Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 52

The correct answer is A, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The Mahanadi rises in Chhattisgarh and flows into Odisha, where the Hirakud reservoir depends on its flow, so the barrages built upstream in Chhattisgarh brought a dispute that led the Union government to constitute a tribunal in 2018 under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. Option B is wrong because the dispute between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh concerns the Vansadhara, for which a separate tribunal was set up in 2010. Option C is wrong because Madhya Pradesh is not a riparian state of the Mahanadi, though it shares the Son and the Narmada with its neighbours. Option D is wrong because Odisha and West Bengal, with Jharkhand, are concerned with the Subarnarekha, not the Mahanadi. Odisha argued that the upstream structures reduced the flow into Hirakud in the lean season, and the tribunal was set up only after the talks between the two state governments failed.

The correct answer is D, Polar type. Koeppen grouped climates by temperature and rainfall and gave each group a capital letter, and E stands for the polar group, where the mean temperature of the warmest month stays below 10 degrees Celsius. In India this type is met only in the high Himalaya, in Ladakh and the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, where snow lies for much of the year and the vegetation is tundra-like. Option A is wrong because tropical savannah is Aw in the scheme and covers most of the peninsular interior. Option B is wrong because the hot desert of western Rajasthan is marked BWhw. Option C is wrong because monsoon with a dry summer is As, the climate of the Coromandel coast of Tamil Nadu, which gets most of its rain from the retreating monsoon. Exam tip: Koeppen's first letters are A tropical, B dry, C warm temperate, D cold snow forest and E polar.

The correct answer is C, Minicoy. The Nine Degree Channel runs along the ninth parallel of north latitude and separates Minicoy, the southernmost island of Lakshadweep, from the Laccadive and Amindivi islands to its north. Minicoy is also culturally distinct: its people speak Mahl, a form of Dhivehi, written in the Thaana script, which is why it is often asked about. Option A is wrong because Kavaratti, the capital, lies north of the channel with the main cluster. Option B is wrong because Kadmat, known for its lagoon and diving, also lies in the northern cluster. Option D is wrong because Bangaram is an uninhabited atoll of the same northern group. South of Minicoy lies the Eight Degree Channel, which divides India from the Maldives.

The correct answer is D, 2.4%. India covers about 32.87 lakh square kilometres, which is roughly 2.4 per cent of the world's total land area.

That small share supports about 17 to 18 per cent of the world's people, and this gap between land and population is what the question is really testing. By area India is the seventh largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, the United States, China, Brazil and Australia. Its mainland runs from about 8 degrees 4 minutes North to 37 degrees 6 minutes North, and from 68 degrees 7 minutes East to 97 degrees 25 minutes East, giving a north to south length of about 3,214 km and an east to west width of about 2,933 km.

A is wrong: 2.8 per cent is higher than India's actual share. B is wrong: 3.9 per cent overstates that share by more than half. C is wrong: 4.2 per cent is nearly double the correct figure.

Exam tip: India has 2.4 per cent of the world's land area and about 17 per cent of its population, and is the seventh largest country.

The correct answer is B, the Banihal Pass. The Banihal Pass crosses the Pir Panjal range and is the historic gateway from Jammu into the Kashmir valley. Because the pass closes with snow, the Jawahar Tunnel was driven beneath it and opened in 1956, giving Jammu an all-weather road link with Srinagar. Option A is wrong because Zoji La lies on the far side of the valley and carries the road from Srinagar towards Dras, Kargil and Leh; a separate tunnel project is being built there. Option C is wrong because the Pir Panjal Pass is the name of the old saddle on the Mughal road and does not carry the Jawahar Tunnel. Option D is wrong because the Burzil Pass is the old route from the Kashmir valley towards Gilgit and lies well to the north. In short, Banihal for the Jawahar Tunnel and Rohtang for the Atal Tunnel.

The correct answer is B, Black. On Survey of India topographical sheets, railway lines, telegraph and telephone lines, settlement names and boundaries are printed in black, so black is the colour of such man-made linear features.

These sheets follow a fixed colour code, which lets a reader tell features apart at a glance: metalled roads and grid lines appear in red, contours in brown, rivers, canals and tanks in blue, open scrub, grass and cultivated land in yellow, and woodland in green.

Option A, yellow, stands for cultivated land and open fields, not railways. Option C, blue, is kept for water features. Option D, red, is used for roads, grid lines and some settlement symbols.

Exam tip: black for railways and telephone lines, blue for water, green for forest, brown for contours, yellow for cultivated land.

