Wildlife & Wetlands — PPSC previous year questions

Rudrasagar Lake is a Ramsar wetland in Tripura (site of the Neermahal palace), not in Punjab. Harike (at the Beas-Sutlej confluence), Ropar (on the Sutlej) and Kanjli (on the Kali Bein near Kapurthala) are the three Ramsar wetlands of Punjab designated in 1990 and 2002.

Punjab's state tree is Sheesham (Dalbergia sissoo), the hardwood of the Indo-Gangetic plain prized for furniture; in Punjabi it is called Tahli. The other state symbols are the blackbuck (animal), the northern goshawk or baaz (bird) and the Indus river dolphin (aquatic animal). Neem, Peepal and Kikar are common Punjab trees but not state symbols.

Kanjli Wetland, a man-made lake on the Kali Bein rivulet, lies in Kapurthala district and was designated a Ramsar site in 2002, the same year as Ropar; Punjab's oldest Ramsar site, Harike, was designated in 1990. The state's other Ramsar sites are Keshopur-Miani (Gurdaspur), Beas Conservation Reserve and Nangal (added 2019-20).

None of the six pairs is correct. Jenkin's shrew is found in the Andaman Islands. The forest owlet lives in central India and the Namdapha flying squirrel in Arunachal Pradesh. The Sangai deer is from Manipur and the spoon-billed sandpiper from the eastern coasts. The Pinta giant tortoise (Galápagos) and the pink-headed duck are extinct. The red-crowned roofed turtle lives in the Chambal and the Elvira rat in Tamil Nadu. The Asiatic cheetah survives only in Iran. Albatrosses are southern-ocean seabirds. So the count of correctly matched pairs is zero. None of the ranges in (a)–(c) applies.

The state bird of Punjab is the Northern Goshawk (Baaz), not the peacock (India's national bird). The other statements are correct: the state tree is Shisham/Tahli, the state animal is the blackbuck, and the Indus river dolphin was declared the state aquatic animal in 2019.

Punjab's state animal is the Blackbuck and its state bird is the Baaz (Northern Goshawk), so II and III are correct. The state tree is the Shisham (Tahli), not Neem, and the state flower is the Gladiolus, not Sunflower.

The state bird of Punjab is the northern goshawk or baaz, whose zoological name is Accipiter gentilis; the bird carries strong Sikh associations through Guru Gobind Singh. Antilope cervicapra is the blackbuck, Punjab's state animal, Dalbergia sissoo is shisham, the state tree, and Eichhornia crassipes is the water hyacinth, an invasive weed.

Harike Wetland lies at the confluence of the Beas and the Sutlej, near Harike town. It spreads over Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Kapurthala districts. The Harike headworks and the Harike Pattan bird sanctuary are its best-known parts. It was declared a Ramsar site in 1990 and is the largest wetland in northern India. Among the options only Tarn Taran fits.

Punjab has thirteen wildlife sanctuaries: Abohar, Harike, Bir Moti Bagh, Bir Bhadson, Bir Mehas, Bir Gurdialpura, Bir Bhunerheri, Bir Dosanjh, Bir Aishvan, Takhni-Rehmapur, Jhajjar-Bachauli, Kathlaur-Kushlian and Nangal. Harike is the largest. Seven of the thirteen are 'Bir' sanctuaries, the old hunting preserves of the princely states of Patiala, Nabha and Jind.

Hoshiarpur, lying in the Shivalik foothills (Kandi belt), has the highest percentage of its area under forest of any Punjab district. Sri Muktsar Sahib, in the dry south-west, has among the lowest.