India, July 12 -- Nature versus nurture - both in all their various manifestations - is one of the oldest unresolved debates in the history of humanity. In a country like India, where population pressures push against fragile forest ecosystems, finding a balance between ecological needs and development imperatives requires careful deliberation. To deal with this complexity, critical functions were vested with the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in 2003. Projects proposed in protected forest areas were supposed to be vetted scientifically - pitting them against the scale and nature of potential ecological harm - and then approved, deferred, or rejected. The Standing Committee of the Board (SC-NBWL) is mandated to meet frequently to scru...