Eravikulam National Park was established primarily to protect which animal?

Concept

In a protected-area question, identify the species that motivated the site’s conservation status, rather than merely an animal that may occur there.

Then compare that conservation species by value with every offered animal name; a set-level choice applies only when the species is absent from the named list.

Application

Kerala Forest Department records identify Eravikulam National Park with the protection and largest wild population of the endangered Nilgiri tahr. Thus the conservation species is the Nilgiri tahr.

Contrast

• The pygmy hog is associated with tall grasslands in Assam, not the conservation identity of Eravikulam.

• The Asian tiger is protected across many forests and tiger reserves, but it is not the species for which Eravikulam is known.

• The Indian rhinoceros is linked chiefly to floodplain grasslands such as those in Assam, not to Eravikulam’s founding conservation purpose.

• The Nilgiri tahr is absent from the three named animal choices.

Result

Because the Nilgiri tahr is not listed by name, the applicable choice is “None of these.”