RAS question
Consider the following two statements: 1. Dibru-Saikhowa National Park lies in the Tinsukia-Dibrugarh districts of Assam and is a Ramsar Site. 2. The Sukinda Valley in Odisha holds about 95 per cent of India's chromite reserves. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Correct answer: (C) 2 only.
Only the statement that Sukinda Valley in Odisha holds about 95 per cent of India's chromite reserves is correct.
Explanation
Statement 2 is the decisive one: the Indian Bureau of Mines monograph states that the Sukinda ultramafic complex in Jajpur district contributes nearly 95 per cent of the country's chromite reserves. Statement 1 mixes a true location clue with a wrong Ramsar claim. Dibru-Saikhowa is in Assam's Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts and is listed by the Assam Environment and Forest Department as a biosphere reserve, but the PIB's state-wise Ramsar list gives Assam's Ramsar site as Deepor Beel. Since Dibru-Saikhowa is not the Assam Ramsar entry while Sukinda's chromite-reserve statement is supported, only statement 2 is correct.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) It treats both statements as correct, but Dibru-Saikhowa is not Assam's Ramsar site; PIB lists Deepor Beel for Assam.
- (B) It accepts statement 1 and rejects statement 2, whereas statement 1 fails on the Ramsar-site part and the Sukinda chromite-reserve statement is supported.
- (D) It rejects statement 2 even though the IBM monograph places nearly 95 per cent of India's chromite reserves in the Sukinda ultramafic complex.
Concept
This tests the Environment and Geography overlap: protected-area designations, Ramsar sites and mineral-resource locations. RAS often frames such questions as paired statements because one half may be geographically true while the official status or reserve figure decides the answer.