Archive · 7 Nov 2025
UPSC Essentials: Environment and Geography Quiz on FAC, CITES, and Black Tigers
This is a quiz for people studying to work in India's government.
It tests their knowledge about important environmental topics.
One question is about a group that helps decide if forests can be used for other things, like building.
Another is about an international agreement that helps protect animals from being traded too much.
There's also a question about weather patterns in the sky and a special type of cloud that helps make rain.
Finally, it asks about a famous tiger reserve in India where a rare black tiger was recently seen.
The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) is a statutory body under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
CITES is a legally binding international treaty, and regulated international trade of endangered species requires permits.
An upper air cyclonic circulation is a low-pressure system in the upper atmosphere where air circulates counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hygroscopic clouds, crucial for cloud seeding, form at lower altitudes around hygroscopic particles and are present during pre-monsoon and monsoon periods.
The Similipal Tiger Reserve, known for its rare black tigers, is located in Odisha.
- Who
- Union Environment Ministry's Forest Advisory Committee, CITES authorities, weather experts, National Center of Meteorology, photographer Prasenjeet Yadav
- What
- Quiz covering topics such as the Forest Advisory Committee, CITES, upper air cyclonic circulation, hygroscopic clouds, and the Similipal Tiger Reserve.
- When
- October 2025 (for magazine reference), India became a party to CITES in 1976.
- Where
- India (specifically Odisha for Similipal Tiger Reserve), Geneva (CITES Secretariat).
- Why
- To help UPSC aspirants revise important topics from the static syllabus of Environment and Geography.
- Forest Advisory Committee (FAC)
- Statutory body under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
- CITES
- Legally binding international agreement on trade of endangered species.
- Upper Air Cyclonic Circulation
- Low-pressure system in the upper atmosphere with counter-clockwise air circulation in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Hygroscopic Clouds
- Warm-rain clouds that form at lower altitudes around hygroscopic particles.
- Similipal Tiger Reserve
- Located in Odisha, known for rare black tigers.