Environment & Biodiversity MCQs

Notes:
Namdapha National Park, in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, is the only park in India that hosts a wide range of habitats, starting from tropical rainforests to alpine meadows. The park’s location in the eastern Himalayas, combined with a wide range in altitude (from 200m to 4571m), leads to this drastic variation.

Notes:
Flying Fox is a bat which is found in tropical forests and swamps, near bodies of water all over India.

Notes:
The Kalesar National Park (KNP) is a protected area in Yamunanagar district of Haryana and covers 13,000 acres. It is a popular destination for Leopard and home to red jungle fowl among other birds. Other animals recorded were leopard cat, rusty-spotted cat, jungle cat, Indian jackal, Asiatic elephant, chital, sambar, barking deer, etc.

Notes:
The Ghatigaon Wildlife Sanctuary (GWS) is located near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and covers an area of 511 square kilometers. The sanctuary is also as the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary. It houses many varieties of flora such as Khair, Murjan, Palash, Seja, Dhawada, Royenja, Ghote, Beweg, Dhaman, Salai, Heans and Katli. The sanctuary is also a home to the blackbuck, chital, monkey, wolf, blue bull, wild boar, fox and hyena.

Notes:
The Nameri National Park (NNP) is located in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in the Sonitpur District of Assam and covers an area of 200 km2. This forest has over 600 species. Some notable species are Gmelina arborea, Michelia champaca, Amari and Bonjolokia. The park is an ideal habitat for a host of other animals including the tiger, leopard, sambar, dhole (the Asiatic wild dog), pygmy hog and Indian wild bison. It is home for orchids like Dendrobium, Cymbidiumand Cypripedioideae.

Notes:
Transfer of food from the plants (producers) through a series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten is called a food chain. A food chain consists of

1. Producers or Autotrophs
2. Primary consumers or Herbivores
3. Secondary consumers or Carnivores
4. Decomposers

Decomposers make up the final trophic level in a food chain. Decomposers are the organisms that feed on dead organic matter called detritus of all the trophic levels and help in recycling the nutrients. Examples of decomposers are bacteria, fungi, mites, millipedes, earthworms, nematodes, slugs, crabs and molluscs.

Notes:
Biomass is the amount of living material in an organism. The pyramids of biomass represent the relationship between different trophic levels in terms of biomass. In grassland and forest ecosystems, there is generally a gradual decrease in biomass of organisms at successive trophic levels from the producers to the consumers. Their pyramid of biomass is upright. In aquatic ecosystem the producers are small organisms with least biomass and the biomass gradually increase towards the apex of the pyramid. Thus the pyramid of biomass of aquatic ecosystems is inverted in shape.

Notes:
The Darrah National Park, which is now Mukundara Hills National Park, is located in within the Kathiawar-Gir dry deciduous forests’ ecoregion of Rajasthan and covers an area of 250 square kilometres. It is home to a number of species including the wild boar, deer, nilgai, cheetah and wolves. The park consists of three wildlife sanctuaries: Darrah Wildlife Sanctuary, Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary and Jawahar Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary. The River Chandrabhaga flows very close to the national park and there are a number of ancient temples, dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries that are situated along the banks of the river.

Notes:
The lesser florican is also known as the likh or kharmore. It is the smallest in bustard family. It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent found predominantly in Madhya Pradesh. Scientific name- Sypheotides indicus, Rank- Species, Family- Otididae, Phylum- Chordata.

Notes:
The Disaster Management Act, 2005 received the Presidential assent on 23 December, 2005. It envisaged the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority with not more than nine members (including a Vice-Chairperson) and the Prime Minister of India as its chairperson.