The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the National Biodiversity Authority launched a five-year project on 26 April 2026 to strengthen grassroots biodiversity governance in Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya. The project, titled Strengthening Institutional Capacities for Securing Biodiversity Conservation Commitments, is a joint initiative of the Government of India, the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Programme. It carries a US$48.8 lakh grant for 2025-2030 and is designed to make biodiversity conservation part of local development planning, not a separate administrative activity. The project will green Gram Panchayat Development Plans and use innovative financing so that local communities and institutions have funded, community-owned biodiversity plans. It will operate in two ecologically important landscapes. In Tamil Nadu, the Sathyamangalam landscape at the meeting point of the Western and Eastern Ghats includes the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, and the project will draw on the ecological knowledge of forest-fringe communities that maintain wildlife corridors. In Meghalaya, the Garo Hills landscape brings together Nokrek Biosphere Reserve, Balpakram National Park and Siju Wildlife Sanctuary, using Village Employment Councils as the local governance equivalent of gram panchayats. The core objectives are to mainstream biodiversity in local development plans, strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions and Biodiversity Management Committees, and create landscape-level platforms involving forest departments, revenue authorities, elected representatives and civil society. Financing tools will include Access and Benefit Sharing arrangements, corporate social responsibility co-financing and green micro-enterprises that link livelihoods with conservation stewardship. The project will also document knowledge and build capacity for replication through Ministry and Authority platforms, with attention to the economic and governance roles of women, Scheduled Castes and tribal communities. It supports India's Updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2024-2030, the Kunming-Montreal 30x30 target, India's climate commitments, Tamil Nadu Vision 2030 and Meghalaya Vision 2030.