Environment & Ecology Mixed Quiz: Set 6

The correct answer is A, the core, buffer and transition zones. The core zone is legally protected and left undisturbed, with no human activity allowed. The buffer zone around it permits research, education and limited use of resources that does not damage the core. The transition zone is the outermost, where settlements, farming and other activities of local people carry on.

Option B mixes up two different kinds of protected area; a sanctuary and a national park are declared under the Wildlife (Protection) Act and are not zones of a biosphere reserve, although such areas often lie inside one. Options C and D are invented sets of names with no standing in the scheme. The three zone design is what allows a biosphere reserve to conserve strictly at the centre while letting people continue their livelihoods at the edge, which is why the model is described as conservation with development.

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 B, the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. It is the law under which a state government notifies a national park or a sanctuary, under which species are placed in schedules according to the protection they need, and under which hunting of protected animals is prohibited.

Option A, the Indian Forest Act of 1927, deals with reserved, protected and village forests and with forest produce, not with wildlife habitats as such. Option C, the Environment Protection Act of 1986, is the umbrella law passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy and gives the Union government wide powers over pollution and environmental standards. Option D, the Biological Diversity Act of 2002, deals with access to biological resources and with the sharing of benefits, and set up the biodiversity boards. The amendment of 2002 to the 1972 Act is what added conservation and community reserves.

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 B, 1972. The Wildlife (Protection) Act provides the legal basis for declaring national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, lists protected species in its schedules, and prohibits hunting and trade in the species it covers.

Option C, 1980, is the year of the Forest (Conservation) Act, which restricts the use of forest land for non-forest purposes. Option D, 1986, is the year of the Environment (Protection) Act, the umbrella law passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy, and also the year the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was notified. Option A, 1962, has no such statute attached to it. These three years, 1972, 1980 and 1986, are asked in rotation and are best learned together with Project Tiger in 1973, Project Elephant in 1992 and the Biological Diversity Act in 2002.

The correct answer is B, Endangered species. The Red Data Book is the source book that keeps a record of endangered animals, plants and fungi, so that governments and conservationists know which living species face the greatest risk of dying out. It is linked to the Red List prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which was founded in 1948 and has its headquarters at Gland in Switzerland. Species at risk are placed in categories such as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable, which together are called threatened species. Many countries, including India, also prepare their own Red Data Books for local species, and the Botanical Survey of India compiles one for Indian plants. Option A is wrong because the book is meant to help save living species; extinct species cannot be saved and are not its main record. Option C is wrong because common species are not at risk. Option D is wrong because invasive species, such as water hyacinth, are harmful newcomers and are tracked in separate lists. Exam tip: Red Data Book means endangered species; IUCN is at Gland, Switzerland, founded 1948.

The correct answer is B, waterbirds and migratory birds. Keoladeo Ghana in Rajasthan is a shallow wetland created long ago as a duck shooting reserve of the rulers of Bharatpur, and it now shelters large numbers of resident and migratory birds every winter; it is a World Heritage Site.

Option A, tigers, belong to parks such as Ranthambore and Sariska in the same state, not to this wetland. Option C, the wild ass, is found in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, in the sanctuary named after it. Option D, mangrove forest, describes the Sundarbans in West Bengal and Bhitarkanika in Odisha. The setter usually places one bird park among three animal parks, so mark Keoladeo Ghana in your list as the bird answer, and remember that it was once a celebrated wintering ground of the Siberian crane.

The correct answer is D, 29th July. International Tiger Day, also called Global Tiger Day, is observed every year on 29 July. It was started in 2010 at the Tiger Summit held in St Petersburg, Russia, where the thirteen tiger-range countries promised to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. The day spreads awareness about the loss of tiger habitat and poaching. India is home to about three-fourths of the world's wild tigers; it launched Project Tiger on 1 April 1973 from Jim Corbett National Park, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority was set up in 2005. The tiger is India's national animal and the results of the tiger census are usually released around this day. A is wrong because 12 May is International Nurses Day, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. B is wrong because 10 January is World Hindi Day. C is wrong because 5 November is World Tsunami Awareness Day. Exam tip: 29 July Tiger Day (St Petersburg 2010); Project Tiger 1973; 12 August is World Elephant Day.

