Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched?
- (a)Ramnagar Wildlife Sanctuary : Uttarakhand
- (b)Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary : Assam
- (c)Nahar Wildlife Sanctuary : Haryana
- (d)Kane Wildlife Sanctuary : Arunachal Pradesh
Correct — A, Ramnagar Wildlife Sanctuary : Uttarakhand. The sanctuary of that name is Ramnagar Rakha Wildlife Sanctuary in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, declared in 1990 and covering about 31.5 sq km. It is not in Uttarakhand, so this is the pair that fails. What makes the pair look right is the town of Ramnagar in Nainital district, Uttarakhand — the usual road entry to Corbett Tiger Reserve. A place-name shared between two States is doing all the work here, and the other three pairs are all correct.
- (b)Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary : Assam — Correctly matched, so it cannot be the answer. Chakrashila lies in the Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts of Assam, was notified in 1994 over about 45.6 sq km, and is India's first protected area declared with the golden langur as its flagship species.
- (c)Nahar Wildlife Sanctuary : Haryana — Correctly matched. Nahar is a small sanctuary of roughly 2.1 sq km in Rewari district, Haryana, notified in 1987 — one of the tiny Aravalli-fringe sanctuaries that protect blackbuck and nilgai.
- (d)Kane Wildlife Sanctuary : Arunachal Pradesh — Correctly matched. Kane Wildlife Sanctuary is in West Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, declared in 1991 and about 31 sq km in extent.
India's protected-area network under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 runs to more than 570 wildlife sanctuaries, and a large share of them are small, little-publicised areas notified by State governments. Examiners use exactly these low-profile names for pair-matching, because a candidate who has only memorised the famous parks has nothing to fall back on. The defence is to learn sanctuaries by region and by flagship species rather than by name alone — Chakrashila by the golden langur, Nahar by the Rewari Aravallis, Kane by the Siang valley.
The reliable way through a 'not correctly matched' pair item is to hunt for the one pair you can positively refute rather than trying to confirm all four. Here the refutable one is Ramnagar, and the giveaway is that the sanctuary bearing that name sits in the Jammu region while Uttarakhand's Ramnagar is a town, not a sanctuary. Note also the scale test: Nahar at about 2 sq km and Chakrashila at about 45 sq km are both plausible State-notified sanctuaries, and nothing about their sizes should make you doubt them.
- Ramnagar Rakha Wildlife Sanctuary is in Jammu and Kashmir, declared in 1990, about 31.5 sq km.
- Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam (1994, about 45.6 sq km), was notified with the golden langur as its flagship species.
- Nahar Wildlife Sanctuary lies in Rewari district, Haryana, notified in 1987 over about 2.1 sq km.
- Kane Wildlife Sanctuary is in West Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, declared in 1991, about 31 sq km.
Three pairs hold; only Ramnagar moves State, and a shared town name is why it looks safe.
- Reading 'Ramnagar' as Uttarakhand because that town is the gateway to Corbett — the sanctuary of that name is in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Doubting Nahar because it is tiny; Haryana has several sanctuaries of only a few square kilometres.
- Trying to confirm all four pairs instead of hunting for the single refutable one, which wastes time in a negative-stem item.
Asked as a four-pair 'not correctly matched' item built on obscure State-notified sanctuaries — UPSC uses the same device with tiger reserves and peaks.
Consider the following pairs : 1. Dampa Tiger Reserve : Mizoram 2. Gumti Wildlife Sanctuary : Sikkim 3. Saramati Peak : Nagaland Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 1 and 3 only — Gumti Wildlife Sanctuary is in Tripura, not Sikkim.
The same device in UPSC's hands — one protected area quietly shifted to a neighbouring State while the rest of the list is correct.
Consider the following pairs: 1. Nokrek Biosphere Reserve : Garo Hills 2. Loktak Lake : Barail Range 3. Namdapha National Park : Dafla Hills Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1, 2 and 3
- (d) None
Answer(a) 1 only — Loktak Lake is in Manipur and Namdapha is in Changlang district, Arunachal Pradesh.
Shows how far the trap can be pushed: here three of the pairs look plausible and only one survives, so the habit of hunting for refutable pairs matters more than recall.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary, notified with the golden langur as its flagship species, is in which State?
- (a)Meghalaya
- (b)Assam
- (c)Tripura
- (d)Mizoram
Answer(b) Assam — it lies in the Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts of western Assam.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Kane Wildlife Sanctuary is located in which State?
- (a)Nagaland
- (b)Manipur
- (c)Arunachal Pradesh
- (d)Sikkim
Answer(c) Arunachal Pradesh — in West Siang district, declared in 1991.