UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — “Bhavasagara” Referral Centre Designated as India’s National Repository for Deep-Sea Fauna

Q1. The Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology (CMLRE), Kochi, functions as an attached office of which one of the following Union ministries?

  • A. Ministry of Earth Sciences
  • B. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
  • C. Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying
  • D. Ministry of Science and Technology

Q2. National repositories for categories of biological resources are designated under which one of the following provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002?

  • A. Section 36
  • B. Section 39
  • C. Section 40
  • D. Section 41

Q3. Under Section 39 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, a designated 'repository' is best described as an institution which:

  • A. keeps in safe custody biological material, including voucher specimens, of designated categories of biological resources
  • B. grants access and benefit-sharing approvals to foreign entities seeking Indian genetic resources
  • C. prepares People's Biodiversity Registers documenting local biological resources at the village level
  • D. regulates the export of biological resources obtained for commercial utilisation

Q4. The two institutions added to the national repository network in 2026 were notified under Section 39 by the Central Government in consultation with which one of the following bodies?

  • A. National Biodiversity Authority
  • B. National Biodiversity Board
  • C. Wildlife Institute of India
  • D. Central Zoo Authority

Q5. Following the 2026 notifications that added the Bhavasagara Centre and the Agharkar Research Institute collection, how many institutions in total now stand designated as national repositories under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002?

  • A. 18
  • B. 19
  • C. 20
  • D. 22

Q6. Which one of the following collections, based at Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, was designated a national repository under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 in 2026?

  • A. MACS Collection of Microorganisms & National Fungal Culture Collection
  • B. Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC), Chandigarh
  • C. National Centre for Cell Science culture collection
  • D. National Centre for Microbial Resource

Q7. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 — under which the Bhavasagara Centre was designated — was enacted primarily to give domestic effect to which one of the following international instruments?

  • A. Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992
  • B. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
  • C. Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
  • D. Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)

Q8. With reference to the Convention on Biological Diversity and India's domestic framework, which of the following are correctly identified?

  1. The National Biodiversity Authority operates at the national level of the three-tier architecture.
  2. Biodiversity Management Committees function at the local level.
  3. India ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1994.
  4. The Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in the year 2002.
  • A. 1 and 3 only
  • B. 2 and 4 only
  • C. 1, 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q9. In the context of Bhavasagara's notification, the 'designating ministry' — the ministry that designated the centre as a national repository under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 — refers to which one of the following?

  • A. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
  • B. Ministry of Earth Sciences
  • C. Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying
  • D. Ministry of Science and Technology