The correct answer is A, wetlands. The convention was adopted in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, from which it takes its name, and it provides for the listing of wetlands of international importance and for their wise use by the countries that sign it.

Option B, deserts, are the concern of the convention on combating desertification. Option C, tropical forests, have no single convention of this kind, although they are covered by the wider Convention on Biological Diversity. Option D is too narrow, since coral reefs may indeed be listed but the convention covers marshes, lakes, rivers, mangroves, estuaries and peatlands as well. Wetlands matter out of proportion to their area because they recharge groundwater, control floods, filter pollutants and shelter migratory birds, which is why they are sometimes called the kidneys of the landscape.

The correct answer is A, Refuse. The 3 R's of waste management are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle; Refuse is not one of them. Reduce means creating less waste in the first place, such as buying fewer packaged goods and switching off lights to save power. Reuse means using a thing again, like refilling a bottle or turning old clothes into bags. Recycle means sending waste such as paper, glass, metal and plastic to be made into new products. NCERT gives the three in this order, and the order matters: reducing is the best option and recycling the last resort because it still uses energy. Some newer lists add Refuse and Repurpose to make 5 R's, but the paper asks about the 3 R's. B is wrong because recycling is one of the three. C is wrong because reducing is the first R. D is wrong because reuse is the second R. Exam tip: 3 R's = Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in that order of preference.

The correct answer is A, the hangul or Kashmir stag. Dachigam lies close to Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir and is the last stronghold of this deer, which moves between the upper and lower parts of the park with the seasons.

Option B, the barasingha or swamp deer, is the flagship of Kanha in Madhya Pradesh, and the similarity of the two deer is exactly what the question tests. Option C, the lion-tailed macaque, is a primate of the evergreen forest of the Western Ghats and is linked with Silent Valley in Kerala. Option D, the olive ridley turtle, nests in huge numbers on the Odisha coast, especially at Gahirmatha near Bhitarkanika. Fixing one species to one park, and noting which state it lies in, answers almost every question of this kind.

The correct answer is C, Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist and writer, published Silent Spring in 1962. She showed how synthetic pesticides, above all DDT, were killing birds, fish and insects far beyond the fields where they were sprayed, and how these chemicals build up in food chains, becoming more concentrated at each level, a process now called biomagnification. The title imagines a spring with no birdsong because the birds have been poisoned. The book stirred public opinion and helped lead to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and a ban on most uses of DDT in the USA in 1972. Option A is wrong because Carolyn Merchant is an environmental historian known for The Death of Nature (1980). Option B is wrong because Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto, works on economics and politics. Option D is wrong because no writer of that name is linked to this book. Exam tip: Silent Spring 1962 (Rachel Carson, DDT), The Limits to Growth 1972 (Club of Rome), Our Common Future 1987 (Brundtland Report).

The correct answer is C, Critically Endangered. Among species that still survive in the wild this is the most serious category, given to those facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future.

Option B, Endangered, comes next, and option A, Vulnerable, next after that; these three together are called the threatened categories. Option D, Near Threatened, is a milder warning for a species that is close to qualifying as threatened but does not yet. The full sequence in descending order of threat is Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened and Least Concern, with Data Deficient and Not Evaluated for species that cannot yet be placed. The list is maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, founded in 1948 and based at Gland in Switzerland.

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 by the Government of India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, from Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, to save the Bengal tiger and its habitat. It began with nine tiger reserves, including Corbett, Kanha, Bandipur, Ranthambore, Sundarbans and Manas, and the network has since grown to more than fifty. Each reserve has a core area free of human activity and a buffer zone around it. Since 2005 the project is run by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a statutory body under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, and the tiger census is done every four years. A, 1985, is not linked to the tiger programme. C, 1972, is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the law that came a year before the project and is often confused with it. D, 1970, is when India banned tiger hunting. Exam tip: 1970 hunting ban, 1972 Wildlife Act, 1973 Project Tiger, 1992 Project Elephant.

