RAS question
Which UNESCO World Heritage Site in Rajasthan was inscribed FIRST, in 1985?
Correct answer: (B) Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Bharatpur.
Keoladeo Ghana National Park at Bharatpur was Rajasthan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1985.
Explanation
Keoladeo Ghana National Park in Bharatpur is the right answer because it is the Rajasthan entry listed with the year 1985 in the official PIB list of India's World Heritage properties. The PIB list places Rajasthan's other UNESCO sites much later: The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur in 2010, Hill Forts of Rajasthan in 2013, and Jaipur City in 2019. Keoladeo is also a globally important bird sanctuary, with over 370 bird species, including the Siberian crane. For a chronology question, the key point is therefore not just that Keoladeo is a World Heritage Site, but that its 1985 inscription predates every other Rajasthan option.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Jantar Mantar, Jaipur is a Rajasthan World Heritage Site, but the PIB list gives its inscription year as 2010, not 1985.
- (C) Hill Forts of Rajasthan came as a collective inscription in 2013, so it cannot be the first Rajasthan site inscribed in 1985.
- (D) Jaipur City was inscribed in 2019, making it later than Keoladeo National Park and not the first Rajasthan entry.
Concept
This tests the chronology of UNESCO World Heritage inscriptions in Rajasthan, a standard culture-geography crossover area in RAS. It recurs because exam questions often ask candidates to order Rajasthan's heritage sites by recognition year, not merely identify them.