SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 8 of 98

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.

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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.

In India, the Shola ecosystem is characterised by: 1. Arid and semi-arid climate zones 2. Growth of trees in the depressions and folds of valleys surrounded by extensive areas of grasslands 3. Dominance of conifers in areas of dense vegetation Which one of the above statements is/are CORRECT?

(a)2 only
(b)1 and 3 only
(c)1 only
(d)All of these

Answer

Why

Correct — A. A shola is a patch of stunted tropical montane forest in the valleys of South India's high hills, separated from the next patch by rolling grassland. Together they form the shola-grassland mosaic.

That is statement 2 almost word for word. Statements 1 and 3 fail, so 2 only → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
1 and 3 only — Both statements it keeps are false. Sholas are wet montane forest, not arid-zone vegetation, and their dominant trees are broadleaved species such as Magnolia nilagirica, not conifers.
(c)
1 only — Statement 1 is false: Champion and Seth class sholas as Southern Montane Wet Temperate forest, the opposite of an arid or semi-arid zone.
(d)
All of these — All of these would need statements 1 and 3 too. Sholas are neither arid-zone vegetation nor conifer forest, so only statement 2 survives.

Concept

A shola is the local name for a patch of stunted tropical montane forest in the high hills of South India. The patches sit in the valleys, separated by rolling montane grassland, forming the shola-grassland mosaic.

NCERT calls these southern temperate forests Sholas in the Nilgiris, Anaimalai and Palani hills. One explanation for the pattern is frost, which lets grass grow on the open slopes but kills tree seedlings there.

School texts call sholas temperate because Champion and Seth classify them as Southern Montane Wet Temperate forest, while ecologists describe them as tropical montane.

Either way they are wet, evergreen and broadleaved, which is what sinks statements 1 and 3.

Key facts

A shola is a patch of stunted tropical montane forest in a valley, surrounded by rolling montane grassland.
NCERT names the Nilgiris, Anaimalai and Palani hills as where the temperate forests called Sholas occur.
Dominant shola trees include Magnolia nilagirica, Bischofia javanica and Toona ciliata (Indian mahogany).
Conifers such as chir pine, deodar, blue pine and spruce belong to the Himalayan forest zones.

Study next

Montane forests of India: the Himalayan altitude zones versus the southern sholasThe Western Ghats as a biodiversity hotspotInvasive species in the shola grasslands: wattle, eucalyptus and lantana

Common traps

Marking statement 3 true because NCERT calls sholas temperate forest — temperate here does not mean coniferous, and the dominant trees are broadleaved.
Reading 'montane' and reaching for the Himalayan picture of pine and deodar.

Here an ecosystem is tested through three descriptive statements. The Western Ghats are asked at 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.21 (why UNESCO counts them globally significant) and 13 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.23 (the main threat to their endemic species).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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