Daily Quiz #82 UPSC Prelims Marathon – February 7, 2020

ANS: D
Explanation: Tropical Evergreen forests are a dominant part of the Natural vegetation in India. They occupy about seven percent of the Earth’s surface and harbour more than half of the planet’s terrestrial plants and animals. Tropical evergreen forests are dense, multi-layered, and harbour many types of plants and animals. They flourish in the areas having more than 200 cm of rainfall. Tropical Evergreen forests of India are found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Western Ghats, which fringe the Arabian Sea, the coastline of peninsular India, and the greater Assam region in the north-east. Small remnants of evergreen forest are found in Odisha state.

Explanation:
•Mass Movements: These movements transfer the mass of rock debris down the slopes under the direct influence of gravity. That means, air, water or ice does not carry debris with them from place to place but on the other hand the debris may carry with it air, water or ice. The movements of mass may range from slow to rapid, affecting shallow to deep columns of materials and include creep, flow, slide and fall.
•Creep can occur on moderately steep and soil covered slopes. Movement of materials is extremely slow and imperceptible except through extended observation. Material involved can be soil or rock debris.
•Landslides are relatively rapid and perceptible movements. The materials involved are relatively dry. The size and shape of the detached mass depends on the nature of discontinuities in the rock, the degree of weathering and the steepness of the slope.
•Movement of water saturated clayey or silty earth materials down low-angle terraces or hillsides is known as Earthflow.
•Avalanche is more characteristic of humid regions with or without vegetation cover and occurs in narrow tracks on steep slopes. Debris avalanche is similar to snow avalanche.

Explanation: India’s climate is controlled by a number of factors which can be broadly divided into two groups — factors related to location and relief, and factors related to air pressure and winds. With a long coastline, large coastal areas have an equable climate. Areas in the interior of India are far away from the moderating influence of the sea. Such areas have extremes of climate. That is why the people of Mumbai and the Konkan coast have hardly any idea of extremes of temperature and the seasonal rhythm of weather. On the other hand, the seasonal contrasts in weather at places in the interior of the country such as Delhi, Kanpur and Amritsar affect the entire sphere of life.

Explanation: Farm forestry is a term applied to the process under which farmers grow trees for commercial and non-commercial purposes on their farm lands. Forest departments of various states distribute seedlings of trees free of cost to small and medium farmers. Several lands such as the margins of agricultural fields, grasslands and pastures, land around homes and cow sheds may be used for raising trees under non-commercial farm forestry.

Explanation: Guru Shikar is located at a height of 1772 meters above sea level. This mountain peak is located at a distance of 15 km from Mount Abu in the Aravalli range. It is the highest peak in the Aravali Range.