Madhya Pradesh Quiz: Location, Extent and Physical Divisions of Madhya Pradesh

The correct answer is C, eight. The Tropic of Cancer, 23 degrees 30 minutes north, crosses Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram, moving from west to east. In Madhya Pradesh it runs right across the middle of the state, close to Bhopal, Sagar and Jabalpur, which is why the state is described as lying partly inside the tropics and partly outside them.

Option A, six, and option B, seven, are reached by dropping one or two of the small north-eastern states, usually Tripura or Mizoram. Option D, nine, comes from adding a state that lies just south of the line, most often Odisha, whose northern edge stops at about 22 degrees 34 minutes north. The safe way to count is to go west to east and name the eight in order; Madhya Pradesh is the state through which the longest stretch of the line runs, so its candidates are expected to know the list.

The correct answer is B, 308,245 square kilometres. Madhya Pradesh covers 308,245 square kilometres, about 9.4 per cent of India, which makes it the second largest state after Rajasthan and the largest with neither a coastline nor an international border. It was the largest state of India until Chhattisgarh was separated from it on 1 November 2000.

Option A, 240,928 square kilometres, is the area of Uttar Pradesh, its northern neighbour. Option C, 342,239 square kilometres, is the area of Rajasthan, the state that overtook it in 2000 and the commonest wrong choice for candidates who still remember Madhya Pradesh as the largest. Option D, 135,192 square kilometres, is the area of Chhattisgarh, the state carved out of it. Keep the three figures together, because questions often ask how much area Madhya Pradesh lost in 2000 or which state is now the largest.

The correct answer is A, 21 degrees 6 minutes north to 26 degrees 30 minutes north. Madhya Pradesh lies between these parallels and between 74 degrees 9 minutes east and 82 degrees 48 minutes east longitude. Since the state begins at about 21 degrees north and ends at about 26 and a half degrees north, the Tropic of Cancer at 23 degrees 30 minutes north falls almost exactly across its middle.

Option B, 23 degrees 3 minutes to 30 degrees 12 minutes north, is the latitudinal extent of Rajasthan and is the favourite distractor, because both states are large and both are crossed by the Tropic of Cancer. Option C, 24 degrees 20 minutes to 27 degrees 31 minutes north, is the extent of Bihar. Option D places the state too far south, in the latitudes of Maharashtra and Telangana. A quick check in the examination hall is to ask whether the given range straddles 23 degrees 30 minutes north; only the correct option does.

The correct answer is B, Dhupgarh. Dhupgarh, 1,350 metres, stands in the Pachmarhi group of the Mahadeo hills within the Satpura range and is the highest point of Madhya Pradesh. The whole Pachmarhi plateau around it is the only hill station of the state and the core of a biosphere reserve.

Option A, Amarkantak, at about 1,057 metres, is the plateau at the junction of the Satpura and Maikal ranges where the Narmada and the Son rise; it is high but lower than Dhupgarh, and it is the answer to source questions, not to height questions. Option C, Janapav hill near Mhow in Indore district, is the source of the Chambal and lies on the Vindhyan edge of the Malwa plateau. Option D names the town of Pachmarhi, which sits below the summit; Dhupgarh is the peak itself. Fix the trio: Dhupgarh for height, Amarkantak for the Narmada and the Son, Janapav for the Chambal.

The correct answer is B, Amarkantak. The Narmada rises on the Amarkantak plateau, at about 1,057 metres, where the Satpura and Maikal ranges meet, and flows westward for about 1,312 kilometres in all, of which roughly 1,077 kilometres lie inside Madhya Pradesh, before reaching the Gulf of Khambhat. It is the longest river of the state and its lifeline.

Option A, Multai in Betul district, is the source of the Tapti, the other large west-flowing river of the region, and is the closest distractor. Option C, Janapav hill near Mhow, is the source of the Chambal, which flows north into the Yamuna. Option D, Bhedaghat near Jabalpur, is not a source at all but the famous marble rocks gorge where the Narmada falls as the Dhuandhar. Learn the sources as a set, because papers mix them: Amarkantak for the Narmada and the Son, Multai for the Tapti and Janapav for the Chambal.

The correct answer is B, Vindhya and Satpura. The Narmada does not flow in a valley cut by its own water but along a long structural trough, a rift, with the Vindhya forming its northern wall and the Satpura its southern wall. Geologists call the line the Narmada-Son lineament, and it is one of the oldest and deepest structural divides of peninsular India, which is why the river runs almost straight from east to west.

Option A pairs the Aravalli with the Vindhya; the Aravalli lies far to the north-west in Rajasthan and has no part in this rift. Option C, Satpura and Maikal, names the ranges that meet at Amarkantak, where the river rises, but the river does not flow between them. Option D is wrong on both counts, the Kaimur being an eastward continuation of the Vindhyan rocks into Bihar. Remember the picture as three parallel lines: Vindhya, Narmada, Satpura, from north to south.

