Biodiversity, plants & animals

Answer: (b) 2 only

TRAFFIC is a non-governmental wildlife trade monitoring network founded by IUCN and WWF, not a UN body. Its whole purpose is to keep the trade in wild species from harming their survival, so only statement 2 is right.

• ✗ 1. TRAFFIC was set up in 1976 by IUCN and WWF, which remain its founders and partners. It describes itself as a non-governmental organisation and has no place in the UNEP structure.
• ✓ 2. TRAFFIC's own 2017 website stated this as its mission, word for word. It now phrases the same aim as keeping trade in wild species legal and sustainable.

Remember · TRAFFIC = NGO wildlife-trade monitoring network, founded 1976 by IUCN and WWF; works closely with CITES but is not a UN or UNEP body.

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: (c) 1 and 3 only

Butterflies are pollinators and also food for many predators, so their decline would hurt pollination and the animals that eat them. They play no role in keeping fungal diseases of crops in check, so statement 2 does not follow.

• ✓ 1. Butterflies are among the common animal pollinators of flowering plants, so plants that depend on them could set fewer seeds.
• ✗ 2. Butterflies and their caterpillars feed on nectar and leaves; they do not control plant-infecting fungi, so their loss gives no reason for fungal infections to rise.
• ✓ 3. Birds, spiders, wasps and dragonflies prey on butterflies or their caterpillars; when a prey species crashes, predators that rely on it can decline too.

Remember · Removing one species ripples through the web: butterflies = pollinators + prey. Their crash hits pollination and predator populations, not fungal disease.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Biology, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Biology, Ch 11 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Curiosity, Ch 12 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which gives the highest protection. Hunting them is banned except in the two cases the Act itself allows: a Chief Wild Life Warden's order under Section 11, or a special permit under Section 12.

• ✓ 1. The Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a crocodilian listed in Schedule I, Part C (Reptiles).
• ✓ 2. The Indian wild ass (Equus hemionus) is listed in Schedule I, Part A (Mammals), under wild asses.
• ✓ 3. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) is listed in Schedule I, Part A (Mammals), under wild cattle.
• • Since then The Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022 cut the schedules from six to four and rewrote Section 9 to ban hunting of Schedule I and II animals. All three animals remain in Schedule I, so the answer is unchanged.

Remember · Schedule I species get absolute protection: hunting is allowed only under Section 11 (animal dangerous or beyond recovery) or Section 12 (special permits, such as research). Gharial, wild buffalo and wild ass are all Schedule I.

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: (b) Chambal River

The Chambal River is the best place to see gharials in the wild. A 600 km stretch of it is the National Chambal Sanctuary, set up in 1978 mainly to protect the gharial, and it has the world's largest population of the species.

• ✓ (b) The National Chambal Sanctuary, on the Chambal, was created in 1978 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for the conservation and management of the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus).
• ✗ (a) Bhitarkanika is a coastal mangrove area of Odisha, not a river stretch protected for gharials.
• ✗ (c) Pulicat is a brackish-water lagoon shared by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, better known as a bird-watching site than for gharials.

Remember · Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus): the National Chambal Sanctuary, a 600 km stretch of the Chambal River protected since 1978, has the world's largest wild population.

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Answer: (b) Maintenance of Tiger Reserves

M-STrIPES is the Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status, a technology platform of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. It is used to assist patrolling, assess ecological status and reduce human-wildlife conflict in and around tiger reserves.

• ✓ (b) NTCA describes it as a platform that helps manage tiger reserves through effective patrolling, ecological assessment and conflict mitigation. That is the maintenance of Tiger Reserves.
• ✗ (a) M-STrIPES monitors tigers in their reserves. It is not a captive-breeding programme.
• ✗ (c) India's indigenous satellite navigation system is the ISRO-run Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), also called NavIC.
• ✗ (d) It has nothing to do with highway security; it works in and around tiger reserves.

Remember · M-STrIPES = Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status, NTCA's technology platform for patrolling and monitoring in tiger reserves.

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Answer: (a) It enjoys the same level of protection as the tiger.

Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 gives a species the highest degree of protection, the same level as the tiger. Listing says nothing about the species being extinct in the wild or being confined to one region.

• ✓ (a) Tiger and other rare and endangered species are in Schedule I, which gives the highest degree of protection. A tortoise placed in the same Schedule gets that same top-level protection.
• ✗ (b) Schedule I is a legal category of protection for rare and endangered species that still live in the wild. It is not a statement that a species has disappeared from the wild or that extinction cannot be stopped.
• ✗ (c) Being endemic to one region is not the test for Schedule I. The Schedule lists rare and endangered species from many parts of the country, and the protection is the same wherever they live.
• ✗ (d) Both (b) and (c) are wrong, so (d) fails.

Remember · Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 = highest legal protection, the same tier as the tiger. It does not mean 'extinct in the wild' or 'endemic'.

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: (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.

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