Environment & Ecology Quiz: Project Cheetah and Other Species Conservation Projects

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger began on 1 April 1973 with a small group of reserves, Jim Corbett among the first, and introduced the idea of a strictly protected core area with a buffer zone of regulated use around it. Option A is wrong but is the commonest confusion, because 1972 is the year of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, the law that made such a project possible; the project itself came a year later. Option C is wrong because 1980 is the year of the Forest (Conservation) Act, which restricts the diversion of forest land. Option D is wrong because 1992 is the year of Project Elephant. Keep the four dates in a row: the Act in 1972, Project Tiger in 1973, the crocodile project in 1975 and Project Elephant in 1992.

The correct answer is A, the National Tiger Conservation Authority. It was created by the amendment of the Wild Life (Protection) Act in 2006, which gave Project Tiger a statutory footing, and it approves tiger conservation plans, notifies core and buffer areas with the states and conducts the national tiger estimation. Option B is wrong because the Wildlife Institute of India at Dehradun is a training and research institution and assists in surveys rather than administering the project. Option C is wrong because the Zoological Survey of India documents the fauna of the country. Option D is wrong because the Central Zoo Authority recognises and regulates zoos. The National Board for Wild Life, chaired by the Prime Minister, advises on policy above all of these.

The correct answer is B, Kuno National Park, in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh, where the first eight cheetahs from Namibia were released into enclosures on 17 September 2022. Kuno was chosen for its open grassland and scrub, the habitat a cheetah hunts in, and for its prey base of chital and chinkara. Option A is wrong because Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh is a tiger reserve of dense sal forest, not cheetah country. Option C is wrong because Ranthambore in Rajasthan is likewise a tiger reserve. Option D is wrong because Gir in Gujarat holds the Asiatic lion, and Kuno had in fact been prepared years earlier as a possible second home for those lions. Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary has since been readied as a second cheetah site.

The correct answer is B, 1952. The cheetah is the only large mammal India is known to have lost in historical times, and the government declared it extinct in the country in 1952, a few years after the last wild Asiatic cheetahs were shot. Option A is wrong but is closely linked, because 1947 is the year in which those last cheetahs are believed to have been killed, in the Koriya area of the former Surguja region, now in Chhattisgarh; the declaration came later. Option C is wrong because 1962 has no connection with the cheetah. Option D is wrong because 1972 is the year of the Wild Life (Protection) Act. Hold the two cheetah dates together: 1947 for the last killing and 1952 for the declaration of extinction.

The correct answer is B, the elephant, declared the National Heritage Animal in 2010 in recognition of its place in Indian culture and of the need to protect its habitat and corridors; Project Elephant had already been launched for it in 1992. Option A is wrong because the tiger is the national animal of India, a different designation. Option C is wrong because the lion, though it was the national animal before the tiger replaced it, carries no such title today and survives in the wild only in the Gir forest of Gujarat. Option D is wrong because the Gangetic river dolphin is the National Aquatic Animal, declared in 2009. This set of four titles, with the peacock as the national bird, is among the most frequently asked groups in the subject.

The correct answer is B, the Gangetic river dolphin, declared the National Aquatic Animal in 2009; it is nearly blind and navigates by echolocation, and Project Dolphin was announced in 2020 for its conservation along with other river and marine dolphins. Option A is wrong because the olive ridley turtle is the species of the Sea Turtle Project of 1999, famous for its mass nesting at Gahirmatha. Option C is wrong because the gharial, the fish eating crocodile of the Chambal and other rivers, is covered by the Crocodile Conservation Project of 1975. Option D is wrong because the dugong, or sea cow, is a protected marine mammal of the Gulf of Mannar and the Andaman waters but holds no national title. The Vikramshila sanctuary at Bhagalpur in Bihar is the sanctuary meant for the dolphin.

