Environment & Climate: previous-year questions

Answer: (B) Local Communities and the Forest Department.

Joint Forest Management (JFM) is a partnership in which village communities, organised as Forest Protection Committees, protect and regenerate forest land together with the State Forest Department and in return get a share of the produce. It grew out of the National Forest Policy, 1988 and the Government of India circular of 1 June 1990. West Bengal link: the model was pioneered at Arabari in Paschim Medinipur in the early 1970s by forest officer Ajit Kumar Banerjee, where villagers protecting degraded sal forest were given 25% of the timber revenue. The other options name partners that are not part of the JFM design; the community-and-department pairing is its defining feature.

Answer: (D) 2070

Answer as of 2024 — this may have changed since.

At the COP26 summit in Glasgow (November 2021) Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will reach net-zero emissions by 2070, as part of the five 'Panchamrit' pledges: 500 GW of non-fossil power capacity by 2030; half of energy requirements from renewables by 2030; a cut of one billion tonnes in projected emissions by 2030; a 45% reduction in the emissions intensity of GDP from 2005 levels by 2030; and net zero by 2070. Compare the other years: 2050 is the target of the USA, EU, UK and Japan, and 2060 that of China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Indian Railways has a separate net-zero target of 2030, and Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) was launched alongside.

Answer: (B) Dubai

COP 28, the 28th UN climate change conference, was held at Expo City, Dubai, UAE, from 30 November to 12 December 2023. India, the USA and Japan were not hosts.

Answer: (B) 18

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

As of 2023 India had 18 notified biosphere reserves, from Nilgiri (1986, the first) to Panna (2011), of which 12 are in UNESCO's World Network. 17, 19 and 20 do not match the count for that year.

Answer: (D) Panna

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

Panna in Madhya Pradesh, notified in 2011 and added to UNESCO's network in 2020, was the most recently declared of India's 18 biosphere reserves at the time of the exam. Nilgiri (1986) was the first, and Gulf of Mannar and Great Nicobar date from 1989.

Answer: (B) New Delhi

The Delhi government announced a 15-point Winter Action Plan on 30 September 2022 to tackle the seasonal spike in air pollution. It included spraying the Pusa bio-decomposer on farmland to prevent stubble burning, an anti-dust campaign, anti-smog guns, a ban on firecrackers, a "Green War Room", the Green Delhi app and checks on vehicular pollution. Punjab and Haryana are the States associated with stubble burning, but the plan was Delhi's. Related terms: the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), enforced by the Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR, and the National Clean Air Programme (2019).

Answer: (B) UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)

The Adaptation Gap Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The 2022 edition, titled "Too Little, Too Slow: Climate adaptation failure puts world at risk", came out in November 2022 just before COP27 at Sharm el-Sheikh and warned that adaptation finance for developing countries is five to ten times below what is needed. UNEP, founded in 1972 after the Stockholm Conference, has its headquarters at Nairobi and also issues the Emissions Gap Report. The WEF publishes the Global Risks and Global Gender Gap reports, NITI Aayog brings out the SDG India Index, and the World Social Forum is a civil-society gathering that publishes no such report.

Answer: (B) New Zealand

Pitt Island (Rangiauria) is the second-largest island of the Chatham Islands group, a remote territory of New Zealand about 800 km east of the mainland. In October 2022 around 240 pilot whales stranded and died on Pitt Island, only days after about 215 had died on the main Chatham Island — nearly 480 in all. A few weeks earlier, some 230 pilot whales had stranded at Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania, Australia, which is a common point of confusion. Pilot whales are actually large oceanic dolphins and are especially prone to mass strandings. New Zealand's capital is Wellington.

Answer: (B) Medha Patker

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (from 1985) was led by Medha Patkar, with Baba Amte, against the displacement caused by large dams on the Narmada, especially the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat. Anna Hazare is known for the Ralegan Siddhi model village and the 2011 Jan Lokpal anti-corruption movement, Ramdev is a yoga guru, and Dr Binayak Sen is a paediatrician and civil-liberties activist who worked in Chhattisgarh. Medha Patkar received the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.

Answer: (B) Chandrabhaga beach, Odisha

Chandrabhaga Beach in Odisha's Konark became the first beach in Asia to receive the international Blue Flag eco-certification, in 2020.

Answer: (C) Both (A) and (B)

India hosted the Global Wildlife Programme conference at New Delhi in October 2017, jointly with the World Bank and the UNDP. On the occasion the government released the third National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-2031) and launched 'SECURE Himalaya', a project for conserving the high-altitude Himalayan ecosystem and the snow leopard's habitat. Hence both documents are correct.

Answer: (D) Trucks carrying goods for Delhi will have to pay 200% of the Green Cess levied now.

Answer as of 2016 — this may have changed since.

The Supreme Court's December 2015 ruling on Delhi pollution included bans on old diesel vehicles, waste burning restrictions, and various emission control measures. The source key gives (D) — that trucks paying 200% Green Cess was not part of this specific ruling.

Answer: (A) To set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2°C.

The Paris Agreement (COP21, December 2015) aimed to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C. It represented 196 parties/countries (not 200 as stated in option C). A is correct about the 2°C goal.