Biodiversity, plants & animals

Answer: (a) 1 only

Only the Asiatic lion is confined to India today, surviving in and around Gir in Gujarat. The double-humped (Bactrian) camel is a Central Asian animal that survives in India only in Ladakh's Nubra valley, and the one-horned rhinoceros also lives in Nepal's Terai, for example in Chitwan.

• ✓ 1. The Asiatic lion once ranged from West Asia to central India, but since the early 20th century its wild range has shrunk to the Gir National Park and surrounding areas of Gujarat.
• ✗ 2. The Bactrian or two-humped camel belongs to Central Asia; India's small herd in the Nubra valley of Ladakh is a remnant of the old Central Asian trade routes, so the species is not found only in India.
• ✗ 3. The greater one-horned rhinoceros lives in northern India (Kaziranga, Manas, Jaldapara and others) and in southern Nepal, where Chitwan holds one of its last populations.

Remember · India-only: Asiatic lion (Gir). Shared: one-horned rhino (India + Nepal), Bactrian camel (Central Asia; in India only Nubra, Ladakh).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 Contemporary India – II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Neyyar, Peppara and Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve

Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve, at the southern end of the Western Ghats, takes in three Kerala wildlife sanctuaries (Shendurney, Peppara and Neyyar) and the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu.

• ✓ (a) UNESCO's description of the reserve names exactly these: the Shendurney, Peppara and Neyyar wildlife sanctuaries and the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. The reserve spans districts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• ✗ (b) This mixes sites from the Nilgiri and Wayanad hills further north in the Western Ghats; none is part of Agasthyamala.
• ✗ (c) Kaundinya, Gundla Brahmeswaram and Papikonda are sanctuaries of Andhra Pradesh, and Mukurthi is in the Nilgiris of Tamil Nadu, so the set cannot belong to Agasthyamala.
• ✗ (d) Kawal, Sri Venkateswara and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam are in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, far from Agasthyamala.

Remember · Agasthyamala BR (Tamil Nadu and Kerala): Shendurney, Peppara, Neyyar sanctuaries plus Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

All four statements are correct. The word 'some' in each only requires that at least one species fits, and each has a well-known example: the green turtle, the grass carp, the dugong and the sea snakes.

• ✓ 1. The green turtle is a herbivore, eating mostly seaweed, seagrasses and algae.
• ✓ 2. Many fish are plant eaters; the grass carp, for example, is a basically herbivorous fish that feeds on aquatic weeds.
• ✓ 3. The dugong (sea cow) is a marine mammal that depends largely on seagrass for food.
• ✓ 4. Viviparous means the young develop inside the mother and are born alive. Sea snakes such as the dusky sea snake do this, and so do boas and many vipers.

Remember · 'Some species' statements are usually true: herbivorous green turtle, grass carp and dugong; viviparous sea snakes.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, 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

Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (c). Pair 1 holds on the reading 'lives wild in the Cauvery': the blue-finned mahseer is now the river's dominant mahseer and breeds there. Strictly it is not native to the Cauvery, since peer-reviewed work shows it was stocked from a Maharashtra hatchery from the 1970s–80s and the river's own mahseer is the hump-backed Tor remadevii; but no option offers '3 only', and with pair 2 clearly wrong, (c) is the only answer the options allow. In the exam, when one pair is contestable on fine taxonomy, let the options decide.

UPSC's key accepts pairs 1 and 3 and rejects pair 2. The blue-finned mahseer is the mahseer most often found in the Cauvery today, where it breeds in the wild; the Irrawaddy dolphin's Indian stronghold is Chilika Lagoon, not the Chambal; and the Rusty-spotted Cat does occur in the Eastern Ghats.

• ✓ 1. The blue-finned mahseer (Tor khudree, the Deccan mahseer) is now the common mahseer of the Cauvery: a self-sustaining wild population, which a 2015 study of the river's angler catches found to be recruiting strongly, after decades of stocking by Karnataka's fisheries department and angling bodies.
• ✗ 2. Chilika Lagoon on the east coast is the largest habitat of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin in India. The Chambal is known for the gharial and the Ganges river dolphin, not this species.
• ✓ 3. The Rusty-spotted Cat lives in forests of peninsular India, including the Eastern Ghats; it has been recorded on camera in Papikonda National Park in the northern Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh.

Remember · Irrawaddy dolphin: Chilika Lagoon (Odisha). Rusty-spotted Cat: peninsular forests including the Eastern Ghats. Blue-finned mahseer: the common mahseer of the Cauvery today.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) textile fibre

Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) is prized for the strong bast fibre in its stems, which is spun and woven into cloth, so it is a sustainable source of textile fibre.

• ✓ (d) The bast fibre of its bark is used for clothing, ropes, mats and sacks, and the Ministry of Textiles has supported research on products from Himalayan nettle among natural fibres.
• ✗ (a) Anti-malarial drugs come from plants like cinchona (quinine) and Artemisia (artemisinin), not from Himalayan nettle.
• ✗ (b) Biodiesel comes from oil-bearing seeds such as jatropha and pongamia; nettle is valued for its fibre, not for oil.

Remember · Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia, 'bichhu buti') yields bast fibre for textiles; Uttarakhand and the Ministry of Textiles have promoted it.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error