Indian States & UTs GK Questions with Answers – Page 18

The Simla Agreement was signed at Shimla on 2 July 1972 by Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the Bangladesh war, converting the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir into the Line of Control and binding the two countries to settle disputes bilaterally.

The western tragopan, known locally as jujurana or the king of birds, is a rare pheasant of the western Himalayan forests and the state bird of Himachal Pradesh; the Great Himalayan National Park is its best refuge.

The Bhakra Dam stands at the Bhakra gorge in Bilaspur district, impounds the Gobind Sagar and is the tallest concrete gravity dam in India; the old town of Bilaspur was submerged by the reservoir and a new town built above it.

The Beas, the Vipasha of the Vedas, rises at Beas Kund on the southern side of the Rohtang Pass, flows past Manali, Kullu and Mandi, is dammed at Pandoh and Pong in Kangra and finally joins the Sutlej at Harike in Punjab.

Parmar led the hill states movement from the 1940s, headed the government through the Union Territory years and took office as the first Chief Minister of the full state on 25 January 1971; the horticulture university at Nauni near Solan is named after him.

The Great Himalayan National Park lies in the upper Beas basin of Kullu district and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014 for its alpine biodiversity; it protects the western tragopan, the monal and the Himalayan brown bear.

The Sutlej, which rises from the Rakshastal near Mansarovar in Tibet, crosses into India at Shipki La in Kinnaur district, and it is the longest river of Himachal Pradesh, carrying the Bhakra, Nathpa Jhakri and Kol Dam projects.

Dharamshala, the headquarters of Kangra district and the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, was declared the second or winter capital of Himachal Pradesh in 2017, while Shimla remains the capital and the seat of the High Court.

The State of Himachal Pradesh Act, 1970 came into force on that day and Indira Gandhi inaugurated the new state at Shimla, with Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar as its first Chief Minister.

Lipulekh lies in Pithoragarh district at the meeting point of Uttarakhand, Nepal and Tibet, and the oldest official route for the Kailash Mansarovar yatra crosses it through the Kali valley; Mana and Niti in Chamoli are the other passes of the state to Tibet.

The monal, a bright pheasant of the high forests known locally as munal, is the state bird of Uttarakhand; the state animal is the alpine musk deer, the state tree the buransh or rhododendron and the state flower the Brahma Kamal.

Uttarakhand adopted Sanskrit as its second official language in 2010, the first state in India to do so, with Hindi remaining the first official language; the decision fits a state whose Char Dham and temple towns keep a living Sanskrit tradition.

The Tehri Dam stands near the old town of Tehri where the Bhilangana joins the Bhagirathi, rises about 260 metres and is the tallest dam in India and one of the tallest earth and rockfill dams in the world; Sunderlal Bahuguna led a long campaign against it.

Nanda Devi in Chamoli district rises to 7,816 metres and is the highest peak of Uttarakhand as well as the highest mountain wholly inside India, since it lies far from any international boundary; the sanctuary around it is a World Heritage Site.

The movement began in 1973 at Mandal in Chamoli district, when villagers stopped a sporting goods firm from felling ash trees, and it is remembered above all for Reni village in the same district, where Gaura Devi led the women who embraced the trees in 1974.

The Nanda Devi National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1988 and the Valley of Flowers National Park was added as an extension in 2005, so the two are listed together as one site in Chamoli district.

It was notified in 1936 in the Nainital and Pauri Garhwal hills as Hailey National Park after the then Governor, was renamed Ramganga National Park and finally, in 1957, named after the hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett; Project Tiger was launched here on 1 April 1973.

The Mandakini flows down the Kedarnath valley and meets the Alaknanda at Rudraprayag, the town that gives its name to the district; the pair Mandakini with Rudraprayag is the most asked row of the Panch Prayag table.

Devprayag in Tehri Garhwal district is the last of the Panch Prayag, and below it the united stream is known as the Ganga; the Bhagirathi comes from the Gangotri glacier at Gaumukh and the Alaknanda from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers.

When the state was formed in 2000 its High Court was established at Nainital, the old summer headquarters of the hills, while the seat of government went elsewhere.