Consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

NTCA is statutory and the NGRBA was chaired by the PM.

Statement by statement

1. ✗ WRONG The Animal Welfare Board was set up under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

2. ✓ CORRECT NTCA is statutory — created by the 2006 amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act.

3. ✓ CORRECT The National Ganga River Basin Authority (2009) was chaired by the Prime Minister.

The idea

A statutory body is created by an Act of Parliament. For each body ask one question: which Act created it? Many environment bodies come from the Environment (Protection) Act, but the Animal Welfare Board is older than that Act by more than twenty years.

Animal Welfare Board (1962) → Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 → National Tiger Conservation Authority → Wild Life (Protection) Act, amended 2006 → Central Zoo Authority → Wild Life (Protection) Act, amended 1991 → Central Pollution Control Board → Water Act, 1974 → National Green Tribunal → NGT Act, 2010

The trap

Many bodies were created under the EPA, so the AWBI slips in. It is older — 1962, under the PCA Act.

Also know

The National Tiger Conservation Authority is chaired by the Environment Minister; the National Board for Wild Life is chaired by the Prime Minister. The National Ganga River Basin Authority (2009) was created under the Environment (Protection) Act; in 2016 it was replaced by the National Ganga Council, also chaired by the Prime Minister. The first chairperson of the Animal Welfare Board was Rukmini Devi Arundale.