Madhav Gadgil received the UNEP Champions of the Earth award in 2024 in which category?

The correct answer is A, the United Nations Environment Programme, which instituted the award in 2005 and calls it the highest environmental honour of the United Nations. UNEP was created in 1972 after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and has its headquarters at Nairobi in Kenya. Option B is wrong because the World Wide Fund for Nature is a private conservation organisation, founded in 1961 with its secretariat at Gland in Switzerland, and it gives no such award. Option C is wrong because the International Union for Conservation of Nature, founded in 1948, is best known for the Red List of Threatened Species rather than for an award of this kind. Option D is wrong because the United Nations Development Programme works on poverty and governance and does not give this award. UNEP also publishes the Emissions Gap Report and the Global Environment Outlook.

The correct answer is B, Nairobi in Kenya. UNEP was set up in 1972 following the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, and placing its headquarters at Nairobi made it the first major organ of the United Nations with its head office in a developing country, and still the only large one based in Africa. Option A is wrong because Geneva hosts the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization and the International Labour Organization, among others, but not UNEP. Option C is wrong because Rome is the seat of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Option D is wrong because Vienna hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The Stockholm Conference of 1972 also gave the world 5 June as World Environment Day.

The correct answer is B, grassroots environmental activists, one from each of six regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, the Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize was established in 1989 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman at San Francisco and first awarded in 1990, and it deliberately honours ordinary people rather than officials or researchers. Option A is wrong because policy leadership by governments is recognised by the Champions of the Earth award of UNEP, which is where a head of government would be honoured. Option C is wrong because research in environmental science is the field of the Tyler Prize, instituted in 1973. Option D is wrong because clean technology in industry is recognised in India by the Rajiv Gandhi Environment Award. Indian recipients include Medha Patkar, M. C. Mehta, Prafulla Samantara and Alok Shukla.

The correct answer is B, Medha Patkar, who led the Narmada Bachao Andolan against the Sardar Sarovar dam and the displacement it caused, and who received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1992, becoming the first Indian to win it. Option A is wrong because Sunderlal Bahuguna led the Chipko movement in the Himalaya and opposed the Tehri dam, but his honours were the Right Livelihood Award and the Padma Vibhushan rather than the Goldman Prize. Option C is wrong because Vandana Shiva, known for her work on seeds and biodiversity, received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. Option D is wrong because Rajendra Singh, the water conservationist of Alwar in Rajasthan called the waterman of India, won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2001 and the Stockholm Water Prize in 2015. Four names, four different awards: that is exactly how the question is built.

The correct answer is B, Hasdeo Aranya in Chhattisgarh, a large stretch of biodiversity rich forest in the Korba, Surajpur and Surguja districts, often called the lungs of Chhattisgarh. Alok Shukla, of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan and the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, organised the forest dwelling villages in a campaign that led the state to cancel twenty-one proposed coal blocks, and the prize followed in 2024. Option A is wrong because the Aarey campaign in Mumbai concerned a metro car shed and was a separate, urban struggle. Option C is wrong because Buxwaha in Madhya Pradesh was the site of a protest over a diamond mining project. Option D is wrong because Dehing Patkai in Assam, now a national park, saw a campaign over coal mining in an elephant reserve. All four are real campaigns, which is what makes this question hard.