SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 21 of 75

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Why is 'Carbon Sink Enhancement' important in India’s climate plan?

(a)Encourage deforestation
(b)Store CO₂ in vegetation and soil
(c)Burn more fossil fuels
(d)Promote monocultures

Answer

Why

Correct — B. A carbon sink absorbs more CO₂ than it releases: forests and other vegetation, soils and oceans. Enhancing sinks means adding forest and tree cover and building soil carbon, so CO₂ drawn from the air is stored in vegetation and soil.

India's 2015 NDC set a 2030 goal of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent through additional forest and tree cover.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Encourage deforestation — Deforestation destroys a sink: clearing and burning trees releases the carbon they stored. Sink enhancement is the reverse, adding forest and tree cover.
(c)
Burn more fossil fuels — Burning fossil fuels is a carbon source, not a sink. It releases CO₂ locked underground, the very emissions a sink is meant to offset.
(d)
Promote monocultures — Promoting monocultures is a way of planting, not a purpose. Sink enhancement is defined by its result, carbon stored in vegetation and soil.

Concept

Carbon moves between sources, which add CO₂ to the air (burning fuel, clearing forest), and sinks, which remove it (growing forests, soils, oceans). Net emissions are sources minus sinks, so enlarging sinks counts alongside cutting emissions.

India ties its sink goal to forest and tree cover. The Green India Mission is one of the eight missions of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008).

The three wrong options are opposites of a climate goal, so this is a definition check. Read sink literally: something that takes carbon in and holds it.

Key facts

A carbon sink absorbs more carbon than it releases.
Forests, soils and oceans are the main natural carbon sinks.
India's 2015 NDC set a 2030 goal of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent through additional forest and tree cover.
The Green India Mission is one of the eight missions of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008).

Study next

India's NDC targets: emissions intensity, non-fossil power capacity and the carbon sinkThe eight missions of the National Action Plan on Climate ChangeBlue carbon: mangroves and seagrass as carbon sinks

Common traps

Picking the monoculture option because it sounds like tree planting, when sink enhancement is judged by carbon stored.

The stem names a policy term and asks its purpose, and three options describe the opposite of a climate goal.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 179 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.