Constitutional Mandates and Wildlife Protection: The Expanding Role of Environmental Jurisprudence in India
Year: 2026
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: This research article discusses how India's Justice system has impacted the nation's approach to wildlife protection, from giving rights to statutory frameworks and the courts' intervention.Based on Constitutional provisions-mainly Article 48A, 51A(g) and 21, the Indian legal system is actively moving towards acknowledging that the wildlife has its own worth, irrespective of the benefits for us.Being a self-proclaimed superior species, we humans have the prime responsibility towards other species.Important Judgments like Subhash Kuamar v. State of Bihar(1991) and Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraj(2014) clearly show the deviation from a human-centric approach to an eco-centric approach.Still, weak follow-through, pushback from agencies, along with scattered authority structures, weaken powerful verdicts, showing courts cannot fix everything when nature's future is at stake.This paper therefore, contends that meaningful and durable wildlife protection in India depends on a tighter alignment between carefully drafted legislation, principled judicial oversight, and genuinely participatory governance.Only when these elements work together can constitutional commitments to wildlife and the environment be translated into real and enduring ecological justice.
Authors: Shubham Verma, Vaishali Arora
Institution: Sharda University
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7167516684