In India, cluster bean (Guar) is traditionally used as a vegetable or animal feed, but recently…

Answer: (b) The gum made from its seeds is used in the extraction of shale gas

The seed's commercial value lies in guar gum, a thickener from the seed endosperm. Oil and gas companies use it in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluids to extract shale gas and oil. That industrial demand is why guar cultivation became important.

• ✗ (a) Guar's marketable seed product is the gum from the endosperm, not an oil. Guar is not an oilseed crop, and biodegradable plastics are not what drove its rise.
• ✓ (b) Guar gum (a galactomannan) gives fracturing fluid its viscosity. Demand from hydraulic fracturing of subsurface shale made guar gum India's largest agricultural export to the United States.
• ✗ (c) The crop's new importance comes from the seed gum, not from any leaf extract. Its recognised uses are as a vegetable, fodder, gum and meal.
• ✗ (d) Guar is grown for its gum, and the seed by-products are used as cattle feed. It is not a biodiesel crop.

Remember · Guar (cluster bean) is grown mainly in Rajasthan and yields galactomannan gum from its seed endosperm. Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas and oil drives the demand, and India produces most of the world's guar.

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2014, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). · Report an error