CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 84 of 120

Correct — C, Purnima Devi Barman. The United Nations Environment Programme named her a Champion of the Earth in 2022 in the Entrepreneurial Vision category. Barman is an Assamese wildlife biologist who works to save the greater adjutant stork, locally called hargila, a large scavenging bird whose nesting trees were being felled because villagers regarded it as a bad omen. She built the Hargila Army, a network of village women who protect nesting trees, weave and sell hargila motifs and hold rituals for the birds — conservation organised as a livelihood, which is what the entrepreneurial category recognises.

• (a)Ela Bhatt — Ela Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women's Association and is the obvious name to reach for on any question about women's enterprise in India — but she was not a 2022 Champion of the Earth. She is the strongest distractor precisely because the category is called Entrepreneurial Vision.
• (b)Amit Dasgupta — A name placed to collide with a real 2022 laureate. Sir Partha Dasgupta, the economist, was honoured that year in the Science and Innovation category for his work on the economics of biodiversity, and a candidate who half-remembers the surname will pick this.
• (d)Vanshika Parmar — Not a 2022 Champions of the Earth laureate. The five that year were arcenciel of Lebanon, Constantino Aucca Chutas of Peru, Sir Partha Dasgupta, Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet of Cameroon and Purnima Devi Barman.

Champions of the Earth is the United Nations Environment Programme's highest environmental honour, instituted in 2005 as the successor to the Global 500 Roll of Honour that ran from 1987 to 2003. It is given in a small number of categories each year — Lifetime Achievement, Policy Leadership, Inspiration and Action, Science and Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Vision — to individuals and organisations whose work has had outsized environmental effect.

The item wants one laureate and one category matched correctly, and the option set is built so that a candidate who knows only that an Indian won in 2022 can still fall. Two of the four names are chosen to interfere: Ela Bhatt because the word entrepreneurial points at her, and Amit Dasgupta because Partha Dasgupta genuinely won that year in a different category. The reliable route is through the work rather than the name — the greater adjutant stork, an endangered bird now largely confined to Assam and a small population in Bihar and Cambodia, and the community of women who protect its nesting colonies. India has continued to feature in the award; Madhav Gadgil was among the laureates recognised in 2024.

• The 2022 Champions of the Earth laureates were arcenciel (Lebanon), Constantino Aucca Chutas (Peru), Sir Partha Dasgupta, Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet (Cameroon) and Purnima Devi Barman (India).
• Barman's award was in the Entrepreneurial Vision category, for community-led conservation of the greater adjutant stork in Assam.
• The Hargila Army she founded is a network of village women who guard nesting trees and weave and sell hargila motifs.
• Champions of the Earth is UNEP's flagship environmental award, running since 2005; it replaced the Global 500 Roll of Honour, instituted in 1987.
• Madhav Gadgil of India was among the laureates recognised in 2024.

• Choosing the famous name that fits the category label rather than the person who actually won.
• Confusing Partha Dasgupta, a genuine 2022 laureate in Science and Innovation, with a similar surname in the option set.
• Assuming Champions of the Earth is a single undivided award; the category matters as much as the year.

As a person-to-award item that also expects the category, usually within a year of the announcement.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Purnima Devi Barman's conservation work, recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2022, centres on which species?

  • (a)Greater adjutant stork
  • (b)Great Indian bustard
  • (c)Gangetic dolphin
  • (d)Hoolock gibbon

  Answer(a) Greater adjutant stork — the hargila of Assam, whose nesting colonies her Hargila Army protects.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Champions of the Earth is the highest environmental honour conferred by

  • (a)The World Wide Fund for Nature
  • (b)The United Nations Environment Programme
  • (c)The International Union for Conservation of Nature
  • (d)The United Nations Development Programme

  Answer(b) The United Nations Environment Programme — the award has run since 2005, replacing the earlier Global 500 Roll of Honour.