The correct answer is C, Rajasthan, where the bird is called the godawan and where its stronghold, the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, holds most of the surviving population; conservation breeding centres in that district raise chicks for release into the wild. Option A is wrong because the state bird of Gujarat is the greater flamingo, although a few bustards do occur in the Kutch grasslands. Option B is wrong because the state bird of Maharashtra is the green imperial pigeon, even though the Nannaj grassland near Solapur is a known bustard site. Option D is wrong because the state bird of Madhya Pradesh is the Indian paradise flycatcher. The main threats to the bustard are the loss of grassland and collision with overhead power lines, so diverters are fitted on the lines in its range.

The correct answer is A, the olive ridley turtle. Every year thousands of females come ashore at Gahirmatha for the synchronised mass nesting called arribada, which makes it the largest rookery of the species in the world; Rushikulya on the same coast is the other major site, and the Sea Turtle Project of 1999 works at both. Option B is wrong because the leatherback, the largest sea turtle, nests mainly in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and not on the Odisha coast. Option C is wrong because the saltwater crocodile of this coast is associated with the nearby Bhitarkanika mangroves, not with mass nesting beaches. Option D is wrong because the horseshoe crab, though recorded on this coast, is not what Gahirmatha is known for. Turtle deaths in fishing nets are the reason turtle excluder devices are required there.

The correct answer is A, diclofenac, a painkiller widely used on livestock. Vultures that fed on the carcasses of treated animals developed kidney failure and died, and three species of Gyps vulture declined catastrophically within a few years, which is why the veterinary use of the drug was banned in 2006 and meloxicam promoted as a safe substitute. Option B is wrong because oxytocin is misused to increase milk let down and is a cattle welfare issue, not the cause of the vulture crash. Option C is wrong because streptomycin is an antibiotic with no such effect on scavenging birds. Option D is wrong because chloroquine is an antimalarial drug for humans. Conservation breeding centres, including the one at Pinjore in Haryana, now rear vultures for release, and vulture safe zones are maintained around them.

The correct answer is A, the Gir forest of Gujarat, the last refuge of the Asiatic lion, which once ranged from west Asia to eastern India; the Asiatic Lion Conservation Project was launched in 2018 for it, and the Barda sanctuary nearby has been developed as a second habitat. Option B is wrong because Kanha in Madhya Pradesh is a tiger reserve and the home of the hard ground barasingha, the swamp deer saved there from near extinction. Option C is wrong because Bandipur in Karnataka is a tiger reserve and elephant country in the Nilgiri biosphere. Option D is wrong because Simlipal in Odisha is a tiger reserve and biosphere reserve known for its melanistic tigers. Note the difference in appearance: the Asiatic lion has a smaller mane and a distinct fold of skin along the belly.

The correct answer is A, Dachigam National Park, near Srinagar, which holds almost the whole surviving population of the hangul, the only species of red deer found in India and the state animal of Jammu and Kashmir. Option B is wrong because Hemis National Park in Ladakh is known for the snow leopard and is one of the areas covered by Project Snow Leopard of 2009. Option C is wrong because the Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh is a world heritage site known for the western tragopan and monal. Option D is wrong because the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand is famous for its alpine meadows and flowering plants. Pair each project with its park: hangul with Dachigam, snow leopard with Hemis, cheetah with Kuno and lion with Gir.

The correct answer is B. Keibul Lamjao, on Loktak lake in Manipur, rests on phumdis, floating mats of soil and decaying vegetation thick enough to carry the weight of a deer, which makes it the only floating national park in the world; the sangai that walks on them is the state animal of Manipur and was once believed extinct. Option A is wrong because the highest national parks of India lie in the Himalayas, such as Hemis in Ladakh. Option C is wrong because the great mangrove national park is the Sundarbans in West Bengal, with Bhitarkanika in Odisha as another mangrove site. Option D is wrong because the oldest national park in India is Jim Corbett in Uttarakhand, established in 1936 as Hailey National Park and later among the first Project Tiger reserves.