Match List - I with List - II and select the correct answer from the code given below the lists. List - I (National Park / Wildlife Sanctuary) A. Dachingam B. Keoladeo C. Kanha D. Periyar List - II (State / Union Territory) 1. Madhya Pradesh 2. Rajasthan 3. Kerala 4. Jammu and Kashmir
- (a)A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1
- (b)A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1
- (c)A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
- (d)A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
Correct — D, A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3. Dachigam National Park — the booklet prints the name as 'Dachingam' — lies just outside Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir (4) and is the last stronghold of the hangul or Kashmir stag. Keoladeo National Park is at Bharatpur in Rajasthan (2), a man-made wetland famous for its wintering waterbirds. Kanha National Park is in Madhya Pradesh (1), in the Maikal hills, and is known for the hard-ground barasingha. Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve is in Kerala (3), set around the Periyar reservoir in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats. Only option (d) carries all four pairings.
- (a)A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1 — The first two pairs are right, but it then sends Kanha to Kerala and Periyar to Madhya Pradesh. Kanha is a central-Indian sal and grassland park in the Maikal range of Madhya Pradesh; Periyar is a Western Ghats park built around a reservoir in Kerala's Idukki district. The two cannot be exchanged.
- (b)A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1 — Every pair is wrong. It moves Dachigam to Rajasthan and Keoladeo to Jammu and Kashmir, and then also swaps Kanha with Periyar — the option is the mirror image of the correct code.
- (c)A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3 — Kanha and Periyar are placed correctly, but the first two are swapped: Dachigam is given to Rajasthan and Keoladeo to Jammu and Kashmir. Dachigam is a Kashmir Valley park in the Zabarwan hills; Keoladeo is the old duck-shooting reserve of the Bharatpur rulers in eastern Rajasthan.
Each of these four is a flagship protected area with a signature species or feature, and that is the reliable way to place them. Dachigam means 'ten villages' and holds the hangul, the state animal of Jammu and Kashmir. Keoladeo is a shallow man-made wetland created by the Bharatpur rulers as a duck-shooting reserve, now a Ramsar site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kanha is the core of Kanha Tiger Reserve and the last refuge of the hard-ground barasingha. Periyar is a tiger and elephant reserve wrapped around the reservoir created by the Mullaperiyar dam.
Match lists like this are decided by the one pairing you are surest of. If you know only that Keoladeo is Bharatpur — and therefore Rajasthan — you have already eliminated the two options that put it in Jammu and Kashmir. Then the hangul fixes Dachigam to J&K, and only (a) and (d) survive; the barasingha fixes Kanha to Madhya Pradesh and settles it. Note the booklet's spelling: it prints 'Dachingam', while the official spelling of the park is Dachigam. The name is unmistakable either way, and the question is unaffected.
- Dachigam National Park, near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, is the principal home of the hangul or Kashmir stag, the state animal, which the IUCN lists as Critically Endangered; the park is divided into Lower and Upper Dachigam
- Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, is a man-made wetland and a former royal duck-shooting reserve; it is both a Ramsar site (1981) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1985), and was once the wintering ground of the Siberian crane
- Kanha National Park in the Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh is famous for the hard-ground barasingha (swamp deer), a sub-species that survives essentially only there
- Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve, Idukki district, Kerala, lies in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats around the Periyar (Thekkady) lake formed by the Mullaperiyar dam, and is known for its elephants
- The booklet prints 'Dachingam'; the official spelling of the park is Dachigam
- Pairing Dachigam with Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand because it 'sounds Himalayan' — it is in the Kashmir Valley
- Confusing Keoladeo (Bharatpur, Rajasthan) with Sultanpur National Park, which is a comparable bird park but in Haryana
- Mixing up Kerala's own parks — Periyar, Silent Valley and Eravikulam are three different places with three different claims to fame
UPPSC uses a four-item park-to-state match list, sometimes with an odd transliteration of the name; UPSC prefers 'consider the following pairs' and links a protected area to its species, its river or the range it sits in.
Match List I (National Park/Sanctuary) with List II (State) and select the correct answer using the codes given below: List I (A) Kanger Ghati National Park (B) Nagerhole National Park (C) Kugti Wildlife Sanctuary (D) Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary List II 1. Chhattisgarh 2. Haryana 3. Himachal Pradesh 4. Karnataka Codes: A B C D
- (a) 3 2 1 4
- (b) 1 4 3 2
- (c) 3 4 1 2
- (d) 1 2 3 4
Answer(b) 1 4 3 2
The identical concept and the identical format — a national park and sanctuary list matched against states. Kanger Ghati, Nagarhole, Kugti and Sultanpur test exactly the same map-of-protected-areas recall that this 2025 question does.
Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists: List I (National Park/Wild-life Sanctuary) (A) Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary (B) Kangerghat National Park (C) Orang Sanctuary (D) Ushakothi Wildlife Sanctuary List II (State) 1. Orissa 2. Assam 3. Chhattisgarh 4. Goa 5. Tripura
- (a) A–2 B–4 C–5 D–1
- (b) A–4 B–3 C–2 D–1
- (c) A–2 B–3 C–5 D–4
- (d) A–4 B–1 C–2 D–3
Answer(b) A–4 B–3 C–2 D–1
Another park-to-state match list from UPSC, with the same design logic: two of the four pairs are easy anchors and the code is then decided by elimination, which is the technique this UPPSC item rewards.
Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists : List – I (National Parks) A. Indravati B. Mollem C. Kalesar D. Betva List – II (States) 1. Jharkhand 2. Haryana 3. Goa 4. Chhattisgarh Codes :
- (a) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
- (b) A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1
- (c) A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2
- (d) A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1
Answer(a) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
The same question type from the same commission five years earlier — four national parks matched to their states, including the same habit of printing a park's name in a variant spelling ('Betva' for Betla, as against 'Dachingam' for Dachigam here).
- practice — not a real PYQ
The hard-ground barasingha (swamp deer) is the signature species of which national park?
- (a)Kaziranga National Park
- (b)Kanha National Park
- (c)Dudhwa National Park
- (d)Keoladeo National Park
Answer(b) Kanha National Park — the hard-ground sub-species of the swamp deer survives essentially only in Kanha, in Madhya Pradesh.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is a man-made wetland that is both a Ramsar site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
- (a)Chilika Lake
- (b)Loktak Lake
- (c)Keoladeo National Park
- (d)Sambhar Lake
Answer(c) Keoladeo National Park — the Bharatpur wetland was created by the local rulers as a duck-shooting reserve and carries both designations; Chilika, Loktak and Sambhar are Ramsar sites but not World Heritage Sites.