Which of the following are in Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve?

The correct answer is A. Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve, notified in 2001 and recognised under UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves, lies in the southern Western Ghats across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Its core and buffer zones take in Neyyar, Peppara and Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuaries in Kerala, along with Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.

The other options mix up reserves from different regions:

• B is wrong. Mudumalai, Sathyamangalam, Wayanad and Silent Valley belong to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, not Agasthyamala.
• C is wrong. Kaundinya and Gundla Brahmeswaram are in the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Ghats region, and Papikonda is also in that belt. Mukurthi National Park is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
• D is wrong. Kawal, Sri Venkateswara and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam lie in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, far from the Agasthyamala landscape.

The core concept is the biosphere reserve as a three-zone model (core, buffer, transition), which is a staple of Environment and Ecology. For Mains, the Western Ghats connects to the Gadgil and Kasturirangan committee reports and the debate over ecologically sensitive areas.

Trap: aspirants often assume every southern Western Ghats sanctuary belongs to one biosphere reserve. Agasthyamala and Nilgiri are distinct, and the Nilgiri reserve covers the northern Kerala and Tamil Nadu hills.