Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
From the window of a bus on the road to Jaisalmer, the Thar can look empty: scrub, sand, a few goats, and rows of tall pylons running to the horizon. This open land is the main home of the Great Indian Bustard, one of the heaviest flying birds. Perhaps 150 are left in the wild, and most of them live here.
The bird’s trouble lies partly in its build. Its eyes are set on the sides of its head, so it sees poorly straight ahead, and a body that heavy cannot swerve in a hurry. Flying low over the scrub, it often notices a wire too late. Scientists count these crashes into power lines among the main reasons the bird is dying out.
In 2021 the Supreme Court ordered that power lines in the bird’s key areas be laid underground where possible, and fitted with bright bird diverters elsewhere. Energy companies objected, and their case was not a weak one. The same desert is among India’s best sites for solar and wind farms, and burying high-voltage lines over long distances is costly and sometimes not practical. The court later changed its order and asked experts to decide where burying was truly needed.
Wildlife officials collect eggs from the wild and hatch them at breeding centres near Jaisalmer. A female usually lays a single egg, so each chick matters. The programme is meant to buy time. But a chick raised in a centre must one day be let out into the same sky. And the wires are still going up.
Which of the following statements are true according to the passage?
(A) The way the bustard’s eyes are placed makes it hard for the bird to see wires in front of it.
(B) The Supreme Court has kept its 2021 order in the form in which it was first passed.
(C) The energy companies’ objection rested partly on the cost of burying lines.
(D) Chicks at the breeding centres come from eggs collected in the wild.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (A), (C) and (D) only
Each statement is checked against the passage.
(A) The way the bustard’s eyes are placed makes it hard for the bird to see wires in front of it. — Correct.
- Its eyes are “on the sides of its head”, so it “sees poorly straight ahead”.
(B) The Supreme Court has kept its 2021 order in the form in which it was first passed. — Incorrect.
- The passage says “the court later changed its order”.
(C) The energy companies’ objection rested partly on the cost of burying lines. — Correct.
- Right after their objection, the passage explains their case: burying high-voltage lines over long distances is “costly and sometimes not practical”.
(D) Chicks at the breeding centres come from eggs collected in the wild. — Correct.
- Officials “collect eggs from the wild and hatch them” at the centres.