UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The meridian running through it was accepted as the zero meridian, from which all longitudes are counted east and west, and its local time is Greenwich Mean Time, the reference for the world's standard times.

A great circle is one whose plane passes through the centre of the sphere and which therefore divides it into two equal halves.

The Tropic of Cancer passes through eight states, namely Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

The earth completes one rotation of 360 degrees in 24 hours, that is 1,440 minutes, and dividing 1,440 by 360 gives four minutes for every degree of longitude.

This meridian passes near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh and runs roughly through the middle of the country, so it was adopted as the standard meridian of India.

When forests are cleared, wetlands drained and grasslands ploughed, species lose the space they need, and the fragments that survive are often too small to support large animals or to allow populations to mix and breed.

The day marks the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity and is used each year to draw attention to the loss of species and habitats.

Ex-situ conservation means protecting a species away from its natural habitat, and a seed bank does exactly that by storing seeds under controlled temperature and humidity for future use.

Project Tiger was launched to protect the tiger by conserving the habitat it needs, and because the tiger sits at the top of the food chain, saving it protects the whole forest below it.

Among species that still survive in the wild this is the most serious category, given to those facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future.

The convention was adopted in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, from which it takes its name, and it provides for the listing of wetlands of international importance and for their wise use by the countries that sign it.

The Wildlife (Protection) Act provides the legal basis for declaring national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, lists protected species in its schedules, and prohibits hunting and trade in the species it covers.

The core zone is legally protected and left undisturbed, with no human activity allowed. The buffer zone around it permits research, education and limited use of resources that does not damage the core.

It spreads across the meeting point of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka in the Western Ghats and takes in several well known national parks and sanctuaries within its area.

The Convention has three objectives: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

They are a broken and comparatively dry hill chain and do not meet the twin tests of exceptional endemism and severe threat that define a hotspot.

A region qualifies when it is exceptionally rich in species found nowhere else and has already lost most of its original vegetation.

Article 51A(f) actually asks citizens "to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture". The word matters: India's culture is described as composite, a blend of many traditions, languages and faiths, not a single unitary culture.

Voting is not among the eleven Fundamental Duties in Article 51A. The right to vote comes from Article 326, which provides for elections on the basis of adult suffrage, and from the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

In 1999 the Committee on the Fundamental Duties of Citizens, headed by Justice J.S. Verma, a former Chief Justice of India, looked at how the duties could be made operational.