Reimagining India's Conservation Landscape: From Isolated Sites to Connected Landscapes

Over the past five decades, India has built one of the developing world’s most representative protected-area (PA) networks. This achievement has provided a robust scientific foundation for conserving many of the country’s most important species, habitats and ecological processes. However, the ecological realities of the 21st century demand changes in conservation paradigms. Wildlife moves across landscapes rather than administrative boundaries. Rivers connect forests, wetlands and farmlands. Climate change is altering habitats, while rapid infrastructure expansion is fragmenting them. Conserving biodiversity can therefore no longer rely solely on protecting isolated sites — it must also secure the landscapes that connect them. The challenge is to complement national parks and wildlife sanctuaries by a more connected and inclusive conservation vision. The emergence of Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) under the Convention on Biological Diversity offers such an opportunity. Rather than treating OECMs as another international reporting requirement, India should recognise them as a framework for acknowledging the many forests, wetlands, community-managed landscapes and other biodiversity-rich areas that already make substantial contributions to conservation beyond the formal PA network. The more important question, therefore, is not where the next PA should be notified. It is this: How do we recognise, connect and strengthen all the landscapes that collectively sustain India’s biodiversity? The answer lies in reimagining the conservation landscape through a National Conservation Estate — an ecological network comprising PAs, OECMs and other biodiversity-rich landscapes that together safeguard the country’s natural heritage, irrespective of ownership, legal designation or primary management objective. PAs and OECMs cannot function as isolated ecological islands if they are to sustain wildlife movement, genetic exchange and resilient ecosystems. Ecological corridors and connected landscapes are therefore not peripheral additions; they are the very foundation of a modern conservation strategy. This imperative has become even more urgent as India undertakes one of the world’s largest infrastructure expansion programmes. The wildlife overpasses and underpasses incorporated in the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor, together with mitigation measures in the Pench-Seoni landscape, demonstrate that economic development and ecological connectivity need not be mutually exclusive. Roads, railways, transmission lines and canals can support development without severing ecological networks, provided connectivity is embedded in planning. This vision demands a wider partnership. Government must continue to provide leadership, but communities, corporations and civil society must become equal partners . The next conservation revolution will be measured by our ability to recognise, connect and steward every landscape that sustains biodiversity. India’s conservation future will be secured by weaving stronger ecological and institutional connections across landscapes and society. The writer is former chairperson, National Biodiversity Authority of India