Environment & Ecology Mixed Quiz: Set 10

The correct answer is B, 6. Six wetlands of Uttar Pradesh were designated as Ramsar sites in January 2020: Nawabganj, Parvati Arga, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and Sarsai Nawar. They are all bird sanctuaries in the Ganga plain, shallow lakes and marshes that fill in the monsoon and draw large numbers of migratory waterbirds in winter. A Ramsar site is a wetland of international importance listed under the Ramsar Convention, which was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975; India joined in 1982, and World Wetlands Day is observed on 2 February. Option A is wrong because three is too few; that many were added in the same month across other states. Option C and Option D are wrong because no such number of sites in a single state was notified then. Exam tip: Ramsar Convention 1971 at Ramsar in Iran, India a party since 1982, Wetlands Day 2 February.

The correct answer is C, Garhwal Himalayas. The Chipko movement began in 1973 in the Garhwal Himalayas, in Chamoli district of what is now Uttarakhand, when villagers hugged trees to stop contractors from felling them. Its name comes from the Hindi word chipko, to cling. Chandi Prasad Bhatt led the first protest at Mandal village, Gaura Devi led the women of Reni village in 1974, and Sunderlal Bahuguna carried the message across the hills with the slogan that the soil, water and pure air are the real produce of a forest. The movement led to a fifteen-year ban on green felling above 1,000 metres in the Himalayan forests of Uttar Pradesh in 1980. Option A is wrong because Patna in Bihar has no link with it. Option B is wrong because Thrissur is in Kerala, far from the movement. Option D is wrong because Jammu was never its centre. Exam tip: Chipko 1973, Garhwal; Appiko 1983, Karnataka.

The correct answer is A, Schedule I. This schedule carries the species given the highest degree of protection, for which hunting is barred throughout India and the penalties are the severest the Act provides, with the offence being cognizable and non bailable. Both the tiger and the Asian elephant are in it, and both are also in Appendix I of CITES, so that international commercial trade in them is prohibited.

Option B, option C and option D name schedules that carry species with lesser degrees of protection and lighter penalties. A candidate should link the schedule to the animal: the tiger, the elephant, the one horned rhinoceros, the snow leopard, the great Indian bustard and the lion tailed macaque all belong to the first schedule, which is the list examiners draw upon most often.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Ltd. RRECL, with its office in Jaipur, is the state nodal agency of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for developing power from non-conventional sources in Rajasthan. It promotes solar, wind, biomass and small hydro projects and develops the state's solar parks. The strong, steady sunshine of the Thar region and the wind corridor around Jaisalmer make Rajasthan one of the country's main sources of renewable power. Option B, the Rajasthan State Electricity Board, was the old integrated utility and was unbundled in 2000 into separate generation, transmission and distribution companies, so it is not the nodal agency. Option C is not a real body. Option D, Jaipur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd., is one of the state's three discoms and only distributes power to consumers in its region. Exam tip: every state has one MNRE nodal agency for renewable energy — in Rajasthan it is RRECL.

The correct answer is B, the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, popularly called the Earth Summit, produced the Framework Convention on Climate Change along with the Convention on Biological Diversity and Agenda 21. The convention set the goal of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at a safe level and rests on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, which recognises that the industrial countries caused most of the accumulated emissions.

Option A, the Stockholm Conference of 1972, was the first world conference on the environment and led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme. Option C, the Johannesburg Summit, reviewed progress on sustainable development. Option D, the Copenhagen Conference, was a later meeting of the parties to this very convention.

The correct answer is B, By increasing the efficiency of the combustion process. When coal, petrol or diesel burn with too little oxygen, the burning is incomplete and gives out carbon monoxide, soot and unburnt hydrocarbons, the worst pollutants from vehicles and power plants. Efficient, complete combustion turns more of the fuel into carbon dioxide and water and also gets more energy from each litre or kilogram, so less fuel has to be burnt. Catalytic converters in vehicles, which change carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides into less harmful gases, and cleaner fuels such as CNG work on the same idea. A is wrong because lowering the burning temperature leads to incomplete combustion and more smoke and carbon monoxide. C is wrong because adding more carbon only means more carbon dioxide and more soot. D is wrong because latent heat is the heat needed to change the state of a substance, such as ice to water, and has nothing to do with pollution from burning. Exam tip: complete combustion gives CO2 and water; incomplete combustion gives carbon monoxide and soot.

The correct answer is A. The Polar Code is the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters, adopted by the International Maritime Organization and in force since the beginning of 2017. It is mandatory under the conventions on safety of life at sea and on prevention of pollution from ships, and it covers ship design, equipment, crew training and operation in ice-covered waters, as well as discharges of oil, sewage and garbage in the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Option B is wrong because territorial claims in the Arctic are dealt with under the law of the sea and the continental shelf procedure, not by this code. Option C describes what the Antarctic Treaty system and its environmental protocol do for scientific activity. Option D is wrong because the Arctic Council is a forum for cooperation on environment and sustainable development and does not conclude trade or security agreements.

