Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The actual grazing per unit area is called grazing intensity.

Grazing intensity is the number of animals, or equivalent cow units, actually grazing per acre or hectare in a given period. It is compared with grazing capacity, the number the area can support without damage; when intensity exceeds capacity, the area is overgrazed.

Rotational grazing is a system of moving animals between blocks, and 'optimal grazing incidence' is not a standard term.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The main greenhouse gas among the options is carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas released by human activity, from burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, and it accounts for the largest share of the additional warming since industrialisation. Its concentration has risen from about 280 ppm before 1750 to over 420 ppm.

Nitrogen makes up most of the atmosphere but does not absorb infrared radiation, so it is not a greenhouse gas. Chlorine is not a greenhouse gas either, and ozone is a greenhouse gas but a minor one compared with CO₂.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The greenhouse gas present in the largest concentration among those listed is carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is present at about 420 parts per million, far more than nitrous oxide (about 0.34 ppm) or the chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons, which are measured in parts per trillion. (Water vapour is more abundant still, but it is not among the options.)

Concentration is different from warming power per molecule: CFCs and HFCs are thousands of times more potent than CO₂ but present in tiny amounts.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Kanha was brought under Project Tiger in 1973-74.

Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 with nine tiger reserves, and Kanha in Madhya Pradesh was one of them, together with Corbett, Manas, Palamau, Similipal, Ranthambore, Melghat, Bandipur and Sundarbans.

1965-66 is before the project existed, 1972-73 is the year of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, and 1988-89 is far too late for one of the original reserves.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The term 'biodiversity' was coined by Walter G. Rosen.

Rosen, of the US National Research Council, coined 'biodiversity' as a contraction of 'biological diversity' in 1985 while planning the National Forum on BioDiversity, held in Washington in 1986.

E.O. Wilson (printed 'A. O. Wilson') edited the proceedings, the book BioDiversity (1988), which popularised the word, so he is the usual trap. Rachel Carson (printed 'Carlson') wrote Silent Spring.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

UNESCO launched the Biosphere Reserve programme in 1971.

The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme began in 1971, and under it biosphere reserves were designated from 1976 as sites combining conservation, sustainable use and research, with core, buffer and transition zones. India's first biosphere reserve, the Nilgiri, was set up in 1986.

1961, 1981 and 1991 do not match the launch of the MAB programme.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The most effective way is by creating a biosphere reserve.

A biosphere reserve conserves plants in their natural habitat (in situ), together with the animals, soils and processes they depend on, and protects whole ecosystems, with a core zone, buffer zone and transition zone.

Seed banks, tissue culture and botanical gardens are ex situ methods: they preserve selected species away from their habitat, which is valuable as a back-up but cannot conserve the full diversity of an area.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Corbett Tiger Reserve is in Uttarakhand.

Jim Corbett National Park, in Nainital district of Uttarakhand, was set up in 1936 as Hailey National Park, the first national park in India. Project Tiger was launched there in 1973, and it was later renamed after the hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett.

Rajasthan has Ranthambore and Sariska, Madhya Pradesh has Kanha, Bandhavgarh and others, and West Bengal has the Sundarbans, but Corbett is in none of them.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The national park in Rajasthan is Ranthambore.

Ranthambore National Park, in Sawai Madhopur district, lies where the Aravallis meet the Vindhyas and is one of India's best-known tiger reserves, with the Ranthambore fort inside it.

Corbett (printed 'Carbett') and Rajaji National Parks are in Uttarakhand, and Dudhwa National Park is in Uttar Pradesh on the Nepal border.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

Project Tiger was launched on 1st April, 1973.

Concern over the falling tiger population led the Government of India to launch Project Tiger on 1 April 1973, initially in nine tiger reserves, with the Jim Corbett National Park as the first. The project is now run by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, set up in 2006.

The other dates do not mark the launch of Project Tiger; in particular, 1968 is before the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, which preceded the project.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

All of them, weeds, climbers, and parasites and epiphytes, cause forest injuries.