The correct answer is A, Nilgiri Hills. The Toda are a small pastoral community of the Nilgiri plateau in Tamil Nadu, known for their barrel-vaulted huts, their sacred buffalo herds and their dairy-centred religion; they are also classed as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. B is wrong because the Garo Hills of Meghalaya belong to the Garo, a matrilineal tribe, along with the Khasi and Jaintia of the neighbouring hills. C is wrong because the Aravalli range of Rajasthan and Gujarat is Bhil, Mina and Garasia country, not Toda. D is wrong because the Chota Nagpur plateau of Jharkhand is the home of the Santhal, Munda, Oraon and Ho. The Toda, Kota, Irula and Kurumba together make up the classic Nilgiri set that examiners pair with Tamil Nadu.

The correct answer is A, Tube well. Tube wells irrigate the largest share of the net irrigated area of Rajasthan, and groundwater drawn through tube wells and wells together waters the greater part of the state's fields. The reason is the climate: rainfall is low and uncertain over most of the state and perennial rivers are few, so a farmer who wants a second crop has to pump water. This heavy drawing of groundwater has pushed many blocks of Rajasthan into the over-exploited category, which is why drip and sprinkler irrigation are pressed in the state. B is wrong because ponds and tanks serve only small pockets, mostly in the south and south-east. C is wrong because open wells, once the mainstay, now water a much smaller area than tube wells. D is wrong because canals, led by the Indira Gandhi Canal, come second and are limited to the north-west and the Chambal command. Exam tip: in Rajasthan groundwater leads, tube wells first and canals second.

The correct answer is B, the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. Passed under Article 262, this Act requires the Union government to constitute a tribunal when a state asks for one and the dispute cannot be settled by negotiation, and the award of the tribunal, once notified, has the force of a decree of the Supreme Court. The amendment of 2002 fixed time limits of one year to constitute a tribunal and three years, extendable by two, to make the award. Option A is wrong because the River Boards Act, 1956 provides for advisory boards for the development of a river valley, which have hardly been used. Option C is wrong because the Environment Protection Act is the umbrella environmental law. Option D is wrong because the Water Act of 1974 deals with pollution control boards, not with sharing water.

The correct answer is C, one hundred and eleven. The National Waterways Act, 2016 brought together in one statute the five waterways already declared between 1986 and 2008 and added many more, making 111 in all, spread over rivers, canals, creeks, estuaries and backwaters in most states of the country. Option A is wrong because five was the number before the Act, declared one at a time by separate laws. Option B is a made-up figure and does not correspond to any stage of the declaration. Option D is wrong and is the kind of near miss that catches candidates who remember only that the number is above a hundred. Remember that declaration by Parliament is only the first step; a waterway carries cargo only after dredging, terminals and navigation aids are in place.

The correct answer is B, Mount Abu. Mount Abu is the only hill station of Rajasthan and stands on an isolated block of the Aravalli range in the Sirohi district; Guru Shikhar, at about 1,722 metres, is the highest peak of the Aravalli and lies here, and the Dilwara Jain temples are nearby. Option A is wrong because Pachmarhi is in Madhya Pradesh, in the Satpura range, and is called the Queen of the Satpura, with Dhupgarh as the highest point of the range. Option C is wrong because Saputara is the only hill station of Gujarat, in the Dang district on the Sahyadri. Option D is wrong because Netarhat is in Jharkhand on the Chota Nagpur plateau and is called the Queen of Chota Nagpur. All four are peninsular hill stations, which is exactly why they are grouped as distractors.

The correct answer is D, Trans-Siberian Railways. The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway line in the world, about 9,289 km from Moscow, with through services from St. Petersburg, to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast of Russia. Built between 1891 and 1916, it crosses the Ural mountains, seven time zones and the great Siberian rivers, and it opened the forests, coal, oil and minerals of Siberia to settlement and trade; Vladivostok at its eastern end is Russia's chief Pacific port. Option A is wrong because the Altai railway is only a branch serving the Altai region of southern Siberia. Option B is wrong because the Amur railway is one section of the Trans-Siberian route in the far east, not the whole line. Option C is wrong because the Trans-Baikal railway is likewise a stretch of the same system near Lake Baikal. Exam tip: the Trans-Siberian is the world's longest railway, and the Trans-Canadian and the Australian Trans-Continental are the other transcontinental lines to remember.

The correct answer is C, Article 342. Under it the President may, by public notification and after consulting the Governor of the state concerned, specify the tribes or tribal communities that shall be deemed Scheduled Tribes for that state or Union Territory, and only Parliament may thereafter include or exclude a community, by law. A is wrong because Article 330 reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha. B is wrong because Article 338A, added by the 89th Amendment Act of 2003, sets up the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. D is wrong because Article 244 brings in the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, which govern Scheduled Areas and the tribal areas of the North East. Remember the pair: Article 341 for Scheduled Castes and Article 342 for Scheduled Tribes.

