Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: linking Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka along a difficult coastal terrain

The Konkan Railway runs about 740 km from Roha in Maharashtra to Thokur in Karnataka, through Goa, along a coastal strip broken by the spurs of the Western Ghats and by dozens of rivers. Its construction between 1990 and 1998 is regarded as one of independent India’s major engineering achievements: more than 90 tunnels and around 2,000 bridges, cut through soft laterite that made tunnelling unusually dangerous. It included what was then India’s longest railway tunnel and, at Panval Nadi, one of Asia’s tallest viaducts. Before it, travel between Mumbai and Mangaluru meant a long detour inland over the Ghats, and the line cut the distance by hundreds of kilometres. It was built and is operated by a separate corporation, funded partly by public bonds, rather than by Indian Railways directly - a financing model then new in India. Monsoon landslides remain its recurring difficulty, and services are run to a modified timetable through the rains.

Answer: A

Gandhi Sagar is built primarily for power.

It is the first of the four dams of the Chambal Valley project, on the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border, and its main purpose is hydroelectric generation, with irrigation secondary. Hirakud, Periyar and Tungabhadra were built chiefly for irrigation and flood control.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The Sutlej and Beas

The Indira Gandhi Canal takes water from the Sutlej and Beas at the Harike barrage in Punjab and carries it southwest into the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. It is among the longest canals in the world, at over 600 km including its feeder. Formerly the Rajasthan Canal, it was renamed in 1984. It has brought irrigation to Ganganagar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer, turning tracts of desert into cultivated land growing wheat, mustard and cotton, and supplies drinking water to a large area. Its consequences have not all been intended. Waterlogging and rising salinity have followed in parts of the command area, and the canal has altered the local ecology and encouraged settlement in a fragile environment - a standard case study in the costs of large irrigation projects. The waters it uses are India’s share of the eastern rivers under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.

Answer: C

Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest area.

It has about 77,000 sq km under forest, the most of any state in absolute terms, though as a proportion of its own area several north-eastern states are far more heavily forested. Haryana has the least forest cover in the country.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Kunchikal Falls

Kunchikal Falls in Karnataka, on the Varahi river, is the highest waterfall in India at about 455 metres. It is a tiered fall and much of its flow is now diverted for hydroelectric generation, so it is far less spectacular than it once was and less visited. Jog Falls, also in Karnataka, on the Sharavathi, is the better known and is often wrongly called the highest. At about 253 metres it is the highest plunge fall - one that drops in a single uninterrupted leap rather than in tiers - which is the distinction the two answers turn on. Its flow too is reduced by the Linganamakki dam upstream. Dudhsagar on the Goa–Karnataka border and Athirappilly in Kerala are both on the Western Ghats and both smaller. Almost all India’s major waterfalls are on the Western Ghats or on the edge of the Deccan plateau, where rivers descend abruptly from the uplands.

Answer: C

India shares its longest border with Bangladesh.

The boundary runs about 4,097 km, through West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. China follows at about 3,488 km and Pakistan at 3,323 km.

Answer: C

Genoa is the leading seaport of Italy.

It lies on the Ligurian Sea in the north-west and has been a great trading port since the Middle Ages, when the Republic of Genoa rivalled Venice. Christopher Columbus was born there.

Answer: C

I and III - silting and pollution of the water bodies, and the lack of marketing facilities.

Industrial effluent and sewage have made many rivers and tanks unfit for fish, while silting has reduced their depth. Without cold storage and transport, the catch cannot reach distant markets, so there is little incentive to expand production.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The Narmada

The Sardar Sarovar dam stands on the Narmada in Gujarat, near Kevadia, and is the largest of the projects in the Narmada Valley Development plan. It supplies irrigation and drinking water to Gujarat and Rajasthan and power shared with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. It is India’s most contested development project. The Narmada Bachao Andolan, led by Medha Patkar from the mid-1980s, opposed it over the displacement of villages in the submergence zone and the adequacy of resettlement, and the World Bank withdrew its funding in 1993 after an independent review. The Supreme Court allowed construction to continue in 2000 subject to conditions on rehabilitation, and the dam was raised to its full height in 2017. The Statue of Unity stands beside it. The Narmada is one of the few peninsular rivers flowing west, running through a rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges into the Gulf of Khambhat, and forming an estuary rather than a delta.

Answer: D

It is given for contribution to the development of clean technology.

The Rajiv Gandhi Environment Award for Clean Technology recognises industrial units and researchers who develop processes that prevent pollution at source rather than treating it afterwards.