Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: The Western and Eastern Ghats

The Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu are the junction of the Western and Eastern Ghats, standing where the two ranges converge at the southern end of the Deccan plateau. Their highest peak, Doddabetta, reaches 2,637 metres. The name means blue mountains, from the kurinji flower that blooms across the slopes once in twelve years. They matter geographically because south of them lies the Palghat Gap, a break of about 30 km in the otherwise continuous Western Ghats. It is the principal route between Kerala and Tamil Nadu for road and rail, and it lets monsoon air through, giving the country beyond it more rain than the rain shadow would otherwise allow. The Nilgiris are a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the first declared in India, and support tea and coffee plantations along with the shola forest and grassland mosaic found nowhere else.

Answer: C

The Himalayas cover about 5 lakh sq km.

The system stretches some 2,400 km from the Indus gorge in the west to the Brahmaputra gorge in the east, with a width ranging from 400 km in Kashmir to 150 km in Arunachal, and spans five countries.

Answer: C

The subcontinent belongs to the monsoon natural region.

Its defining feature is the seasonal reversal of wind: moist south-westerlies from June to September bringing almost all the rain, and dry north-easterlies for the rest of the year. The pattern arises from the differential heating of the Asian landmass and the Indian Ocean.

Answer: C

They are in the Greater Himalayas, the Himadri.

This is the northernmost and highest of the three parallel ranges, averaging about 6,000 m, and holds almost all the peaks above 8,000 m. Its core is granite and it is permanently snow-covered, which is why the great glaciers - Gangotri, Siachen - rise there.

Answer: B

There are three distinct Himalayan drainage systems.

They are the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra. All three rise in or near Tibet, and together they drain the whole northern plain, carrying the silt that makes it the most fertile region in the country.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The first week of June

The southwest monsoon normally arrives over Kerala around 1 June, with a margin of a few days either way, and the India Meteorological Department’s declaration of its onset is a closely watched annual announcement. From Kerala it advances in two branches. The Arabian Sea branch moves up the west coast, striking the Western Ghats and delivering very heavy rain on their windward slopes. The Bay of Bengal branch moves up the eastern side, is deflected westward by the Himalaya, and travels up the Ganga plain. The two meet over the northwest, and the whole country is covered by about mid-July. Withdrawal begins from Rajasthan in early September and is complete by October. The monsoon supplies roughly three quarters of India’s annual rainfall, which is why its timing and strength bear directly on agriculture, reservoirs and the wider economy. The northeast monsoon follows in October to December and is what waters Tamil Nadu.

Answer: C

Oceanic crust averages about 5 km thick.

It is basaltic and dense, formed at mid-ocean ridges and consumed at trenches, so none of it survives longer than about 200 million years. Continental crust averages some 30 km and is much older.

Answer: B

A failure of the groundnut crop would cause an edible oil crisis.

Groundnut is India's largest oilseed by volume, grown chiefly in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and supplies a large share of the country's domestic cooking oil. The other three are far smaller crops.

Answer: A

Kerala recorded the lowest decadal growth in 2011.

Its population grew by 4.9 per cent between 2001 and 2011, against a national 17.7. High female literacy, late marriage and good health services brought fertility below replacement level there decades before the rest of the country.

Answer: B

The vernal equinox falls on 21 March.

The sun is then overhead at the Equator, so day and night are of equal length everywhere - the word means 'equal night'. After it the sun moves north, reaching the Tropic of Cancer at the summer solstice on 21 June.