Which Article of the Indian Constitution provides for protecting and improving the environment and safeguarding forests and wildlife?

Correct — A. Article 48-A says the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country. The question is a near-quotation of it.

It sits in Part IV, the Directive Principles, and was inserted by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976.

The same amendment put the matching obligation on the citizen in Article 51-A(g). So the environment entered the Constitution twice in 1976: as a direction to the State at option (a), and as a Fundamental Duty.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Article 47-A — There is no Article 47-A. Article 47 itself directs the State to raise nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health, and it is the Article that mentions prohibition of intoxicating drinks.
• (c)
  Article 47-B — There is no Article 47-B. Part IV does carry lettered Articles — 39-A, 43-A and 48-A among them — but the letter belongs to those numbers, not to 47.
• (d)
  Article 49-C — There is no Article 49-C. Article 49 directs the State to protect monuments and places and objects of national importance, which is heritage rather than the natural environment.

Environmental protection was written into the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, in two places that are asked together.

Article 48-A, a Directive Principle, tells the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wild life.

Article 51-A(g), a Fundamental Duty, tells the citizen to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures.

One amendment, one subject, two audiences.

Key facts

• Article 48-A directs the State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country.
• Article 48-A was inserted by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976, and lies in Part IV.
• Article 51-A(g) makes protecting and improving the natural environment a Fundamental Duty of every citizen.
• The 42nd Amendment moved forests and protection of wild animals and birds from the State List to the Concurrent List.

Common traps

• Hunting for the environment among the Fundamental Rights, when Article 48-A is a Directive Principle.
• Treating 47-A, 47-B and 49-C as real Article numbers because they are printed in the same style as 48-A.

No directly related past PYQ was found.