The greater one-horned rhino is listed under the Schedule ______ of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The correct answer is B, Tiger. Project Tiger was launched in 1973, the year after the Wildlife (Protection) Act came into force, and it was the first species recovery project of its kind in India. It began with a small group of reserves, Jim Corbett among them, and works on the principle of a strictly protected core area surrounded by a buffer in which regulated use is allowed. Option A is wrong because Gir is the forest in Gujarat that shelters the Asiatic lion and is a national park, not the name of a national project. Option C is wrong because the rhino programme, aimed at the greater one-horned rhinoceros of Assam and Bengal, came much later than 1973. Option D is wrong because the hangul, the Kashmir stag of Dachigam, has its own state level recovery effort and was never the first national project.

The correct answer is B, Switzerland. The International Union for Conservation of Nature was founded in 1948 and works from Gland, a town in Switzerland near Geneva, where several environmental bodies have their offices. It began the Red List of Threatened Species in 1964 and remains its keeper. Option A is wrong because India is a member state of the union and hosts its country office, but the world headquarters was never here. Option C is wrong because Nairobi in Kenya is the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme, a different body that candidates often confuse with the IUCN. Option D is wrong because no principal organ of the IUCN sits in the United States; Washington is remembered in this topic for the signing of CITES in 1973, not for the union itself.

The correct answer is B, Vulnerable. The Red List arranges risk in a ladder, and the three threatened grades in falling order of severity are Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable. A Vulnerable species therefore faces a high risk of extinction in the wild, but a smaller risk than an Endangered one. Option A is wrong because Critically Endangered is the grade above Endangered, meaning an extremely high risk and the last step before a species is lost from the wild. Option C is wrong because Extinct in the Wild describes a species that survives only in captivity or cultivation, which is worse than any threatened grade. Option D is wrong because Extinct is the end of the ladder, with no individual left anywhere. Learn the ladder once and this family of questions becomes free marks.

The correct answer is D, Rann of Kachchh. The Wild Ass Sanctuary lies in the Little Rann of Kachchh in Gujarat and is the last home of the Indian wild ass, locally called the khur, a Schedule I animal that grazes on the raised patches of grass known as bets in the salt desert. Option A is wrong because the cold desert of Ladakh holds the kiang, a different Tibetan wild ass, but the sanctuary named for the wild ass is not there. Option B is wrong because the Sundarbans of West Bengal is mangrove country and is famous for the Royal Bengal tiger and the estuarine crocodile. Option C is wrong because the Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh is snow leopard and ibex country. Pair the khur with Gujarat and the question is settled.

The correct answer is B, 1952. The Asiatic cheetah once hunted across the open grassland and scrub of central and peninsular India, was trained by rulers for coursing blackbuck, and was wiped out by shooting and by the ploughing of its grassland. The government formally declared the species extinct in the country in 1952, making it the only large mammal India has lost in modern times. Option A is wrong because 1947 is the year of independence and has no link with the declaration. Option C is wrong because 1972 is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, a date worth knowing but a different one. Option D is wrong because 1984 belongs to other environmental events and not to the cheetah. Examiners often place 1952 beside 1972 to see whether a candidate can keep the two apart.