Environment and Ecology Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 8)

The Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project in Gujarat uses seawater for cooling, disproving the claim that no Indian coal plant uses seawater.

All three statements are false. Some plants use seawater (like Tata Mundra), some stand in water-stressed districts, and many are privately owned. So the number of true statements is none.

The “10 times faster, 30 times denser” figures are common promotion claims. A 2026 systematic review of 51 documents found weak or no firm evidence for many of them. The method may still help at some sites, but each site needs fair comparison.

Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki developed the technique from his study of native plant communities and natural forest succession.

The Miyawaki method is well known for creating dense mini forests on small plots in urban areas, using densely planted native species.

The Zoological Survey of India, with support from the Gujarat Forest Department, has used Biorock technology to restore coral reefs in the Gulf of Kachchh.

A low-voltage electric current passed through a submerged steel framework causes calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide to crystallise onto it, forming a limestone-like base that helps transplanted corals grow faster.

Biorock technology is used to restore damaged coral reefs by growing a mineral base for coral transplants.

Alfalfa, chickpea, and clover are legumes that fix nitrogen through symbiosis with Rhizobium bacteria. Amaranth, purslane, and spinach are not legumes and cannot fix nitrogen.

The statement that PET containers can store any alcoholic beverage is false. The word “any” makes it too broad. UPSC marked it false in 2022.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct: PET fibres blend with wool and cotton, and PET bottles are genuinely recyclable. PET cannot safely store any alcoholic beverage, and incinerating it does emit greenhouse gases.

Gucchi is the local name for the morel mushroom (Morchella), prized in cuisines worldwide, not just in the Himalayas.

Gucchi grows wild in some Himalayan forest areas, particularly in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Gucchi is a fungus (the morel) that grows in some Himalayan forest areas, so statements 1 and 2 are correct. It is not commercially cultivated in the Himalayan foothills of north-eastern India, so statement 3 is false. Lab-scale cultivation trials have been reported, but large-scale commercial farming has not been established.

Ozone pollution typically peaks during sunny, stagnant weather conditions, not during rain or storms, since sunlight drives the chemical reactions that form ground-level ozone.

PM2.5, being much finer than PM10, can penetrate deep into the lungs and cross the lung barrier into the bloodstream.

Statements 1 and 4 are correct. Ozone actually peaks during sunny, stagnant weather (not inclement weather), and it is PM2.5, not PM10, that penetrates the lung barrier into the bloodstream.

Water hyacinth, along with species like Hydrilla verticillata, has been used specifically to remove heavy metals from wastewater in wetland treatment systems.

Microbes in wetland soil convert excess nitrogen into harmless nitrogen gas through a process called denitrification, part of how wetlands filter water.

Aquatic plants absorbing heavy metals and excess nutrients best reflects the kidney analogy, since wetlands filter pollutants from water the way kidneys filter blood.

The tamarind tree is native to tropical Africa, not South Asia. It was introduced to South Asia so long ago that it is often mistakenly assumed to be endemic there.

Moringa is not leguminous. It belongs to its own family, Moringaceae, despite its long pods resembling bean pods.

ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) researches crops like sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, and groundnut suited to semi-arid regions.

All three statements are correct. CCAFS leads India’s Climate-Smart Village approach, CCAFS operates under CGIAR headquartered in Montpellier, France, and ICRISAT is genuinely one of CGIAR’s research centres.

The correct answer is pulp versus seed. Palm oil is pressed from the fleshy pulp of the fruit. Palm kernel oil comes from the kernel inside the seed. Memory hook: pulp gives palm oil, kernel gives kernel oil.