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4 Jul 2026ENVIRONMENT3 questions

The Wetland That Holds Rice's Ancestor: Borjuli Becomes a Biodiversity Heritage Site

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Article summary

Borjuli Wetland in Sonitpur district, Assam, has been declared a Biodiversity Heritage Site by the National Biodiversity Authority under Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Its significance rests on a single species: the wetland harbours Oryza rufipogon, the wild progenitor of cultivated rice, Oryza sativa. The wild species carries traits that domestication has largely bred out — resistance to a range of diseases and pests, tolerance of flooding and saline conditions, and photosensitivity, flowering in the short days of November and December, with seeds that shatter on maturity rather than remaining on the panicle for harvest. Those very characteristics make it useless as a crop and invaluable as a genetic resource, because breeders draw on wild relatives when cultivated varieties need traits they no longer possess. Biodiversity Heritage Sites are a distinct legal category: they are notified by state governments in consultation with local bodies to protect areas of particular biodiversity significance, and unlike national parks or sanctuaries they do not extinguish local rights, being designed to sit alongside community use rather than replace it. India's first such site was the Nallur Tamarind Grove in Bengaluru, notified in 2007.

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recallTests whether you read the article and retained key facts.
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applicationTests whether you can apply the concept to a new scenario.
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analysisTests whether you can reason across multiple related facts.
1Q

Sample questions — answers revealed after test

ENVIRONMENTRecallEasy

Q1. With reference to Biodiversity Heritage Sites in India, which one of the following statements is correct?

AThey are declared under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and, like national parks, extinguish the rights of local people within their boundaries.
BThey are notified directly by the National Biodiversity Authority without any role for State Governments.
CThey are notified by State Governments under Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 in consultation with local bodies, and do not extinguish or curtail the rights of local people.
DIndia's first Biodiversity Heritage Site was Borjuli Wetland in Assam.
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ENVIRONMENTApplicationMedium

Q2. Oryza rufipogon is photosensitive, flowers only in the short days of November and December, and sheds its seed on maturity. Which one of the following best explains why these traits make it valuable despite rendering it uncultivable as a crop?

AThey are precisely the characteristics domestication removed, so the wild population retains a genetic reservoir — including resistance to a range of diseases and pests and tolerance of flooding and salinity — that cultivated rice has lost.
BThey allow the plant to be harvested twice a year, which compensates for its low yield.
CThey indicate that the species is a distant relative of rice rather than its progenitor, and so is of taxonomic interest only.
DThey make the species suitable for direct cultivation in saline coastal areas, where domesticated varieties fail.
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ENVIRONMENTAnalysisHard

Q3. Consider the following statements: 1. India's first Biodiversity Heritage Site was the Nallur Tamarind Grove in Bengaluru, notified in 2007. 2. The institutional chain under the Biological Diversity Act runs from the National Biodiversity Authority through State Biodiversity Boards to local Biodiversity Management Committees, which maintain People's Biodiversity Registers. 3. Biodiversity Management Committees are constituted only in districts containing a notified Biodiversity Heritage Site. Which of the statements given above are correct?

A1 only
B1 and 2 only
C2 and 3 only
D1, 2 and 3
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