Environment & Ecology Mixed Quiz: Set 15

The correct answer is B, a heavy load of organic pollution. Biochemical oxygen demand measures the oxygen that micro-organisms need in order to break down the organic matter present in a sample. The more organic waste, such as sewage, the more oxygen the microbes consume, so a high BOD is a direct sign of heavy organic pollution. Option A is wrong because clean water has a low BOD; a river upstream of a city will show a much lower value than the same river below the sewage outfall. Option C is wrong because high BOD in fact goes with low dissolved oxygen, since the microbes are using the oxygen up; the two move in opposite directions. Option D is wrong because BOD depends on the activity of bacteria, so a high value indicates their presence and vigour rather than their absence. Chemical oxygen demand for the same sample is always higher than BOD.

The correct answer is B, Haryali. Haryali is a centrally sponsored watershed development project launched in 2003 by the Ministry of Rural Development, and its whole point is that the village panchayat plans and carries out the work itself. Under it gram panchayats build check dams, farm ponds, percolation tanks and contour bunds so that rain is held where it falls; wells recharge, and dryland farmers get water for a second crop. The watershed committee is chosen by the gram sabha, and the villagers share part of the cost and the upkeep of the structures. A is wrong because the Arvary Pani Sansad is a people's parliament of villages on the Arvari river in Alwar, Rajasthan, a community effort and not a central scheme. C is wrong because Jal Kranti Abhiyan was a later water awareness campaign of the water resources ministry. D is wrong because Neeru-Meeru was a state water conservation programme of Andhra Pradesh. Exam tip: Haryali 2003, central and panchayat-led; Neeru-Meeru is Andhra Pradesh; Arvari Pani Sansad is Rajasthan.

The correct answer is A, nitrogen oxide. Nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, together written as nitrogen oxides, are air pollutants that come mainly from combustion in vehicles and power stations; they help form smog and acid rain but are not counted among the greenhouse gases of the natural atmosphere. The gas of this family that is a greenhouse gas is nitrous oxide, a different compound, so read the name carefully. Option B is wrong as the answer because carbon dioxide occurs naturally from respiration, decay and volcanoes and is the principal greenhouse gas. Option C is wrong because methane is released naturally from wetlands and the digestion of animals and is a strong greenhouse gas. Option D is wrong because ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere, is listed as a greenhouse gas, and also forms near the ground as a pollutant. The trap here is the similarity between nitrogen oxide and nitrous oxide.

The correct answer is D, Space Research. Space research is not one of the Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations General Assembly adopted seventeen such goals in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 169 targets to be met by 2030; they replaced the Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000 to 2015. The seventeen cover poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality, clean water, energy, decent work, industry, inequality, cities, responsible consumption, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace and justice, and partnerships. Option A is wrong because Gender Equality is Goal 5. Option B is wrong because Zero Hunger is Goal 2. Option C is wrong because Good Health and Well-being is Goal 3. In India NITI Aayog tracks state progress on the goals through its SDG India Index. Exam tip: 17 goals, 169 targets, adopted 2015, target year 2030; Goal 1 is No Poverty and Goal 17 is Partnerships for the Goals.

The correct answer is B, nitrate. Nitrate from fertiliser run-off and from sewage seeps into groundwater; in an infant it is converted to nitrite, which binds to haemoglobin and forms methaemoglobin, a compound that cannot carry oxygen. The child becomes short of oxygen and the skin takes on a bluish tinge, which gives the condition its common name of blue baby syndrome. Option A is wrong because excess fluoride causes fluorosis, mottling the teeth and deforming the bones. Option C is wrong because iron in water chiefly causes taste, colour and staining problems, not this disorder. Option D is wrong because calcium makes water hard, which affects soap and boilers but does not produce methaemoglobinemia. The practical lesson is that agricultural run-off is a leading non-point source of water pollution.

The correct answer is D, B, C and D. Mulching means covering the bare ground between plants with straw, dry leaves or crop waste, so that the soil holds moisture and raindrops cannot beat the topsoil loose. Contour barriers are stones, grass or soil bunds laid along the contour of a slope; water collects in trenches in front of them and runs off slowly instead of carrying soil downhill. Shelter belts are rows of trees planted across the direction of the wind, and they cut the wind's speed so that it cannot lift loose soil, a method used with success in the sandy western parts of India. Statement A is not a conservation method at all: heavy use of chemical fertilizers over the years makes the soil acidic or salty, kills the organisms that keep it fertile and damages its structure. A, B and C are wrong because each of them includes statement A. Exam tip: mulching, contour barriers, terrace farming, shelter belts and rock dams conserve soil.

