Arrange the following events in chronological order of their commencement and select correct answer from the codes given below : I. Wild Life (Protection) Act II. Biological Diversity Act III. Project Tiger IV. Project Elephant Codes :
- (a)I, II, III, IV
- (b)I, III, IV, II
- (c)II, III, IV, I
- (d)II, III, I, IV
Correct — B, I, III, IV, II. Placed by year of commencement the sequence is: the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (I) — India's foundational wildlife statute; Project Tiger, launched on 1 April 1973 (III), the very next year and squarely on the legal machinery the new Act had just created; Project Elephant, launched in February 1992 (IV); and the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (II), passed to give domestic effect to the Convention on Biological Diversity. So the order runs 1972 → 1973 → 1992 → 2002, which is exactly the code I, III, IV, II.
- (a)I, II, III, IV — This starts correctly with the 1972 Act but then places the Biological Diversity Act (2002) second, ahead of Project Tiger (1973) and Project Elephant (1992). The biodiversity law is the most recent of the four, not the second oldest.
- (c)II, III, IV, I — It puts the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 first and the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 last — a complete inversion of the two statutes. The 1972 Act predates the biodiversity law by three decades.
- (d)II, III, I, IV — Again the 2002 biodiversity law is placed first, and the 1972 Act is pushed to third position behind Project Tiger. Project Tiger could not have preceded the Act under which India's protected-area system operates.
India's wildlife regime is best remembered as law first, then species programmes, then biodiversity as a whole. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 supplied the framework — schedules of protected species, a general prohibition on hunting, and the power to declare national parks and sanctuaries. Species-specific centrally sponsored schemes were then layered on top of it: Project Tiger in 1973 and Project Elephant in 1992. Three decades later the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 widened the lens from charismatic species to genetic resources and traditional knowledge, setting up a three-tier structure — the National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards, and Biodiversity Management Committees at the local level.
Chronology questions are won by fixing one or two anchors rather than trying to recall four dates. Two anchors settle this item: the 1972 Act is the oldest of the four (every code that does not begin with I can be struck out immediately, which kills options c and d), and the Biological Diversity Act is the youngest (which kills option a). Only option b survives. A helpful memory hook for the middle pair: Project Elephant began in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit that produced the Convention on Biological Diversity — and it was that convention which India later implemented through the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
- Wild Life (Protection) Act — 1972; the parent legislation for schedules of protected species, national parks and sanctuaries.
- Project Tiger — launched 1 April 1973 from Jim Corbett National Park with nine tiger reserves; now steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
- Project Elephant — launched in February 1992 as a centrally sponsored scheme for elephants, their habitat and corridors.
- Biological Diversity Act — 2002; the National Biodiversity Authority was established at Chennai in 2003.
- The Biological Diversity Act is India's domestic response to the Convention on Biological Diversity, opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
- Present-day note for a 2026 reader: both statutes have since been amended — the Wild Life (Protection) Act in 2022 (schedules rationalised and CITES obligations built in) and the Biological Diversity Act in 2023.
- 1972 — Wild Life (Protection) Act (I): schedules of protected species, hunting ban, national parks and sanctuaries
- 1 April 1973 — Project Tiger (III): launched from Jim Corbett National Park with nine tiger reserves
- February 1992 — Project Elephant (IV): elephants, their habitat and migration corridors
- 2002 — Biological Diversity Act (II): NBA, State Biodiversity Boards and Biodiversity Management Committees
Answer (b): the sequence is 1972 → 1973 → 1992 → 2002, i.e. I, III, IV, II. Fixing the 1972 Act as the oldest eliminates two of the four codes at once.
- Assuming the big-name projects came before the law — the 1972 Act is the parent statute and precedes every one of these programmes.
- Mixing up the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 with the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity it implements; the treaty is a decade older than the Indian law.
- Confusing the year a scheme was launched with the year its statutory authority was created — Project Tiger began in 1973, but the National Tiger Conservation Authority was set up only after the 2006 amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act.
UPPSC repeatedly serves this exact set as a chronology or matching item — the same four events appeared again in its 2020 paper with the codes shuffled — while UPSC prefers to test the content of these laws: what a Schedule I listing implies, or what the National Biodiversity Authority actually does.
In India, if a species of tortoise is declared protected under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, what does it imply?
- (a) It enjoys the same level of protection as the tiger.
- (b) It no longer exists in the wild, a few individuals are under captive protection; and now it is impossible to prevent its extinction.
- (c) It is endemic to a particular region of India.
- (d) Both (b) and (c) stated above are correct in this context.
Answer(a) It enjoys the same level of protection as the tiger.
The first item of this chronology, tested for content instead of date: what the 1972 Act actually does once a species is listed in Schedule I.
How does National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) help in protecting the Indian agriculture? 1. NBA checks the biopiracy and protects the indigenous and traditional genetic resources. 2. NBA directly monitors and supervises the scientific research on genetic modification of crop plants. 3. Application for Intellectual Property Rights related to genetic/biological resources cannot be made without the approval of NBA. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 1 and 3 only
The last item of this chronology from the inside: the National Biodiversity Authority is the body the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 created, and UPSC tests what powers it holds over biopiracy and IPR clearances.
Arrange the following events in chronological order of their commencement : I. Project Tiger II. Project Elephant III. Wildlife Protect Act IV. Biological Diversity Act Select the correct answer using the codes given below. Codes :
- (a) I, II, III, IV
- (b) II, I, IV, III
- (c) III, I, II, IV
- (d) III, IV, I, II
Answer(c) III, I, II, IV
The identical four events repeated in the very next UPPSC paper with the Roman numerals reassigned — proof that this chronology is worth memorising as a sequence of years (1972, 1973, 1992, 2002) rather than as a code.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Project Tiger was launched in 1973 from which national park?
- (a)Kanha National Park
- (b)Jim Corbett National Park
- (c)Bandipur National Park
- (d)Ranthambore National Park
Answer(b) Jim Corbett National Park — Project Tiger was launched from Corbett on 1 April 1973 with an initial nine tiger reserves; Kanha, Bandipur and Ranthambore were among those nine but were not the launch site.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was enacted primarily to give effect in India to which international agreement?
- (a)Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
- (b)Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
- (c)Convention on Biological Diversity
- (d)United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Answer(c) Convention on Biological Diversity — the CBD, opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, requires parties to regulate access to genetic resources and share benefits; the 2002 Act and the National Biodiversity Authority are India's machinery for doing so.