Q40. Protecting biodiversity within its natural habitat is called:
[WBCS Mains – Environmental Science (2021)]
(A) Zoological garden management
(B) Ex-situ conservation
(C) In-situ conservation
(D) In-vitro conservation
Answer: (C) In-situ conservation
Explanation: In-situ conservation protects species together with their ecological relationships in their original habitats. Reserves and sanctuaries are typical examples, whereas zoos and seed banks conserve organisms outside those habitats.
Q39. What best describes the observed climate-change drivers cited for Jharkhand?
[JPSC CCE Prelims – GS Paper II (2021)]
(A) Human activity alone
(B) The energy sector alone
(C) Greenhouse emissions alone
(D) All of these
Answer: (D) All of these
Explanation: Industrial activity, the energy sector and greenhouse-gas emissions are interconnected contributors to anthropogenic climate change. The state’s coal-dependent economy makes their combined influence an important policy concern.
2020
Q38. Which protected area conserves the hard-ground barasingha, a swamp-deer subspecies?
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) Kanha National Park
(B) Manas National Park
(C) Mudumalai Sanctuary
(D) Tal Chhapar Sanctuary
Answer: (A) Kanha National Park
Explanation: Kanha National Park is noted for recovering the hard-ground barasingha through grassland management, habitat protection and monitoring. This deer differs ecologically from wetland-associated swamp deer populations and is an important conservation success story.
Q37. For Desert National Park, determine the correct points:
1. It extends over two Rajasthan districts.
2. Nobody inhabits it.
3. It provides habitat for the Great Indian Bustard.
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) 1 and 2
(B) 2 and 3
(C) 1 and 3
(D) All three
Answer: (C) 1 and 3
Explanation: The park spans Jaisalmer and Barmer and is important for the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard. Human settlements and traditional land uses exist within this wider desert landscape, making the claim of no habitation false.
Q36. Biochar as a farming input can:
1. Be part of a vertical-farm medium.
2. Assist nitrogen-fixing microbes.
3. Increase water retention. Which are true?
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) 1 and 2
(B) 2 only
(C) 1 and 3
(D) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (D) 1, 2 and 3
Explanation: Biochar is carbon-rich material from heating biomass in restricted oxygen. Its porous structure can help retain moisture and provide microbial habitat. It may be mixed with different agricultural growing media, including certain vertical systems.
Q35. What does the “social cost of carbon” estimate?
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) Monetary harm from emitting an additional tonne of CO₂
(B) Quantity of fossil fuel required per citizen
(C) Cost of moving one climate refugee
(D) An individual’s physical carbon footprint
Answer: (A) Monetary harm from emitting an additional tonne of CO₂
Explanation: The social cost of carbon places a monetary value on projected damages caused by an additional tonne of CO₂ emissions. It incorporates effects on health, agriculture, property and other impacts to help compare climate policy benefits and costs.
Q34. Under Schedule VI of the Wildlife (Protection) Act as framed in the paper, what is the implication for a listed plant?
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) Cultivation needs a licence
(B) Cultivation is always impossible
(C) It is a genetically modified crop
(D) It is an invasive species
Answer: (A) Cultivation needs a licence
Explanation: The former Schedule VI protected specified plants and restricted cultivation and dealings without appropriate permission. Placement under this schedule was not a declaration that a plant was genetically modified or automatically invasive.
Q33. Which of these protected areas lie in the Cauvery river basin?
1. Nagarhole
2. Papikonda
3. Sathyamangalam
4. Wayanad
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) 1 and 2
(B) 3 and 4
(C) 1, 3 and 4
(D) All four
Answer: (C) 1, 3 and 4
Explanation: Nagarhole, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad belong to or connect closely with the Cauvery basin’s ecological landscape. Papikonda National Park is associated with the Godavari basin, so including all four would be incorrect.
Q32. Benzene exposure may arise from which of these?
1. Vehicle exhaust
2. Tobacco smoke
3. Wood burning
4. Varnished wooden furniture
5. Polyurethane products.
[UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper I (2020)]
(A) 1, 2 and 3 only
(B) 2 and 4 only
(C) 1, 3 and 4 only
(D) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Answer: (A) 1, 2 and 3 only
Explanation: The 2020 UPSC answer identifies automobile exhaust, tobacco smoke and wood burning as the expected exposure pathways. Varnished furniture and polyurethane products were not included in the keyed combination. Benzene is a volatile carcinogenic air pollutant.
Q31. Which secondary air pollutant is formed through sunlight-driven photochemical reactions?
[WBCS Mains – Environmental Science (2020)]
(A) Sulphur dioxide
(B) Carbon monoxide
(C) Primary fluorides
(D) Ozone
Answer: (D) Ozone
Explanation: Ground-level ozone forms when sunlight acts on nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Unlike ozone high in the stratosphere, surface ozone is a damaging component of photochemical smog.
