Ecosystems and Biodiversity Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The correct statements are (1) and (3) only.

Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in Lahaul and Spiti, a cold-desert habitat of the snow leopard and ibex, is by far the largest wildlife sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh, at about 1,400 sq km. Statement 1 is therefore correct.

Statement 2 is wrong because Khirganga National Park in Kullu was notified in 2010, together with Inderkilla National Park. Statement 4 is wrong because Chail Wildlife Sanctuary was notified in 1976. Every option except (1) and (3) contains statement 2 or statement 4, so that is the answer, with statement 3 giving Talra sanctuary's area as the key accepts it.

Answer: A

The correct match is a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv.

• Kais (printed 'Kias') Wildlife Sanctuary: Kullu district.
• Talra (printed 'Tarla') Wildlife Sanctuary: Shimla district.
• Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary: Chamba district.
• Bandli Wildlife Sanctuary: Mandi district.

Each sanctuary is listed opposite its own district, so the straight match a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv is correct. The other options move Kais out of Kullu.

Answer: C

Ghumkuria is a youth dormitory.

Among the Oraon (Kurukh) of Jharkhand, the dhumkuria or ghumkuria is the village youth dormitory where unmarried young men (and, in a separate house, young women) sleep and learn social customs, songs, dances and their duties to the village. Similar institutions are the gitiora of the Munda and Ho.

The Oraon place of worship is the sarna (sacred grove), and the burial ground is a separate site. Dancing takes place at the akhra, the village dancing ground, so 'dancing place' describes the akhra, not the ghumkuria.

Answer: A

The per capita forest and tree cover is about 0.08 ha.

Forest and tree cover in Jharkhand together come to roughly 26,000 sq km, which is about 2.6 million hectares. Spread over a population of about 33 million (Census 2011), that gives:

\[ \begin{aligned} &\frac{2.6 \times 10^{6}\ \text{ha}}{33 \times 10^{6}} \\ &\approx 0.08\ \text{ha} \end{aligned} \]

0.8 ha would need ten times as much forest, 0.48 ha six times as much, and 0.02 ha would mean only a quarter of the forest the state actually has.

Answer: D

The largest sanctuary is Palamau Sanctuary.

Palamau Wildlife Sanctuary, the core of the Palamau Tiger Reserve in Latehar district, covers about 794 sq km including Betla National Park, far more than any other sanctuary in the state.

Dalma Sanctuary near Jamshedpur covers about 193 sq km, while Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary and Parasnath Sanctuary are each well under 100 sq km.

Answer: A

The oldest is Palamau Sanctuary Palamau.

The Palamau forests were one of the first nine tiger reserves created under Project Tiger in 1973-74, and the sanctuary at their core is the oldest of the four protected areas named.

Topchanchi Sanctuary in Dhanbad and Gautam Budha Sanctuary in Koderma were notified later, and the Udhwa Lake Bird Sanctuary in Sahibganj, the state's only bird sanctuary, dates only from 1991. The Commission first keyed Gautam Budha Sanctuary and changed its answer to Palamau after objections.

Answer: B

The key's answer is Petarbar, Bokaro.

Petarwar (also spelt Petarbar) is a village and block of Bokaro district in Jharkhand, so the place named in the key exists. No source found names a Herbal Demonstration Nursery of the Forest Department there. The Institute of Forest Productivity at Lalgutwa near Ranchi keeps a herbal garden, but that is a different institution.

The sites in Ranchi, Deoghar and Hazaribag could not be ruled out from a source either, so the answer rests on the Commission's key.

Answer: C

Statements (ii) and (iii) are correct, so the answer is (ii) and (iii) only.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a global initiative that draws attention to the economic benefits of biodiversity and the rising cost of its loss (ii). It offers an approach that helps decision-makers recognise, demonstrate and capture the value of ecosystems and biodiversity in their policies (iii).

Statement (i) is wrong: TEEB was launched by Germany and the European Commission in 2007 and is hosted by the UN Environment Programme, not by the IMF or the World Economic Forum. Every option containing (i) is therefore wrong.

Answer: D

The correct code is (A) is false, but (R) is true.

The Reason is a sound ecological statement: the biosphere's size and productivity are limited by the availability of water, nutrients and suitable conditions such as temperature and light.

Those very limits make the Assertion false. A life-support system with finite productivity cannot fulfil all human needs sustainably, however large they grow; overuse of soil, water, forests and fisheries shows that human demand can exceed what the biosphere regenerates. Since the Assertion is false, the options that call it true are all wrong.

Answer: A

The 11th reserve was the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve.

In July 2018 UNESCO added the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve in Sikkim, home to the world's third highest peak, to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves, making it India's 11th reserve on the list.

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was India's first to join the network (2000), Nokrek in Meghalaya joined in 2009, and the Great Nicobar reserve in 2013, so none of them was the 11th.