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Week 3 of 8 · GS1 + GS3
Week 3: Geography, Environment & Disaster Management
Hazards, conservation, resources and climate risk. 275 marks across the week. Attempt each question online, get a free AWE Bot evaluation, and post your answer for peer review.
Day 1Monday
2 questions · 25 marks- Joshimath cracks under construction load, Mumbai's reclaimed wards settle, Kolkata's deltaic foundations soften, while neighbouring areas stay stable. Discuss why some Indian cities sink while others beside them do not. (10 marks)
- Large Himalayan hydropower cannot be justified until glacial- lake outburst flood risk is mapped and managed. Critically analyse. (15 marks)
Day 2Tuesday
3 questions · 35 marks- A heat wave kills more outdoor workers in one Indian city than in another at the same temperature. Discuss what this asks of how cities are planned and built, not merely how they are warned. (10 marks)
- A flash flood strikes at 2 a.m. before any agency mobilises; the first responders are neighbours with boats. Does this make the trained community the real first line of defence, or only the unavoidable one until the State arrives? (10 marks)
- Faced with the next flood, a state can hold a relief fund or buy insurance that pays out on a pre-set trigger. Which should anchor India's disaster financing? (15 marks)
Day 3Wednesday
5 questions · 65 marks- A tiger reserve seeks to relocate a village whose residents hold Forest Rights Act titles. How far can genuine forest conservation proceed without the consent of those who live in the forest? (10 marks)
- When a herd raids a village, the State owes the farmer compensation and the elephant protection, and the corridor that would prevent the raid runs through his only field. Whose loss should the State weigh first? (10 marks)
- Invasive species like lantana do greater long-term damage than the visible pollution that dominates attention. Do you agree? (15 marks)
- India counts a monoculture plantation and an old-growth forest in the same tree-cover figure, even as natural forest shrinks. Discuss what this counting hides and what it encourages. (15 marks)
- A circular economy is a more durable answer to plastic than bans. Critically evaluate. (15 marks)
Day 4Thursday
6 questions · 75 marks- India loses topsoil far faster than it forms. To what extent is soil degradation a graver long-term threat to food security than any other resource constraint? (10 marks)
- The Sundarbans are retreating and the Godavari and Krishna deltas are starved of the silt that once built them. Discuss whether dams upstream or the rising sea poses the greater threat to the survival of India's deltas. (10 marks)
- Western disturbances are shifting the sowing windows for North India's winter wheat. To what extent can better forecasting, rather than a change in the cropping calendar, protect the rabi harvest? (10 marks)
- India spans nearly two hours of solar time on one clock. How far is the case for a separate north-east time zone justified? (15 marks)
- The river basin, not the state, should be the unit of water planning. Critically analyse. (15 marks)
- The Arabian Sea, once far quieter than the Bay of Bengal, has produced a run of severe cyclones. Discuss what this overturns in the west coast's risk assumptions, and what Mumbai or Kochi must now plan for. (15 marks)
Day 5Friday
3 questions · 40 marks- India risks trading dependence on imported oil for dependence on imported minerals. Comment. (10 marks)
- Ethanol blending leans on the crops that strain India's land and water. Discuss whether second-generation biofuels from waste can resolve this. (15 marks)
- A state can keep farm power free and watch its water table fall, or meter it and risk the next election. Which is the more defensible choice for a government answerable to both its farmers and its aquifers? (15 marks)
Day 6Saturday
3 questions · 35 marks- On a city's edge, a single stretch of land is claimed at once by farms, a factory, a housing colony and the forest department. Comment on whether land has become India's hardest resource conflict to resolve. (10 marks)
- Saving India's fisheries will require capping catches now, even at the cost of fishers' incomes. Discuss. (10 marks)
- Dhanbad sits on coal, Keonjhar on iron ore, Bastar on bauxite, yet all three rank among India's poorest districts. Comment on why mineral wealth has so consistently failed to become local development. (15 marks)
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What does Week 3 cover?
Week 3 focuses on Geography, Environment & Disaster Management (GS1 + GS3): Hazards, conservation, resources and climate risk. You write GS questions Monday to Saturday.
Are these official UPSC questions?
No — they are original UnlockIAS practice questions modelled on the UPSC Mains pattern, written for the Daily Answer Writing programme, not official past papers.
How do I get my answer evaluated?
Open any question, write your answer and get one free AWE Bot AI evaluation against the UPSC rubric. Post it to get peer review too. Unlimited evaluations and model answers are part of the Sherlocking Mains Comprehensive Module.
UnlockIAS Daily Answer Writing 2026 programme — original practice questions modelled on the UPSC Mains pattern, not official UPSC past papers.