Read the passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
Species diversity on earth is not uniformly distributed. It is generally highest in the tropics and decreases towards the poles. Earth’s fossil history reveals the incidences of mass extinctions in the past. Earth’s rich biodiversity is vital for the very survival of mankind. It is believed that communities with high diversity tend to be less variable and more productive. The reasons of conserving biodiversity are narrowly utilitarian, broadly utilitarian and ethical. Biodiversity conservation may be in situ as well as ex-situ.
Which one of the following does not exhibit narrowly utilitarian argument for conserving biodiversity?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Pollination
The passage names three reasons for conserving biodiversity: narrowly utilitarian, broadly utilitarian and ethical. The narrowly utilitarian reason is the direct economic benefit: products we take from nature and use or sell. The broadly utilitarian reason is the ecosystem services nature gives free, such as oxygen, pollination and flood control.
Option (1) Construction materials — A narrowly utilitarian benefit. It is a direct product taken from nature.
Option (2) Pollination — Not a narrowly utilitarian benefit. It is an ecosystem service done by bees, birds and bats, without which plants cannot give fruits or seeds. So it falls under the broadly utilitarian argument.
Option (3) Industrial products — A narrowly utilitarian benefit. Tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins and perfumes are direct products of nature.
Option (4) Medicines — A narrowly utilitarian benefit. More than 25 per cent of drugs sold in the world come from plants.
Note 1: The passage is taken from NCERT. NTA has put lines of the NCERT text together to make it. Most CUET (UG) questions come straight from NCERT, so study the book line by line, including figures and their titles.
Note 2: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2023 on 28-05-2023 (Slot 1).
NCERT Extract:
Why Should We Conserve Biodiversity? – “… The narrowly utilitarian arguments for conserving biodiversity are obvious; humans derive countless direct economic benefits from nature- food (cereals, pulses, fruits), firewood, fibre, construction material, industrial products (tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes ) and products of medicinal importance. More than 25 per cent of the drugs currently sold in the market worldwide are derived from plants and 25,000 species of plants contribute to the traditional medicines used by native peoples around the world. Nobody knows how many more medicinally useful plants there are in tropical rain forests waiting to be explored. With increasing resources put into ‘bioprospecting’ (exploring molecular, genetic and species-level diversity for products of economic importance), nations endowed with rich biodiversity can expect to reap enormous benefits.”
Why Should We Conserve Biodiversity? – “… The broadly utilitarian argument says that biodiversity plays a major role in many ecosystem services that nature provides. The fast-dwindling Amazon forest is estimated to produce, through photosynthesis, 20 per cent of the total oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. … Pollination (without which plants cannot give us fruits or seeds) is another service, ecosystems provide through pollinators layer – bees, bumblebees, birds and bats.”