Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and other as Reason (R):
Assertion (A) – 12 Cheetahs arrived from South Africa to India in February, 2023.
Reason (R) – Restoring Cheet

Question

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and other as Reason (R):
Assertion (A) – 12 Cheetahs arrived from South Africa to India in February, 2023.
Reason (R) – Restoring Cheetah population is considered to be a priority for India.
Select the correct answer using the code given below –

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B. The Assertion is true: on 18 February 2023, 12 cheetahs were flown in from South Africa to Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh (the second batch, after 8 cheetahs from Namibia in September 2022). The Reason is also true: restoring the cheetah — which went extinct in India in 1952 — is a stated conservation priority under 'Project Cheetah'. And the Reason correctly explains the Assertion, because those 12 cheetahs were brought precisely to rebuild the species' population in India. So both are true and R is the correct explanation of A.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) R does explain A — the cheetahs were imported precisely to restore the cheetah population, so R is the correct explanation, not an unrelated true statement.  (c) The Assertion is true — 12 cheetahs did arrive from South Africa in February 2023 — so calling A false is wrong.  (d) The Reason is true — restoring the cheetah population is an explicit priority for India under Project Cheetah — so R is not false.

Concept: Project Cheetah is India's programme to reintroduce the cheetah, the only large mammal declared extinct in independent India (1952). It is the world's first intercontinental translocation of a large wild carnivore. Eight cheetahs came from Namibia on 17 September 2022 and twelve from South Africa in February 2023, all released into Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

State PCS 2023 Q123 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q123 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer