In which of the following regions of India are you most likely to come across the 'Great Indian Hornbill' in its natural habitat?

Answer: (d) Western Ghats

The great hornbill lives in tall evergreen forests of the Western Ghats and the North-East.

The idea

The great hornbill needs very tall, old trees. It eats forest fruit, mainly figs, and it nests in a hollow high up in a big trunk. Such trees stand only in dense evergreen forest: the Western Ghats and the North-East.

Female enters a tree hollow → Seals the opening with mud, leaving a slit → Male brings food for weeks → Chicks grow inside, safe from predators → Cut the big trees and the bird cannot breed

Why the others are wrong

(a) The desert has no tall fruit trees.

(b) The high Himalaya is too cold.

(c) Salt marshes have no forest.

Also know

Hornbills swallow fruit whole and drop the seeds far away, so they are called the farmers of the forest. The great hornbill is the State bird of Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh. Nagaland’s Hornbill Festival is named after the bird. The Narcondam hornbill lives on one small island of the Andamans and nowhere else.