Biodiversity, plants & animals

Answer: (b) Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

The proposal was to give the Asiatic lion a second home at Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Every wild Asiatic lion lives in Gujarat, so one epidemic or disaster could wipe out the subspecies, and Kuno was chosen as the best alternative site.

• ✓ (b) Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Madhya Pradesh was picked as the best site for a second lion population. In April 2013 the Supreme Court directed that the lions be re-introduced there.
• ✗ (a) Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand is a tiger reserve. The lion proposal named Kuno, not Corbett.
• ✗ (d) Sariska in Rajasthan is a tiger reserve. It was not the site proposed for the lions.
• ✗ (c) Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu is a tiger reserve in the south. It was not the site proposed for the lions.

Remember · The second home planned for Gir's Asiatic lions is Kuno (Palpur-Kuno) Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Western Ghats

The Great (Indian) Hornbill is a bird of tall, evergreen tropical forests: it feeds largely on fruit and nests in cavities of big old trees. In India such forests occur in the Western Ghats and the north-east; deserts, the treeless high Himalayas and salt marshes offer neither food nor nest sites.

• ✓ (d) The Kerala Forest Department records the Great Indian Hornbill in the evergreen forests of the State, in the Western Ghats, and it is Kerala's State bird.
• ✗ (b) The higher Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir are cold and largely treeless above the forest line, with no tropical evergreen forest.
• ✗ (a) The Thar sand desert has scrub vegetation, not the large, old trees hornbills need for nesting.

Remember · Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis): evergreen forests of the Western Ghats and north-east India; nests in holes of big old trees; State bird of Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Exploration, Ch 12 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The Kharai camel of Kutch, Gujarat, is known as the "swimming camel": it swims across salty water to reach mangroves, which are a key part of its diet. It is not a wild animal; it is a recognised domestic breed reared by Jat and Rabari herding families.

• ✓ 1. The Kharai is famous for swimming through saline water to reach mangrove islands. This is what earned it the name "Swimming Camel". Down To Earth reports that the breed can swim up to three kilometres into the sea in search of mangroves; the ICAR article cited here gives no distance.
• ✓ 2. Mangroves are a key part of its diet and the camel swims across salty water to reach them, an adaptation to its coastal habitat.
• ✗ 3. Kharai camels are domesticated. Camel-breeding Jat and Rabari families rear them, and the Government of India designated the camel as an endangered domestic breed.

Remember · Kharai camel (Kutch, Gujarat): a domesticated, endangered breed that swims across saline water to feed on mangroves.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Andaman Islands

The banana is Musa indandamanensis, a wild species described by a Botanical Survey of India scientist from the forests of Little Andaman in the Andaman Islands. The plant stands about 11 metres tall and its ripe fruit pulp turns yellowish orange.

• ✓ (a) The species was collected during floristic exploration of Little Andaman and published in 2014 as new to science. The author says the species is named after the Andaman Islands.
• ✗ (b) The Anaimalai (Western Ghats) forests are not where this species was found; its description records it from Little Andaman only.
• ✗ (c) The Maikala Hills in Chhattisgarh are not the discovery site.
• ✗ (d) The north-eastern rain forests hold other wild bananas, but this new species was described from the Bay Islands.

Remember · Musa indandamanensis, a new wild banana (about 11 m tall, orange pulp), was described from Little Andaman in 2014 by a Botanical Survey of India scientist.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 2 and 3 only

TEEB is a global initiative, housed in UNEP (not in the IMF or the World Economic Forum), that draws attention to the hidden economic value of nature and gives decision-makers an approach to recognise, demonstrate and capture that value. So statements 2 and 3 are correct and 1 is not.

• ✗ 1. UNEP hosts the TEEB Office (in Geneva since March 2011). The IMF and the World Economic Forum are not its hosts.
• ✓ 2. TEEB seeks to draw attention to the invisibility of nature in the economic choices that governments and businesses make.
• ✓ 3. TEEB's structured approach to valuation helps decision-makers recognise the benefits of ecosystems, demonstrate their values in economic terms and, where suitable, capture those values in decisions.

Remember · TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity): a UNEP-hosted global initiative to make nature's values visible - recognise, demonstrate, capture. Not an IMF or WEF body.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) is endemic to a small tract of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh, so it is found only in a part of South India. It grows in dry deciduous forest, not in tropical rainforest, so statement 2 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. The IUCN describes it as an Indian endemic tree with a restricted range in the Eastern Ghats, in a distinct tract of forest in Andhra Pradesh.
• ✗ 2. It grows in dry deciduous forests, on dry, hilly and often rocky ground, and is not a tree of the tropical rainforests of South India.

Remember · Red Sanders: endemic to the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh; a dry-deciduous-forest tree, not a rainforest one; IUCN Endangered and listed under CITES Appendix II.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Maharashtra

Maharashtra was the first State in India to have an official State butterfly, and it chose the Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor). The Maharashtra Forest Department's own butterfly guide records this.

• ✓ (d) The Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor) was declared the State butterfly of Maharashtra, and Maharashtra is described as the first State in India to have one. It is a large swallowtail with a wingspan of 120-150 mm.
• ✗ (a) Arunachal Pradesh has also named a State butterfly, the Kaiser-i-Hind, but Maharashtra's choice was the first in the country.
• • Since then Since 2016 other States have named their own State butterflies as well, so 'first' describes the position only when the question was set. The Maharashtra Forest Department's Pench guide, for instance, notes that the Kaiser-i-Hind is Arunachal Pradesh's State butterfly.

Remember · Maharashtra was India's first State to declare a State butterfly: the Blue Mormon, Papilio polymnestor.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error