Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest area.

It has about 77,000 sq km under forest, the most of any state in absolute terms, though as a proportion of its own area several north-eastern states are far more heavily forested. Haryana has the least forest cover in the country.

Answer: B

1921 is the Great Divide in India's demographic history.

Until then the population rose and fell with famine and epidemic, and the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 made 1911-21 the only decade of the century to record a fall. After 1921 the death rate declined steadily while the birth rate did not, so growth became continuous and rapid.

Answer: B

The Reliance refinery is at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

Commissioned in 1999, the complex is now the largest refinery in the world by capacity at a single site, processing over a million barrels a day.

Answer: C

Saffron is grown only in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pampore karewas near Srinagar are almost the only Indian source. Saffron is the dried stigma of Crocus sativus, and each flower yields three, so about 150,000 flowers make a kilogram - which is why it is the most expensive spice in the world.

Answer: C

They are the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej.

All three rise within a small area near Lake Mansarovar and Mount Kailash in Tibet, then take entirely different courses: the Indus north-west, the Sutlej west through the Himalayas, and the Brahmaputra east before turning south into Arunachal Pradesh.

Answer: A

The zonal soil of peninsular India is red soil.

It forms from the weathering of crystalline and metamorphic rock, and its colour comes from the iron oxide diffused in it. It is poor in nitrogen, phosphorus and humus, and covers much of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and eastern Madhya Pradesh.

Answer: C

The best explanation is the absence of mountains north of Rajasthan to cause the monsoon to shed its moisture there.

The Aravallis run parallel to the path of the Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon rather than across it, so they do not force the air to rise. With no barrier lying athwart the wind, the moisture is carried past Rajasthan without being precipitated.

Answer: B

It runs from the Rajmahal hills to a point near Delhi.

The northern edge of the peninsular block runs roughly north-west from the Rajmahal hills in Jharkhand, along the southern margin of the Ganga plain, to the Delhi ridge, which is the northernmost extension of the Aravallis.

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: 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.