The correct answer is D, Uruguay. The Tropic of Capricorn runs at about 23.5 degrees south and misses Uruguay, which lies further south between roughly 30 and 35 degrees. In South America the line crosses Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil; going east it passes through Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar and Australia, in all ten countries. It marks the farthest point south at which the Sun is overhead, which happens on 22 December, the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere. Option A is wrong because the line crosses northern Chile near the Atacama desert. Option B is wrong because it passes through Brazil just north of Sao Paulo, and the city sits almost on it. Option C is wrong because it runs across Paraguay, cutting the country into a northern tropical part and a southern temperate part. Exam tip: the Tropic of Cancer crosses eight states of India, while the Tropic of Capricorn passes through no part of India at all.

The correct answer is A. The Mountain Railways of India World Heritage site is made up of three lines added in stages: the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in West Bengal, inscribed in 1999, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Tamil Nadu, added in 2005, and the Kalka to Shimla Railway in Himachal Pradesh, added in 2008. Options B, C and D are all wrong because each replaces one of these three with the Matheran Hill Railway in Maharashtra or the Kangra Valley Railway in Himachal Pradesh. Both are genuine narrow gauge hill railways and both have been proposed for the list, but neither forms part of the inscribed site. A quick way to hold the correct set is to note that it takes one line from the eastern Himalaya, one from the Nilgiris in the south and one from the western Himalaya.

The correct answer is B, Stalagmite. A stalagmite is a column of calcium carbonate that rises from the floor of a limestone cave. Rainwater with dissolved carbon dioxide slowly dissolves limestone and carries it as calcium bicarbonate. When this water drips inside a cave, carbon dioxide escapes and a thin layer of calcium carbonate is left behind, drop after drop, for thousands of years. The drop that hangs from the roof builds a stalactite, and the water that falls on the floor builds a stalagmite below it; when the two meet they form a pillar. Such cave landforms are part of karst topography, seen in India in the Borra Caves of Andhra Pradesh and the caves of Meghalaya. A is wrong because hatectite is not a standard cave term. C is wrong because a stalactite hangs down from the roof, the opposite of what the question describes. D is wrong because dripstone is the general name for all such drip deposits, stalactites and stalagmites alike, not the upward form alone. Exam tip: stalaCtite hangs from the Ceiling, stalaGmite rises from the Ground.

The correct answer is B, Andaman Islands. The Jarawa live on the western coasts of South and Middle Andaman, and the Sentinelese on North Sentinel Island, which lies in the Andaman group; both are Negrito communities and both are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, as are the Onge of Little Andaman and the Great Andamanese. A is wrong because Lakshadweep has no such hunting and gathering community; its population is overwhelmingly Muslim and of mainland and Maldivian descent, though notified as Scheduled Tribe. C is wrong because the Nicobar group is home to the Nicobarese and the Shompen of Great Nicobar, not the Jarawa. D is wrong because the Sundarbans of West Bengal has no tribe of this kind. The island pairing is a standard one-mark question.

The correct answer is B, the Ladakh range. Khardung La lies on the Ladakh range just north of Leh and carries the road from Leh into the Nubra valley and on towards the Siachen area, which makes it one of the most strategically used high passes in the country. Option A is wrong because the Pir Panjal range, further south-west, carries the Banihal and Rohtang passes. Option C is wrong because the Zaskar range lies between the Great Himalaya and the Indus valley and is crossed by passes such as Fotu La on the Srinagar to Leh highway. Option D is wrong because the Karakoram range lies still further north and carries the Karakoram Pass, the old caravan route from Ladakh to Yarkand in Xinjiang. The order from south to north, Pir Panjal, Great Himalaya, Zaskar, Ladakh and Karakoram, sorts these passes quickly.

The correct answer is B, Sikkim. The Lepcha are regarded as the earliest inhabitants of Sikkim and the Bhutia are of Tibetan origin; together with the Limbu and the Tamang they make up the notified tribes of the state, and Bhutia and Lepcha communities also live in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal. A is wrong because Assam's tribes are the Bodo, Mishing, Karbi, Dimasa, Rabha and Deori. C is wrong because Manipur's hill tribes are the Thadou, Tangkhul, Kabui, Mao, Paite and Anal. D is wrong because Odisha's tribes are the Kondh, Santhal, Saora, Juang, Bonda, Koya and Gadaba. Candidates should note that Sikkim's tribal list is short and distinctive, which makes it a favourite of paper setters looking for an easy matching item.

The correct answer is B, Shimla. Shimla, in Himachal Pradesh, was made the summer capital of British India in 1864, and the Government of India moved there from Calcutta and later Delhi every hot season; the narrow gauge Kalka to Shimla Railway that serves it was added to the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage site in 2008. Option A is wrong because Darjeeling, though served by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway inscribed in 1999 and known as the Queen of the Hills, was the summer capital of the Bengal Presidency, not of British India. Option C is wrong because Mussoorie in Uttarakhand has no such railway and was never the summer capital. Option D is wrong because Ooty, served by the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, was the summer capital of the Madras Presidency.