India's first bio-reserve is:
Correct answer: (D) Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (1986).
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, which came into being in 1986, was India's first biosphere reserve.
Explanation
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is the answer because the cited Ministry of Environment and Forests Annual Report records that, after Nanda Devi was formally designated on 18 January 1988, India had two biosphere reserves and that "the first" was Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, which came into being in 1986. The given explanation adds the standard exam context: Nilgiri covers parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, and includes Mudumalai, Wayanad, Nagarhole and Bandipur National Parks. The question is therefore testing the chronology of India's biosphere-reserve programme, not simply asking for a well-known protected area. Later reserves may be ecologically important, but they do not displace Nilgiri's first-in-India status.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Nanda Devi is not the first because the official report says it was formally designated in 1988, after Nilgiri had already come into being in 1986.
- (B) Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve is wrong for this question because the chronology in the explanation places it later than Nilgiri, while the source identifies Nilgiri as the first.
- (C) Gulf of Mannar is wrong because the given explanation marks it as a later biosphere reserve, whereas the first reserve was Nilgiri in 1986.
Concept
This tests protected-area chronology under Environment and Ecology, especially the biosphere reserve model used for in-situ conservation. RAS repeats such facts because they connect static environmental geography with conservation institutions and map-based recall.