UPSC Prelims 1998 · General Studies

Question 22: Environment and Ecology

Indonesian forest fire in 1997 was caused by

agreenhouse effect

bdepletion of the ozone layer

cEl Niño effects

dNone of the above

AnswerThe answer is (d).

The 1997 fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan were mainly lit by people: plantation companies and farmers clearing forest and peat land by burning. The El Nino drought that year dried the vegetation and peat, so the fires spread and burned for months, sending haze across South-East Asia. Greenhouse warming and ozone depletion were not causes. Because the fires were set by land clearing, the key treats none of the options as the cause.

Why each option is right or wrong

(a) The greenhouse effect is a long-term warming process, not the cause of these fires.
(b) Ozone depletion raises ultraviolet exposure; it does not start fires.
(c) El Nino drought made the fires spread but did not light them; the key does not accept it as the cause.
(d) Right per the key: the fires came from human land clearing by burning.

Worth knowing: El Nino drought is often cited as the cause, so (c) is defensible, though the key treats the fires as man-made.

Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.

Practise this paper timedPrevious question

Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 1998, General Studies. UPSC's own paper isn't online; the words are from a published compilation. The paper on upsc.gov.in.