India Backs Science-Led Whale Conservation at IWC-70 in Hobart

The correct answer is Hobart, Australia, the Tasmanian city hosting the seventieth meeting of the International Whaling Commission, which runs from the twenty-eighth of September to the second of October. India used its Opening Statement there to argue for conservation grounded in science. Option A is wrong because the meeting is not in New Zealand; the host named for this edition is Australia. Option C is wrong because Iceland, although closely associated with whaling debates, is not hosting this session of the Commission. Option D is wrong for the same reason: Norway figures in the history of whaling but is not the venue of the seventieth meeting. Aspirants should link the edition number, the city and the country together, since questions on multilateral meetings usually test exactly that trio, along with the theme or the main position a country took at the meeting.

The correct answer is 1981. India joined the International Whaling Commission in that year and has played a prominent part in whale conservation within the body ever since. Option A is wrong because that is the year the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was signed at Washington DC, which created the Commission itself; the founding of the body and India's accession to it are separate events, and IWC-70 marks the eightieth anniversary of that signing. Option B is wrong because it is the year of the Indian statute, the Wild Life (Protection) Act, under which whales and dolphins in Indian waters receive the highest grade of legal protection; it is a domestic law, not a date of accession. Option D is wrong because no event in this account falls in that year. The Commission today has eighty-nine member governments.

The correct answer is the Arabian Sea humpback whale. India attaches particular importance to this population and has placed it among the species chosen for focused conservation effort, a list of twenty-five in all. The wider framework for this work is Project Dolphin, which takes dolphins, whales, porpoises and the aquatic ecosystems that sustain them as a single conservation task. Option A is wrong because the blue whale, though the largest animal alive, is not the species singled out in this statement. Option C is wrong because the sperm whale does not appear among the species named for focused effort here. Option D is wrong for the same reason: Bryde's whale is found in warm waters but is not the one India highlighted at the Commission. Marine Protected Areas notified in the country also cover dugongs, sharks, rays, turtles and corals.