Which of the following National Parks of Uttarakhand was included in the Project Tiger Scheme in 2015?
- (a)Jim Corbett National Park
- (b)Rajaji National Park
- (c)Govind National Park
- (d)Gangotri National Park
Correct — B, Rajaji National Park.
Rajaji National Park was notified as the Rajaji Tiger Reserve by the Uttarakhand government in April 2015, bringing it under Project Tiger as the state's second tiger reserve, after Corbett.
The park itself is older. It was created in 1983 by merging the Rajaji, Motichur and Chilla sanctuaries in the Shivalik foothills, where the Ganga leaves the hills at Haridwar. Tiger-reserve status came 32 years later.
The idea to carry away: Corbett is Uttarakhand's original tiger reserve, Rajaji is its 2015 addition. The year in the stem is what separates the two.
- (a)Jim Corbett National Park — Corbett has been under Project Tiger since the scheme was launched on 1 April 1973, so it was not a 2015 inclusion. The stem asks for the park added in 2015, and that is a different park.
Corbett is the right answer to where Project Tiger was launched, and to India's first national park, set up in 1936 as Hailey National Park.
- (c)Govind National Park — Govind Pashu Vihar is a high-altitude park in Uttarkashi district around the Har-ki-Dun valley and the headwaters of the Tons. Its conservation focus is the snow leopard and other Himalayan fauna, and the 2015 tiger-reserve notification concerned Rajaji.
It is the right answer to the Uttarakhand park that holds Har-ki-Dun, or to the park named after Govind Ballabh Pant.
- (d)Gangotri National Park — Gangotri National Park, set up in 1989 in Uttarkashi, is a glacier-and-alpine park that contains Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri glacier. Its animals are snow leopard, bharal and Himalayan tahr, and the 2015 tiger-reserve notification concerned Rajaji, in the foothills far to its south.
It is the right answer to the largest national park in Uttarakhand, or to the park at the source of the Bhagirathi.
A national park and a tiger reserve are separate legal labels, and one area can carry both. The state notifies a national park under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. A tiger reserve is an overlay under Section 38V of the same Act, notified on the recommendation of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
A tiger reserve has a core, or critical tiger habitat, kept inviolate, and a buffer where people and wildlife coexist. Rajaji's core is its 820 sq km national park; the buffer was assembled from adjoining forest divisions.
Rajaji sits at the western end of the Terai Arc Landscape, which runs along the Himalayan foothills from Uttarakhand through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar into Nepal. Its tiger-reserve status in 2015 joined it formally to Corbett's conservation regime.
The Ganga splits Rajaji into an eastern (Chilla) and a western (Motichur, Haridwar) half, and the narrow Chilla-Motichur corridor is the link between them. Tigers have been translocated from Corbett to the western half from late 2020 onward to repopulate it.
The park is named after C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of India, and its best-known animal is the Asian elephant.
- Rajaji National Park was created in 1983 by merging the Rajaji, Motichur and Chilla sanctuaries, and is named after C. Rajagopalachari.
- Uttarakhand notified Rajaji as a tiger reserve in April 2015, the state's second after Corbett.
- Rajaji spreads across Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal districts, with the Ganga dividing its eastern and western parts.
- The reserve's core is about 820 sq km, with a buffer of roughly 255 sq km added from neighbouring forest divisions.
- Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973, with Corbett among its first reserves.
- Since the 2006 amendment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, tiger reserves are notified by the state under Section 38V on the NTCA's recommendation.
- Gangotri (1989) and Govind Pashu Vihar (1990) are high-altitude parks in Uttarkashi whose flagship animal is the snow leopard.
Two of the four are tiger reserves; Rajaji is the 2015 addition, Corbett the 1973 original.
- The stem asks which park was included in 2015, not which park is the state's best-known tiger reserve; Corbett has been in Project Tiger since 1973.
- A 2016 UKPSC paper printed the same question with the year 2016; anchor on the park, since Rajaji's notification came in April 2015.
- Rajaji is famous for elephants, and that fame can make it look like the wrong kind of park for a tiger question; the 2015 notification is precisely about tigers.
- Govind and Gangotri are Uttarkashi high-altitude parks; their flagship is the snow leopard, not the tiger.
The question pairs a state's protected areas with a national scheme and a year. The same fact can be turned round: which scheme Rajaji joined in 2015, in which year it became a tiger reserve, which sanctuaries formed it, or which Uttarakhand reserves come under Project Tiger.
Sibling questions ask which park is the state's largest, its oldest, or a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and which district each park lies in.
UKPSC_2016_PRE_PaperI_Q232016The same four parks and the same Project Tiger inclusion question. That stem printed the year as 2016, while the Rajaji notification came in April 2015; the park is what identifies the answer, and the printed year differs between the two papers.
UPPSC_2018_PRE_GSI_Q452018Asks the national launch year of Project Tiger (1973), a country-level fact about the same scheme. This question asks a state-level inclusion year for one park (2015), and the two years must not be confused.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Rajaji National Park was created in 1983 by merging three sanctuaries. Which one of the following was NOT among them?
- (a)Motichur
- (b)Chilla
- (c)Sonanadi
- (d)Rajaji
Answerc — Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary lies in the Corbett landscape and forms part of Corbett Tiger Reserve, not Rajaji. Rajaji, Motichur and Chilla are the three sanctuaries merged in 1983 to make the national park, so options a, b and d were all part of it. - practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the following events in chronological order: 1. Rajaji notified as a tiger reserve 2. Project Tiger launched 3. Rajaji National Park established 4. NTCA given statutory backing by amendment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)2, 3, 4, 1
- (b)3, 2, 4, 1
- (c)2, 3, 1, 4
- (d)3, 2, 1, 4
Answera — Project Tiger was launched in 1973, Rajaji National Park was established in 1983, the NTCA was given statutory backing by the 2006 amendment, and Rajaji was notified a tiger reserve in 2015.Options b and d put the park (1983) before the scheme (1973); options c and d put the 2015 notification before the 2006 amendment.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following national parks of Uttarakhand is the largest by area?
- (a)Jim Corbett National Park
- (b)Rajaji National Park
- (c)Gangotri National Park
- (d)Nanda Devi National Park
Answerc — Gangotri National Park covers roughly 2,390 sq km, far more than Rajaji (about 820 sq km), Nanda Devi (about 625 sq km) or the Corbett national park proper (about 520 sq km). Corbett's larger figure of about 1,288 sq km is for the tiger reserve including buffer, not the national park.