Which is the largest national park of India by area?

The correct answer is A, Hailey National Park. Declared in 1936 in the hills of present-day Uttarakhand, it was named after the governor of the United Provinces, later renamed Ramganga and finally named after the hunter turned naturalist Jim Corbett. It is also remembered as one of the first reserves taken up under Project Tiger in 1973.

Option B, Kaziranga in Assam, is famous as the home of the one-horned rhinoceros and is a World Heritage Site, but it became a national park much later. Option C, Gir in Gujarat, protects the Asiatic lion and was first given protection as a sanctuary. Option D, Kanha in Madhya Pradesh, is known for the barasingha and for tigers, and was notified in the mid twentieth century. The year 1936 belongs to only one park, so tie it firmly to Corbett.

The correct answer is B, the Asiatic lion. Gir, in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, is the only place where the Asiatic lion survives in the wild, and its dry deciduous forest and scrub make the habitat that keeps the population alive.

Option A, the one-horned rhinoceros, belongs to the tall grassland of Kaziranga in Assam and the neighbouring parks of the Brahmaputra valley. Option C, the snow leopard, lives in the cold high mountains and is associated with Hemis in Ladakh and with Project Snow Leopard. Option D, the hangul or Kashmir stag, is found in Dachigam National Park near Srinagar and is the state animal of the erstwhile state. These four species with their four parks make the most commonly asked matching set in this chapter.

The correct answer is B, the one-horned rhinoceros. Kaziranga lies on the floodplain of the Brahmaputra in Assam, where tall elephant grass and seasonal flooding suit the rhinoceros, and the park is inscribed as a natural World Heritage Site.

Option A, the Asiatic lion, survives only in Gir in Gujarat, at the other end of the country. Option C, the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat of the Western Ghats, is associated with Eravikulam National Park in Kerala. Option D, the great Indian bustard, is a bird of open grassland and is linked with the Desert National Park in Rajasthan. Kaziranga is also home to the wild water buffalo, the swamp deer and a strong tiger population, which is why it was declared a tiger reserve as well.

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger was launched a year after the Wild Life Protection Act came into force, and it created tiger reserves in which the core area is kept free of human activity while a buffer area allows regulated use; the National Tiger Conservation Authority now oversees the programme.

Option A, 1972, is the year of the Wild Life Protection Act itself, which is the single commonest confusion in this chapter, since the two years stand next to each other. Option C, 1975, is the year the Crocodile Conservation Project began for the gharial, the mugger and the saltwater crocodile. Option D, 1992, is the year of Project Elephant, which created elephant reserves and corridors. Keep the four years as one line and any date question here becomes easy.

The correct answer is B, the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. It is the law under which a state government notifies a national park or a sanctuary, under which species are placed in schedules according to the protection they need, and under which hunting of protected animals is prohibited.

Option A, the Indian Forest Act of 1927, deals with reserved, protected and village forests and with forest produce, not with wildlife habitats as such. Option C, the Environment Protection Act of 1986, is the umbrella law passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy and gives the Union government wide powers over pollution and environmental standards. Option D, the Biological Diversity Act of 2002, deals with access to biological resources and with the sharing of benefits, and set up the biodiversity boards. The amendment of 2002 to the 1972 Act is what added conservation and community reserves.