UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : human–tiger conflict in India and Chernobyl disaster (Week 152)

QUESTION 2

Using the example of the Chernobyl disaster, examine the environmental and socio-economic impacts of large-scale radioactive contamination.

QUESTION 1: Discuss the drivers of increasing human–tiger conflict in India, despite the success of conservation programmes like Project Tiger.

Relevance: The question is directly linked to GS-3 themes of biodiversity conservation, inclusive development, and governance challenges. It reflects the paradox of conservation success under Project Tiger leading to increased human–wildlife conflict.

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

Introduction:

— Human-wildlife conflict has become a major issue for conservationists, especially in areas where endangered animals, such as large carnivores, are rebounding. If we fail to strike a balance between the interests of humans and wildlife, the human-wildlife conflict might have negative consequences.

— Tourists can disrupt tigers’ natural behaviour, which can be detrimental to their well-being. The expansion of tourism infrastructure, such as roads, hotels, and trails, has the potential to disrupt and degrade tiger habitat.

Body:

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

According to the downtoearth.org.in,

— Tigers rarely become obsessive human eaters; tiger attacks and consumption of humans rise as the large cats age or suffer injuries that prevent them from hunting for food, or when their natural prey base decreases. According to experts and wildlife monitors, one of the reasons tigers appear to be increasingly pursuing humans is their proximity to tiger habitat.

— According to the 2026 State of India’s Environment (SOE 2026) report, at least 43 people were killed near tiger sanctuaries in India between January and June of 2025. In the same months of 2024, 44 people were killed by tigers. In four of the 43 attacks in 2025, tigers consumed at least some of their prey.

— Tiger populations are increasing, as are the human populations that live near woods. According to the research, a recent study found that in 20 states with tiger populations, 60 million people share around 40% of the tiger region.

— Tiger populations in reserve regions have reached a saturation point, thus the big cats are migrating outside protected zones. Overcrowding, habitat destruction, and human activity near tiger habitats are the causes of tiger behaviour changes, according to SOE 2026, citing another expert.

— The National Tiger Conservation Authority has issued the following three standard operating procedures (SOPs) to deal with human-animal conflict, which are publicly available:

(i) To deal with an emergency caused by stray tigers in human-dominated areas.

(ii) To address tiger depredation on livestock.

(iii) For active management aimed at rehabilitating tigers from their source locations at the landscape level.

— The three SOPs address issues such as managing dispersing tigers, managing livestock kills to decrease conflict, and transferring tigers from source areas to areas with low tiger density, hence preventing conflict in rich source areas.

Conclusion:

— The farmers around the Nagarahole tiger reserve in Karnataka recently demonstrated their angst against tiger-related conflict by causing a shutdown of all tourism facilities for six months in the prime season. It did not solve the conflict problem. Yet it caused immense loss to the local tourist economy and the public exchequer, as some parks like Kabini are run by a government monopoly.

— The Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) witnesses lethal human-tiger conflict. There are about 10 tiger-related human deaths a year in TATR alone, and around 45 in its district of Chandrapur.

(Source: The Tadoba-Andhari model: Balancing rising tiger populations with human costs, http://www.downtoearth.org.in, pib.gov.in)

Points to Ponder

How do forest-dependent livelihoods increase human exposure to tiger habitats?

Does eco-tourism create incentives for conservation or increase disturbance in tiger habitats?

Related Previous Year Question

Rehabilitation of human settlements is one of the important environmental impacts which always attracts controversy while planning major projects. Discuss the measures suggested for mitigation of this impact while proposing major developmental projects. (2016)

QUESTION 2: Using the example of the Chernobyl disaster, examine the environmental and socio-economic impacts of large-scale radioactive contamination.

Relevance: Nuclear disasters like the Chernobyl disaster highlight non-traditional environmental threats with long-term and transboundary impacts. It is relevant for GS-3 as it links science & technology with environmental governance and disaster management.

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

Introduction:

— The  Chernobyl nuclear power facility was located 16 kilometres northwest of Pripyat, an industrial town that contained about 50,000 people, the majority of whom worked at the power station. The station was operational from 1977 to 1983 and featured four reactors capable of producing 1,000 megawatts of power apiece.

— An RBMK reactor is a Soviet-designed, graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor that employs enriched uranium fuel. Water flows through individual pressure tubes and boils directly to power turbines. On April 26, the chain reaction in Unit 4’s core ran out of control, causing a series of explosions. This partially damaged the core and resulted in a massive firestorm that blew off the reactor’s hefty steel and concrete cap.

Body:

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

— Since RBMK reactors lacked a pressure-retaining containment structure to limit releases during severe core damage, this absence of a robust final physical barrier allowed large amounts of radioactive material to be released directly into the atmosphere. The situation was further exacerbated when the resulting fire in the graphite reactor drove prolonged radioactive emissions over several days, where it was carried great distances by air currents.

— In all, about 3.5% of Unit 4’s nuclear fuel was dispersed outside during the accident, contaminating large territories of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Some 150,000 square km in these countries were contaminated, stretching northward of the accident site as far as 500 kilometres.

— Within 36 hours of the accident, the entire town of Pripyat was completely evacuated. A cover-up was reportedly attempted, but monitoring stations in Sweden recorded abnormally high levels of wind-transported radioactivity on April 28. When pressed for an explanation, the Soviet government admitted to the Chernobyl accident, provoking international outcry over the dangers posed by radioactive emissions.

— Following the accident, “liquidators” — also called recovery operation workers — were drafted from all over the Soviet Union to help clean up the plant premises and the surrounding area. These liquidators worked on decontamination and major construction projects, which included building settlements and towns for plant workers and those evacuated.

— An area spanning 30 kilometres around the plant site was marked as the “exclusion zone”. As part of efforts to decontaminate this exclusion zone to reduce radioactive exposure to people, heavily contaminated topsoil was removed and buried in shallow trenches in 1987.

Conclusion:

— Health represents the largest proportion of the indirect costs. These costs greatly exceed those directly related to the plant because this price tag spans a lifetime and possibly even reaches to the next generation. Neuropsychological effects, such as depression, are among the most widespread and expensive of the long-term consequences.

— In 2019, BBC reported that the Kyiv-based National Research Centre for Radiation Medicine estimated that around 5 million citizens of the former Soviet Union, including 3 million in Ukraine, have suffered as a result of the “largest anthropogenic disaster in the history of humankind”, while some 800,000 people in Belarus were registered as being affected by radiation following the disaster.

(Source: Chernobyl disaster: 40 years on, why nuclear accident remains the most expensive ever)

Points to Ponder

In what ways does radiation affect soil fertility, water systems, and biodiversity over the long term?

How do exclusion zones (like around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone) evolve ecologically over time?

Related Previous Year Question

With growing energy needs should India keep on expanding its nuclear energy programme? Discuss the facts and fears associated with nuclear energy? (2018)

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Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 150)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 151)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 150)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 151)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 150)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 151)

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