UPSC Prelims 2017 · Question 45 of 99

UPSC Prelims 2017 question on Asiatic Lion Translocation Kuno

Recently there was a proposal to translocate some of the lions from their natural habitat in Gujarat to which one of the following sites?

  1. Corbett National Park
  2. Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary
  3. Mundumalai Wildlife Sanctuary
  4. Sariska National Park
Show answer

Answer: B. Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

Verdict

The answer is Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary. It was proposed as the second home for the Asiatic lion.

Analysis

An expert committee of the environment ministry approved Kuno Palpur in Madhya Pradesh as a second home for the Asiatic lion, which survives in the wild only in and around Gir in Gujarat. The purpose of translocation is to insure the single surviving population against epidemic or catastrophe. Corbett is a tiger landscape in the Himalayan foothills, Mudumalai lies in the Nilgiris in the far south, and Sariska in Rajasthan is known for its tiger reintroduction, so none of the three was the proposed site.

Source

The Hindu reporting on the proposed lion transfer.

How to crack it

For a translocation question, ask which site offers habitat similar to the source and lies at a safe distance from it. The Asiatic lion is a dry deciduous and scrub forest animal, so the candidate site must be dry central Indian forest rather than Himalayan or Nilgiri terrain, which eliminates two options at once. Note also the long running Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh dispute over the transfer, which is what keeps this topic examinable year after year.

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