UPSC Mains 2022 GS Paper 1 Q15: model answer

Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam together produce more than half of the world's natural rubber, and about 70% of it goes into tyres.

Requirements

• Equatorial climate: 25–35°C, 200 cm or more of evenly spread rainfall, high humidity.
• Deep, well-drained lateritic or loamy soils; low-lying slopes.
• Plenty of labour for daily tapping.

Distribution

• Southeast Asia (about 90%): Thailand (largest), Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos.
• South Asia: India (Kerala produces most, also Tripura, Karnataka), Sri Lanka.
• Africa: Côte d'Ivoire (now a major exporter), Liberia, Nigeria.
• Latin America: Brazil, the native home of rubber, now small due to leaf blight.
• China: Hainan and Yunnan.

Environmental issues

• Deforestation: rubber expansion cleared millions of hectares of tropical forest in Southeast Asia and West Africa.
• Biodiversity loss: monocultures replace rich forests; threats to habitats in Cambodia and Laos.
• Soil erosion and degradation on hill slopes, especially when planted without cover crops.
• Water: rubber uses more water than natural forests, reducing streams and groundwater in the dry season (studies in Xishuangbanna, China).
• Chemicals: fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides pollute water.
• Processing pollution: effluents from latex and sheet processing contaminate rivers.
• Climate: carbon emissions from forest clearing; monocultures store less carbon.
• Land conflicts and displacement of indigenous communities.
• Disease risk in monocultures, such as leaf fall diseases.
• Landslides on steep plantations during heavy rain, as seen in parts of Kerala.

Way forward

• Agroforestry and intercropping; certification under the Forest Stewardship Council.
• The EU Deforestation Regulation (2023) bans rubber linked to deforestation.
• Synthetic rubber recycling and better yields on existing land.

Sustainable rubber is possible, but only if growth comes from yields, not from forests.