SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 15 of 100

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 11 September 2026.

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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.

Find the odd one out from the given alternatives:

(a)National Park
(b)Biosphere Reserve
(c)Sanctuary
(d)Census

Answer

Why

Correct — D.
Rule: three are conservation areas; one is not an area at all.

A national park, a wildlife sanctuary and a biosphere reserve are all areas set aside to conserve plants and animals where they live.

A census is an official count, such as the population census. It is an exercise, not a place → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
National Park — National Park is a protected area declared under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It belongs with Sanctuary and Biosphere Reserve in the conservation group.
(b)
Biosphere Reserve — Biosphere Reserve is a conservation area zoned into core, buffer and transition areas. It is a conservation area like the other two, so it is not the odd one.
(c)
Sanctuary — Sanctuary (a wildlife sanctuary) is declared under the same Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as a national park. It is part of the group.

Concept

This is a classification item: find the property three options share and the fourth lacks.

National parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves are all in-situ conservation areas, where species are protected in their own habitat rather than in zoos or seed banks. A census belongs to demography: it counts, and it protects nothing.

The three protected areas differ in how much human use they allow.

A biosphere reserve keeps human settlements in its outer transition zone.

In a sanctuary, the Chief Wild Life Warden may regulate, control or prohibit livestock grazing (Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, s.33(d)).

In a national park, the same Act permits no livestock grazing (s.35(7)).

Key facts

National parks and wildlife sanctuaries in India are declared under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
A biosphere reserve is zoned into a core, a buffer and a transition area.
UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, launched in 1971, runs the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
India's population census is conducted under the Census Act, 1948.

Study next

National park versus wildlife sanctuary under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972Core, buffer and transition zones of a biosphere reserveIn-situ versus ex-situ conservation (sanctuaries versus zoos and seed banks)

Common traps

Hunting for a fine legal difference among National Park, Sanctuary and Biosphere Reserve when Census is not a protected area at all

The same 'Find the odd one out from the given alternatives' frame is keyed Linux among Photoshop, Illustrator and CorelDRAW at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.9, and Refuel among Reuse, Reduce and Recycle at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.17.

Biosphere reserves also appear as General Awareness: 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.20 asks how many India had as of June 2021.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Semantic Classification — all 26 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.