Rajasthan Mixed Quiz: Set 1

The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23 degrees 30 minutes north and crosses eight Indian states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

Guru Shikhar stands on Mount Abu in Sirohi district and, at 1,722 metres, is the highest point of the Aravalli Range and of Rajasthan.

It rises at Janapav hill near Mhow in the Vindhyan range of Madhya Pradesh, enters Rajasthan in Chittorgarh district and flows past Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Karauli and Dholpur to join the Yamuna, and because it is fed by the heavier rainfall of the Malwa plateau it carries water through…

Rajasthan covers 342,239 square kilometres, about 10.4 per cent of the area of India, and it has been the largest state of the country since Madhya Pradesh was divided and Chhattisgarh created in November 2000.

The Aravalli was folded in Precambrian times, long before the Himalaya existed, and hundreds of millions of years of erosion have worn it down to a chain of residual hills whose rocks carry zinc, lead, copper and marble.

The Banas runs about 480 kilometres north-east across the state and joins the Chambal at Rameshwar Ghat in Sawai Madhopur, gathering the Berach, Kothari, Khari, Dai, Morel and Kalisil on the way, and its name means the hope of the forest.

Rajasthan lies between these parallels and between 69 degrees 30 minutes east and 78 degrees 17 minutes east longitude, which places the whole state in the north-western, sub-tropical part of India, with only its southern tip in Banswara touching the Tropic of Cancer.

The Luni rises in the Naga hills near Ajmer in the Aravalli, flows south-west through Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer and Jalore and loses itself in the marshes of the Rann of Kachchh in Gujarat.

The Luni begins in the Naga hills near Ajmer and is called the Sagarmati in its first stretch; after the Sarsuti joins it near Govindgarh the combined stream is called the Luni, and it finally spreads into the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

The Tropic of Cancer touches Rajasthan only at its southern extremity and crosses Banswara district near Kushalgarh. This is why the state is described as lying almost wholly in the sub-tropical zone, even though it is often grouped with the tropical states of western India.

Sambhar lake spreads across the Jaipur and Nagaur districts of Rajasthan and is the largest inland salt-water lake in India, a major source of common salt and a wetland where flamingos gather in winter.

It rises in the Shivalik hills near Kalka, enters Rajasthan at Talwara in Hanumangarh district and loses itself in the sands near Suratgarh and Anupgarh, so it never reaches the sea and is called the dead river; its dry bed is known locally as the Nali, and Harappan sites such…

Guru Shikhar rises to 1,722 metres on the Abu hills, an outlying block of the Aravalli in Sirohi district, and is the highest point both of Rajasthan and of the whole Aravalli system.

The Desert National Park covers about 3,162 square kilometres in the Jaisalmer and Barmer districts and protects the sand dunes, salt flats and thorn scrub of the Thar along with the great Indian bustard, called godawan locally, which is the state bird of Rajasthan.

The Bisalpur dam stands on the Banas in Tonk district and supplies drinking water to Jaipur, Ajmer, Tonk and the towns between them, which makes it the most important water project of eastern Rajasthan.

Rajasthan has an international boundary with Pakistan about 1,070 kilometres long, the longest held by any Indian state, and Jaisalmer accounts for the greatest part of it, roughly 464 kilometres.

The canal, originally called the Rajasthan Canal and renamed after Indira Gandhi, begins at the Harike barrage in Punjab, built just below the point where the Beas joins the Sutlej, and carries water about 649 kilometres through Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner and Jaisalmer.

The Mahi enters Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh in Banswara district, where it is dammed as the Mahi Bajaj Sagar, a joint project of Rajasthan and Gujarat; the river is called the Ganga of Vagad and receives the Som, the Jakham and the Anas.

Rajasthan touches five states, and of them Madhya Pradesh, lying to the south-east, shares the longest common boundary. The two states meet along the Chambal and the Hadoti country, which is why the Chambal ravines and the Deccan lava plateau continue from one state into the other.

A barchan is a crescent-shaped dune with a gentle windward slope and a steep slip face, its two horns pointing downwind, and it migrates as sand is carried over the crest.