Wetlands, Mangroves and Coral Reefs: Ramsar Sites and PYQs

The correct answer is D, Surinsar-Mansar Lakes. These twin lakes lie near Jammu in the Jammu and Kashmir region, not in Uttar Pradesh, so they are the odd one out in this list. Option A is wrong because Sur Sarovar, also called Keetham Lake, lies close to Agra in Uttar Pradesh and is named after the poet Surdas. Option B is wrong because the Samaspur Bird Sanctuary is in the Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh and is a winter haven for migratory waterfowl. Option C is wrong because Sarsai Nawar Jheel lies in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh and is known for the sarus crane, the state bird. The trap in such questions is that the names sound alike; fix the state of each site by the district it belongs to, and remember that Uttar Pradesh holds a large cluster of Ramsar wetlands along the Ganga plain.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. The Harike Wetland in Punjab was created by building a barrage just below the point where the Beas joins the Sutlej, so the first pair is correct and it is the only one. Option B is wrong because it accepts the second pair, and Keoladeo Ghana National Park at Bharatpur is a man-made wetland fed by the Gambhir and Banganga through the Ajan Bandh, not a site at the meeting of the Banas and the Chambal. Option C is wrong because it accepts the third pair, and Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh lies between the deltas of the Krishna and the Godavari, drained by the Upputeru, and not at any confluence of the Musi with the Krishna. Option D is wrong because it accepts both of those mismatched pairs. In matching questions of this kind, one certain pair is often enough to reach the answer by elimination.

The correct answer is A, Iran. The convention takes its name from Ramsar, a town on the Caspian coast of Iran, where it was signed on 2 February 1971; it came into force in 1975 and is the oldest of the modern global environmental treaties. Option B is wrong because Iraq, though a neighbour of Iran, has no connection with the signing. Option C is wrong for a reason worth noting: Switzerland hosts the secretariat of the convention at Gland, so it is the administrative home of the treaty, but not the place of signature, and this is exactly the confusion the option is placed to create. Option D is wrong because Kenya is the seat of the United Nations Environment Programme at Nairobi, another agency easily mixed up with wetland administration. Remember the pair: signed at Ramsar in Iran, administered from Gland in Switzerland.

The correct answer is B, 2 February, the anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1971, which is why the day carries that date. Option A is wrong because 22 March is World Water Day, about fresh water in general rather than wetlands, and it is the commonest wrong choice here. Option C is wrong because 5 June is World Environment Day, observed to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference of 1972. Option D is wrong because 26 July is the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, which is about one wetland type only and is itself a favourite examination fact. Keeping these four dates apart is the whole point of the question, so learn them as a set: 2 February wetlands, 22 March water, 5 June environment, 26 July mangroves.

The correct answer is C, Loktak Lake, the large freshwater lake of Manipur whose surface carries floating mats of soil and vegetation called phumdis. Keibul Lamjao National Park rests on these mats and is the last natural home of the sangai, the brow-antlered deer of Manipur. Option A is wrong because Wular Lake in the Jhelum valley is the largest freshwater lake in the country but has no floating park. Option B is wrong because Chilika in Odisha is a brackish lagoon famous for Irrawaddy dolphins and the Nalabana bird sanctuary, not for phumdis. Option D is wrong because Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh, between the Krishna and the Godavari deltas, is a shallow freshwater lake known for pelicans. Link the three words together in revision: Loktak, phumdi, sangai, all in Manipur, and remember that Loktak is on the Montreux Record.

The correct answer is B, the Sundarbans, which spreads over the delta of the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna and is shared between India and Bangladesh. It is named after the sundari tree, holds the only mangrove population of the Royal Bengal tiger, and the Indian portion is a national park, a biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site. Option A is wrong because Bhitarkanika in Odisha, though the next largest mangrove tract in India and famous for the saltwater crocodile, is much smaller. Option C is wrong because Pichavaram in Tamil Nadu is a compact mangrove of about a thousand hectares, visited for its boat channels. Option D is wrong because Coringa lies in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh and is a sanctuary of modest size. Note also that among Indian states West Bengal has the largest mangrove cover, followed by Gujarat.

