Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: they force the moist southwest monsoon air to rise

The Western Ghats run parallel to the Arabian Sea coast and stand directly across the path of the southwest monsoon. Moist air arriving from the sea is forced to rise over them; rising air expands and cools, its water vapour condenses, and rain falls on the windward slopes. This is orographic rainfall. The windward side receives over 2,500 mm a year in places, while the Deccan plateau immediately behind lies in a rain shadow and may receive under 600 mm. The transition occurs within a short distance, and it is why the interior of Maharashtra and Karnataka is so much drier than the coast a hundred kilometres away. The descending air on the leeward side warms by compression, which raises its capacity to hold moisture and makes it drying rather than raining air. The Ghats are also a global biodiversity hotspot and the source of the Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Maharashtra and Goa

The Konkan coast is the western coastal strip running along Maharashtra and Goa, between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats. The western coastal plain is divided into three named sections from north to south, and the set is worth learning: the Konkan coast in Maharashtra and Goa; the Kanara coast in Karnataka; and the Malabar coast in Kerala. The plain is narrow throughout, since the Ghats rise close to the shore, and its rivers are short and swift, forming estuaries rather than deltas. It is heavily indented with creeks and natural harbours, which is why Mumbai, Marmagao and Mangaluru are all found along it. The eastern coastal plain is broader and is divided differently: the Coromandel coast in Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh, and the Northern Circars above it. Its rivers build large deltas.

Answer: C

Correct answer: provides the main break in the Western Ghats between Kerala and Tamil Nadu

The Palghat Gap is a break of about 30 km in the otherwise continuous Western Ghats, between the Nilgiri Hills to the north and the Anaimalai Hills to the south. It is the principal land route between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, carrying road and rail, and it has been a corridor for trade and migration for centuries. Its climatic effect is equally important. The Ghats otherwise cast a strong rain shadow over the Deccan, but the gap lets monsoon air through, so the districts of Tamil Nadu east of it - Coimbatore and Tiruppur - receive appreciably more rain than the rain shadow would allow. That same wind is why the gap is one of India’s best sites for wind power. It also acts as a biogeographic divide: several species of the Western Ghats occur on only one side of it, which is why it features in studies of the range’s endemism. The other break, the Thal Ghat and Bhor Ghat, are passes rather than gaps.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Gujarat

Gujarat has the longest coastline of any Indian state, roughly 1,600 km, owing to the deeply indented Gulf of Khambhat and Gulf of Kutch and the Saurashtra peninsula between them. That coast gives it a leading position in maritime trade, ports, fishing and salt production, and Kandla was India’s first special economic zone. Andhra Pradesh has the second longest, and Tamil Nadu the third. India’s total coastline, including the island territories, is about 7,500 km. Among union territories the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have a longer coastline than any mainland state, since a scattered archipelago has a great deal of shore for its area - a reminder that coastline length depends heavily on how finely the measurement follows the indentations. The nine coastal states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The Godavari

The Godavari, about 1,465 km long, is the longest river whose entire course lies within India. It rises at Trimbakeshwar in Maharashtra and flows east across the Deccan through Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the Bay of Bengal, where it forms a large delta. It is often called the Dakshina Ganga, the Ganga of the south. The Ganga is longer at about 2,525 km but flows into Bangladesh before reaching the sea, so it does not qualify. The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet as the Yarlung Tsangpo and also crosses into Bangladesh; the Indus rises in Tibet and flows chiefly through Pakistan. The Godavari is the second longest river in India after the Ganga, and its basin is the largest of the peninsular rivers. Its major tributaries are the Pravara, Manjira, Indravati and Sabari, and the Polavaram and Sriram Sagar projects are built on it.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu is the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, at about 8°4′N, where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet. The qualifier is what the question turns on. The southernmost point of the Republic of India as a whole is Indira Point, on Great Nicobar Island, at about 6°45′N - and it subsided by several metres in the 2004 tsunami. The other extremities are worth learning together. The northernmost point is in the Ladakh region; the westernmost is Guhar Moti in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat; and the easternmost is Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh. The distance from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is about 3,200 km, and from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh about 2,900 km - the east–west span being wide enough that the sun rises in Arunachal nearly two hours before it does in Gujarat, though both keep the same clock time.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The Yamuna

The Chambal is a tributary of the Yamuna, which is itself the largest tributary of the Ganga. It rises in the Vindhya range of Madhya Pradesh and flows north through Rajasthan before joining the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the cleanest rivers in northern India, chiefly because its valley is sparsely populated and little industrialised. The National Chambal Sanctuary along it protects the gharial, the Ganges river dolphin and the smooth-coated otter. Its badlands - deep ravines cut by gully erosion into soft alluvium - are the classic Indian example of that landform, and the difficulty of policing them gave the region its long association with dacoits. The Yamuna’s other major tributaries are the Betwa, Ken and Sindh, all rising in the peninsular uplands and flowing north, which makes the Yamuna basin unusual in drawing from both the Himalaya and the Deccan.

Answer: B

Because of its great size and extent among the peninsular rivers.

The Godavari is the longest river of peninsular India, some 1,465 km from Trimbakeshwar to the Bay of Bengal, and drains the largest basin. That scale earned it the name Vriddha Ganga, the old Ganga, or Dakshin Ganga, the Ganga of the south.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Jharkhand

Production ranks vary a little from year to year between the leading states, with Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh all major producers; Jharkhand holds the largest reserves and has historically led output. India’s coal lies almost entirely in the Gondwana rocks of the eastern peninsula, laid down some 250 million years ago, and it is concentrated in the Damodar valley - Jharia, Bokaro, Raniganj and Karanpura - along with the Mahanadi and Godavari basins. Jharia is India’s most important coking-coal field, and the only substantial one, which is why it matters to the steel industry; a coal-seam fire has burned there since 1916. Most Indian coal is bituminous with a high ash content, which is why coking coal is imported despite large domestic reserves. Anthracite occurs only in small quantities in Jammu and Kashmir. Coal supplies the largest share of India’s electricity.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Alluvial soil

Alluvial soil covers about 40 per cent of India’s land area, the largest share of any soil type. It occupies the whole Indo-Gangetic and Brahmaputra plain and the coastal deltas, deposited by rivers over millennia. It is also the most fertile, rich in potash, phosphoric acid and lime though poor in nitrogen and organic matter, easily worked, and renewed by each flood. It supports the most intensive agriculture in the country - wheat, rice, sugarcane and pulses. It is divided into khadar, the newer alluvium of the active floodplain, which is finer and more fertile, and bhangar, older terraces above flood level containing calcareous nodules called kankar. Black soil is second, covering the Deccan lava country and suited to cotton. Red soil covers much of the crystalline south and east, and laterite forms under heavy tropical rain that leaches out the silica.