The correct answer is B, stratosphere. About nine tenths of the atmosphere's ozone lies in the stratosphere, roughly fifteen to thirty five kilometres above the surface, where ultraviolet rays split oxygen molecules and the free atoms combine with other oxygen molecules to make ozone. The absorption of ultraviolet radiation there is also why temperature rises with height in this layer. Option A is wrong because the troposphere is the lowest layer, where weather occurs and where ozone appears only as a pollutant in smog. Option C is wrong because the mesosphere lies above the stratosphere, is the coldest layer and is where meteors burn up. Option D is wrong because the thermosphere is far higher, holds the ionosphere that reflects radio waves, and has air too thin for an ozone layer. Keep the order of the layers ready, since papers combine this with a question on where temperature rises or falls with height.

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, eutrophication. When fertilisers, detergents and sewage add nitrates and phosphates to a lake or a slow-moving river, algae multiply into a bloom that covers the surface. Light is cut off from plants below, and when the bloom dies the decomposers use up the dissolved oxygen, so fish and other aquatic animals suffocate. Where human activity is the cause it is called cultural eutrophication. Option A is wrong because biomagnification is the increase in concentration of a persistent poison such as DDT at each higher level of a food chain, a different process altogether. Option C is wrong because salinisation is the build-up of salts in soil or water, usually through over-irrigation in dry regions. Option D is wrong because sedimentation is the settling of suspended solids, which is in fact a step in treating sewage rather than a form of nutrient pollution.

The correct answer is D, Blue Flag. In 2018 the Union Environment Ministry started a pilot project to clean up and develop selected beaches so that they could win the Blue Flag. The Blue Flag is an international eco-label given by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), based in Copenhagen, Denmark; it began in France in 1985. A beach must meet strict standards on water quality, environmental education, safety and services, and environmental management. India's programme for this is called BEAMS (Beach Environment and Aesthetics Management Services), and in 2020 Shivrajpur in Gujarat was among the first Indian beaches to receive the Blue Flag. A is wrong because Swachh Bharat is the national sanitation mission started in 2014, not a beach label. B is wrong because the Green Flag is a different award, used in the UK for well-kept parks and green spaces. C is wrong because Clean India is only the English name of the Swachh Bharat campaign. Exam tip: Blue Flag = beach eco-label by FEE, Denmark; India's scheme = BEAMS; the first eight Indian Blue Flag beaches were certified in 2020.

The correct answer is A, Dobson unit. The Dobson unit, named after the scientist who built the instrument for measuring atmospheric ozone, expresses how thick the ozone column would be if all of it were brought down to the surface at standard temperature and pressure; a hundred Dobson units correspond to a layer one millimetre thick. Option B is wrong because the curie is a unit of radioactivity, used for the rate at which a substance decays. Option C is wrong because the decibel measures the loudness of sound and is used in noise pollution standards. Option D is wrong because the angstrom is a unit of length equal to one ten billionth of a metre, used for atoms and for wavelengths of light rather than for a column of gas. Remember the Dobson unit together with the year 1985, when the thinning over Antarctica was reported.

The correct answer is D, 20°C. An ocean thermal energy conversion plant works only where the warm surface water is at least about 20 degrees Celsius hotter than the cold water drawn from the depths.

OTEC uses that difference as its heat source. The warm surface water boils a liquid with a low boiling point, such as ammonia, and the vapour turns a turbine to make electricity; cold water pumped up from roughly a kilometre down condenses the vapour back to liquid so the cycle repeats. The gap of 20 degrees is needed because a smaller one leaves too little energy to run the pumps and still send power out. Such conditions are found in tropical seas, and India has tested OTEC near the Lakshadweep and Andaman islands.

Option A is wrong because a 40 degree gap does not occur between the surface and the deep sea. Option B is wrong because 250 degrees belongs to a furnace, not the ocean. Option C is wrong because 50 degrees is far beyond any natural ocean difference.

Exam tip: OTEC needs a surface to deep water difference of about 20°C and works best in tropical waters.

The correct answer is B, 1974. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 was India’s first comprehensive law on pollution. It created the Central Pollution Control Board and the State Pollution Control Boards, gave them power to lay down effluent standards, and made the consent of the board necessary before any industry may discharge waste water into a stream, well or sewer. Option A is wrong because 1972 is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Option C is wrong because 1981 is the year of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, which extended the same boards to air quality. Option D is wrong because 1986 is the year of the Environment (Protection) Act, the umbrella law passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy. A related law is the Water Cess Act of 1977.

