Question 3: Consider the following statements:

1. Assam has the highest number of Elephant reserves.
2. Karnataka has highest number of elephants.
3. The European Union has been the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) program’s most significant dinor.
4. India has more than 40 elephant’s reserves.

Which of the following statements is/are true?

1. 1,2 and 3
2. 2,3 and 4
3. 1,2 and 4
4. 1,2,3 and 4

Correct Answer: A

Explanation

• Tamil Nadu and Assam have the highest number of ERs (5 each) followed by Kerala (4) and Odisha (3).
• Karnataka has highest number of elephants, followed by Assam and Kerala.
• Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE), an international effort for conservation of elephants in Asia and Africa.
• MIKE program began in South Asia in 2003, as mandated by CITES COP resolution, with the goal to provide information needed for elephant range states to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, as well as to build institutional capacity within range states for long-term elephant population management.
• The MIKE Program is entirely reliant on donations. The European Union has been the MIKE program’s most significant donor, funding implementation in Africa since its inception in 2001 and in Asia since 2017.

MIKE Sites in India

• Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve, Assam
• Deomali Elephant Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh
• Dihing Patkai Elephant Reserve, Assam
• Garo Hills Elephant Reserve, Meghalaya
• Eastern Dooars Elephant Reserve, West Bengal
• Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve, Odisha
• Shivalik Elephant Reserve, Uttarakhand
• Mysore Elephant Reserve, Karnataka
• Nilgiri Elephant Reserve, Tamil Nadu
• Wayanad Elephant Reserve, Kerala

 

• The current population estimates indicate that there are about 50,000 – 60000 Asian elephants in the world. More than 60% of the population is held in India. Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February India has 31 elephant reserves.

Question 4: Consider the following statements:

1. Qatar shares land border with the UAE.
2. Kuwait shares land border with Iraq.
3. Passport Island is an island divided between Bahrain and UAE.

Which of the following statements is/are true?

1. 1 and 2
2. 2 only
3. 2 and 3
4. 1 and 3

Correct Answer: B

Explanation

• Qatar lacks direct land borders with the UAE, and overland traffic from the country must pass through Saudi Arabia.
• Kuwait is bounded to the west and north by Iraq, to the east by the Persian Gulf, and to the south by Saudi Arabia.
• Passport Island is an island divided between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It is 2.5 km (1.6 mi) and is used for the bridge connecting mainland Saudi Arabia and Bahrain’s main island. The King Fahd Causeway opened in 1986 and included the building of the artificial island. Its route was chosen as the shortest path between the island of Bahrain and mainland Saudi Arabia. It is named after King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, then ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Question 5: Consider the following statements:

1. Low earth orbit is an orbit at an altitude of less than 1000 km and should be greater than 450 km.
2. A geostationary orbit is a circular orbit where the satellite always orbits at the same velocity as Khe rotation of the earth on its axis.
3. The elliptical orbit at the same altitude as geostationary satellites is called geosynchronous orbit.

Which of the following statements is/are true?

1. 1 and 2
2. 2 and 3
3. 1 and 3
4. 1,2 and 3

Correct Answer: B

Explanation

• LEO is an orbit at an altitude of less than 1000 km but could be as low as 160 km above Earth.
• Objects in LEO are subject to atmospheric drag since they remain within the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, specifically the thermosphere.
• A geostationary orbit is a circular orbit where the satellite always orbits at the same velocity as the rotation of the earth on its axis, so that it is always over the same part of the earth.
• How high or low an orbit is, is determined by the satellite’s orbital velocity.
• The elliptical (non-circular) orbit at the same altitude as geostationary satellites is still called geosynchronous–the satellite will move across the sky but return to the same place at a given point in its orbit, so it’s synchronized with earth’s rotation.
• One benefit of geostationary satellites is that it’s easy to contact them all the time; you just point your dish at the right part of the This is great for satellite television, say. You can still easily contact a geosynchronous but not geostationary satellite at predictable intervals by pointing your dish at a point in the sky you know it’ll return to every day, which may be reliable enough for other uses.

Question 6: Consider the following statements:

1. Satellites that are further away travel slower.
2. The International Space Station has a Low Earth Orbit above the earth’s surface.
3. The speed of Geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellites should be about 40 km per second at an altitude of 35786 km.

Which of the following statements is/are true?

1. 1 and 2
2. 2 and 3
3. 1 and 3
4. 1,2 and 3

Correct Answer: A

Explanation

• LEO satellites move at around 5 km/s velocity relative to a fixed point on the Earth (ground station).
• In order to perfectly match Earth’s rotation, the speed of GEO satellites should be about 3 km per second at an altitude of 35 786 km.
• Satellites that are further away actually travel The International Space Station has a Low Earth Orbit, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the earth’s surface. Objects orbiting at that altitude travel about 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,500 miles per hour).
• The GOES system of satellites, which tracks weather and other things, is in a geosynchronous orbit, 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) above the earth. These satellites travel at about 11,000 kilometers per hour (7,000 miles per hour). The moon, at about 380,000 kilometers from the earth (240,000 miles) only travels about 3,700 kilometers per hour (2,300 miles per hour).