National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries: Law, Species, States

The correct answer is A, Hailey National Park. Declared in 1936 in the hills of present-day Uttarakhand, it was named after the governor of the United Provinces, later renamed Ramganga and finally named after the hunter turned naturalist Jim Corbett. It is also remembered as one of the first reserves taken up under Project Tiger in 1973.

Option B, Kaziranga in Assam, is famous as the home of the one-horned rhinoceros and is a World Heritage Site, but it became a national park much later. Option C, Gir in Gujarat, protects the Asiatic lion and was first given protection as a sanctuary. Option D, Kanha in Madhya Pradesh, is known for the barasingha and for tigers, and was notified in the mid twentieth century. The year 1936 belongs to only one park, so tie it firmly to Corbett.

The correct answer is B, the Asiatic lion. Gir, in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, is the only place where the Asiatic lion survives in the wild, and its dry deciduous forest and scrub make the habitat that keeps the population alive.

Option A, the one-horned rhinoceros, belongs to the tall grassland of Kaziranga in Assam and the neighbouring parks of the Brahmaputra valley. Option C, the snow leopard, lives in the cold high mountains and is associated with Hemis in Ladakh and with Project Snow Leopard. Option D, the hangul or Kashmir stag, is found in Dachigam National Park near Srinagar and is the state animal of the erstwhile state. These four species with their four parks make the most commonly asked matching set in this chapter.

The correct answer is B, the one-horned rhinoceros. Kaziranga lies on the floodplain of the Brahmaputra in Assam, where tall elephant grass and seasonal flooding suit the rhinoceros, and the park is inscribed as a natural World Heritage Site.

Option A, the Asiatic lion, survives only in Gir in Gujarat, at the other end of the country. Option C, the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat of the Western Ghats, is associated with Eravikulam National Park in Kerala. Option D, the great Indian bustard, is a bird of open grassland and is linked with the Desert National Park in Rajasthan. Kaziranga is also home to the wild water buffalo, the swamp deer and a strong tiger population, which is why it was declared a tiger reserve as well.

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger was launched a year after the Wild Life Protection Act came into force, and it created tiger reserves in which the core area is kept free of human activity while a buffer area allows regulated use; the National Tiger Conservation Authority now oversees the programme.

Option A, 1972, is the year of the Wild Life Protection Act itself, which is the single commonest confusion in this chapter, since the two years stand next to each other. Option C, 1975, is the year the Crocodile Conservation Project began for the gharial, the mugger and the saltwater crocodile. Option D, 1992, is the year of Project Elephant, which created elephant reserves and corridors. Keep the four years as one line and any date question here becomes easy.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

The correct answer is B, a national park. In a national park the whole ecosystem is protected, rights are settled before the area is notified, grazing and cultivation are prohibited and the boundary cannot be altered except through a resolution of the state legislature.

Option A, a wildlife sanctuary, aims chiefly at protecting animal species and may allow certain regulated activities and some settled rights to continue, which is the main legal difference between the two. Option C, a community reserve, rests on the participation of the local community and therefore assumes human use of the land. Option D, the transition zone of a biosphere reserve, is the outermost belt where communities farm, graze and carry on their livelihoods; the zone free of human activity there is the core. A sanctuary may be upgraded to a park, but not the reverse.

The correct answer is B, the great Indian bustard. The Desert National Park, spread over sand dunes and open grassland near Jaisalmer and Barmer, is the best known habitat of this tall, heavy ground bird, whose numbers have fallen sharply and which is the state bird of Rajasthan.

Option A, the Siberian crane, was a celebrated winter visitor to the wetland of Keoladeo Ghana at Bharatpur rather than to the desert. Option C, the Indian peafowl, is the national bird and is common across the country, so it is never the answer to a park-specific question. Option D, the hornbill, belongs to the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats and the north-east. The bustard also gives its name to a conservation effort, so link the bird, the park and the state together.