Read the passage and answer the questions:
Hunting and Gathering
The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on: (a) animals which they hunted; and (b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity.
People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting. The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.
Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known. These are carried out at different levels with different orientations. Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It often involves primitive societies, who extract, both plants and animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low level of technology. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced. In modern times some gathering is market- oriented and has become commercial. Gatherers collect valuable plants such as leaves, barks of trees and medicinal plants and after simple processing sell the products in the market. They use various parts of the plants, for example, the bark is used for quinine, tanin extract and cork— leaves supply materials for beverages, drugs, cosmetics, fibres, thatch and fabrics; nuts for food and oils and tree trunk yield rubber, balata, gums and resins.
Gathering has little chance of becoming important at the global level. Products of such an activity cannot compete in the world market. Moreover, synthetic products often of better quality and at lower prices, have replaced many items supplied by the gatherers in tropical forests.
What is the biggest reason for the extinction of animals according to the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Illegal hunting
Option (1) Floods — Incorrect. The passage blames human action for the loss of species, not a natural calamity.
Option (2) Illegal hunting — Correct. When animals are killed in large numbers, beyond what the law allows, more die than are born to replace them. Their numbers keep falling until a species is endangered and finally lost; the passage says many species have now become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting.
Option (3) Forest fires — Incorrect. The passage ties the loss of animals to hunting by people, not to fire.
Option (4) Gathering of forest products — Incorrect. Gathering collects plants, leaves, bark and nuts, not animals.
NCERT (2025-26): “HUNTING AND GATHERING … Primitive societies depended on wild animals. People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting (poaching). The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.…” |