The correct answer is A, Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems. Blue carbon is the carbon stored by marine and coastal ecosystems, especially mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows. These plants take in carbon dioxide, and because their waterlogged soils have little oxygen, dead matter decays slowly and the carbon stays locked in the sediment for hundreds or even thousands of years. Area for area, they can store several times more carbon than tropical forests, which is why protecting the Sundarbans and India's seagrass beds counts as climate action. When these habitats are cleared, the stored carbon goes back into the air. Option B is wrong because carbon held in forest biomass and farm soils is called green carbon. Option C is wrong because carbon in petroleum and natural gas is fossil carbon, which is released as carbon dioxide when burnt. Option D is wrong because carbon dioxide in the air is simply atmospheric carbon, not stored carbon. Exam tip: blue carbon means coasts and oceans, green carbon means forests and soils.

The correct answer is A, Sardar Sarovar. The Narmada Bachao Andolan grew up against the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada.

The movement began in 1985 under Medha Patkar, with Baba Amte and others joining later. It argued that raising the dam's height would submerge villages and forests in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and that the people displaced were not being resettled properly. The protest used fasts, rallies and the courts, and in 1993 it made the World Bank withdraw from the project. The Supreme Court allowed construction to continue in 2000 with conditions on rehabilitation.

Option B, Bhakra Nangal, is on the Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Option C, Rihand, is in Uttar Pradesh on a tributary of the Son. Option D, Tehri, on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand, had its own protest led by Sunderlal Bahuguna, not the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Exam tip: Narmada Bachao - Medha Patkar, Sardar Sarovar; Chipko and Tehri - Sunderlal Bahuguna.

The correct answer is B, Pinjore. India's first vulture breeding centre, the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre, was set up at Pinjore in the Panchkula district of Haryana in 2001. It was started because the population of white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures had crashed by more than ninety per cent in the 1990s. The cause was diclofenac, a painkiller given to cattle, which caused kidney failure in vultures that fed on the carcasses; its veterinary use was banned in India in 2006. The centre breeds these three critically endangered species in captivity and releases them into the wild. Option A is wrong because Pushkar in Rajasthan is known for its lake and the Brahma temple. Option C is wrong because Rampur in Uttar Pradesh has no such centre, though a vulture centre works at Rani in Assam. Option D is wrong because Agra is known for the Taj Mahal and a bear rescue facility. Exam tip: Pinjore in Haryana for vultures, and diclofenac as the reason for their decline.

The correct answer is D, Lonar. Lonar Lake, in Buldhana district of Maharashtra, was added to the list of Ramsar sites in November 2020 along with Sur Sarovar in Uttar Pradesh. The lake fills a crater punched into the Deccan basalt by a meteorite about fifty thousand years ago, which makes it the only such crater in basaltic rock in India, and its water is unusual for being saline and alkaline at the same time, supporting rare micro-organisms. The Ramsar Convention on wetlands was signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, and India became a party in 1982. Option A is wrong because Vihar is a reservoir that supplies water to Mumbai. Option B is wrong because Venna is a man-made lake at Mahabaleshwar. Option C is wrong because Rankala is a lake inside Kolhapur city, and none of these carries Ramsar status. Exam tip: Nandur Madhmeshwar was Maharashtra's first Ramsar site, followed by Lonar and Thane Creek.

The correct answer is B, 5th June. The United Nations General Assembly named 5 June as World Environment Day in 1972, and the day has been observed every year since 1974. The date recalls the opening day of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972, the first big world meeting on the environment. The same conference led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme, or UNEP, which leads the celebrations each year. Every year the day has a new theme and a host country; India hosted it in 2018 with the theme 'Beat Plastic Pollution'. A is wrong because May's main environment date is 22 May, the International Day for Biological Diversity. C is wrong because July has World Population Day on 11 July, not World Environment Day. D is wrong because 5 August is not linked with this day at all. Exam tip: 22 April, Earth Day; 22 May, Biodiversity Day; 5 June, World Environment Day; 16 September, World Ozone Day.

The correct answer is C, 1997. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of the Parties held in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997, and it came into force in 2005 after enough countries had ratified it. It was the first agreement to place legally binding limits on emissions, but only on the developed countries listed in Annex I of the convention, and it created three market mechanisms: emissions trading, joint implementation and the clean development mechanism, under which a project in a developing country could earn credits.

Option A, 1987, is the year of the Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances. Option B, 1992, is the year of the Rio Earth Summit and the framework convention itself. Option D, 2005, is the year the protocol entered into force, not the year it was adopted, and it is the commonest trap in this question.

