Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: B

II and IV - afforestation and limiting shifting cultivation.

Tree roots bind the soil and the canopy breaks the force of rain, while shifting cultivation strips cover and leaves slopes bare. Crop rotation should be encouraged, not avoided, and chemical fertilisers do nothing for soil structure - overuse degrades it.

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 Chenab, commissioned in 1987. The Indus Waters Treaty allots the Chenab to Pakistan but permits India run-of-the-river schemes on it.

Answer: C

Delhi has the highest density among the Union Territories.

It records about 11,300 persons per sq km, against 9,250 for Chandigarh and 2,100 for Lakshadweep. Delhi's density is a consequence of its being effectively a single urban agglomeration.

Answer: A

Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie are in Australia.

They lie in Western Australia and were the sites of the gold rush of the 1890s. The Golden Mile at Kalgoorlie has been called the richest square mile of gold-bearing earth in the world, and the Super Pit still works there.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Rice

Rice is the principal kharif crop. Kharif crops are sown with the onset of the southwest monsoon in June and harvested in September and October, and they depend on the monsoon rain. The other kharif crops are maize, jowar, bajra, ragi, cotton, groundnut, soyabean, sugarcane and jute. Wheat, mustard and gram are all rabi crops, sown in October and November as the monsoon withdraws and harvested in March and April. They grow through the cool dry season on residual soil moisture, winter rain from western disturbances, and irrigation. Barley and peas belong to the same group. A third short season, zaid, runs between the two in the summer months and produces watermelon, cucumber and fodder entirely under irrigation. The names come from Arabic: kharif means autumn and rabi spring, each referring to the season of harvest rather than of sowing.

Answer: D

India occupies about 2.4 per cent of the world's land area.

Its 3.28 million sq km make it the seventh largest country, after Russia, Canada, the United States, China, Brazil and Australia - yet it supports about 17 per cent of the world's people.

Answer: A

Selvas are the dense tropical rain forests of South America.

The word is Portuguese and Spanish for forest, and refers to the Amazon basin. The forest is evergreen, multi-layered and extremely rich in species, growing where rainfall exceeds 200 cm and temperature stays near 27 °C all year.

Answer: A

It was set up in 1953.

Hindustan Machine Tools was established at Bangalore in 1953 in collaboration with Oerlikon of Switzerland, and became the country's principal maker of machine tools - and later, of watches.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Wheat

Wheat is the principal rabi crop of India. Rabi crops are sown in October and November as the monsoon withdraws and harvested in March and April, growing through the cool dry season on residual soil moisture, winter rain from western disturbances, and irrigation. The other rabi crops are barley, gram, peas, mustard, linseed and lentils. Rice, jute and cotton are all kharif crops, sown with the arrival of the monsoon in June and harvested in September and October. Maize, jowar, bajra, ragi, groundnut, soyabean and sugarcane belong with them. Wheat needs cool weather at sowing and warm dry weather at ripening, which confines it largely to the northern plains - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Punjab and Haryana have the highest yields, helped by assured irrigation and the high-yielding varieties introduced during the Green Revolution. India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat after China.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu is the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, at about 8°4′N, where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet. The qualifier is what the question turns on. The southernmost point of the Republic of India as a whole is Indira Point, on Great Nicobar Island, at about 6°45′N - and it subsided by several metres in the 2004 tsunami. The other extremities are worth learning together. The northernmost point is in the Ladakh region; the westernmost is Guhar Moti in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat; and the easternmost is Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh. The distance from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is about 3,200 km, and from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh about 2,900 km - the east–west span being wide enough that the sun rises in Arunachal nearly two hours before it does in Gujarat, though both keep the same clock time.