Consider the following Wildlife Sanctuaries of India : 1. Shikari Devi 2. Bhadra 3. Simlipal 4. Pachmarhi Which one of the following is the correct order of the above Wildlife Sanctuaries in terms of their location from south to north?
- (a)1–2–3–4
- (b)2–4–3–1
- (c)2–3–4–1
- (d)3–1–2–4
Correct — C, 2–3–4–1. Fix each sanctuary to its state and the order falls out. Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary is in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka, in the Western Ghats at about 13°42′ N, far the southernmost of the four. Simlipal is in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha at about 21°50′ N. Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary lies in the Satpura range of Madhya Pradesh at about 22°28′ N, a little north of Simlipal. Shikari Devi Sanctuary is in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh at about 31°29′ N, high in the Himalaya and unmistakably the northernmost. Running south to north gives Bhadra, Simlipal, Pachmarhi, Shikari Devi — that is 2, 3, 4, 1.
- (a)1–2–3–4 — Begins with Shikari Devi in Himachal Pradesh, which is the northernmost of the four and must come last in a south-to-north listing. This is the answer of a student who has read the direction of the ordering the wrong way round.
- (b)2–4–3–1 — Right at both ends but wrong in the middle. It places Pachmarhi south of Simlipal, whereas Pachmarhi in the Satpuras of Madhya Pradesh sits at about 22°28′ N and Simlipal in northern Odisha at about 21°50′ N, so Simlipal is the more southerly of the two. This is the only genuinely difficult judgement in the item.
- (d)3–1–2–4 — Places Shikari Devi second and Bhadra third, which contradicts both their latitudes — Shikari Devi is the northernmost and Bhadra the southernmost, so they must occupy the two ends of the sequence, not the middle.
Ordering questions of this kind are answered in two moves rather than one: attach each name to a state, then rank the states by latitude. Karnataka in the far south, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh in the middle belt, Himachal Pradesh in the Himalaya. The middle pair is where such items are decided, because two central Indian states can be very close in latitude, and there physiography helps — Simlipal sits in the Mayurbhanj hills of northern Odisha towards the Eastern Ghats, and Pachmarhi on the Satpura range of central Madhya Pradesh, which runs a little further north.
Only one comparison in this question is tight. Simlipal and Pachmarhi are separated by well under a degree of latitude, so state knowledge alone will not split them and the option set exploits exactly that — (b) and (c) differ only in the order of those two. The other two anchor the sequence and can be placed without hesitation, which means the item is really a single binary decision dressed up as a four-way ordering. That is worth recognising in the exam hall, because it tells you where to spend the thirty seconds. All four of these protected areas are worth knowing in their own right: Bhadra and Simlipal are tiger reserves, Simlipal and Pachmarhi are also biosphere reserves, and Shikari Devi is one of Himachal's high-altitude sanctuaries.
- Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary lies in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka and was declared a Project Tiger reserve in 1998.
- Simlipal, in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, is a tiger reserve and a national park and forms the core of the Simlipal Biosphere Reserve.
- Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary is in the Satpura range of Madhya Pradesh and forms part of the Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve along with Bori sanctuary and Satpura National Park.
- Shikari Devi Sanctuary is in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, around the Shikari Devi temple at roughly 3,330 m.
- Dhupgarh in the Pachmarhi area, about 1,352 m, is the highest point of Madhya Pradesh.
- Reading the ordering in the wrong direction; the question asks south to north, not north to south.
- Swapping Simlipal and Pachmarhi, whose latitudes differ by well under a degree.
- Confusing Bhadra in Karnataka with Bhadrachalam in Telangana or the Bhadra river's other associations.
NDA sets north-to-south or south-to-north orderings of protected areas, hill ranges or cities most years — the marks go to whoever can attach each name to a state without hesitating.
Which one among the following is the correct order of tiger reserves situated from North to South in India ?
- (a) Corbett – Simlipal – Sariska – Periyar
- (b) Periyar – Sariska – Simlipal – Corbett
- (c) Corbett – Sariska – Simlipal – Periyar
- (d) Periyar – Simlipal – Sariska – Corbett
Answer(c) Corbett – Sariska – Simlipal – Periyar
The same exercise a year earlier, on tiger reserves rather than sanctuaries and running the other way — and it places Simlipal in the same latitudinal band it occupies here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Simlipal Biosphere Reserve is located in the state of
- (a)Jharkhand
- (b)Odisha
- (c)West Bengal
- (d)Chhattisgarh
Answer(b) Odisha — Simlipal lies in Mayurbhanj district of northern Odisha and is a tiger reserve as well as a biosphere reserve.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs of a protected area and its state is correctly matched?
- (a)Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary — Kerala
- (b)Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary — Maharashtra
- (c)Shikari Devi Sanctuary — Himachal Pradesh
- (d)Simlipal National Park — Jharkhand
Answer(c) Shikari Devi Sanctuary — Himachal Pradesh, in Mandi district; Bhadra is in Karnataka, Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh and Simlipal in Odisha.