Invasive species drives gain momentum across India, but experts urge focus on root causes

Bengaluru: Campaigns against invasive alien species are gathering administrative and judicial force across India, with authorities moving to identify, map, classify, and remove plants and animals deemed ecological threats.

Over the past year, India’s English-language press has carried sustained coverage of ecological-loss studies, State eradication drives, and human-wildlife conflicts linked to such species. What was once a niche scientific concern has become a visible public issue and priority.

Yet some experts caution that removal efforts alone may miss the deeper problem. “It is easier to count acres of invasive alien species removed than to measure the shifts in moisture regimes or soil chemistry that aided their growth,” conservationist Suprabha Seshan wrote.

Changing conditions on the subcontinent — from land use to fertilizer use — are altering ecosystems in ways that favor certain species. India alone uses 35–40 million tonnes of urea per year. Woody nitrogen-fixing species such as Senna spectabilis benefit from these altered conditions, allowing them to spread rapidly.

The debate highlights a growing question for policymakers: whether invasive species are the enemy, or a symptom of wider environmental change in a shifting subcontinent.