Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 30

The correct answer is B, the Kerala High Court. The jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court, which sits at Kochi, extends over the state of Kerala and the union territory of Lakshadweep, whose capital is Kavaratti. Article 230 permits Parliament to extend the jurisdiction of a High Court to a union territory in this way, and several union territories are covered by state High Courts on the same basis. Option A is wrong because the Madras High Court covers Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. Option C is wrong because the Karnataka High Court at Bengaluru, with benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi, covers only that state. Option D is wrong because the Bombay High Court covers Maharashtra, Goa and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The correct answer is C, Kochi. The Kerala High Court sits at Kochi, in the Ernakulam area, although the capital of the state is Thiruvananthapuram. Its territorial jurisdiction covers the state of Kerala and the union territory of Lakshadweep, an arrangement permitted by Article 230, which allows the jurisdiction of a High Court to be extended to a union territory. Option A is wrong because Thiruvananthapuram is the seat of the Governor and the legislature but not of the High Court, and this gap between capital and court is exactly what the question tests. Option B is wrong because Kozhikode, the old Calicut, has no High Court, though it has district courts. Option D is wrong because Thrissur is known as the cultural capital of Kerala and for the Thrissur Pooram festival, not for the High Court.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. The great Indian bustard, called Godawan in Rajasthan, is a tall grassland bird of the Thar region and is the state bird of Rajasthan, whose state animal is the chinkara, state tree the khejri and state flower the rohida. Its stronghold is the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, and it is listed as critically endangered, so it appears in environment questions as well. Option B is wrong because the state bird of Gujarat is the greater flamingo and its state animal the Asiatic lion of the Gir forest. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra has the green imperial pigeon, the hariyal, as state bird and the Indian giant squirrel, the shekru, as state animal. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has the dudhraj, the Indian paradise flycatcher, as state bird and the barasingha as state animal.

The correct answer is B, the Hangul or Kashmir stag. Dachigam, which lies just east of Srinagar and whose name means ten villages, is the last stronghold of the Hangul, the only red deer found in India. Option A is wrong because the markhor, a wild goat with spiral horns, is protected mainly in Kazinag National Park in Baramulla district and the Hirapora sanctuary. Option C is wrong because the snow leopard is associated with Hemis National Park in Ladakh and the high Himalaya rather than with Dachigam, although it does occur in the upper reaches. Option D is wrong because the black-necked crane breeds on the Changthang plateau of Ladakh and is protected in the Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary and at the Ramsar wetlands of Tso Moriri and Tso Kar.

The correct answer is B, Barren Island. This small uninhabited island in the Andaman Sea, north-east of the territorial capital, carries the only confirmed active volcano in India and in the whole of South Asia. It has erupted repeatedly in recent decades, and because the island has no permanent population the eruptions cause no loss of life.

Option A, Narcondam Island, is the most tempting wrong answer, because it too is a volcanic island of the same arc, but its volcano is dormant; Narcondam is better known as the only home of the Narcondam hornbill. Option C, Car Nicobar, is the administrative centre of the Nicobar district and lies just south of the Ten Degree Channel, but it has no volcano. Option D, Little Andaman, lies north of that channel and is known for the Onge tribe. Remember the pair: Barren is active, Narcondam is dormant.

The correct answer is A, Deepor Beel. Deepor Beel is a permanent freshwater lake on the south-western edge of Guwahati, a former channel of the Brahmaputra, and it was designated a Ramsar site in 2002; it is an important resting place for migratory birds and for elephants moving between forest patches. Option B, Chandubi Lake, is wrong; it is a natural lake in the Kamrup district formed after an earthquake, and it is a tourist spot rather than a Ramsar site. Option C, Son Beel, is wrong although it is one of the largest wetlands of the Barak valley. Option D, Haflong Lake, is wrong because it is a hill lake in Dima Hasao. Remember Deepor Beel with Guwahati, since the question is usually framed around the capital region.

The correct answer is C, Mahe. Mahe is the smallest of the four regions of Puducherry, about nine square kilometres on the Malabar coast, and it is completely surrounded by the Kannur district of Kerala. The Mahe river, also called the Mayyazhi, runs through it, and Malayalam is its official language. The French took it in 1725.

Option A, Karaikal, lies on the Coromandel coast and is surrounded by Tamil Nadu; the French acquired it in 1739. Option B, Yanam, is an enclave in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh, where Telugu is the official language. Option D, Ariyankuppam, is not a separate region at all; it is a commune inside the Puducherry region itself, best known for the Arikamedu archaeological site beside it. The pairing worth memorising is Puducherry and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu, Yanam in Andhra Pradesh and Mahe in Kerala.

