Indian Geography Questions and Answers

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: D

They are phototrophs and chemotrophs.

Both make their own food, differing only in the energy source: phototrophs such as green plants and cyanobacteria use sunlight, while chemotrophs such as the nitrifying and sulphur bacteria use energy released by oxidising inorganic compounds - which is how life persists in deep-sea vents where no light reaches.

Answer: D

The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was India's first shore-based steel plant.

Commissioned in 1992 and run by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, its coastal position lets it import coking coal and export finished steel directly, without the long inland haul the older plants require.

Answer: B

Nagarjunasagar is on the Krishna.

The dam, in Nalgonda district of Telangana, was completed in 1967 and is among the largest masonry dams in the world. It was built at the site of Nagarjunakonda, the ancient Buddhist centre, whose remains were moved to an island museum before the reservoir filled.

Answer: C

This is the albedo.

It is the fraction of incident radiation reflected without heating the surface, expressed as a percentage or a fraction. Fresh snow reflects about 80 per cent, cloud 50 to 70, forest 10 to 20, and the ocean under 10. The earth's average is about 30 per cent.

Answer: A

The Salal project is on the Chenab.

It is in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir and was India's first hydroelectric project on the river, commissioned in 1987. The Indus Waters Treaty allots the Chenab to Pakistan but permits India run-of-the-river schemes on it.

Answer: D

Nearly 70 per cent of India's population depends on agriculture.

The proportion of workers directly employed in it has since fallen towards half, but agriculture still supports a far larger share of the population than its share of national income - which is the central problem of rural incomes.

Answer: C

The Deccan plateau is the ideal cotton region.

Cotton needs deep black regur soil that holds moisture, 50 to 100 cm of rain, a long frost-free season and bright sunshine at picking time. The lava-derived black soils of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh supply exactly that.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1986

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was established in 1986, the first in India, and covers parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. It includes Bandipur, Nagarhole, Mudumalai and Wayanad, along with Silent Valley and Mukurthi National Parks. A biosphere reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme is zoned rather than uniformly protected: a strictly guarded core, a buffer permitting research and limited use, and a transition area where communities live and work. The design is intended to reconcile conservation with human use rather than exclude one for the other. The reserve holds the largest population of Asian elephants in India, along with tigers, gaur and the endemic Nilgiri tahr and lion-tailed macaque. India now has a substantial number of biosphere reserves, of which several are also recognised internationally by UNESCO. The distinction from a national park or wildlife sanctuary is that those are legal categories under Indian wildlife law, whereas a biosphere reserve is a management designation that may contain them.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Rajasthan

The Aravalli range runs about 670 km northeast across Rajasthan, from Gujarat towards the Delhi ridge, and is among the oldest fold mountain systems on Earth - Proterozoic, well over a billion years old. Aeons of erosion have worn it down to low, rounded hills. Its highest point, Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu, reaches only 1,722 metres, a fraction of its original height. It plays an important climatic role, forming a barrier that has checked the eastward advance of the Thar Desert towards the fertile Gangetic plain - which is why its degradation through quarrying and deforestation is a live policy concern. It is rich in minerals: the marble of Makrana used for the Taj Mahal, and the zinc and lead of Zawar, among the oldest worked mines in the world. The Banas, Luni and Sabarmati all rise in it, and it divides Rajasthan into the arid west and the more fertile southeast.