The correct answer is B, Chambal. The Chambal rises at Janapav hill near Mhow in Indore district, on the southern edge of the Malwa plateau, and flows north and then north-east into the Yamuna, cutting the deep ravines that form the boundary between Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It is the largest of the north-flowing rivers of the state.

Option A, the Betwa, rises in Raisen district on the Vindhyan slope and also joins the Yamuna, but much further east. Option C, the Ken, rises in the Jabalpur district belt and likewise flows north into the Yamuna; it is the river of the Ken-Betwa link proposal. Option D, the Shipra, rises in the Malwa plateau and is the sacred river of Ujjain, joining the Chambal; it is chosen by candidates who remember only that the river belongs to Malwa. The chain to hold is Janapav, Chambal, ravines, Yamuna.

The correct answer is A, 1 November 2000. Chhattisgarh was created out of the eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh on 1 November 2000 under the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000. With that separation Madhya Pradesh lost about 135,192 square kilometres and the title of the largest state in India, which passed to Rajasthan.

Option B, 9 November 2000, is the date Uttarakhand was separated from Uttar Pradesh, and option C, 15 November 2000, the date Jharkhand was separated from Bihar; all three states were created in the same month and the dates are regularly tested together. Option D, 1 November 1956, is a real and important Madhya Pradesh date, but of the state's own formation under the States Reorganisation Act, which is why 1 November is Madhya Pradesh Day as well as the foundation day of Chhattisgarh.

The correct answer is A, Deccan trap lava. The Malwa plateau, around Indore, Ujjain and Dewas, is built of basalt poured out as Deccan trap lava, and the weathering of that basalt has given it the deep black soil on which the state's cotton, wheat and soybean are grown. The plateau slopes north, so the Chambal, the Betwa and the Shipra all drain away from it towards the Yamuna.

Option B, Vindhyan sandstone, builds the scarplands of Rewa and Panna further east, with cliffs and diamond-bearing beds. Option C, granite and gneiss, builds the Bundelkhand upland in the north, where the soil is thin and the hillocks bare. Option D, the Gondwana coal measures, lie in the Baghelkhand plateau and the Satpura basins and carry the state's coal, as at Singrauli. Match each belt with its rock and the physiography questions of this chapter become straightforward.

The correct answer is A, Jharkhand. Madhya Pradesh has exactly five neighbours: Uttar Pradesh in the north, Chhattisgarh in the east, Maharashtra in the south, Gujarat in the west and Rajasthan in the north-west. Jharkhand lies further east, beyond Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, and does not touch the state at any point.

Option B, Uttar Pradesh, meets it along the Chambal ravines and the Bundelkhand belt. Option C, Gujarat, meets it in the west, where the Narmada flows on to the Gulf of Khambhat. Option D, Maharashtra, meets it in the south along the Satpura and the Tapti. Candidates pick Jharkhand because both states were mineral-rich and are often discussed together, and because Madhya Pradesh did border the old Bihar before 2000, through the districts that are now Chhattisgarh. Count the five neighbours clockwise from the north to be safe.

The correct answer is C, Son. The Amarkantak plateau is a water divide: two large rivers rise on it and run in opposite directions. The Son flows east and north-east through Madhya Pradesh and Bihar and joins the Ganga near Maner, so its water reaches the Bay of Bengal; it is the largest southern tributary of the Ganga.

Option A, the Narmada, rises at the same place but follows the rift westwards to the Gulf of Khambhat and the Arabian Sea, which is the contrast the question is built on. Option B, the Tapti, rises at Multai in Betul district and also flows west to the Arabian Sea. Option D, the Wainganga, rises in the Seoni belt and flows south to join the Godavari system, so it does reach the Bay of Bengal, but not from Amarkantak. The sentence worth memorising is: from Amarkantak the Narmada goes west and the Son goes east.

The correct answer is A, the east, around Rewa, Satna and Sidhi. The Baghelkhand plateau occupies the eastern part of the state, over Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Shahdol and Anuppur. It is built of old crystalline rocks with Gondwana beds on top, which is why it holds the coal of the Singrauli belt, and it rises eastward towards the Amarkantak plateau and the Maikal range.

Option B, the west around Indore and Ujjain, is the Malwa plateau of Deccan trap lava and black soil. Option C, the south around Betul and Khandwa, belongs to the Satpura ranges and the Narmada and Tapti valleys. Option D, the north-west around Gwalior and Morena, is the Madhya Bharat Pathar and the Chambal ravine country. The four names to place on a sketch map are Malwa in the west, Bundelkhand in the north, Baghelkhand in the east and Satpura in the south.