Minimalist IAS
CSAT 2025 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2025 · Question 1 · Reading comprehension

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the author of…

Directions for the following 4 (four) items: Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage—1

Maintaining an ecosystem just to conserve biodiversity will affect its commercial potential as well as the livelihoods dependent on the ecosystem. There is also a conflict between using an ecosystem only for livelihoods, for commercial exploitation, or strictly for conservation. Deforestation caused due to commercial exploitation will lead to indirect harm like floods, siltation problems and microclimatic instability, apart from adversely affecting livelihoods dependent on forests. These conflicts are particularly acute in developing countries where the dependence of people on the ecosystem is significant, and commercial exploitation has the potential to boost national income.

CSAT 2025 · Q1

Reading comprehension Medium

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) Sustenance of livelihood and degradation of ecosystem while being together exacerbate one another, leading to conflicts and imbalance.

The passage is built around a clash between three uses of an ecosystem — livelihoods, commercial gain and conservation — and shows that degrading the forest hurts the very people who live off it. Option (c) captures this: livelihood needs and ecosystem degradation worsen each other and produce conflict and imbalance.

  • ✗ (a) The author treats conservation as one of the competing needs, not as something to set aside. Nothing says livelihood dependence makes biodiversity a non-issue.
  • ✗ (b) Fundamental rights are never mentioned. The passage speaks of harm to livelihoods, not of a rights violation — the idea comes from outside the passage.
  • ✓ (c) Use of the ecosystem leads to deforestation, floods, siltation and microclimatic instability, which in turn damage forest-dependent livelihoods. The author calls these 'conflicts' and says they are acute where dependence on the ecosystem is high — the mutual worsening and imbalance that (c) describes.
  • ✗ (d) Too extreme. The author notes that commercial exploitation 'has the potential to boost national income'; the passage describes a trade-off, not a call for a complete stop.

Remember · For 'critical message', choose the option that states the passage's central tension; drop options that add new ideas or use absolutes.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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