Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

These are sedimentary rocks.

Limestone and chalk form from the remains of marine organisms, shale from compacted mud, and coal from buried plant matter. All are laid down in layers, which is why sedimentary rocks are the only ones that preserve fossils.

Answer: C

From December 1946 to November 1949.

The Constituent Assembly first met on 9 December 1946 and adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 - 2 years, 11 months and 18 days, over eleven sessions and 165 sitting days. The Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.

Answer: D

World Forestry Day is observed on 21 March.

It has been marked since 1971 and was adopted by the UN General Assembly as the International Day of Forests in 2012. The date coincides with the equinox, the start of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern.

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

Rice occupies the largest share of the cropped area.

It is grown on about 44 million hectares, chiefly in the eastern and southern states where rainfall exceeds 100 cm, followed by wheat at about 30 million hectares in the north-west. India is the second largest producer of both.

Answer: D

The Narmada is the largest west-flowing river of peninsular India.

It runs about 1,312 km through a rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges to the Gulf of Cambay. Because it flows in a rift rather than a valley of its own cutting, it forms an estuary rather than a delta, as the Tapti also does.

Answer: D

The answer is I, II and IV.

South Indian cane yields more per acre and has a higher sucrose content, because the tropical climate suits it, and the crushing season runs far longer - often eight months against four in the north, there being no severe winter. Labour costs in the south are not lower.

Answer: D

The oldest oil field in India is at Digboi in Assam.

Oil was struck there in 1889 and the refinery followed in 1901, making Digboi the oldest continuously producing oilfield in the world. Ankleshwar and Bombay High were found much later, in 1960 and 1974.

Answer: D

The Narmada forms an estuary.

Like the Tapti, it flows west through a rift valley, so it carries little silt and has a steep gradient to the sea, where strong Arabian Sea tides sweep away what it does deposit. The east-flowing Ganga, Krishna and Kaveri all build deltas instead.

Answer: C

Gujarat – Kandla is the correct pair.

Kandla, now Deendayal Port, is in the Gulf of Kutch and was developed after Partition to replace Karachi. Paradip is in Odisha, Mangalore in Karnataka and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, so the other three pairs are all wrong.