Which of the following is NOT an invasive alien species in India?

The correct answer is B, Eichhornia crassipes, the water hyacinth. It is a free-floating plant of South American origin that was brought to India for its attractive flowers. It multiplies very fast and forms dense mats over ponds, canals and wetlands, shutting out light and oxygen, killing fish, blocking navigation and increasing water loss, and its destruction of the water bodies of Bengal earned it the nickname. Option A, lantana, is an invasive shrub of forests and grasslands but it is terrestrial and carries no such name. Option C, Prosopis juliflora or vilayati babool, is a thorny tree of dry regions introduced from Mexico and Central America. Option D, Parthenium hysterophorus, is the congress grass, a terrestrial weed of waste ground notorious for causing skin allergy rather than for choking water bodies.

The correct answer is C, 1973. The text of CITES was agreed by the representatives of eighty countries meeting at Washington in the United States in 1973, which is why the treaty is also called the Washington Convention; it then entered into force on 1 July 1975, and India became a party in 1976. Option A, 1963, is the year the idea of such a convention was first adopted as a resolution by members of the IUCN, not the year of the treaty itself. Option B, 1971, is the year of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed at Ramsar in Iran, which is a common distractor. Option D, 1992, is the year of the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, where the Convention on Biological Diversity and the climate convention were opened for signature. Candidates should keep 1971, 1973 and 1992 clearly apart.

The correct answer is A, Appendix I. CITES sorts species into appendices according to how badly trade threatens them. Appendix I holds the species that are threatened with extinction, such as the tiger, the Asian elephant, the one-horned rhinoceros and the red panda, and commercial international trade in their specimens is banned; movement is allowed only in exceptional non-commercial cases with both export and import permits. Option B is wrong because Appendix II covers species that are not yet threatened but could become so if trade is uncontrolled, and trade in them continues under export permits. Option C is wrong because Appendix III lists species that a single party protects within its own territory and for which it has requested the cooperation of other parties. Option D is wrong because CITES has only three appendices.

The correct answer is C, 2007. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is a multi-disciplinary statutory body created in 2007 under section 38Z of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. It works from New Delhi under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, gathers and shares intelligence on organised wildlife crime, and assists state forest departments, the police and the customs in enforcement. Option A, 1972, is the year of the parent Wild Life (Protection) Act itself, not of the Bureau. Option B, 1992, is the year Project Elephant was launched, a frequent distractor in this group of questions. Option D, 2014, matches no landmark in wildlife enforcement. Remember that the Act of 1972 is the law and the Bureau of 2007 is one of the agencies created under it by later amendment.

The correct answer is B, congress grass. Parthenium hysterophorus reached India from tropical America, reportedly with imported wheat, and spread rapidly over waste ground, roadsides and fallow fields. It is also called carrot grass from the shape of its leaves, and it is a public health problem because its pollen and hairs cause dermatitis, asthma and hay fever. Option A, Siam weed, is the common name of Chromolaena odorata, another American invader of plantations and forest edges. Option C, prickly pear, refers to the cacti of the genus Opuntia, which were brought to India in connection with the cochineal dye insect. Option D, mile-a-minute weed, is Mikania micrantha, a fast-climbing vine that smothers plantations and forest regrowth in the North East and the Western Ghats.