Static Quiz 14 August 2026 (Environment & Ecology)

Option (c) is correct — Chilika Lake in Odisha and Keoladeo Ghana in Rajasthan were India's first two Ramsar Sites, both designated in 1981, and Chilika is the largest coastal lagoon in India as well as the largest wintering ground for migratory waterfowl in the subcontinent. Option (a) sets a chronological trap, since the Convention came into force in 1975 but India acceded only in 1982. Option (b) is wrong because Ramsar defines wetlands very broadly to include marshes, peatlands, mangroves, coral reefs, rice paddies, artificial wetlands and marine waters up to six metres deep at low tide. Option (d) fails because Ramsar status is an international treaty designation and confers no automatic protection under domestic law such as the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Statements 1, 2 and 4 are correct — mangroves are halophytes adapted to saline, waterlogged and anaerobic soils between the high and low tide marks of tropical and subtropical coasts; the Sundarbans across the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta is the world's largest contiguous mangrove forest at over 10,000 sq km; and mangroves serve as bioshields against cyclones and tsunamis, stabilise coastlines, act as fish nurseries and function as important blue carbon sinks. Statement 3 is incorrect and states the exact opposite of reality, since mangroves are known precisely for above-ground root adaptations — pneumatophores that protrude above the mud to access oxygen, and prop or stilt roots — which let them survive in oxygen-deficient soils.

Three pairs are correctly matched. Loktak Lake is in Manipur — the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India, famous for its phumdis or floating biomass islands and for Keibul Lamjao National Park, the world's only floating national park. Wular Lake in Jammu & Kashmir is among Asia's largest freshwater lakes, a Ramsar Site formed partly by tectonic activity, and Bhoj Wetland, comprising Bhopal's Upper and Lower Lake, is a Ramsar Site in Madhya Pradesh that supplies the city's water. Pair 3 is the state-misattribution trap — Kolleru Lake lies in Andhra Pradesh between the Krishna and Godavari deltas, not Tamil Nadu.

The Assertion is correct — post-tsunami field surveys, including studies cited by IUCN and WWF, found that villages sheltered behind healthy mangrove belts suffered far fewer casualties and less structural damage than comparable exposed stretches, with the Pichavaram mangroves in Tamil Nadu frequently cited as the illustration. The Reason is also correct and supplies the direct mechanism, since prop roots, pneumatophores and a dense canopy together dissipate the hydrodynamic energy of incoming waves. Because this physical buffering is precisely why the protection described in the Assertion occurred, R is the correct explanation of A.

Option (a) is correct — the Montreux Record is maintained under the Ramsar Convention as a register of wetlands of international importance where negative changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring or are likely to occur, functioning effectively as a "wetlands in danger" list requiring priority conservation attention. Option (b) inverts this, since sites are added because of problems rather than achievements. Option (c) is the trap: both lakes were once listed, but Chilika was removed in 2002 after successful restoration involving control of invasive water hyacinth and regulation of prawn farming, leaving only Loktak on the record. Option (d) is wrong because listing triggers enhanced conservation attention, not automatic delisting from the Ramsar list.