Consider the following activities :
- 1.Spraying pesticides on a crop field
- 2.Inspecting the craters of active volcanoes
- 3.Collecting breath samples from spouting whales for DNA analysis
At the present level of technology, which of the above activities can be successfully carried out by using drones ?
Show answer
Answer: D. Drones are already used to spray pesticides on fields, to fly over active volcano craters to collect data, and to collect the 'blow' (breath spray) of whales for DNA and health studies (the SnotBot project). So all three.
Watch for: Collecting whale breath sounds too strange to be real, so students drop statement 3.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Wrong because drones also collect whale breath samples.
- B. Wrong because drones are widely used to spray pesticides.
- C. Wrong because drones also inspect volcanic craters.
Source to check: FAO and ITU, E-agriculture in Action: Drones for Agriculture (2018); Ocean Alliance SnotBot project (whale.org)
Answer from the official UPSC key. Written and fact-checked by AI against the official key. Spotted a mistake? Report it.