With reference to Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary, Sultanpur National Park, Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary and Wadhwana Wetland, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. All of them are Ramsar sites. 2. All of them are naturally formed wetlands. 3. All of them are birding sites. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 only
- (b)1 and 3 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — B, 1 and 3 only. All four are Ramsar sites, so statement 1 stands: Thol Lake and Wadhvana Wetland in Gujarat were designated on 5 April 2021, and Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary and Sultanpur National Park in Haryana on 25 May 2021. All four are birding sites, so statement 3 stands too — they lie on the Central Asian Flyway and their reason for protection is the waterbirds that winter on them, from Dalmatian pelicans and Pallas's fish eagles at Wadhvana to the flocks that give Sultanpur its name among birdwatchers. Statement 2 is the one that fails. These are not naturally formed wetlands. Thol Lake was built as an irrigation tank in 1912, Wadhvana was formed by an irrigation dam in 1910, and Bhindawas is fed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Feeder canal and its escape channel. They are engineered waterbodies that birds adopted, which is precisely why the group of four was worth grouping.
- (a)1 only — Drops statement 3, which is sound. Every one of the four is protected because of its birds; that is what a bird sanctuary and a wetland of international importance under Ramsar are for.
- (c)2 and 3 only — Keeps the false statement 2 and throws out the true statement 1. The four are all Ramsar sites, designated in April and May 2021, and they are not naturally formed.
- (d)1, 2 and 3 — The all-three pick, and it fails only on statement 2. Thol dates from 1912 as an irrigation tank, Wadhvana from a 1910 irrigation dam, and Bhindawas depends on canal water — none of them formed itself.
A Ramsar designation is about ecological function, not about origin. The Convention's criteria turn on whether a wetland supports significant numbers of waterbirds, or vulnerable species, or a distinctive wetland type — and a reservoir built for irrigation a century ago can meet those tests as fully as a natural lake. India has designated several such man-made wetlands, and the four in this question were part of a cluster added in 2021 that took the national list past forty sites. Their common thread is the Central Asian Flyway, the migratory corridor that brings waterbirds from Siberia and Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent each winter.
A three-statement item with a shared subject is usually decided by the statement that makes the strongest claim, and here that is statement 2 with its word 'all'. Once a candidate recalls that Thol and Wadhvana are irrigation works of the Baroda period and that Bhindawas is canal-fed, the sweeping claim collapses and only options (a) and (b) survive; statement 3 then separates them, and it is plainly true. The trap is the assumption that a wetland worth protecting must be natural. It is worth carrying the correction beyond the exam, because it is a real conservation point — much of India's waterbird habitat now sits on reservoirs, tanks and canal-fed depressions built for entirely different reasons.
- Thol Lake, Gujarat, and Wadhvana Wetland, Gujarat, were designated Ramsar sites on 5 April 2021.
- Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary and Sultanpur National Park, both in Haryana, were designated on 25 May 2021.
- Thol Lake is an artificial lake built as an irrigation tank in 1912 under the Gaekwad regime of Baroda; Wadhvana was formed by an irrigation dam in 1910.
- Bhindawas, in Jhajjar district of Haryana, depends on rainwater and on the Jawaharlal Nehru Feeder canal and its escape channel.
- Wadhvana hosts wintering birds of the Central Asian Flyway including the Dalmatian pelican, Pallas's fish eagle, common pochard and ferruginous duck.
- Assuming a Ramsar wetland must be natural. Origin is irrelevant to the Convention's criteria.
- Being put off by the mixture of a national park, two sanctuaries and a wetland in one list. Ramsar designation cuts across those categories.
- Confusing Sultanpur National Park in Gurugram district, Haryana, with the Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
As a multi-statement item on a group of sites, as a State-to-site match, or as a which-of-these-is-not-a-Ramsar-site question.
Consider the following statements: 1. Under Ramsar Convention, it is mandatory on the part of the Government of India to protect and conserve all the wetlands in the territory of India. 2. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 were framed by the Government of India based on the recommendations of Ramsar Convention. 3. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 also encompass the drainage area or catchment regions of the wetlands as determined by the authority. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 3 only
What a Ramsar designation actually obliges a country to do. The Convention binds a party only for the sites it has itself designated, and Indian wetland law comes from the Environment (Protection) Act rather than from the Convention — the background against which a list of four newly designated sites makes sense.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Sultanpur National Park, designated a Ramsar site in 2021, is situated in which one of the following States?
- (a)Uttar Pradesh
- (b)Haryana
- (c)Punjab
- (d)Rajasthan
Answer(b) Haryana — in Gurugram district. The Sultanpur that is a district of Uttar Pradesh is a different place altogether.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Thol Lake, a Ramsar site in Gujarat, was originally created as
- (a)a natural oxbow lake of the Sabarmati
- (b)an irrigation tank
- (c)a salt pan
- (d)a coastal lagoon
Answer(b) an irrigation tank — built in 1912 under the Gaekwad regime of Baroda, and later declared a bird sanctuary in 1988.