Rajasthan Quiz: Forests, Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks

Keoladeo National Park lies at Bharatpur in eastern Rajasthan. It began as a duck shooting reserve created by Maharaja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur, who built the Ajan Bandh whose waters still flood the shallow marshes, was declared a bird sanctuary and later a national park, entered the Ramsar list in…

Sariska lies in the Aravalli hills of Alwar district. It was notified a wildlife sanctuary in 1955 and brought under Project Tiger in 1978, and it earned a place in every exam list when tigers were flown in and released here after the reserve lost its tigers, the first such…

The khejri, Prosopis cineraria, is the state tree of Rajasthan. It survives on very little water, its leaves called loong serve as fodder, its pods are eaten as the vegetable sangri, and because it gives shade, fuel and food in the driest tracts it is called the kalpavriksha of the…

The Sitamata sanctuary, spread over Pratapgarh and the neighbouring tracts of southern Rajasthan, is the known home of the Indian flying squirrel, the udan gilahri, and it also carries the best teak and bamboo forest of the state along with the Jakham river.

The Desert National Park, spread over Jaisalmer and Barmer, is the largest protected area of Rajasthan and the main surviving habitat of the Great Indian Bustard, called godawan in Rajasthani and the state bird; the Sudasari enclosure within the park is set aside for it, and the Akal wood fossil…

Ranthambore lies in Sawai Madhopur district, where the Aravalli meets the Vindhyan plateau.

Keoladeo Ghana at Bharatpur was added to the Ramsar list in 1981 and Sambhar Lake, the large saline lake spread across Jaipur and Nagaur districts and a major source of salt, was added in 1990; both are also important bird habitats, Sambhar drawing flamingos in the wet season.

At Khejarli in Jodhpur district in 1730, when men sent by the state began felling khejri trees for lime kilns, Amrita Devi Bishnoi embraced a tree and was killed, and hundreds of Bishnoi men, women and children died in the same way; the Bishnoi faith, founded by Guru Jambheshwar, forbids…

The Kumbhalgarh sanctuary, spread over Rajsamand, Pali and Udaipur districts around the Kumbhalgarh fort, is counted among the better habitats of the Indian wolf in the state and also shelters leopard, sloth bear, four-horned antelope and the Indian wolf prey base of smaller animals.

The Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve lies in the Kota region of south-eastern Rajasthan, taking in the old Darrah sanctuary along with the Jawahar Sagar and Chambal tracts, and it was notified as a tiger reserve in 2013, making it the third of the state after Ranthambore and Sariska.