UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats causing fear among farmers: Shivakumar
Q1. Which one of the following best describes the zoning approach recommended by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (2011), as distinct from that of the High Level Working Group (2013)?
- A. Grading the whole of the Western Ghats into three ecological sensitivity zones, with permitted activities varying by zone
- B. Imposing a single uniform prohibitory regime over the entire Ghats, under which all existing settlements were to be relocated
- C. Demarcating only the contiguous natural-landscape belt as one sensitive area, the remainder being left entirely free of regulation
- D. Confining sensitive-area status exclusively to the 39 World Heritage component sites, all other stretches being wholly exempt
Q2. The Gadgil panel envisaged that regulation within its proposed Western Ghats zones would be operationalised primarily through which one of the following?
- A. Gram sabhas and local bodies, working within the panel's graded zonal framework
- B. Expert Appraisal Committees of the Union environment ministry, clearing each project centrally
- C. District-level cells of the State Pollution Control Boards, issuing consent for every land use
- D. Regional benches of the National Green Tribunal, ruling on activities zone by zone
Q3. The Western Ghats World Heritage property is a serial property made up of how many component parts?
Q4. The Western Ghats were inscribed on the World Heritage List as a 'serial property'. The expression denotes a property that —
- A. consists of several geographically separated components which together carry one Outstanding Universal Value
- B. is inscribed in successive stages, one further component being added at each session of the World Heritage Committee
- C. lies across the territory of two or more States Parties, its components adjoining an international boundary
- D. qualifies under both natural and cultural criteria, its components being ranked in order of ecological value
Q5. Which one of the following statements about the power to notify an Ecologically Sensitive Area in India is correct?
- A. The Central Government notifies it under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, read with Rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986
- B. State Governments notify it exclusively under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, the Union Government having no role in the process
- C. The National Green Tribunal alone is competent to declare it, and every such declaration is final and not open to appeal
- D. The National Board for Wild Life declares it under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, invariably covering 10 km around every protected area
Q6. Consider the following statements comparing Ecologically Sensitive Areas of the Western Ghats with other protective designations:
1. Ecologically Sensitive Areas and the Eco-Sensitive Zones declared around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries are both notified by the Central Government under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
2. Unlike the Gadgil panel's zoning, which extended over the whole of the Western Ghats, the Kasturirangan panel's Ecologically Sensitive Area is confined to the natural landscape identified within the Ghats.
3. Unlike Eco-Sensitive Zones around protected areas, the draft Western Ghats notification places no limit on the size of new building and construction projects.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Ecologically Sensitive Areas and the Eco-Sensitive Zones declared around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries are both notified by the Central Government under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- Unlike the Gadgil panel's zoning, which extended over the whole of the Western Ghats, the Kasturirangan panel's Ecologically Sensitive Area is confined to the natural landscape identified within the Ghats.
- Unlike Eco-Sensitive Zones around protected areas, the draft Western Ghats notification places no limit on the size of new building and construction projects.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 2 and 3 only
- C. 1 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q7. In the prohibition of 'red category' industries within the proposed Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area, the expression 'red category' denotes industries that are —
- A. placed in the most polluting class of the Central Pollution Control Board's sectoral categorisation
- B. situated within ten kilometres of the boundary of a national park or a wildlife sanctuary
- C. refused environmental clearance at least once by the Expert Appraisal Committee concerned
- D. operating with a built-up or covered area in excess of twenty thousand square metres
Q8. Consider the following pairs of State and the Ecologically Sensitive Area extent proposed for it in the Centre's draft Western Ghats notification:
1. Karnataka — about 20,668 sq km
2. Tamil Nadu — about 17,340 sq km
3. Kerala — about 9,993.7 sq km
4. Gujarat — about 6,914 sq km
Which of the above pairs are NOT correctly matched?
- Karnataka — about 20,668 sq km
- Tamil Nadu — about 17,340 sq km
- Kerala — about 9,993.7 sq km
- Gujarat — about 6,914 sq km
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 1, 2 and 4
- D. 3 only
Q9. In his September 2026 statement in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister warned that implementing the Kasturirangan report could threaten livelihoods in how many districts of the State?
Q10. The draft Ecologically Sensitive Area notification for the Western Ghats, on which Karnataka was asked in September 2026 to convey its decision, is issued by which one of the following?
- A. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
- B. The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, which alone decides agricultural land use in the States
- C. The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, whose consent is mandatory for every land use in the Ghats
- D. The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court, whose recommendations bind all the six Ghat States
Q11. Consider the following statements regarding the 'Kerala model' invoked by Karnataka's farmers in the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area debate:
1. A committee headed by Oommen V. Oommen was constituted by the Kerala Government to examine the Kasturirangan report.
2. The Kasturirangan working group had identified about 13,108 sq km in Kerala, covering 123 villages, as Ecologically Sensitive Area.
3. The extent of Ecologically Sensitive Area carried forward for Kerala in the Centre's 2026 draft notification is about 9,993.7 sq km.
4. Kerala's further studies have sought to enlarge the State's Ecologically Sensitive Area to 8,590 sq km by bringing inhabited areas, agricultural land and plantations within it.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- A committee headed by Oommen V. Oommen was constituted by the Kerala Government to examine the Kasturirangan report.
- The Kasturirangan working group had identified about 13,108 sq km in Kerala, covering 123 villages, as Ecologically Sensitive Area.
- The extent of Ecologically Sensitive Area carried forward for Kerala in the Centre's 2026 draft notification is about 9,993.7 sq km.
- Kerala's further studies have sought to enlarge the State's Ecologically Sensitive Area to 8,590 sq km by bringing inhabited areas, agricultural land and plantations within it.
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 1, 2 and 4
- D. 4 only
Q12. Which one of the following correctly states the authority under which the successive draft Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area notifications have been issued, and when the first of them was issued?
- A. By the Central Government under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; the first draft was issued in March 2014
- B. By the Central Government under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980; the first draft was issued in March 2014
- C. By the Central Government under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; the first draft was issued in April 2013
- D. By the six State Governments under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002; the first draft was issued in September 2015