The correct answer is A, Kerala. Ashtamudi is a backwater lake in Kollam district of Kerala and the second largest estuarine system in the state after Vembanad. Its name means eight braids, because the lake spreads out in several arms before meeting the Arabian Sea at Neendakara. It was declared a Ramsar site in 2002 for its mangroves, migratory birds and the short necked clam fishery, which became the first fishery in India to get Marine Stewardship Council certification. The lake also carries the houseboat route to Alappuzha. B is wrong because Karnataka's noted wetlands include Ranganathittu and Magadi. C is wrong because Tamil Nadu's Ramsar wetlands include Point Calimere and Pallikaranai. D is wrong because Assam has Deepor Beel near Guwahati. Exam tip: Kerala's Ramsar sites are Ashtamudi, Vembanad Kol and Sasthamkotta, the last being the largest freshwater lake in the state.

The correct answer is B, substances that deplete the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol was adopted in 1987 under the Vienna Convention of 1985 and sets the timetable by which countries must stop producing and using chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform and methyl bromide. Option A is wrong because greenhouse gas emissions are the subject of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the agreements under it, although the Kigali Amendment of 2016 did bring hydrofluorocarbons, which are greenhouse gases, into the Montreal Protocol. Option C is wrong because the movement of hazardous waste across borders is governed by the Basel Convention. Option D is wrong because wetlands are covered by the Ramsar Convention. Matching each convention to its single subject is the fastest preparation, since one such question appears in nearly every environment section.

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 A, 1985. The Ganga Action Plan was launched in 1985 to intercept, divert and treat the sewage of the towns along the river, and it was the first programme of its kind in India. Its second phase, along with the Yamuna Action Plan, came in 1993. Option B is wrong because 1991 belongs to the economic reforms and has nothing to do with river cleaning. Option C is wrong because 1995 is the year in which the National River Conservation Plan was set up, bringing the Ganga and Yamuna schemes together and extending them to other rivers. Option D is wrong because 2014 is the year the Namami Gange Programme was launched as an integrated conservation mission, the present phase of the effort. The sequence worth memorising is 1985, 1993, 1995, 2008 for the national river declaration, 2009 and 2014.

The correct answer is B, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. These gases come from burning coal and oil in thermal power stations, smelters and vehicles, are oxidised in the atmosphere and dissolve in water droplets to form sulphuric acid and nitric acid, which come down as acid rain. Option A is wrong because carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases; carbon dioxide does dissolve to form weak carbonic acid, but that only makes normal rain slightly acidic at a pH near 5.6 and is not what is meant by acid rain. Option C is wrong because carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that does not form a strong acid, and ozone at ground level is an irritant in smog rather than a source of acidity. Option D is wrong because chlorofluorocarbons and halons destroy stratospheric ozone and are the concern of the Montreal Protocol, a separate problem from acid rain.

The correct answer is B, the National Mission for Clean Ganga. The mission, working under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, is the implementing agency of the Namami Gange Programme launched in 2014, and it works through State Ganga Committees and district committees along the river. Option A is wrong because the Central Pollution Control Board, created by the Water Act of 1974, sets and enforces pollution standards and monitors water quality, but it does not run the programme. Option C is wrong because the Central Water Commission deals with water resources development, flood forecasting and dam safety. Option D is wrong because NITI Aayog is a policy think tank without executive responsibility for such a mission. The programme covers sewage treatment, river surface cleaning, industrial effluent monitoring, afforestation, biodiversity and Ganga Grams.

The correct answer is A. Marble is calcium carbonate, and sulphur dioxide in polluted air, along with the sulphuric acid of acid rain, reacts with it to form calcium sulphate, so the stone loses its shine, turns yellow and becomes pitted and flaky. This damage is called marble cancer, and it is discussed most often in connection with the Taj Mahal at Agra, which is why industries around it are regulated. Option B is wrong because the lung disease caused by inhaling stone dust is silicosis, a different subject altogether. Option C is wrong because algal growth is a biological stain that can be cleaned and is not what the term means. Option D is wrong because thermal cracking is a physical weathering process common to many rocks and has nothing to do with pollution. Remember that any monument of marble or limestone is vulnerable, since both are calcium carbonate.