisms and their non-living surroundings, held together by food webs, energy flow and nutrient cycles. Ecosystem services are the provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural benefits it gives people free. Indian law protects ecosystems through protected areas, forest law, the Biological Diversity Act and Article 21. K.M. Chinnappa and M.K. Balakrishnan show the courts protecting a national park and wetlands.
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