Which one of the following is the First National Park established in India?

The answer is B) Jim Corbett National Park. It was set up in 1936 as Hailey National Park under the United Provinces government, making it India's first national park. It was renamed Ramganga National Park and then, in 1957, after Jim Corbett. It now lies in Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000.

• A) Chandoli: Wrong. Chandoli National Park in Maharashtra's Western Ghats was notified much later, in 2004.
• C) Gir Forest: Wrong. Gir was a wildlife sanctuary from 1965 and was declared a national park only in 1975. It is famous as the last home of the Asiatic lion.
• D) Dudhwa: Wrong. Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh was notified in 1977, though it became a tiger reserve under Project Tiger later.

The core concept is the legal distinction between a national park and a wildlife sanctuary under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which gives national parks the strongest protection. For Mains GS-III, this connects to debates on conservation versus human rights in protected areas and on the Project Tiger model.

Trap: Aspirants often pick the most famous reserve (Corbett, Kaziranga, Gir) without checking the year of notification, or confuse a sanctuary's date with a national park's date.