One question (ID: 332818441) from VARC of Slot 2 in CAT 24, we believe, has one additional correct response apart from the one given by the CAT authorities as the correct answer.

The explanation for the same is provided below:

Question ID : 332818441

The question requires us to identify the statement which, if false, would be inconsistent with the concerns raised in the passage regarding the drivers of carnivore-human conflicts. In other words, it can be understood that such a statement would be consistent with the concerns in the passage (since, when considered false, it becomes inconsistent with these concerns).

• Option ‘Carnivores lose their instinctive fear of humans, when consistently exposed to human food sources.’ – (Correct – but currently given as incorrect answer). The passage states, “As they become more reliant on human food they might find at campsites or in rubbish bins, they become less avoidant of humans. Losing that instinctive fear response puts them into more situations where they could get into an altercation with a human…” The given statement is consistent with this concern. The passage states that as the animals “…become more reliant on human food…”, they lose their instinctive fear of humans. When considered false, the given statement would read as ‘Carnivores do not lose their instinctive fear of humans, when consistently exposed to human food sources’. This would be inconsistent with the concerns mentioned in the passage.
• Option ‘Human efforts to avoid risky behaviours around large carnivores have proven effective in reducing conflict incidents.’ – Incorrect. This statement is beyond the scope of the passage, since the passage does not mention the proven effectiveness of human efforts to avoid risky behaviours around large carnivores. So, even when considered false, this statement would be beyond the scope of the passage – it is neither consistent no inconsistent.
• Option ‘Climate change has had negligible effects on the frequency of carnivore-human interactions in affected regions.’ (Correct – currently given as correct answer). The passage states, “Experts believe climate change also plays a part in the escalation of human-carnivore conflicts, but the correlation still needs to be ironed out”. Here, when the author mentions “…but the correlation still needs to be ironed out.”, it can be inferred that while the experts believe there is an impact, the author subscribes to the view that the data is still not conclusive or sufficient to conclude – effectively saying that the data does not show any (or significant) impact. While the author does go on to give examples to demonstrate the effects of climate change on such conflicts, he is merely quoting what the scientists are pointing out to - anecdotal observations, sans any scientific studies. It can be seen that in all the other cases, the author cites specific studies and associated data/numbers to substantiate his point. Therefore, we can infer that the authors opinion on this aspect is that climate change has not been shown to have significant effect on the frequency of human-carnivore conflicts. Thus, the given statement, when considered false, will be inconsistent with the passage. When the statement is considered false, it would read as ‘Climate change has had significant effects on the frequency of carnivore-human interactions in affected regions’. This is inconsistent with the passage.
• Option ‘Predatory attacks by carnivores are a common occurrence and have steadily increased over the past few decades’ – Incorrect. The passage states that attacks by carnivores are rare. It does not mention an increase over the past few decades. When considered false, the first part of the statement is consistent with the passage and the second part is out of scope.

Therefore, we believe that there are two correct answers to this question.

That is, besides the statement that is currently given by the IIMs as the correct answer, the statement that ‘Carnivores lose their instinctive fear of humans, when consistently exposed to human food sources.’ is also a correct answer to the question.