RAS question
Bishnoi community is famous for:
Correct answer: (A) Wildlife and tree conservation as a religious duty, especially protecting Khejri trees and blackbuck.
The Bishnoi community is known for treating wildlife and tree conservation as a religious duty, especially the protection of Khejri trees and blackbuck.
Explanation
The Bishnoi answer is not a generic environment slogan; it rests on religious discipline. The community traces itself to Guru Jambheshwar in 1485 and treats conservation of wildlife and trees as a religious duty. Rajasthan Forest Department, Government of Rajasthan supports that frame: the Bishnoi faith holds that living things have a right to live and includes abiding laws against killing animals and felling trees, especially the sacred Khejri. Orans near Bishnoi villages protect blackbuck, and 363 people were martyred while saving Khejri trees after the Jodhpur king's men came to cut them in 1730. That is why option A, not a modern-sector activity, fits the community.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Space exploration does not fit the Bishnoi community's religiously grounded protection of trees and wildlife.
- (C) Nuclear energy is outside the grounded material here; the material describes laws against killing animals and felling trees, not an energy programme.
- (D) Industrial development reverses the tested association because the Khejarli episode is about sacrificing lives to stop Khejri trees from being cut, not about promoting industry.
Concept
This tests environment and ecology through community conservation, sacred groves and Rajasthan's early conservation movements. It recurs in RAS because the Bishnoi-Khejarli episode connects local society, religion and biodiversity protection in Rajasthan.