How many new patrolling and rescue vehicles did the Union Environment Minister flag off for the Kachchh Forest Circle?

The correct answer is the Great Indian Bustard. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the Soft Release Centre for the bird at the facility in Naliya, in the Kachchh district of Gujarat, and the centre carries infrastructure meant to support conservation, monitoring and the gradual adaptation of these birds to the natural environment. The three distractors are all species associated with Gujarat, which is why they are plausible. Option A is wrong because the Asiatic lion is linked with the Gir landscape and not with this facility. Option C is wrong because the Indian wild ass is associated with the Rann, and no such centre was announced for it here. Option D is wrong because sea turtles do not figure in this release at all, although the Minister did visit mangrove and seaweed sites at Jakhau on the same day. Candidates should tie the Great Indian Bustard to Kachchh in Gujarat as well as to the Thar landscape.

The correct answer is the Miyawaki method, which raises dense, multi layered forest in a small space. The Sayara Van Kavach has been developed over a site of 9.46 square kilometres and holds more than 10,000 saplings across 47 native species chosen to suit the saline, low water conditions of Kachchh. It is expected to lower local temperatures, help recharge groundwater, check soil erosion and give birds, insects and small wildlife a natural habitat, besides serving eco tourism, environmental education and local employment. Option B is wrong because the taungya method interplants crops with young trees and is a plantation practice of a different kind. Option C is wrong because coppicing regenerates trees from cut stumps rather than raising a new dense patch. Option D is wrong because the shelterwood system is a technique of regeneration under an existing canopy. The Minister praised the Van Kavach model as a green protective shield developed around human settlements.

The correct answer is Section 32(2) of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The release states that the boards and councils are required to spend the funds on the activities listed in that provision, and it lists them: documentation and updating of People's Biodiversity Registers, conservation of biological resources both in their natural habitat and outside it, restoration of degraded ecosystems, strengthening of Biodiversity Heritage Sites, capacity building of Biodiversity Management Committees, and improvement of community livelihoods. Options A, C and D name well-known environmental laws of India, and each is the kind of answer a candidate reaches for when the exact statute has slipped from memory, but the ABS framework sits entirely within the Biological Diversity Act. Link the whole chain in your notes: the Act of 2002 creates the National Biodiversity Authority, the State Biodiversity Boards and the Biodiversity Management Committees, and the same Act carries the access and benefit-sharing provisions that this disbursement follows.

The correct answer is Madhya Pradesh. The table in the release ranks the recipients, and Madhya Pradesh stands at the top, ahead of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat. The text explains why: the State comes first because it grows three of the four crops involved, namely bitter gourd, chilli and onion. Option A is the strongest distractor, since Maharashtra is named in the same sentence as a leading recipient and holds more than 49 per cent of India's onion cultivation area, but on the combined figures for all four crops it stands second. Option C and option D name the next two States in the list, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, both of which receive substantial amounts but less than the top two. The reason behind the ranking is worth learning as well: the distribution follows the area under cultivation published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, because the resources were bought in the open market and could not be traced to a single farmer or community.

The correct answer is ₹8.23 crore. The release records that the Authority sanctioned that amount in ABS proceeds to 27 State Biodiversity Boards and 5 Union Territory Biodiversity Councils, arising from access to biological resources of four vegetable crops. Option C is the classic trap in this item, because ₹200 crore is also in the release, but it is the cumulative figure: the Authority's total ABS disbursement since the framework began has now crossed ₹200 crore, and the ₹8.23 crore is only the latest instalment inside that total. Options B and D simply move the decimal point or reverse the digits, a favourite trick of paper setters with money figures. Keep the pair together while revising: ₹200 crore cumulative, ₹8.23 crore in this round. Remember also that the money came from three seed companies which had accessed bitter gourd, okra, chilli and onion resources for research and commercial use.