Environment Protection Act 1986 — Prelims Strategy

Prelims Strategy

For Prelims preparation, focus on memorizing specific sections (3, 6, 15, 19, 25), constitutional articles (253, 48A, 51A(g)), and penalty provisions. Create a comparison chart of EPA 1986 with Water Act 1974 and Air Act 1981 covering scope, authority, and penalties.

Memorize important rules and their years: EIA Rules 2006, Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016, E-Waste Rules 2016. Practice questions on landmark cases, especially M.C. Mehta (absolute liability), Vellore Citizens (polluter pays), and T.

N. Godavarman (forest-environment linkage). Focus on recent developments like single-use plastic ban and draft EIA notification. Use elimination techniques by understanding EPA 1986's umbrella nature - if a question asks about comprehensive environmental coverage, EPA 1986 is likely correct over sectoral acts.

Also build Paper II skills

Climate data, pollution metrics, and treaty timelines are natural practice for CSAT data interpretation and careful reading. CSAT hub.

• Data interpretation
• Correlation vs causation
• Estimation techniques