Daily Quiz- 439

Q1. The Nova Kakhovka dam explosion of June 2023 in Ukraine primarily affected which of the following?

(A) The Dniester River and its tributaries

(B) The Kakhovka Reservoir and the Dnipro River delta wetlands

(C) The Black Sea shipping lanes near Odesa

(D) The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant cooling system

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Q2. Which of the following best describes "Chernozem" in the context of the Ukraine conflict?

(A) A Ukrainian anti-drone missile system

(B) A type of nutrient-rich black soil critical for agriculture

(C) A Soviet-era nuclear waste storage facility

(D) A satellite monitoring system for environmental damage

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Q3. The concept of ‘Ecocide’, often discussed in international environmental law, refers to:

(A) Deliberate extinction of animal species through poaching

(B) Widespread, severe environmental destruction that could be prosecuted as an international crime

(C) Ecological imbalance caused by rapid urbanisation

(D) A UN protocol for post-war environmental restoration

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Q4. Lake Urmia’s near-disappearance, linked to Iran's geopolitical isolation and sanctions, is an example of which broader phenomenon?

(A) Climate-induced glacial retreat

(B) Hydro-political conflict over shared river basins

(C) The compounding of environmental mismanagement by geopolitical pressures

(D) Deliberate water weaponisation under international law

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Q5. Under the Geneva Conventions, environmental destruction during warfare is prohibited only when it is:

(A) Visible via satellite imagery and reported by the UN

(B) Affecting civilian water supplies directly

(C) Widespread, long-term, and severe

(D) Conducted using weapons of mass destruction

Answers with explanations

Q1 → (B)

The Nova Kakhovka dam explosion drained the Kakhovka Reservoir and caused massive flooding along the Dnipro River delta, destroying wetlands, killing wildlife and contaminating farmland with industrial chemicals and sewage. It is considered one of the worst environmental disasters of the war.

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Q2 → (B)

Chernozem is a dark, humus-rich soil found across Ukraine and southern Russia — among the most fertile in the world. Ukraine holds nearly a third of the world's chernozem reserves. The war has damaged millions of hectares of this soil through explosions, trench digging and contamination, threatening both Ukraine's agricultural output and global food security.

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Q3 → (B)

Ecocide refers to large-scale environmental destruction, potentially comparable in severity to genocide or war crimes. Advocates have been pushing to include it in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a fifth international crime. It remains unrecognised in formal treaty law as of now — a key gap in global environmental governance.

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Q4 → (C)

Lake Urmia's crisis is a product of both internal mismanagement (dam construction, agricultural overuse of water) and the pressures of international sanctions that limited Iran's capacity for environmental remediation and imported technology. It illustrates how geopolitical isolation can accelerate domestic ecological collapse, a dimension highly relevant for international relations and environmental ethics in UPSC.

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Q5 → (C)

Article 55 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1977) prohibits methods of warfare intended or expected to cause ‘widespread, long-term and severe damage’ to the natural environment. This triple threshold is extremely difficult to legally establish during active conflict, making the framework largely ineffective, which is why the push for a formal ecocide law continues.