Arrange the following events in chronological order of their commencement and select the correct answer from the codes given below: I. Wild Life (Protection) Act II. Biological Diversity Act III. Project Tiger IV. Project Elephant Codes:

The correct order is I, III, IV, II, which is option B. Sort the four by the year each law or scheme began.

• I. Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is the statutory base for protected areas and wildlife offences, and it came first.
• III. Project Tiger was launched in 1973 as a centrally sponsored scheme for tiger reserves, so it follows the Act.
• IV. Project Elephant was launched in 1992 under the same wildlife framework.
• II. Biological Diversity Act, 2002 implements the Convention on Biological Diversity and set up the National Biodiversity Authority. It is the latest of the four.

Option A places the Biological Diversity Act second, before Project Tiger. Options C and D both place it first, which is wrong. Option D also puts the 1972 Act after Project Tiger and Project Elephant.

Core concept: the sequence of Indian wildlife law and schemes, moving from protected-area law to species-specific projects to international biodiversity commitments. For Mains, this links to GS-3 environment and the trade-off between conservation and the livelihoods of forest-dwelling communities.

Trap: candidates remember the names but not the years, and often assume Project Elephant came before Project Tiger because it sounds like an older scheme. Check each year.