The correct answer is B, Kerala. Silent Valley lies in the Nilgiri hills of Kerala and protects one of the last stretches of undisturbed tropical evergreen forest in the Western Ghats, whose best known resident is the lion-tailed macaque. The park is also remembered for the popular movement that stopped a hydroelectric project there.

Option A, Karnataka, has Bandipur and Nagarhole, both known for tigers and elephants. Option C, Tamil Nadu, has Mudumalai and the Indira Gandhi National Park of the Anamalai hills. Option D, Maharashtra, has Tadoba and Sanjay Gandhi National Park within the limits of a metropolis. All four states share the Western Ghats, which is why they are grouped in this question, so learn at least one park for each and keep Kerala attached to both Silent Valley and Eravikulam, the park of the Nilgiri tahr.

The correct answer is D, More than one of the above. Carbon dioxide, water vapour and CFCs are all greenhouse gases, because each of them traps the heat that the Earth gives off and warms the lower atmosphere. Water vapour is the most plentiful greenhouse gas in the air, while carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas is the main one that human activity keeps adding. CFCs, once used in refrigerators and aerosol sprays, do double damage: they trap heat and they also destroy the ozone layer, which is why the Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased them out. Methane and nitrous oxide are other important greenhouse gases. Option A is incomplete because carbon dioxide is only one of the gases listed that trap heat. Option B is incomplete because water vapour also traps heat but is not the only such gas here. Option C is incomplete because CFCs are greenhouse gases too, but so are the other two. Exam tip: the main greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs.

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger was launched to protect the tiger by conserving the habitat it needs, and because the tiger sits at the top of the food chain, saving it protects the whole forest below it. Such a species is called an umbrella species.

Option D, 1992, is the year Project Elephant began, and the two are regularly offered together to see whether the candidate can separate them. Option A, 1971, is the year of the Ramsar Convention and of the Man and the Biosphere Programme. Option C, 1982, has no such scheme attached to it. Note also the year immediately before Project Tiger: the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 created the legal machinery of parks and sanctuaries, and the project was built on it the following year.

The correct answer is A, Hemis National Park. Hemis lies in the cold, high altitude desert of Ladakh, covers a very large stretch of mountain terrain, and is the best known habitat of the snow leopard, along with the bharal and the Tibetan wolf.

Option B, Kaziranga, is large by the standards of the Brahmaputra valley but far smaller than Hemis, and its fame rests on the rhinoceros rather than on area. Option C, the Sundarbans, is the great mangrove park of West Bengal and shelters the Royal Bengal tiger, which swims between its islands. Option D, Gir, is a compact park in Gujarat that is famous because of one species rather than its size. Questions asking for the largest, the smallest or the first in this chapter are frequent, so keep one name ready for each.

The correct answer is C, a seed bank. Ex-situ conservation means protecting a species away from its natural habitat, and a seed bank does exactly that by storing seeds under controlled temperature and humidity for future use. Zoological parks, botanical gardens, gene banks and cryopreservation facilities belong to the same group.

Option A, a national park, option B, a wildlife sanctuary, and option D, a sacred grove, are all in-situ, that is, they protect the species where it naturally lives, saving the whole ecosystem along with it. Sacred groves are patches of forest preserved by village custom and dedicated to a local deity, and they have conserved rare plants for centuries without any law behind them. In-situ conservation is always preferred; ex-situ is the second line, used when a population has grown too small or its habitat too damaged.

The correct answer is B, the amendment of 2002 to the Wild Life Protection Act. It added two categories beyond the national park and the sanctuary: a conservation reserve, usually on state land adjoining a protected area and meant to guard a corridor between habitats, and a community reserve, on private or community land where the people themselves agree to protect wildlife.

Option A, the Indian Forest Act of 1927, classifies forests as reserved, protected and village forests, a different scheme altogether. Option C, the Environment Protection Act of 1986, is an umbrella law on pollution and environmental standards. Option D, the Forest Rights Act of 2006, recognises the rights of forest dwelling communities over land and forest produce. The idea behind the 2002 categories is that protection should extend to the land between parks, not stop at their boundaries.