Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: Mundra

Mundra in Gujarat, a privately operated port on the Gulf of Kutch, handles more cargo than any other Indian port. Deendayal, formerly Kandla, is the largest of the government-run major ports. India has thirteen major ports, administered under central legislation, and a much larger number of non-major ports under the states - a distinction that is administrative rather than about size, which is why a non-major port such as Mundra can be the busiest of all. The others are worth knowing by their characteristics rather than as a list. Kolkata is India’s only major riverine port, on the Hooghly, and needs constant dredging; Haldia was developed downstream to take deeper vessels. Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva near Mumbai is the largest container port. Visakhapatnam is the deepest natural harbour on the east coast, and Paradip and Marmagao handle iron ore. Roughly 95 per cent of India’s trade by volume moves by sea.

Answer: D

Hyderabad stands on the Musi.

The river, a tributary of the Krishna, divides the old city from the new. The Charminar and Golconda lie on its banks, and the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs on it supply the city's water.

Answer: C

The Simla Convention set the boundary between India and Tibet.

Concluded in 1914 between British India and Tibet, it fixed the McMahon Line along the Himalayan crest in the eastern sector. China attended but did not ratify it, and rejects the line to this day - which is the origin of the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh.

Answer: B

For its mangrove forests and biodiversity.

The Sundarbans were inscribed in 1987 as the largest mangrove forest in the world and the only one supporting a tiger population. The delta setting matters, but it is the mangrove ecosystem and its species that earned the listing.

Answer: B

Gomardha is in Raigarh.

The sanctuary lies in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, in sal and bamboo forest, and shelters chital, sambar, sloth bear and leopard.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Himalaya, Northern Plains, Peninsular Plateau, Coastal Plains

India divides into six physiographic regions, and from north to south they run: the Himalaya, the Northern Plains, the Peninsular Plateau, the Coastal Plains, with the Indian Desert to the west and the Islands offshore. Each has a distinct origin. The Himalaya are young fold mountains raised by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates and still rising. The Northern Plains are alluvium deposited by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra in the trough left in front of them - the most fertile and densely settled part of the country. The Peninsular Plateau is ancient Gondwana rock, among the oldest and most stable landmasses on Earth, tilting gently eastward. The Coastal Plains flank it, the western narrow and the eastern broad with large deltas. The contrast between the young, unstable north and the old, stable south accounts for much of India’s geology, drainage and seismic risk.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The Tennessee Valley Authority

The Damodar Valley Corporation, established in 1948, was modelled on the American Tennessee Valley Authority and was India’s first multipurpose river valley project. The Damodar was called the sorrow of Bengal for its devastating floods, and the corporation was created to control them while also generating power, providing irrigation and supporting navigation and afforestation - the integrated basin-wide approach the TVA had pioneered in the 1930s. It operates a series of dams across Jharkhand and West Bengal, including Tilaiya, Konar, Maithon and Panchet, together with thermal stations, and it supplies the industrial belt around Durgapur, Bokaro and Asansol - a region built on the coal of the Damodar valley fields. Its record is mixed. Flood control has been only partly achieved, since fewer dams were built than planned and siltation has reduced storage. It nonetheless set the pattern for Bhakra Nangal, Hirakud and the other projects of the period.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of sugarcane, with Maharashtra second and Karnataka third. India is the world’s largest producer of the crop, ahead of Brazil in tonnage though not in sugar recovered. The two leading states differ in ways worth knowing. Uttar Pradesh has the larger area and output, growing the crop in the fertile Gangetic plain under a subtropical climate. Maharashtra has a higher sugar recovery rate and a longer crushing season, since its tropical conditions suit the plant better; its industry is organised largely through cooperatives, which have become a significant political force in the state. Sugarcane needs a long growing season, high temperature, and 75 to 150 cm of rainfall or irrigation, and it exhausts the soil, so it demands heavy fertiliser. It is a water-intensive crop, which is why its expansion in drought-prone parts of Maharashtra is contested.

Answer: B

The Chotanagpur region is dominated by metal industries.

The plateau holds iron ore, coal, manganese, bauxite and limestone within a short radius, which is why the steel plants at Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Rourkela and Durgapur all lie there. It is often called the Ruhr of India.

Answer: A

Lucknow is not on the Ganga.

It stands on the Gomti, a tributary that joins the Ganga near Ghazipur. Bijnor, Varanasi and Kolkata all lie on the Ganga or its Hooghly distributary.