KSLU Solved Question Papers
Environmental Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
LL.B. (Three Years) · Sem 6
2026 Jan Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
LL.B. (Three Years) Sem 6 Environmental Law 2026 Jan Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 31 October 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2026 Jan examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2026 Jan examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2026 Jan 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 five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note are compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or 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)"To live in harmony with nature is a main purpose of social life." - Explain.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what living in harmony with nature means; the ancient Indian ethic (the five elements, the hymn to the earth, the unity of all life); the Arthashastra and Ashoka's edicts; community practice (the Bishnoi, Chipko, Appiko); the same idea in the Constitution and the Stockholm Declaration; the courts' use of it, with cases; its limits.
What the statement means
Social life is life lived with others. The statement says that one main purpose of that life is to live in harmony with nature. Harmony means balance. People take from nature what they need, and they return to it what keeps it healthy. They do not take so much that the balance breaks.
The idea has two parts. The first is restraint: human wants must stay within what the earth can give. The second is duty: people owe care to the earth, to water, to air and to other living creatures. This is not only a rule of good sense. In India it is one of the oldest ideas in social and religious life, and it now sits inside the Constitution.
The ancient Indian ethic
The Vedic and Upanishadic texts treat nature with reverence. They name five elements, the panchamahabhuta: earth, water, fire, air and space. Each is treated as something with its own purity, which must not be fouled.
The Atharva Veda contains a long hymn to the earth, the Prithvi Sukta. It addresses the earth as mother and the speaker as her child. It asks the earth to forgive what is dug out of her. This is a relationship of obligation, not of ownership.
The Upanishads teach that one reality lies under all living beings. If people and other creatures do not differ in kind, then cruelty to animals and destruction of nature are wrong in themselves. Modern writers call this an ecocentric view: nature matters for its own sake, not only for its use to people.
From ethic to rule
The Arthashastra of Kautilya, a manual of statecraft from the Mauryan period, turned the ethic into administration. It provided a Superintendent of Forests and classified forests by use. It protected certain animals and elephant forests. It laid down graded fines for damaging trees and fouling water.
Ashoka's fifth Pillar Edict listed animals, birds and fish that were not to be killed. It forbade burning forests without reason. Other edicts record shade trees, wells and watering places planted along roads. These were the first public and general conservation rules in India.
Harmony kept alive by communities
Custom carried the idea into daily life.
- The Bishnoi of western Rajasthan follow tenets that forbid felling green trees and killing animals. In 1730, at Khejarli near Jodhpur, Amrita Devi and 363 Bishnois were killed while protecting khejri trees from a ruler's men.
- Chipko, in the Himalayan hills in the 1970s, saw villagers hug trees to stop commercial felling.
- Appiko, its Karnataka form, began on 8 September 1983 at Salkani in Sirsi taluk of Uttara Kannada. Villagers hugged trees marked for felling in the Kalase forest. Appiko means "to embrace" in Kannada.
These movements show that harmony with nature is a social value, defended by ordinary people, and not only a teaching in old books.
The same idea in modern law
Article 48A of the Constitution, inserted in 1976, directs the State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard forests and wild life. Article 51A(g) makes it the duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and "to have compassion for living creatures". That last phrase is the old ethic written into the Constitution.
Internationally, Principle 1 of the Stockholm Declaration 1972 gives man a fundamental right to an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity. In the same breath it says he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.
How the courts have used the idea
Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1985 SC 652. A letter complained that limestone quarrying in the Doon Valley was causing landslides and drying water channels. The Supreme Court treated it as a writ petition and closed many quarries. It accepted the hardship to the lessees. But it said this was the price for the people's right to live in a healthy environment, with minimal disturbance of ecological balance. The case puts harmony with nature above unchecked profit.
Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja, (2014) 7 SCC 547. The issue was Jallikattu, in which bulls are released into a crowd. The Supreme Court read sections 3 and 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 with Article 51A(g). That Article asks every citizen to have compassion for living creatures. It held that the Act gives rights to animals, and that entertainment is no exception. The Tamil Nadu Act permitting the event was held void.
M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 280. Great Indian Bustards were dying on overhead power lines. The Union said undergrounding all lines would hurt renewable energy. The Supreme Court weighed the survival of an endangered bird against clean energy, set up an expert committee, and directed conservation measures. The bird was treated as a value in its own right.
The limits of the idea
- An ethic is not a law. The Vedic teaching was never enforced by a court.
- Reverence did not stop harm. Rivers held sacred are among the most polluted in India.
- Harmony is not a ban on development. It asks for balance, which is why the courts speak of sustainable development.
Conclusion. Living in harmony with nature is an old Indian social value. It appears in the Vedas, in Kautilya and Ashoka, in the Bishnoi, Chipko and Appiko movements, and today in Articles 48A and 51A(g). The courts in the Doon Valley, Jallikattu and bustard cases have turned it into enforceable law. The statement is therefore true: social life is meant to be lived within nature's limits, with care for other creatures and for future generations.
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