MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 33 of 100

Correct — option (4), HIPPO, is the acronym biologists actually use to summarise the principal threats to biodiversity. Popularised by the biologist E. O. Wilson, HIPPO stands for Habitat destruction (loss and fragmentation of natural habitat), Invasive species (non-native organisms that outcompete or prey on native species), Pollution (contamination of air, water and soil that degrades ecosystems), Population (the growth of human population, which drives demand for land, food and resources), and Overharvesting (overexploitation of species through hunting, fishing and logging beyond what populations can sustain). Wilson arranged the five factors in descending order of overall importance, with habitat destruction judged the single largest driver of biodiversity loss worldwide. Unlike the other three options, HIPPO is not the name of an organisation or a regulatory process — it is a mnemonic specifically built to list threat categories, which is exactly what the question asks for.

• (1)EIA — EIA stands for Environmental Impact Assessment, a regulatory process used to evaluate the likely environmental consequences of a proposed project before it is approved. It is a planning and clearance tool, not a mnemonic that lists the categories of threat to biodiversity, so it does not answer what the question is asking for.
• (2)IUCN — IUCN stands for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the global body that assesses and publishes species' conservation status through its Red List. It is the name of an organisation, not an acronym describing the factors that threaten biodiversity, so it does not fit the question's description even though it is closely associated with conservation science.
• (3)EPA — EPA typically refers to an Environmental Protection Agency (or, in the Indian context, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986) — a regulatory body or law aimed at controlling pollution and safeguarding the environment. Like EIA, it names a governance mechanism rather than a list of biodiversity-threat categories, so it does not match what the question asks for.

HIPPO is a mnemonic coined by biologist E. O. Wilson to rank the principal drivers of biodiversity loss: Habitat destruction, Invasive species, Pollution, Population (human population growth), and Overharvesting, listed in Wilson's assessment of descending importance. It is deliberately built to be memorable and to communicate, in one word, that habitat loss is the single biggest threat to species survival worldwide, ahead of invasive species, pollution, human population pressure, and overexploitation.

MPSC and UPSC both like acronym-based biology questions because they compress an entire conceptual list into one testable word, and the distractors here are chosen precisely because they are genuinely important, well-known environmental acronyms (EIA, IUCN, EPA) that a candidate might reflexively associate with 'biodiversity' or 'environment' even though none of them names a set of threat categories. The trap rewards a candidate who can distinguish a threats mnemonic from a regulatory process, an assessing organisation, and a protective law — three very different kinds of things that all happen to live in the same broad topic area.

• HIPPO = Habitat destruction, Invasive species, Pollution, Population, Overharvesting — a mnemonic for the principal threats to biodiversity, popularised by E. O. Wilson.
• Wilson ranked the five HIPPO factors in descending order of overall importance, with habitat destruction judged the largest single driver of biodiversity loss.
• EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) is a regulatory process for evaluating a project's likely environmental consequences before approval, not a threats mnemonic.
• IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is the organisation that maintains the global Red List of threatened species, not an acronym for threat categories.
• EPA commonly refers to an Environmental Protection Agency, or in India to the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 — a regulatory body or law, not a list of biodiversity threats.

• Confusing a mnemonic that lists threat categories (HIPPO) with acronyms for organisations (IUCN) or regulatory instruments (EIA, EPA) that operate in the same broad conservation space
• Assuming any well-known environmental acronym is a fair answer to a 'name the threats' question, without checking what the acronym actually stands for
• Forgetting that HIPPO's letters are ordered by Wilson's assessed importance, not alphabetically or arbitrarily

MPSC's Paper-I environment section likes single-recall acronym questions like this one, usually pairing the genuine mnemonic against distractors drawn from real, closely related environmental-governance acronyms rather than invented terms. Expect HIPPO to reappear either as direct recall of the acronym or as a question asking a candidate to expand one of its five letters correctly.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the HIPPO mnemonic for threats to biodiversity, which factor did E. O. Wilson rank as the single largest driver of biodiversity loss ?

  • (a)Overharvesting
  • (b)Habitat destruction
  • (c)Population growth
  • (d)Invasive species

  Answer(b) Habitat destruction — Wilson ranked the five HIPPO factors in descending order of importance, placing habitat destruction (loss and fragmentation of natural habitat) at the top.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following correctly expands the acronym 'EIA' as used in Indian environmental governance ?

  • (a)Environmental Impact Assessment
  • (b)Ecological Invasive Assessment
  • (c)Environment Improvement Agency
  • (d)Ecosystem Integrity Audit

  Answer(a) Environmental Impact Assessment — the regulatory process used in India to evaluate a proposed project's likely environmental consequences before it is granted clearance.