Gujarat Action Plan for Great Indian Bustard Released at Bhuj

The correct answer is 3,428 sq km. The Union Environment Minister said that protected habitat for cheetahs has expanded to this area through the integrated management of Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar. He also said that India has built a growing population from twenty-nine founder cheetahs, that the population has now reached fifty-two individuals, and that forty-nine cubs were born in India. The cub survival rate at Kuno is around sixty-eight per cent, which shows that a population can establish itself where ecological conditions are right. The Banni Grasslands in Gujarat and the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh have been identified as future release sites. Options A, C and D give areas that do not match the release, and each is close enough to the correct figure to mislead a candidate who has only skimmed the news.

The correct answer is the Wildlife Institute of India, with the Gujarat Forest Department. The Union Minister released the plan at Bhuj and described it as a science-based roadmap. It aims to establish a minimum viable population of more than thirty birds and to secure between two hundred and five hundred square kilometres of safe and connected habitat. The immediate focus is the Lala-Rawa landscape of about two hundred square kilometres, where the work includes habitat restoration, grazing management, removal of invasive species, predator management and reduction of threats from infrastructure. Option B is wrong because officials of that authority attended the meeting but did not prepare the plan. Options A and D name bodies that are not credited with the document, although the Forest Survey of India is a partner in the proposed grassland assessment.

The correct answer is nearly 24 per cent. The Union Environment Minister underlined the ecological importance of grasslands and said that although they cover close to this share of the country's land area, they remain among the most degraded and least conserved ecosystems in India. He informed the meeting that a five-year national assessment has been proposed in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India, the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and the Forest Survey of India, with support from National CAMPA. The assessment would give a scientific basis for a national framework on grassland management, covering mapping, ecological assessment, restoration and better management of Open Natural Ecosystems, including the Banni Grassland of Gujarat. Options A, B and D give shares that the release does not support.