ISC Class 12 Environmental Science Syllabus 2025-26: FREE PDF Download

SECTION A 

Human Beings and Nature

• Modern schools of ecological thought

• Deep ecology (Gary Snyder, Earth First) vs. shallow ecology

• Stewardship of land (e.g. Wendell Berry)

• Social ecology [Marxist environmentalism and socialist ecology (Barry Commoner)]

• Feminism

• Green Politics (e.g. Germany and England)

• Sustainable Development

Population and Conservation Ecology

• Population dynamics: factors causing population change (birth, death, immigration and emigration); relation between the factors; age structure and its significance; population pyramids; survivorship curves; three general shapes r and K strategies\

• Human populations (Malthusian model and demographic transition).

• Population Regulation: growth without regulation (exponential); simple population regulation (logistic growth curve); factors regulating population size (space, food and water, territories, predators, weather and climate, parasites and diseases, disasters and self-regulation).

• Human population control: family planning, education, economic growth, status of women

• Threats to the ecosystem: habitat destruction; genetic erosion; loss of diversity; expanding agriculture; impound water; waste from human societies; increasing human consumption

• Conservation: importance; the critical state of Indian forests; conflicts surrounding forested areas - populations and tribals and their rights - tourism - poaching - roads - development projects - dams; scientific forestry and its limitations; social forestry; the role of the forest department; NGOs; joint forestry management; wild life - sanctuaries, conservation and management in India; Project Tiger as a case study in conservation

Monitoring Pollution

• Pollution monitoring

• Monitoring the atmosphere: techniques

• International and national air quality standards

• Water testing: indicators of water quality

• Soil testing: indicators of soil type and quality, and laboratory work

SECTION B

Third World Development

• Urban-rural divide: urbanisation - push and pull factors; consequences on rural and urban sectors; future trends and projections

• A critical appraisal of the conventional paradigm of development from the viewpoints of sustainability, environmental impact and equity

• A case study of the Gandhian approach in terms of its aims and processes

• Urban environmental planning and management: problems of sanitation, water management, transport, energy, air quality, housing, constraints (economic, political) in tackling the problems; inapplicability of solutions that have worked in the First World and the need for an indigenous approach to the urban environment.

Sustainable Agriculture

• Traditional Agriculture in India: irrigation systems; crop varieties; techniques for maintaining soil fertility; impact of colonialism; Indian agriculture at independence, food scarcity, food import, need for increasing production, the need for land reform; green revolution, HYVs, fertilizers, pesticides, large irrigation projects (dams); critical appraisal of the green revolution from the viewpoints of agro-bio diversity; soil health; ecological impact of pesticides; energy (petroleum and petrochemicals); ability to reach the poorer sections of the rural communities; sustainability, need for sustainable agriculture, characteristics for sustainable agriculture; techniques of water soil and pest management

• Food: the twin problems of production and access; food situation in the world; integrated and sustainable approach to food security for the Third World. Food Security

SECTION C

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

• Definition: resources, scarcity, and growth; natural resource accounting

• GNP vs. other forms of measuring income

• Economic status and welfare (net economic welfare, natural capital, ecological capital, etc.) 

• Externalities: cost-benefit analysis (social, ecological)

• Natural capital regeneration

International Relations and the Environment

• Trans-national characteristics of environmental issues using the case study of Amazonia, Trade in Wildlife and Ozone Depletion

• Impact of international politics, national sovereignty and interest

• International trade: a theoretical perspective; free trade vs. protectionism; import barriers; domestic industry vs. free trade; transnational companies, a historical perspective (colonialism and its lasting impact today); trade between the first and the third world, characteristics, terms of trade; India's international trade, characteristics, major imports and exports, foreign exchange crises, the export imperative and its impact on the environment; the case study of aquaculture in India; diversion of scarce resource from production of subsistence needs to commercial products; toxic waste trade, extent and impact; Globalisation, trade regimes (WTO, GATT, IPR) and their impact on third world

• International aid: agencies; advantages; limitations; need for re-orienting aid; aid vs self-reliance. 

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