According to the National Forest Policy, what proportion of India's geographical area should be under forest or tree cover?

The correct answer is C, 1980. The Forest (Conservation) Act was passed in 1980 to stop the steady loss of forest land to mining, roads, dams and townships. Its central provision is that no State Government or other authority may dereserve a reserved forest or allow forest land to be used for a non-forest purpose without the prior approval of the Central Government, and a 1988 amendment tightened it further by covering clearing of naturally grown trees for reafforestation. Option A, 1972, is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, which deals with animals, hunting and protected areas. Option B, 1976, is the year the Forty-second Amendment inserted Articles 48A and 51A(g) into the Constitution and moved forests and wildlife to the Concurrent List. Option D, 1984, is the year of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which led to the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986. Keep the chain in order: 1972 wildlife, 1976 constitutional duty, 1980 forest conservation, 1986 environment protection.

The correct answer is B, Bishnoi. The Bishnoi community of western Rajasthan follows the twenty-nine tenets laid down by Guru Jambheshwar in the fifteenth century, several of which forbid the felling of green trees and the killing of animals, and it is for this reason that khejri groves and herds of blackbuck survive in the desert districts. In 1730 at Khejarli near Jodhpur, Amrita Devi and a large number of Bishnois were killed while clinging to khejri trees to stop them being cut for the Maharaja's lime kiln, and the national Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award commemorates that sacrifice. Option A, the Ramsnehi sect, and option C, the Laldasi sect, and option D, the Niranjani sect, are all devotional traditions of Rajasthan, but none of them is identified with the protection of trees and wildlife. Papers often pair this question with the Chipko movement of the Garhwal Himalaya, which drew openly on the Bishnoi example.

The correct answer is D, Madhya Pradesh. Successive assessments by the Forest Survey of India have placed Madhya Pradesh first among the States in the absolute area under forest cover, a position it owes to its very large size and to the extensive teak and sal forests of the Satpura, Vindhya and Baghelkhand tracts. Option C, Arunachal Pradesh, is the usual second in area and it leads several States in the share of its own geographical area under forest, which is the distinction the question is testing: largest area is not the same as highest percentage. Option B, Chhattisgarh, also carries dense sal forests and stands among the leading States but not at the top. Option A, Kerala, has rich tropical evergreen forests in the Western Ghats but is far too small to lead in area. Remember the pairing as largest forest area in Madhya Pradesh, and the highest proportion of area under forest in the small hill States of the north east.

The correct answer is A, Uttarakhand. The movement began in 1973 in the Chamoli district of the Garhwal Himalaya, which was then part of Uttar Pradesh and has been in the new State of Uttarakhand since 2000. Villagers, and above all the women of Reni village led by Gaura Devi, embraced the trees so that contractors could not fell them, and Sunderlal Bahuguna and Chandi Prasad Bhatt carried the demand forward until a ban on green felling above a certain altitude was ordered. Option B, Himachal Pradesh, has its own forest protection traditions but not Chipko. Option C, Karnataka, is the home of the Appiko movement of 1983 in the Western Ghats, led by Panduranga Hegde, which is the southern parallel to Chipko and is often set as a distractor here. Option D, Assam, is unconnected with it. The word chipko means to cling, and appiko means to hug in Kannada.

The correct answer is B, July. Van Mahotsav is observed in the first week of July, which is chosen because the monsoon has arrived over most of the country by then and a newly planted sapling has the best chance of surviving. It was started in 1950 on the initiative of K. M. Munshi, then Union Minister for Agriculture and Food, as a people's festival of tree planting rather than a departmental exercise. Option A, March, carries World Forestry Day on the twenty-first and World Water Day on the twenty-second, but not Van Mahotsav. Option C, October, carries Wildlife Week in its first week, which is a separate observance devoted to animals. Option D, December, is not associated with any national planting programme and falls in the dry season when survival of saplings is poor. Examiners frequently place Wildlife Week and Van Mahotsav in the same option set, so fix July for trees and October for wildlife.