Haryana Mixed Quiz: Set 1

Haryana covers 44,212 square kilometres, about 1.34 per cent of the area of India, which makes it one of the smaller states by size even though it is among the most urbanised and the most productive per hectare in the country.

The Yamuna comes down from Yamunotri, enters Haryana near Kalesar in Yamunanagar district and flows south along the eastern boundary of the state with Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

The loo is the hot, dry wind that blows from the west and north-west over the plains of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh in May and June.

Sultanpur National Park stands near Farrukhnagar in Gurugram district, on the road from Gurugram to Jhajjar. It is a shallow freshwater lake ringed by grassland and scrub, the best known protected area of Haryana, and it draws thousands of migratory waterbirds every winter.

Haryana lies between these parallels and between 74 degrees 28 minutes east and 77 degrees 36 minutes east longitude. Its position far north of the Tropic of Cancer and far from the sea explains the state's continental climate, with very hot summers and cold winters.

The Hathnikund barrage stands on the Yamuna in Yamunanagar district, where the river leaves the hills, and it replaced the older Tajewala headworks a short distance upstream.

The Shivalik districts of Panchkula, Ambala and Yamunanagar in the north-east catch the first of the monsoon against the foothills and receive the heaviest rain of the state, while the south-western districts of Sirsa, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh lie towards the dry Thar margin and receive the least.

Kalesar National Park lies in the Shivalik foothills of Yamunanagar district at the north-eastern corner of Haryana, where the state meets Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand along the Yamuna.

Haryana came into being on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, when the Hindi-speaking districts of the old Punjab were formed into a new state, the hill areas went to Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh was made a union territory to serve as capital of both Punjab and…

The Ghaggar rises in the Shivalik hills of Himachal Pradesh and comes into Haryana through Panchkula district in the extreme north-east, then turns south-west across Ambala, Kaithal, Fatehabad and Sirsa before passing into Rajasthan as the Hakra.

Panchkula lies in the Shivalik foothills at the north-eastern corner of the state.

These were Haryana's first two wetlands recognised under the Ramsar Convention as wetlands of international importance, both in 2021. Sultanpur is in Gurugram district and Bhindawas, the largest wetland in the state, is in Jhajjar district and is filled by overflow from the Jawaharlal Nehru canal.

Karoh peak, 1,467 metres, stands in the Morni hills of Panchkula district, where the Shivalik ranges enter Haryana in the extreme north-east.

Most scholars identify the Ghaggar, with its dry continuation the Hakra in Rajasthan and Pakistan, with the Saraswati of the Rigveda, and the neighbouring Chautang with the Drishadvati.

Rausli is the loam of the central Haryana plain, a balanced mixture of sand, silt and clay.

Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary is a man-made wetland in Jhajjar district, filled by overflow water from the Jawaharlal Nehru canal. It is the largest wetland in Haryana, was recognised as a Ramsar site in 2021, and hosts a long list of migratory waterbirds each winter.

The Yamuna flows along the eastern boundary of Haryana with Uttar Pradesh and is the only river of the state that carries water throughout the year, because it is fed by Himalayan snow.

Adi Badri lies at the foot of the Shivaliks in Yamunanagar district, and tradition holds it to be the place where the Saraswati came down to the plain.

Bhur is the light, loose, sandy soil found in Sirsa, Hisar, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, where Haryana shades into the sandy tract of Rajasthan.

The Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore in Panchkula district was India's first centre for breeding vultures in captivity, run by the Haryana forest department with the Bombay Natural History Society.