The correct answer is C, Polythene bag. Polythene is a synthetic plastic that bacteria and fungi cannot break down, so it is non-biodegradable. A plastic bag can stay in soil or water for hundreds of years. Biodegradable waste is anything that decomposers can break down into simple, harmless substances, and it usually comes from plants or animals. Plastic bags choke drains and cause waterlogging, are swallowed by cattle and sea animals, and give off toxic gases when burnt, which is why their use must be reduced and the bags reused and recycled rather than thrown away. Waste is best kept in two bins: wet (biodegradable) and dry (non-biodegradable). A is wrong because vegetable peels rot within days and make good compost. B is wrong because dead leaves decay into humus that enriches the soil. D is wrong because a rotting fruit is already being broken down by microbes. Exam tip: if microbes can eat it, it is biodegradable; plastic, glass, metal cans and DDT are not.

The correct answer is D, Agenda 21. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, popularly called the Earth Summit, met at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and adopted Agenda 21, a detailed non-binding programme of action for sustainable development. The number refers to the twenty-first century, for which the programme was drawn up, and its chapters cover poverty, consumption patterns, health, human settlements, atmosphere, oceans, waste and the role of major groups.

Options A, B and C, Agenda 39, Agenda 19 and Agenda 22, name no document at all and are included only to test whether the candidate remembers the number. The way to keep it straight is to link the twenty-one to the century that was about to begin, and to remember that the same summit also produced the Rio Declaration, the Forest Principles and the two conventions on climate change and biological diversity.

The correct answer is D, Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is the first state in India to make rooftop rainwater harvesting structures compulsory for all houses and buildings across the state, through a law brought in 2003. The state depends heavily on the north-east monsoon and on groundwater, and Chennai faced severe water shortages, so collecting roof water and sending it into the ground became a priority. Rooftop harvesting collects rain from roofs and stores it in tanks or uses it to recharge wells and aquifers, which raises the water table. Option A is wrong because Kerala gets heavy rain and has promoted harvesting, but it was not the first to make it compulsory for every house. Option B is wrong because Gujarat is known for check dams and other water works, not for this first law. Option C is wrong because Rajasthan is known for traditional harvesting, such as the tankas of Bikaner and Phalodi, not for the first statewide law. Exam tip: Tamil Nadu was the first state to make rooftop rainwater harvesting compulsory (2003); tankas are Rajasthan's traditional underground tanks.

The correct answer is A, Bihar. Kabartal Wetland, known locally as Kanwar Jheel, lies in Begusarai district of Bihar and was designated a Ramsar site in 2020, becoming the first Ramsar site in the state. It is an oxbow lake left behind by the shifting course of the Burhi Gandak in the Indo-Gangetic plain, spreads over about 2,600 hectares, and works as a natural flood buffer for the area. It is an important halt on the Central Asian Flyway, where migratory birds such as the greylag goose and the endangered sociable lapwing have been recorded. Option B is wrong because Himachal Pradesh's Ramsar sites are Renuka, Pong Dam Lake and Chandertal. Option C is wrong because Punjab's include Harike, Kanjli, Ropar, Nangal, Beas Conservation Reserve and Keshopur-Miani. Option D is wrong because Haryana's Sultanpur and Bhindawas were both named in 2021. Exam tip: Kanwar Jheel or Kabartal in Begusarai is Bihar's first Ramsar site, an oxbow lake of the Burhi Gandak.

The correct answer is A. The Paris Agreement, adopted at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties in 2015 and in force from November 2016, commits its parties to holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursuing efforts to limit the increase to one and a half degrees. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol it covers all countries, and each decides its own nationally determined contribution, which it must report and revise over time.

Option B invents a figure and measures it from the present rather than from pre-industrial levels. Option C names a limit far above anything the agreement contemplates. Option D is wrong because the numerical goal is the best known feature of the agreement.

The correct answer is A, substances that deplete the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol was adopted in 1987 under the Vienna Convention of 1985 and entered into force in 1989. It fixed timetables for phasing out chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride and other ozone depleting chemicals, with later deadlines for developing countries. Universal participation and steady tightening of the schedules have made it the most effective of all environmental treaties.

Option B, hazardous waste moving across borders, is the subject of the Basel Convention of 1989. Option C, migratory species, belongs to the Convention on Migratory Species of 1979, also called the Bonn Convention. Option D, trade in endangered species, is regulated by CITES, agreed at Washington in 1973. Each of these is a separate treaty with its own secretariat and its own conference of parties.

The correct answer is D, sulphur hexafluoride. Global warming potential measures how much heat a mass of a gas traps over a chosen period compared with the same mass of carbon dioxide, which is given the value one. Sulphur hexafluoride, used as an insulating gas in high voltage electrical switchgear, has by far the highest potential of the gases covered by the Kyoto basket, because it absorbs infrared radiation strongly and survives in the atmosphere for thousands of years.

Option A, carbon dioxide, is the reference gas with a potential of one; it matters most because of the sheer quantity released, not its strength. Option B, methane, traps much more heat than carbon dioxide over a century but breaks down in about a decade. Option C, nitrous oxide, is stronger still and also attacks stratospheric ozone, but neither comes close to sulphur hexafluoride.