Forest protection texts list plants among the agents of injury to forests. Weeds compete with seedlings for light, water and nutrients and suppress regeneration (lantana is a notorious example). Climbers twist round stems and smother crowns, deforming and sometimes killing trees. Parasites such as Loranthus draw water and nutrients from their hosts, and heavy loads of epiphytes can weaken branches.

Because each of the three is a recognised cause of injury, choosing only one of them would be incomplete.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Industrial firms generally adopt the technical rotation.

A technical rotation is the period in which a species produces the largest yield of material of the size or quality needed for a particular use, such as pulpwood, match wood or poles. An industrial firm that owns forest grows wood for its own processing, so it fixes the rotation by the raw material its mill needs.

The rotation of maximum volume aims at the greatest quantity of wood, the rotation of highest income at the best financial return, and the physical rotation at the natural life span of the tree or its regeneration.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The key's term for a slow, low-flame fire over the ground is creeping fire.

Forest fires are classed by where they burn. A crown fire races through the canopy; a ground fire smoulders below the surface in humus and peat with little or no flame; a surface fire burns the litter and undergrowth on the forest floor. A surface fire that spreads slowly with low flames, typically on a calm day or in light fuel, is called a creeping fire.

'Surface fire' is the broader class to which a creeping fire belongs, but the question describes the slow, low-flame form specifically, which is the creeping fire. A crown fire is fast and high, and a ground fire is flameless and below the surface.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The key gives 37 degrees Celsius.

I could not find a source that names a critical temperature for forest fire risk in northern India, so this is not independently confirmed. The paper's forestry section uses the figure, and nothing I found gives another one. Higher figures such as 45 or 48 degrees are the summer maxima of the plains, and the question concerns the temperature above which fire risk keeps rising, which a lower value fits better.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The greatest source of damage and destruction to forests is man.

Human activities cause the largest losses: clearing forest for agriculture, settlements, mining, roads and dams; illicit felling; excessive lopping and grazing of livestock; encroachment; and most forest fires in India, which are started deliberately or carelessly by people.

Adverse climate (drought, frost, storms), wild animals, and insect pests and diseases do cause damage, but their effect is smaller and more local, and is often made worse by human disturbance.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The most destructive forest fire is the crown fire.

A crown fire burns the tops of trees and spreads rapidly from crown to crown, driven by wind. It kills whole stands of trees and is very hard to control, especially in conifer forests.

A surface fire burns the litter and undergrowth on the forest floor and usually spares the mature trees. A ground fire smoulders in the humus and peat below the surface; it is slow and persistent but does not spread through the canopy. 'Creeping fire' is a slow-moving surface fire.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The cause that is not natural is spark from a railway engine.

Natural forest fires are started by lightning, by sparks from rolling stones striking each other on dry slopes, and by volcanic eruptions. A spark from a railway engine comes from human activity, so it is a man-made (anthropogenic) cause.

Lightning, rolling stones and volcanic eruptions are all natural causes, so they are not the answer.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The example of in-situ conservation is on site protection of biodiversity at all levels.

In-situ conservation protects species in their natural habitats, together with their ecosystems, as in national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves and sacred groves.

Seed banks, botanical gardens and tissue culture all keep organisms or their genetic material away from their natural habitat, so they are ex-situ methods.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The Red Data Book includes endangered species.

The Red Data Book, maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), records species threatened with extinction, classed as critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable, with information on their status and threats. India's Botanical and Zoological Surveys publish Red Data Books for the country.

It is not a list of timber trees or economically important species, and 'red forest' has nothing to do with it.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

India's first national park was established in 1936.

Hailey National Park, in the foothills of the present Uttarakhand, was established in 1936. It was renamed Ramganga National Park in 1954 and Corbett National Park in 1956, after Jim Corbett; it was also where Project Tiger was launched in 1973.

1956 is the year of the Corbett renaming, which makes it a tempting distractor; 1926 and 1946 are not linked with the park's establishment.