World Forest Day Analysis Calls for Resource Nexus Governance Across India's Sectors

India's forest governance continues to operate in silos disconnected from mining, infrastructure, water, and energy policy, creating cumulative ecological and social costs that sectoral decision-making fails to account for, according to analysis published on World Forest Day 2026. A 2023 National Institute of Hydrology review of more than forty government programmes found that India's policies across water, energy, agriculture, and ecosystems are largely designed in silos, causing unintended cross-sectoral consequences.

Case studies cited include the proposed Great Nicobar Island mega-development project encompassing a transshipment port, airport, township, and power infrastructure, which the author argues risks reshaping an ecologically tightly interconnected island system in difficult-to-reverse ways. The Aravalli Range faces mining pressure that extends beyond conservation concerns, as the hills serve as critical groundwater recharge zones supporting agriculture and urban water supply across north India. Hasdeo Arand forests in central India, where coal mining is being expanded, regulate local climate, sustain river systems, and support Adivasi food security and livelihoods.

Environmental Impact Assessments in India remain predominantly project-specific and rarely capture cumulative cross-sectoral impacts. Efforts to streamline environmental clearances and shift toward compliance-based systems, while aimed at improving efficiency, risk accelerating the accumulation of hidden ecological and social costs without nexus-based analysis. Climate change is tightening interdependencies across water, food, and energy systems, with erratic rainfall and more frequent floods and droughts amplifying vulnerabilities that sectoral planning is structurally ill-equipped to address.

The author, Asha Verma of UNU-FLORES, proposes a resource nexus approach that makes trade-offs across water, energy, agriculture, and forest systems visible from the outset of planning rather than treating impacts as afterthoughts. The goal is not more regulation but better-connected regulation. India does not lack environmental laws; it lacks institutional mechanisms to make them work together. Unless resources are governed as interconnected systems, conflicts over Great Nicobar, Aravallis, and Hasdeo Arand will continue to be treated as isolated issues despite being part of the same pattern of fragmented governance.

Key figure — 40+ government programmes reviewed showing silo-based policy design across water, energy, and agriculture