Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

They have led to drought.

Over-pumping of groundwater lowers the water table, neglect of traditional structures such as johads, baoris and tankas removes the water that used to be stored in the dry months, and deforestation reduces infiltration. Together they make Rajasthan's frequent rainfall shortfalls turn into drought.

Landslides are a hill-slope hazard, air pollution has other causes, and fodder scarcity is a consequence of drought rather than the condition these practices create.

Answer: D

Udaipur is known for its zinc smelter.

Hindustan Zinc's Debari zinc smelter near Udaipur was the company's first smelter, and the company, headquartered in Udaipur, mines zinc-lead ore at Zawar in the same district.

Copper is associated with Khetri in Jhunjhunu, granite quarrying with Jalore and other districts, and silver is a by-product of zinc-lead smelting rather than a separate establishment of Udaipur.

Answer: D

The rivers are the Luni and Mahi.

The Luni rises near Ajmer, flows south-west across western Rajasthan and ends in the Rann of Kutch, at the head of the Gulf of Kutch. The Mahi rises in Madhya Pradesh, loops through Banswara in Rajasthan and enters the Arabian Sea through the Gulf of Khambhat.

The Banas and Chambal are part of the Yamuna-Ganga system and reach the Bay of Bengal. The Jakham is a tributary of the Mahi. The Tapi flows into the Gulf of Khambhat but does not rise in or cross Rajasthan.

Answer: C

The factor that does not determine the climate is longitudinal position.

Longitude decides local time, not climate: places on the same latitude but different longitudes can have the same climate. Rajasthan's climate is set by its latitude (it lies across the Tropic of Cancer, which gives high sun and heat), its distance from the sea (which makes it continental, with extreme temperatures), and its land structure, especially the Aravalli range lying parallel to the south-west monsoon winds so that they pass over the west without much rain.

Each of those three shapes Rajasthan's climate, so only longitude is the odd one out.

Answer: A

The correct statement is that it is formed by the crystalline and metamorphic rocks.

Laterite soil develops by intense weathering and leaching of crystalline and metamorphic rocks under high temperature and alternating wet and dry seasons. In Rajasthan it occurs in a small area of the south, in Dungarpur and Banswara.

The other statements are wrong. It is not found in the western desert. Its colour is red, not black, because of iron oxides. Leaching strips it of nitrogen, phosphorus and lime, so it is poor, not rich, in nitrogen.

Answer: A

The river is the Chambal.

The Chambal rises at Janapav near Mhow in Madhya Pradesh and flows through Kota and along the Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh border to the Yamuna. Fed by a large catchment and controlled by the Gandhi Sagar, Rana Pratap Sagar and Kota barrage system, it is the one river in Rajasthan that flows throughout the year.

The Banas, the longest river lying wholly within the state, and the Mahi run low or dry in the hot season. Sambhar is a salt lake, not a river.

Answer: B

The highway is National Highway No. 11.

NH 11 runs through Rajasthan under both numbering systems: before 2010 it ran from Agra through Jaipur to Bikaner, and under the current numbering it links Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jhunjhunu towards Rewari in Haryana.

The others do not cross Rajasthan. Old NH 2 ran from Delhi to Kolkata and old NH 4 from Thane to Chennai, while in the current scheme NH 2 is in the north-east and NH 4 is in the Andaman Islands. Three-digit numbers starting with 3 are spurs of NH 15 in Assam, so NH 315 is a north-eastern road.

Answer: D

Rajasthan borders 5 Indian states.

They are Punjab to the north, Haryana to the north-east, Uttar Pradesh to the east, Madhya Pradesh to the south-east and Gujarat to the south-west. On the west it has an international border with Pakistan.

The smaller numbers leave out some of these neighbours. Of the five, Madhya Pradesh shares the longest border with Rajasthan and Punjab the shortest.

Answer: C

The Aravalli range runs north-east to south-west.

The Aravallis stretch about 690 km in all, most of it diagonally across Rajasthan, from near Delhi in the north-east, through Khetri and Ajmer, to Mount Abu and on into Gujarat in the south-west. Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu is the highest peak.

Because the range lies parallel to the south-west monsoon winds, it does not block them, which is one reason western Rajasthan stays arid. The other directions given do not describe this diagonal alignment.

Answer: B

Of the regions given, rice is grown in Sriganganagar.

Rice needs plenty of water, so in Rajasthan it is grown only where irrigation or higher rainfall allows: in the canal-irrigated north (Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh) and in the south and south-east (Banswara, Bundi and Kota).

Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur lie in the arid west, where the crops are millets, pulses and, under irrigation, wheat and mustard rather than paddy.