The correct answer is A, pneumatophores. Mangrove mud is waterlogged and short of oxygen, so these roots grow vertically out of the soil and take in air through small pores called lenticels; they are the classic adaptation asked about in examinations, along with stilt roots and vivipary. Option B is wrong because haustoria are the absorbing organs of parasitic plants such as Cuscuta, which draw food from a host, a matter of parasitism and not of respiration. Option C is wrong because velamen is the spongy covering on the hanging roots of epiphytic orchids, which absorbs moisture from humid air and belongs to a very different habitat. Option D is wrong because a tap root is the ordinary single main root of a dicotyledonous plant and has no special role in breathing. Remember the trio for mangroves: pneumatophores, stilt roots and viviparous seeds.

The correct answer is B, zooxanthellae. These single-celled algae live within the tissue of the coral polyp, photosynthesise, hand most of the food they make to the polyp and give the reef its colour; the polyp in return offers shelter and nutrients, a textbook case of symbiosis. When heat stress makes the polyp expel them the reef turns white, which is coral bleaching. Option A is wrong because diatoms are free-floating algae with silica walls, an important part of marine plankton but not reef symbionts. Option C is wrong because Sargassum is a large brown seaweed that floats in mats, best known from the Sargasso Sea. Option D is wrong because Chlorella is a green alga of fresh water, grown for food supplements and used in laboratory work. Bleaching questions always begin from this partnership, so fix the name firmly.

The correct answer is C, the Gulf of Khambhat. Its water is muddy, its tidal range is among the highest in the country and several rivers empty into it, so the clear, silt-free conditions that corals need are absent; it is known instead for tidal energy potential. Option A is wrong because the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat carries fringing reefs and a marine national park, the first of its kind in India. Option B is wrong because the Gulf of Mannar between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka has a chain of reef-bearing islands and was declared the country's first marine biosphere reserve. Option D is wrong because Lakshadweep is built of atolls, the ring-shaped reefs of the Arabian Sea, and is the classic Indian example of that reef type. The fourth true reef area, not listed here, is the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The correct answer is C, an atoll. Charles Darwin explained its formation: a fringing reef grows around a volcanic island, the island slowly subsides, the reef keeps growing upward towards the light, and in the end only a ring of reef and a lagoon are left where the island stood. Lakshadweep and the Maldives are the familiar examples. Option A is wrong because a fringing reef lies directly against the shore with little or no lagoon between, the commonest and youngest form. Option B is wrong because a barrier reef runs parallel to the coast but is separated from it by a wide, deep lagoon, the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland being the largest in the world. Option D is wrong because a patch reef is only a small isolated outcrop of coral inside a lagoon or on a shelf, not a landform type in this classification.

The correct answer is B. The Montreux Record lists Ramsar sites where the ecological character has changed, is changing or is likely to change because of pollution, encroachment, siltation or other interference, so that the parties can direct attention and assistance there. From India, Keoladeo National Park and Loktak Lake are on it, while Chilika was entered and then removed in 2002 after restoration, the first Asian site to be taken off. Option A is wrong because a newly designated wetland simply joins the Ramsar List, which is a separate register. Option C is wrong because World Heritage status comes from a different treaty administered by UNESCO and has nothing to do with this record. Option D is wrong because Ramsar rests on wise use rather than exclusion, and fishing and grazing often continue on listed sites.

The correct answer is C, Odisha. Chilika is a shallow lagoon on the Bay of Bengal coast, separated from the sea by a sandy ridge and joined to it by a narrow mouth, which is why its water is brackish. It was among the first two Indian sites on the Ramsar List, it shelters the Irrawaddy dolphin, and the island of Nalabana within it is a bird sanctuary that fills with migratory birds in winter. Option A is wrong because the large lagoon of Andhra Pradesh is Pulicat, which is shared with Tamil Nadu and ranks second in the country. Option B is wrong because West Bengal is the land of the Sundarbans delta, not of a large lagoon. Option D is wrong because Tamil Nadu has the Point Calimere and Pichavaram wetlands and the southern part of Pulicat, but Chilika does not reach it.