UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : Questions on rocket-sled ejection and tiger conservation (Week 132)

QUESTION 2

Discuss how the existing approach of tiger conservation under Project Tiger may reflect a dominant attitude based on colonial concepts of ‘wilderness’. What are the social and environmental costs?

QUESTION 1: Discuss the significance of the rocket-sled ejection test by DRDO in strengthening India’s self-reliance in defence technology.

Note: This is not a model UPSC answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted a successful high-speed rocket-sled test of a fighter aircraft escape system at controlled velocity. The technical achievement places India in an elite club of nations with advanced in-house escape system testing capability.

— The test was conducted in collaboration with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) of the Ministry of Defence and public sector entity Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It was carried out at the Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) facility of the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), a key DRDO facility in Chandigarh.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

Significance of the rocket-sled ejection

— The rocket sled is a ground-based testing system, which is propelled by rockets to climb to high speeds while moving on rail tracks, simulating the aerodynamic conditions of an aircraft in flight.

— The dual-sled system allows the forebody of an aircraft to be mounted and tested under controlled velocities. In the recent test, a system with the forebody of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was propelled to a precisely controlled velocity of 800 kilometres per hour through phased firing of multiple solid propellant rocket motors.

— Dynamic ejection tests are significantly more complex than static tests, which occur with the aircraft stationary or at zero altitude and zero speed. They are also considered the true measure of evaluating the pilot’s escape aid, such as ejection seats and canopy severance systems.

— This test used human-like test dummies, fitted with sensors and devices that record physical stresses to assess pilot safety, simulating processes such as ejection sequencing and complete aircrew recovery.

— It recorded critical loads, moments — a measure of rotational force — and accelerations that ejected pilots would experience.

Conclusion:

— The successful test of India’s indigenous fighter aircraft escape system represents a major strategic milestone. Escape systems are among the most safety-critical components of a combat aircraft, and their reliability directly affects pilot survivability during emergencies.

— Until now, India has had to rely upon test ecosystems abroad to evaluate the performance of the ejection mechanisms. Sources have said that the indigenous tests cost between one-fourth and one-fifth as much as the tests conducted abroad.

— Moreover, the ability to simulate real-world emergency conditions using instrumented anthropomorphic dummies provides India with valuable insights into pilot safety parameters such as loads, accelerations, and impact forces.

(Source: How DRDO’s new rocket-sled ejection test strengthens India’s fighter aircraft safety framework)

Points to Ponder

Read more about rocket-sled ejection

Read about DRDO

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QUESTION 2: Discuss how the existing approach of tiger conservation under Project Tiger may reflect a dominant attitude based on colonial concepts of ‘wilderness’. What are the social and environmental costs?

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Note: This is not a model UPSC answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— Project Tiger was launched by the Central government on April 1, 1973, in a bid to promote conservation of the tiger. The programme came at a time when India’s tiger population was rapidly dwindling. According to reports, while there were 40,000 tigers in the country at the time of the Independence, they were soon reduced to below 2,000 by 1970 due to their widespread hunting and poaching.

— Through a vast network of conservation NGOs, bureaucracies, and media campaigns, the Indian state has successfully made tiger protection appear not only a national priority but a moral duty. The result is a conservation project that commands near-universal support, even as it extends the state’s control over forests and marginalised communities.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

— The country today holds over 70 per cent of the world’s remaining tigers, with 3,682 tigers counted in the 2022 census. These figures are routinely celebrated as evidence of India’s global leadership in conservation and as proof that strict protection works. The immense socioeconomic cost paid by forest-dwelling communities who have been relocated, dispossessed, or criminalised in the name of conservation.

— The notion of the “inviolate space” lies at the heart of Project Tiger, a land free of human presence where tigers can procreate undisturbed. Official guidelines, such as the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) 2008 guidelines, confirm this, stating that “a minimum inviolate area of 800-1,200 sq km is needed to support 20 breeding tigresses for a viable population,” as well as a buffer zone of 1,000-3,000 sq km for dispersing or ageing tigers.

— As recently as 2024, the NTCA directed all tiger-range states to speed up relocations from the core areas of 54 reserves. The circular named 591 settlements with 64,801 families that needed to be moved as quickly as feasible.

— Before 2006, relocations occurred on an ad-hoc basis — through government orders, Five-Year Plans, or state policies. For instance, the village of Botezari in Tadoba–Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) was relocated under the Maharashtra Project Affected Persons Rehabilitation Act (MPAPR), 1999, amended in 2001, as the process began before national reforms took effect. Since then, a robust legal framework has evolved: The Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, the NTCA guidelines, 2008, and the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013. Together, these mandate that relocation be a last resort, allowed only when scientifically proven to be necessary, and that it follows free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC).

— Families can get either monetary compensation (₹10 lakh, later increased to ₹15 lakh) or full resettlement, which includes land and essential utilities. However, these provisions generally remain on paper. During our empirical investigation on the relocation process in the Achanakmar Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, locals reported signing papers they didn’t understand, and in the Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha, “rehabilitation villages” lacked basic services even after 7 years.

— The idea that forest residents are “encroachers” arose from British forest policy, which criminalised subsistence activities and claimed forests for the state. This notion, known as “fortress conservation,” has survived in independent India, despite the fact that people have lived in and changed these ecosystems for generations.

Conclusion:

— Excluded communities become alienated, viewing tigers as forest department property rather than a part of their own landscape. In contrast, inclusive, participatory strategies that regard local people as collaborators produce greater results for both humans and wildlife. In Nagaland, villages that used to hunt Amur falcons are now celebrating their arrival, safeguarding tens of thousands of migrating birds through persuasion and pride rather than punishment.

— In Karnataka’s Biligiri Rangaswamy Hills, the Soliga Adivasis continue to coexist with tigers, relying on traditional wisdom to manage forests responsibly.

— If hegemony is based on the consent of the governed, India’s conservation future depends on recovering that consent — not via compulsion or spectacle, but through justice, participation, and trust.

(Source: Why tiger conservation in India needs democratic participation, not displacement, Fifty years of ‘Project Tiger’: How the programme saved Indian tigers)

Points to Ponder

Read more about Project Tiger

Read about human-animal conflict

Related Previous Year Questions

What role do environmental NGOs and activists play in influencing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) outcomes for major projects in India? Cite four examples with all important details. (2024)

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Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 130)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 131)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 130)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 131)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 131)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 130)

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