Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Odisha

Odisha produces about half of India’s iron ore, chiefly from the Badampahar, Gurumahisani and Sulaipat mines of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts. Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Jharkhand follow. India’s reserves are of high quality, mostly haematite with an iron content above 60 per cent, and are concentrated in a belt running through Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Magnetite, richer still but harder to work, occurs in Karnataka and Goa. The location explains the geography of the steel industry: Rourkela, Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur and Jamshedpur all sit close to both the ore and the Damodar valley coalfields, since it is cheaper to bring the two together than to move either far. Goa’s ore is lower grade and was mined largely for export until the Supreme Court suspended mining there in 2012 over illegal extraction. India is among the world’s largest producers and a significant exporter, chiefly to Japan, China and South Korea.

Answer: D

Nanda Devi is in Uttarakhand.

The reserve surrounds Nanda Devi, at 7,816 m the highest mountain entirely within India, and includes the Valley of Flowers. Its core has been closed to entry since 1983, which is why it remains among the least disturbed high-altitude ecosystems in the Himalayas.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Agra

Agra stands on the Yamuna, and the Taj Mahal was built along its bank - the river forming part of the design, since the garden opposite was laid out to view the tomb across the water. The other cities are on other rivers, and the pairing of city to river is a standard examination point. Kanpur is on the Ganga, Nashik on the Godavari, and Cuttack on the Mahanadi. The Yamuna rises at the Yamunotri glacier in Uttarakhand and flows past Delhi, Mathura and Agra before joining the Ganga at Prayagraj - the confluence at the Triveni Sangam, where the mythical Saraswati is held to meet them. It is the longest tributary of the Ganga. Other pairings worth holding: Delhi on the Yamuna, Varanasi and Patna on the Ganga, Ahmedabad on the Sabarmati, Surat on the Tapi, Vijayawada on the Krishna, Lucknow on the Gomti and Srinagar on the Jhelum.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The Ganga and the Brahmaputra

The Sundarbans occupies the delta of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, shared between West Bengal and Bangladesh. It is the largest mangrove forest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its name is usually taken from the sundari tree that dominates it. The forest is a maze of tidal creeks and low islands, flooded twice daily, and the mangroves survive the salt by excluding it at the roots and excreting it through the leaves, standing on stilt roots with vertical pneumatophores that take in oxygen the waterlogged mud cannot supply. It is the only mangrove forest inhabited by tigers, and its Bengal tigers are unusual in swimming between islands. It also shelters saltwater crocodiles, the Ganges river dolphin and a great variety of birds. Its practical value is as a storm barrier: the tangled roots absorb cyclone surge and check coastal erosion, protecting Kolkata and the settlements behind it.

Answer: B

Haryana recorded the lowest sex ratio in 2011.

It had 879 females per thousand males, against a national figure of 943. Kerala was highest at 1,084. The imbalance in Haryana and neighbouring Punjab is attributed to sex-selective abortion and to a strong preference for sons.

Answer: B

This is synecology.

Synecology studies whole communities in relation to their environment - how populations of many species interact and how the community as a whole responds to habitat. Autecology, by contrast, studies a single species or individual.

Answer: C

The Gondwana formations are the richest in fossils.

Laid down between about 250 and 100 million years ago in freshwater basins, they hold abundant plant remains - above all Glossopteris, whose distribution across India, Africa, Australia, South America and Antarctica was among the first evidence for continental drift. They also hold most of India's coal.

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: 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

Twenty-two languages are recognised in the Eighth Schedule.

The Constitution began with fourteen. Sindhi was added by the 21st Amendment in 1967, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali by the 71st in 1992, and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali by the 92nd in 2003.