SSC Selection Post 2020 PYQ — Question 5

Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.
Flamingoes come to Kutch from various parts of the world every year to breed. For centuries,
the region had been a haven for the migratory birds. Today, Flamingo City, an island in the
middle of the Rann of Kutch, known the world over as one of the biggest breeding grounds of
the Greater Flamingo, is strewn with bodies of hundreds of flamingo chicks. The parents of
these chicks have fled from the island due to lack of food. Zooplanktons, algae and the small
fish that these birds survive on are dying due to a sudden increase in the salinity of the Rann
waters.
Flamingoes need salt-encrusted, damp mud to build nests. The place where they build their
nests has to be inaccessible to predatory cats and birds. It should also have sufficient food.
Faced with starvation, flamingoes have fled from the island leaving their chicks to fend for
themselves. Till date around a thousand flamingoes have died.
Maharaj Kumarshi Himmatsinghji, a member of the royal family of Kutch and an expert on the
birds of Kutch, traces the problem of increased salinity in the Rann waters to the construction
of dams on rivers that flow into the region. He emphasizes that effort should be made to
ensure that, at least, some water flows into the Rann. In fact over the years, the number of
flamingoes coming to the island have decreased because of the change in salinity of the Rann
water. In 1945, Salim Ali, the late ornithologist, had found 5 lakh birds on the island. Since
then, the number has not gone above 2.2 lakh. However, the studies carried out on the
Flamingo City so far cannot be taken as 100 percent accurate because very few ornithologists
have conducted regular studies on flamingoes in the area. The reason: the terrain is so
inhospitable that it is simply not possible to visit the place every year. Says Himmatsinghji,
"The ringing of flamingoes is mandatory to conduct accurate and long term studies on the
birds. Unfortunately, ever since Flamingo City was discovered in 1893, not a single bird has
been ringed. No wonder questions like from where these birds migrate every year remain only
partially answered.