Arrange the following events in chronological order of their commencement and select correct answer from the codes given below :
I. Wild Life (Protection) Act
II. Biological Diversity Act
III. Project

Question

Arrange the following events in chronological order of their commencement and select correct answer from the codes given below :
I. Wild Life (Protection) Act
II. Biological Diversity Act
III. Project Tiger
IV. Project Elephant
Codes :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, I, III, IV, II. Placed by year of commencement the sequence is: the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (I) — India's foundational wildlife statute; Project Tiger, launched on 1 April 1973 (III), the very next year and squarely on the legal machinery the new Act had just created; Project Elephant, launched in February 1992 (IV); and the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (II), passed to give domestic effect to the Convention on Biological Diversity. So the order runs 1972 → 1973 → 1992 → 2002, which is exactly the code I, III, IV, II.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This starts correctly with the 1972 Act but then places the Biological Diversity Act (2002) second, ahead of Project Tiger (1973) and Project Elephant (1992). The biodiversity law is the most recent of the four, not the second oldest.  (c) It puts the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 first and the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 last — a complete inversion of the two statutes. The 1972 Act predates the biodiversity law by three decades.  (d) Again the 2002 biodiversity law is placed first, and the 1972 Act is pushed to third position behind Project Tiger. Project Tiger could not have preceded the Act under which India's protected-area system operates.

Concept: India's wildlife regime is best remembered as law first, then species programmes, then biodiversity as a whole. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 supplied the framework — schedules of protected species, a general prohibition on hunting, and the power to declare national parks and sanctuaries. Species-specific centrally sponsored schemes were then layered on top of it: Project Tiger in 1973 and Project Elephant in 1992. Three decades later the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 widened the lens from charismatic species to genetic resources and traditional knowledge, setting up a three-tier structure — the National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards, and Biodiversity Management Committees at the local level.

State PCS 2019 Q32 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q32 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer