UPPSC 2020 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 81 of 150

Marked answer per the official UPPSC 2020 key — (c) Darbhanga, Bihar. Read this one with an important caveat: the key's answer is NOT supported by any documented source, and every mainstream account places the movement's birthplace elsewhere. The Mitti Bachao (Save the Soil) Movement, or Mitti Bachao Abhiyan, is recorded as having begun in 1977 in the Hoshangabad district (now Narmadapuram) of Madhya Pradesh, in the Tawa command area. Farmers there mobilised against severe waterlogging and soil salinity/alkalinity that had made once-fertile land unproductive after the Tawa Dam and its irrigation canals raised the water table. On the documented history, the correct place is therefore option (d) Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh. We retain (c) here only because it is the mark on the official key; students should note this as a recognised key error and remember the movement as a Hoshangabad/Madhya Pradesh, Tawa-Dam episode.

• (a)Thane, Maharashtra — Not associated with the Mitti Bachao Movement; there is no documented soil-salinity movement of this name originating at Thane.
• (b)Mysore, Karnataka — Not linked to the Mitti Bachao Movement; Karnataka's better-known grassroots ecology movement is the Appiko (tree-hugging) movement, a different cause.
• (d)Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh — This is, in fact, the documented birthplace of the movement (Tawa command area, 1977) and is the historically correct answer — but the official UPPSC key does NOT mark it; it marks (c). Flagged here only because the key disagrees with the sources.

The Mitti Bachao (Save the Soil) Movement is a farmers' environmental movement against soil degradation — specifically waterlogging and salinisation of agricultural land in a large-dam command area. Its widely documented origin is the Tawa project region of Hoshangabad (Narmadapuram) district, Madhya Pradesh, in the late 1970s. It belongs with India's post-1970s grassroots ecology movements (Chipko, Appiko, Narmada Bachao Andolan) that linked livelihoods to protection of a natural resource — here, fertile soil.

This is a factual recall about where a named movement began. The honest difficulty is that the official key marks (c) Darbhanga, Bihar, which no source supports; the documented origin is Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh (option d). For the exam record the marked answer is (c), but the fact worth learning is the Tawa-Dam waterlogging story in Madhya Pradesh. The trap the paper-setter created is a place-name swap; anchor the movement firmly to Hoshangabad/Tawa/MP so you are not misled.

• Mitti Bachao Abhiyan (Save the Soil) — documented origin 1977, Hoshangabad (now Narmadapuram) district, Madhya Pradesh
• Grievance: waterlogging and soil salinity/alkalinity in the Tawa Dam command area, which damaged farmland
• It is a soil-focused environmental movement, in the family of Chipko and Narmada Bachao Andolan
• KEY CONFLICT: the UPPSC 2020 official key marks (c) Darbhanga, Bihar, but no source supports this; the sourced answer is (d) Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh

• Place-name swap traps — memorise the movement's home region (Hoshangabad/Tawa, MP), not just the name
• Confusing Mitti Bachao (soil, MP) with Chipko (forests, Uttarakhand) or Appiko (forests, Karnataka)

UPPSC/UPSC pair a named environmental movement with its place or cause; here the movement-to-place link (Mitti Bachao → Hoshangabad/Tawa, Madhya Pradesh), noting the official key's disputed (c).

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mitti Bachao (Save the Soil) Movement was primarily a response to which form of land degradation in a dam command area?

  • (a)Wind erosion
  • (b)Waterlogging and soil salinity
  • (c)Overgrazing
  • (d)Industrial contamination

  Answer(b) Waterlogging and soil salinity — caused by a rising water table in the Tawa command area of Madhya Pradesh.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following environmental movements is most closely associated with the protection of forests rather than soil?

  • (a)Mitti Bachao Movement
  • (b)Chipko Movement
  • (c)Save the Soil campaign
  • (d)Anti-salinity drive

  Answer(b) Chipko Movement — a forest-protection movement of the Himalayan region, unlike the soil-focused Mitti Bachao.