Lichen is an organism which monitors

The correct answer is D, 29th July. International Tiger Day, also called Global Tiger Day, is observed every year on 29 July. It was started in 2010 at the Tiger Summit held in St Petersburg, Russia, where the thirteen tiger-range countries promised to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. The day spreads awareness about the loss of tiger habitat and poaching. India is home to about three-fourths of the world's wild tigers; it launched Project Tiger on 1 April 1973 from Jim Corbett National Park, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority was set up in 2005. The tiger is India's national animal and the results of the tiger census are usually released around this day. A is wrong because 12 May is International Nurses Day, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. B is wrong because 10 January is World Hindi Day. C is wrong because 5 November is World Tsunami Awareness Day. Exam tip: 29 July Tiger Day (St Petersburg 2010); Project Tiger 1973; 12 August is World Elephant Day.

The correct answer is C, Gir Forest. Gir in Gujarat is a national park and wildlife sanctuary, famous as the only home of the Asiatic lion, but it has never been declared a biosphere reserve. A biosphere reserve is a much larger area, notified under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere programme, with a protected core zone, a buffer zone and a transition zone where people live and work. India's list began with the Nilgiri in 1986, and Panna in Madhya Pradesh, added in 2011, was the eighteenth. A is wrong because the Cold Desert biosphere reserve was set up in 2009 in the Lahaul-Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh. B is wrong because the Sunderbans in West Bengal, home of the Royal Bengal tiger and the mangroves, became a biosphere reserve in 1989 and is on the UNESCO world network. D is wrong because the Nilgiri biosphere reserve, spread over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, was India's first, declared in 1986. Exam tip: Nilgiri first (1986), Sunderbans 1989, Cold Desert 2009; Gir = lions, national park, not a biosphere reserve.

The correct answer is A, Cold Desert. The Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve in the Lahaul and Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh was notified in 2009 as India's 16th biosphere reserve. It covers the Pin Valley National Park, the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary and the high-altitude wetlands of Chandratal and Sarchu, a trans-Himalayan landscape above 3,000 metres that gets very little rain. Its wildlife includes the snow leopard, Himalayan ibex, red fox, blue rock pigeon and the lammergeier or bearded vulture, the bird that drops bones from a height to eat the marrow. Option B is wrong because Seshachalam, in Andhra Pradesh and famous for red sanders, followed in 2010 as the 17th reserve. Option C is wrong because Agasthyamalai, on the Kerala and Tamil Nadu border, was notified in 2001. Option D is wrong because Dehang-Debang in Arunachal Pradesh dates from 1998. Exam tip: the sequence at the end of the list is Cold Desert 2009 (16th), Seshachalam 2010 (17th), Panna 2011 (18th); the first was Nilgiri in 1986.

The correct answer is D, Andhra Pradesh. The Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve lies in the Seshachalam hill ranges of the Eastern Ghats in southern Andhra Pradesh, across the old Chittoor and Kadapa districts, and was notified in 2010 as India's 17th biosphere reserve. The Tirumala temple of Lord Venkateswara stands on these very hills, and the reserve includes the Sri Venkateswara National Park. It is famous for red sanders, the valuable red-wood tree found almost nowhere else in the world, and shelters the slender loris, the golden gecko and the Indian giant squirrel. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu's biosphere reserves are the Gulf of Mannar and its shares of the Nilgiri and Agasthyamalai reserves. Option B is wrong because Karnataka's only biosphere reserve is its part of the Nilgiri. Option C is wrong because Kerala shares the Nilgiri and Agasthyamalai reserves but has no Seshachalam. Exam tip: Seshachalam = Andhra Pradesh, red sanders, Tirumala hills, notified 2010 as the 17th reserve.

The correct answer is A, 1982. The Ramsar Convention came into force for India on 1 February 1982, the date on which India's accession took effect. The treaty itself was signed on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the Caspian Sea, and came into force internationally in 1975; 2 February is therefore observed as World Wetlands Day. It is the only global convention devoted to one type of ecosystem, and sites listed under it are called Ramsar sites or Wetlands of International Importance. India's first two, Chilika Lake in Odisha and Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, were designated on 1 October 1981, just before the convention took effect for the country. So keep three years apart: 1971 signed, 1975 in force worldwide, 1982 in force for India. B, 1980, is the year of the Forest (Conservation) Act, not Ramsar. C, 1989, and D, 1990, have no link with the convention in India. Exam tip: Ramsar 1971, wetlands, Iran; India joined 1982; Chilika and Keoladeo were first.