SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 20 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

As of the June 2021, how many biosphere reserves are established in India?

(a)18
(b)20
(c)26
(d)15

Answer

Why

Correct — A. India has notified 18 biosphere reserves, and that was the figure on the June 2021 date the question fixes.

The series runs from Nilgiri, notified in 1986, to Panna, notified in 2011, and no nineteenth has been added since.

A second count sits beside it and is the usual source of error: 12 of the 18 are inscribed on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The question asks how many are established in India, so the answer is the national figure.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
20 — Twenty overshoots. India's list stopped at eighteen with Panna in 2011, and nothing has been notified since to carry it to twenty.
(c)
26 — Twenty-six matches no biosphere reserve count for India. It is the largest number on offer, the usual bait for a candidate who only remembers that the list is long.
(d)
15 — Fifteen is an undercount. The list climbed to eighteen through notifications in the 2000s, the last of them Panna in 2011.

Concept

A biosphere reserve is a large protected area managed on the UNESCO model, with a strictly protected core zone, a buffer zone where research and limited use are allowed, and a transition zone where people live and work.

India's programme opened with Nilgiri in 1986. Reserves are notified by the Central government, and some of them are later nominated to UNESCO's World Network.

The two lists carry different totals, so read whether a question asks about India's own notifications or about UNESCO recognition.

The question dates itself to June 2021 because a candidate cannot be expected to track later changes. The national count has in fact stood at eighteen since Panna in 2011.

Key facts

India has 18 notified biosphere reserves.
Nilgiri, notified in 1986, was the first of them.
Panna, notified in 2011, was the most recent addition.
Twelve Indian biosphere reserves are on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Study next

The core, buffer and transition zoning of a biosphere reserveIndian reserves on UNESCO's World Network, from Nilgiri in 2000 to Panna in 2020How biosphere reserves differ in law from national parks and wildlife sanctuaries

Common traps

Answering with the UNESCO-recognised count in place of India's own notified count
Assuming the number has grown since 2011 because protected-area counts usually do

Protected areas are asked by name and by place. Campbell Bay National Park, which lies inside the Great Nicobar reserve, is asked at General Awareness Q.17 of the 23 Sep 2024, 09:00 paper, and Chandra Prabha Wildlife Sanctuary at Q.6 of the 24 Sep 2024, 16:00 paper.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.