The correct answer is B, Meghalaya. Mawsynram lies in the East Khasi Hills district, a short distance west of Cherrapunji, now called Sohra, and the two places between them hold the records for rainfall in the country; the moist air from the Bay of Bengal is forced up the steep southern face of the Khasi hills, cools and sheds its water in enormous quantity. Option A is wrong; Assam lies in the Brahmaputra valley, which is wet but nowhere near these figures, and its rainfall questions usually concern floods rather than records. Option C is wrong; Arunachal Pradesh is heavily watered and holds the largest forest cover among the north-eastern states, but its wettest stations do not approach Mawsynram. Option D is wrong; Nagaland has a hill climate of moderate rainfall. The pairing of Mawsynram and Cherrapunji with Meghalaya is one of the most frequently asked facts about the north-east.

The correct answer is C, 500 members. Article 170 provides that the Legislative Assembly of a state shall consist of not more than five hundred and not fewer than sixty members chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies, with lower minimums permitted by law for small states such as Goa, Sikkim and Mizoram. Uttar Pradesh has the largest Assembly, with four hundred and three seats, and Sikkim the smallest among the states, with thirty-two. Option A is wrong because two hundred and fifty is the maximum strength of the Rajya Sabha under Article 80. Option B is wrong because four hundred is close to the strength of the largest Assembly but is not the constitutional ceiling. Option D is wrong because five hundred and fifty is the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha under Article 81, a figure candidates often transfer here by mistake.

The correct answer is A, Raisen. The rock shelters of Bhimbetka lie in Raisen district, in the foothills of the Vindhya range not far from Bhopal. They hold paintings that begin in the prehistoric period and continue over thousands of years, showing hunting scenes, animals, dancing figures and later horses and riders. The site was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2003, and it is one of the earliest traces of human life in the subcontinent.

Option B, Umaria, is the district of the Bandhavgarh National Park. Option C, Sheopur, is the district of the Kuno National Park, which received cheetahs in September 2022. Option D, Chhatarpur, is the district of the Khajuraho temples. A useful link is that the Buddhist monuments of Sanchi are also in Raisen district, so two of the three World Heritage Sites of the state share one district.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. The Kalbelia are a community of Rajasthan traditionally associated with snake catching, and their women dance in long black skirts with a swirling, serpentine movement to the been and the khanjari. The Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan were inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List in 2010, in the same year as the Chhau dance and Mudiyettu of Kerala. Option B is wrong because Gujarat's entry on that list is the Garba, inscribed in 2023. Option C is wrong because Haryana has no element on the list; its dances are Khoria, Loor and Dhamal. Option D is wrong because Punjab's entry is the brass and copper utensil craft of the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, inscribed in 2014, not a dance. Keep the element, the state and the year together, because papers now ask all three.

The correct answer is B, black francolin, known locally as the kala teetar. It is a ground bird of the fields and scrub of the plains, recognised by its dark plumage with white spots and its loud call from the edge of a crop field. Along with it, the blackbuck is the state animal of Haryana, the peepal the state tree and the lotus the state flower.

Option A, the Indian peacock, is the national bird of India and also the state bird of some other states, which makes it the commonest wrong answer here. Option C, the great Indian bustard, is the state bird of Rajasthan and is now very rare. Option D, the sarus crane, is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh. State symbol questions are answered by learning the whole set of four for the state, since papers ask them in rotation.

The correct answer is C, Little Andaman and Car Nicobar. The Ten Degree Channel runs along the ten degree north parallel and divides the Andaman group from the Nicobar group, with Little Andaman on its northern side and Car Nicobar on its southern side. It is a busy sea lane and the single most asked channel from this topic.

Option A describes the Coco Channel, which lies between North Andaman and the Coco Islands belonging to Myanmar. Option B describes Duncan Passage, between South Andaman and Little Andaman. Option D describes the Nine Degree Channel, which is in Lakshadweep and separates Minicoy from the main group of those islands; mixing up the Nine Degree and Ten Degree Channels is the commonest mistake in this question, so link nine with Lakshadweep and ten with Andaman and Nicobar.

The correct answer is B, Qutb-ud-din Aibak. He began the tower, of which only the first storey was raised in his lifetime, and it stands beside the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque he built in the Qutub complex. The minar is named after the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, and the Iron Pillar in the same courtyard dates from Gupta times and is far older than the tower.

