The Appiko movement was launched in which state?

The correct answer is A, Chamoli. The movement began in 1973 at Mandal village in Chamoli district of the Garhwal Himalaya, then part of Uttar Pradesh and today in Uttarakhand. Villagers who had been refused a few ash trees for making farm tools learnt that a sports-goods manufacturer had been allotted the same trees, and declared that they would embrace the trees rather than let the axes reach them. Option B, Pithoragarh, is a hill district of Kumaon and was not the scene of the first action. Option C, Shimla, lies in Himachal Pradesh, a state often wrongly given as the home of Chipko. Option D, Nainital, is again in Kumaon rather than Garhwal. Remember Chamoli for 1973 and Reni village, also in Chamoli, for the famous action of 1974 that Gaura Devi led.

The correct answer is C, Medha Patkar. She has led the Narmada Bachao Andolan since it took shape in 1985 against the Sardar Sarovar and other large dams on the Narmada, arguing that the displaced, many of them tribal, were never given land or proper rehabilitation. Baba Amte joined her, and the writer Arundhati Roy later lent the campaign a wider audience; after an independent review the World Bank withdrew from the Sardar Sarovar project in 1993. Option A, Vandana Shiva, founded Navdanya and works on native seed and biodiversity, not on the Narmada. Option B, Gaura Devi, led the women of Reni village in the Chipko action of 1974 and died long before the Narmada campaign matured. Option D, Sunita Narain, is associated with the Centre for Science and Environment and with air pollution and water policy research rather than with this movement.

The correct answer is C, Kunthipuzha. The Kerala State Electricity Board proposed a hydroelectric dam across the Kunthipuzha river in Palakkad district, which would have submerged a tract of undisturbed tropical evergreen rainforest and the habitat of the lion-tailed macaque. The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad took the case to the public through the nineteen seventies, the project was abandoned in 1983, and the area was declared Silent Valley National Park in 1984. Option A, the Periyar, is the longest river of Kerala and feeds the Idukki project, but not Silent Valley. Option B, the Bharathappuzha, is the second longest river of the state and the Kunthipuzha is in fact one of its tributaries, which makes this the most tempting distractor; the dam site itself was on the Kunthipuzha. Option D, the Pamba, flows past Sabarimala and has no connection with the movement.

The correct answer is B, khejri. At Khejarli near Jodhpur in 1730, the men of the Maharaja of Jodhpur came to fell khejri trees for lime kilns needed to build a new palace. Amrita Devi Bishnoi clasped a tree and was killed, her three daughters after her, and 363 Bishnois from 84 villages died in the same way before the felling was stopped and the Bishnoi villages granted protection for their trees. The khejri is the state tree of Rajasthan and the lifeline of the Thar desert, giving fodder, fuel and shade. Option A, the banyan, is the national tree of India but was not the tree at Khejarli. Option C, the neem, and option D, the peepal, are both revered in India and are planted widely, but neither is the desert tree the Bishnois died for. The Bishnoi faith, founded by Guru Jambheshwar, forbids the felling of green trees.

The correct answer is A, Rajendra Singh. Through the Tarun Bharat Sangh he revived the johad, the traditional crescent-shaped earthen check dam, across the dry Alwar district of Rajasthan. Thousands of johads recharged the groundwater, wells filled again and streams that had been dry for decades began to flow, which earned him the popular title of the Waterman of India. Option B, Anil Agarwal, founded the Centre for Science and Environment and edited the State of India s Environment reports; he wrote on water harvesting but is not given this title. Option C, M. C. Mehta, is the public-interest lawyer whose petitions led to the orders on the Ganga, on the Taj trapezium and on vehicular pollution in Delhi. Option D, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, is a leader of the Chipko movement and the founder of the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh.