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Class 10 Geography: Forest and Wildlife Resources, 8 practice questions with answers

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These are 8 practice questions on Chapter 2, Forest and Wildlife Resources, of the NCERT Class 10 Geography textbook, Contemporary India II. Each has a worked answer and the textbook page it rests on. They cover how India's forests are classified and where each kind is common, Project Tiger in numbers, the 1972 wildlife law and what came after it, joint forest management and the trees and animals that communities hold sacred.

These questions are our own, drafted with AI help. Every number was re-computed by a script and every answer was checked against the chapter, but no practising teacher has reviewed them yet. None of them is a textbook exercise or a sample-paper question reworded. If you find a mistake, please tell us.

What the chapter says you need

Facts from the NCERT textbook (Contemporary India II, Reprint 2026-27, Chapter 2, printed pages 13 to 18):

How India's forests are classified

Question 1. (1 mark) Which state has the largest area under permanent forests, with three-quarters of all its forest land in that class? (A) Kerala (B) Madhya Pradesh (C) Odisha (D) Rajasthan

Answer: (B) Madhya Pradesh. Reserved and protected forests together are called permanent forest estates. Madhya Pradesh has more land under them than any other state, and they make up 75% of the forest in the state (page 15).

Question 2. A district (made-up figures) has 1,500 sq km of forest: 810 sq km reserved and 480 sq km protected, and the rest unclassed. (a) How much is unclassed? (b) What percentage of the district's forest is reserved, protected and unclassed? (c) How much of it, in sq km and per cent, counts as permanent forest estate? (d) Does the district's split look like India's as a whole?

Answer: (a) 210 sq km; (b) 54%, 32% and 14%; (c) 1,290 sq km, 86%; (d) yes. (a) 1,500 − 810 − 480 = 210 sq km. (b) 810 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 54%; 480 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 32%; 210 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 14%. (c) Permanent forest estates are the reserved and protected forests together (page 15): 810 + 480 = 1,290 sq km, which is 54% + 32% = 86%. (d) In India, more than half of all forest land is reserved and almost one-third is protected (page 15), and this district has 54% reserved and 32% protected.

Question 3. Sort these into the kind of forest that makes up most or a large share of their forest area: Kerala, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, the north-eastern states. The three kinds are reserved, protected and unclassed.

Answer: Reserved: Kerala and Uttarakhand. Protected: Odisha and Rajasthan. Unclassed: the north-eastern states. Kerala and Uttarakhand are among the states with large percentages of reserved forests; Odisha and Rajasthan are among those with the bulk under protected forests (page 15). In every north-eastern state, and in parts of Gujarat, unclassed forests run by local communities make up a very high share (pages 15-16).

Protecting wildlife

Question 4. In 1973 a count found only 1,827 tigers in India, against roughly 55,000 when the century began. (a) About what percentage of the earlier number was left, to one decimal place? (b) Give any two threats to tigers that the chapter names. (c) Why did India and Nepal become prime targets for poaching and illegal trade?

Answer: (a) about 3.3%; (b) any two of: poaching for trade, loss of habitat, fewer prey animals, more people; (c) they are home to roughly two-thirds of the tigers left in the world. (a) 1,827 ÷ 55,000 × 100 ≈ 3.3%, so 55,000 − 1,827 = 53,173 fewer tigers (page 14). (b) The chapter lists poaching, a habitat that keeps shrinking, a falling number of the animals tigers prey on and a growing human population, and adds that the trade in skins, and in bones for traditional medicine, brought tigers close to extinction (page 14). (c) Between them the two countries are home to roughly two-thirds of all tigers still alive, so poachers and illegal traders went after them (page 14).

Question 5. (a) The Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 aimed to protect the remaining populations of certain endangered species. Name three ways it did this. (b) Which three types of crocodile did the central government start projects to protect? (c) Give any two animals that the law has more recently protected, fully or in part, against hunting and trade.

Answer: (a) It banned hunting, made the habitats of these species legally protected and put limits on the wildlife trade. A list of protected species for the whole country came out as well (pages 13-14). (b) The freshwater crocodile, the saltwater crocodile and the gharial (page 14). (c) Any two of: the snow leopard, the Indian elephant, the godawan (great Indian bustard) and the blackbuck, also called chinkara (page 14).

Question 6. Put these in time order, earliest first, with the year: Project Tiger is launched; the first resolution for joint forest management is passed; plants are added to the list of protected species for the first time; the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act is implemented; butterflies, moths, beetles and a dragonfly are added to the protected list. How many plant species were added in the first step?

Answer: Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972; Project Tiger, 1973; insects added, 1980 and 1986; first JFM resolution, 1988; plants added, 1991, starting with six species. The Act came in 1972 and Project Tiger was launched in 1973 (page 14). Notifications under the Wildlife Act of 1980 and 1986 added several hundred butterflies, moths and beetles and one dragonfly, and in 1991 plants were added for the first time, beginning with six species (page 15). Joint forest management formally began in 1988, the year Odisha passed the first resolution for it (page 17).

Communities and forests

Question 7. (a) Under joint forest management (JFM), what do the local village institutions do, and on what kind of land? (b) What do the members get in return? (c) Five villages in Rajasthan's Alwar district set aside 1,200 hectares of forest and named it the Bhairodev Dakav "Sonchuri". How many sq km is that (100 hectares = 1 sq km), and what rule did they make?

Answer: (a) they protect the forest, chiefly degraded land under the forest department; (b) forest produce other than timber, and a share of the timber; (c) 12 sq km, and no hunting. (a) JFM rests on village institutions that do the protection work, and most of it is on degraded land that the forest department manages (page 17). (b) In return the members can take forest produce other than timber, and they get a share of the timber cut once "successful protection" has been achieved (page 17). (c) 1,200 ÷ 100 = 12 sq km. The villages set their own rules, which do not allow hunting, and protect the wildlife against outside encroachment (page 16).

Question 8. (a) Match each group to the trees it worships: the Mundas and Santhals of the Chota Nagpur region; the tribals of Odisha and Bihar (at weddings). Trees: tamarind and mango; mahua and kadamba. (b) Which animals are protected as part of community life in and around Bishnoi villages in Rajasthan? (c) What did two groups, Navdanya and the Beej Bachao Andolan of Tehri, show about farming?

Answer: (a) The Mundas and Santhals worship mahua and kadamba; the tribals of Odisha and Bihar worship tamarind and mango during weddings (page 17). (b) Herds of blackbuck (chinkara), nilgai and peacocks, which nobody harms (page 17). (c) That enough diversified crop production is possible without synthetic chemicals, and that it is economically viable (page 16).

Map work for this chapter

The 2026-27 curriculum's map list has no item for Forest and Wildlife Resources. Its Geography map work comes from Resources and Development, Water Resources, Agriculture, Minerals and Energy Resources, Manufacturing Industries and Lifelines of National Economy (CBSE Social Science curriculum 2026-27, PDF pages 7-8). This chapter is still in the board paper: the question paper design lists it in the Geography section (PDF page 9).

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Sources

All opened and read on 3 November 2026. Page numbers are the printed page numbers of the textbook; printed page = PDF page + 12.

The facts and figures are from the textbook pages above. The questions, the made-up district figures and the worked answers are our own, and every number was re-computed by script. This guide is general information; follow your teacher and the textbook.

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