Option A, Iltutmish, is the ruler who added the next three storeys and completed the tower, so a question worded as who completed it is answered by him. Option C, Alauddin Khalji, built the Alai Darwaza in the same complex and began the unfinished Alai Minar. Option D, Firoz Shah Tughlaq, repaired the top storey after it was damaged by lightning, which is why all four names appear together in the options.

The correct answer is B, 1 November 1954. On that day France handed over the administration of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, and India began governing them, although France still held sovereignty in law. This is the de facto transfer that exams ask about.

Option A, 15 August 1947, is the date of Indian independence from British rule; the French settlements were untouched by it and stayed French for seven more years. Option C, 16 August 1962, is a real date but a different one: it is the de jure transfer, when the instruments of ratification of the treaty of cession were exchanged and the territory became legally Indian, the same year the Fourteenth Amendment listed it as a union territory. Option D belongs to the renaming of Pondicherry as Puducherry in 2006, which changed the name and nothing else. Keep 1954 for the handover and 1962 for the law.

The correct answer is B, Rashtrakuta. The Kailasa temple, cave sixteen at Ellora, was carved out of a single mass of rock from the top downwards under the Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I, and it is dedicated to Shiva. Ellora is unusual because Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves stand side by side there, and the whole group was inscribed by UNESCO in 1983.

Option A, the Chalukyas, built at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal in present-day Karnataka. Option C, the Satavahanas, ruled the Deccan earlier and are associated with the early rock-cut Buddhist sites such as Karla and Bhaja. Option D, the Yadavas of Devagiri, ruled Maharashtra much later, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. All four are Deccan dynasties, and the Kailasa temple belongs to the Rashtrakutas.

The correct answer is B. Like the Rajya Sabha, a Legislative Council is a continuing body: it is not subject to dissolution, each member holds office for six years, and one-third of the members retire every second year, so the house is renewed in stages. Option A is wrong because only the Assembly is dissolved; its normal term of five years is fixed by Article 172, and the Council survives that dissolution. Option C is wrong because only one-sixth of the members are nominated by the Governor from persons with special knowledge of literature, science, art, the cooperative movement or social service, while the rest are elected by local authorities, graduates, teachers and the members of the Assembly. Option D is wrong because Article 171 caps the Council at one-third of the Assembly, not half, subject to a floor of forty members.

The correct answer is A, Bihar. Chhath Puja is the great folk festival of Bihar, kept also in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, in which women observe a long fast, stand in a river or pond and offer arghya first to the setting sun and then to the rising sun on the following morning, worshipping Surya and Chhathi Maiya. Bihar's other famous gathering is the Sonepur cattle fair at the Harihar Kshetra. Option B is wrong because Punjab's festivals are Baisakhi, Lohri and Hola Mohalla at Anandpur Sahib. Option C is wrong because Gujarat has Navratri with Garba, Uttarayan and the Rann Utsav. Option D is wrong because Kerala has Onam, Vishu and the Thrissur Pooram. Note the detail that makes Chhath unusual: the offering to the setting sun comes before the offering to the rising sun.

The correct answer is B, Saddle Peak. Saddle Peak rises to 732 metres in North Andaman and is the highest point in the whole union territory. It gives its name to Saddle Peak National Park, which protects the tropical evergreen forest on its slopes.

Option A, Mount Thullier, at 642 metres on Great Nicobar, is the highest point of the Nicobar group but not of the territory as a whole; the question is deliberately framed to catch candidates who remember only this name. Option C, Mount Harriet, in South Andaman, is a well known hill and a national park, since renamed Mount Manipur National Park, but it is much lower. Option D, Mount Diavolo, is a hill in Middle Andaman and is also lower than Saddle Peak. Learn the pair of figures together: 732 metres for Saddle Peak and 642 metres for Mount Thullier.

The correct answer is C, the Fourteenth Amendment Act, passed in 1962. It listed Pondicherry in the First Schedule as a union territory after the legal transfer from France, and inserted Article 239A, which empowers Parliament to create by law a legislature and a Council of Ministers for the territory. Parliament exercised that power through the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963.

Option A, the Seventh Amendment of 1956, gave effect to the States Reorganisation Act and redrew states on linguistic lines, which is why candidates confuse it with this one. Option B, the Twelfth Amendment of 1962, incorporated Goa, Daman and Diu into the Union after their liberation; the same year, a different amendment. Option D, the Thirty-sixth Amendment of 1975, made Sikkim a full state. Also keep Article 239A, for Puducherry, apart from Article 239AA, which the Sixty-ninth Amendment inserted for Delhi.