Consider the following: Which of the above are naturally found in India?

Answer: (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

Crane, flying squirrel and snow leopard are Indian; the cheetah was extinct here.

Statement by statement

1. ✓ YES Black-necked cranes breed in Ladakh in summer and winter in Arunachal Pradesh (Sangti valley).

2. ✗ NO (then) The Asiatic cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952. African cheetahs were brought to Kuno only in 2022.

3. ✓ YES Several flying squirrel species live in Indian forests.

4. ✓ YES Snow leopards live in the high Himalaya.

The idea

Three of the four are animals of India’s high mountains and forests. The cheetah is the odd one: it is the only large mammal to have gone extinct in independent India.

Black-necked crane: Ladakh and Arunachal → Snow leopard: high Himalaya above the tree line → Flying squirrels: Himalayan and Western Ghats forests → Cheetah: last ones shot in 1947, declared extinct in 1952

The trap

Today’s Kuno cheetahs make statement 2 feel true. The question predates them — and they are African.

Also know

The black-necked crane breeds on the Changthang plateau of Ladakh and is sacred to Buddhists. The snow leopard is Vulnerable and is the State animal of Himachal Pradesh. A flying squirrel does not fly; it glides on a flap of skin stretched between its legs.