Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

All four statements are true.

The southern block is Archaean granite and gneiss; the Deccan lava plateau is a tableland of horizontal basalt sheets laid down at the end of the Cretaceous; the Malwa plateau with its Vindhyan scarps forms the northern flank; and the Narmada and Tapti troughs are rift valleys between the Vindhyan and Satpura ranges.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Karakoram Pass

The Karakoram Pass, at about 5,540 metres, lies on the watershed between the Indus and Tarim basins and carried the old caravan route from Ladakh to Yarkand in Central Asia. The distractors are all real passes but in different places, and the set is worth knowing. Nathu La is in Sikkim and connects India with Tibet; it was reopened for border trade in 2006. The Palghat Gap is not a mountain pass at all but a 30 km break in the Western Ghats, the principal route between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Bhor Ghat is a pass in the Western Ghats on the road and rail route between Mumbai and Pune. Other Himalayan passes commonly examined are Zoji La, linking Srinagar with Leh; Rohtang and Baralacha La in Himachal Pradesh; Shipki La and Lipulekh in the central Himalaya; and Bomdi La in Arunachal Pradesh.

Answer: A

It is the Palghat gap.

The gap is about 30 km wide, between the Nilgiris to the north and the Anaimalais to the south, and is the largest break in the Western Ghats. Road, rail and the Bharathappuzha all pass through it, and it carries monsoon air inland to Coimbatore, which is why that district is drier than the coast.

Answer: C

Saturn has the largest number of known satellites.

The count has been overtaken repeatedly as surveys improve: Saturn now has more than 270 confirmed moons against Jupiter's 95. Saturn's largest is Titan, the only moon with a substantial atmosphere.

Answer: A

Correct answer: a large seasonal salt marsh

The Rann of Kutch in Gujarat is a vast seasonal salt marsh. It floods with seawater and monsoon runoff between June and October and dries into a hard white salt flat for the rest of the year - one of the largest such expanses in the world. It was a shallow arm of the Arabian Sea in historical times, silted up and cut off, which is why the salt is marine in origin. It is divided into the Great Rann to the north and the Little Rann to the southeast. The Little Rann holds the Wild Ass Sanctuary, the last refuge of the Indian wild ass, and the Great Rann is the only regular breeding ground in India of the greater flamingo. Its seasonal islands, called bets, rise above the flood and carry grass and scrub. The Rann forms part of the international boundary with Pakistan, and Guhar Moti within it is the westernmost point of India.

Answer: C

The Yarlung Tsangpo is known in India as the Brahmaputra.

It rises near Mansarovar in Tibet and flows east for some 1,700 km before turning south through the Great Bend and entering Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang, becoming the Brahmaputra in Assam and the Jamuna in Bangladesh.

Answer: B

These are sedimentary rocks.

Each forms by deposition: sandstone and conglomerate from transported fragments, shale from compacted mud, limestone and chalk from the remains of marine organisms, and coal from buried plant matter. They are laid down in strata, which is why they carry fossils and the others do not.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The monsoon winds run parallel to the Aravalli range instead of being lifted over it

The Thar is arid chiefly because the Arabian Sea branch of the southwest monsoon runs parallel to the Aravalli range rather than across it. Nothing forces the moist air to rise, so it is not cooled to its dew point and little rain is released. Two further factors reinforce this. The Bay of Bengal branch has lost most of its moisture by the time it reaches the northwest. And the winter western disturbances that bring rain to Punjab arrive already dry by the time they cross Rajasthan. This makes the Thar unusual among deserts: it is not a rain-shadow desert like the Gobi, nor a subtropical-high desert like the Sahara in the ordinary way, but one produced by the geometry of a mountain range relative to a wind. It is also the most densely populated desert in the world, supporting pastoralism and, since the Indira Gandhi Canal, irrigated agriculture - along with India’s best conditions for solar and wind generation.

Answer: B

Correct answer: A mineral-rich plateau covering much of Jharkhand and neighbouring states

The Chota Nagpur plateau covers most of Jharkhand and extends into Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. It is often called the ruhr of India, after the German industrial region, because of the exceptional concentration of minerals beneath it. It holds a large share of the country’s coal, in the Damodar valley fields of Jharia, Bokaro and Raniganj, along with iron ore, mica, bauxite, copper and limestone. That combination is why the steel plants at Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Rourkela were built there. It is made of ancient Gondwana rock, and its plateau surface is broken by the Damodar and Subarnarekha valleys and by scarps such as the Ranchi and Hazaribagh plateaus. It is also home to a large tribal population - Santhal, Munda, Oraon and Ho - and much of it falls under the Fifth Schedule, which gives the Governor special responsibility for the administration of scheduled areas.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Anamudi

Anamudi in Kerala, at 2,695 metres, is the highest peak of the Western Ghats and the highest point in India south of the Himalaya. It stands in the Anaimalai or Elephant Hills, within Eravikulam National Park. That park is the principal refuge of the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat found nowhere else, and the surrounding slopes carry the shola forest and grassland mosaic characteristic of the higher Western Ghats. Doddabetta, at 2,637 metres, is the highest peak of the Nilgiri Hills and the second highest of the range. Kalsubai, at 1,646 metres, is the highest in Maharashtra. Mahabaleshwar is a hill station rather than a peak, and the source of the Krishna. The Western Ghats run about 1,600 km from Gujarat to Kanyakumari, interrupted only by the Palghat Gap, and are a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.