Static GK Quiz: Highest, Longest and Largest in India

The correct answer is B, Kangchenjunga. Kangchenjunga rises to 8,586 metres on the border of Sikkim with Nepal and is the third highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest and K2. It is the highest peak in India and its summit region is treated as sacred in Sikkim, so climbers traditionally stop short of the final point.

Option A, Nanda Devi, in Uttarakhand, is a very high Himalayan peak and the second highest in the country, but it is lower than Kangchenjunga. Option C, Anamudi, at 2,695 metres in Kerala, is the highest peak of peninsular India and of the Western Ghats, not of the country. Option D, Doda Betta, is the highest peak of the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu and is lower still. The question is set to see whether a candidate can keep the national, the peninsular and the regional superlatives apart.

The correct answer is C, Kerala. Anamudi stands 2,695 metres high in the Idukki district of Kerala, in the Anaimalai hills of the Western Ghats, close to Eravikulam National Park, which protects the Nilgiri tahr. It is the highest point of peninsular India and the highest point of the Western Ghats.

Option A, Karnataka, has Mullayanagiri in the Chikkamagaluru district as its highest point, which is far lower. Option B, Tamil Nadu, has Doda Betta in the Nilgiris as its highest peak, and the state shares the Anaimalai range with Kerala but not the summit itself. Option D, Maharashtra, has Kalsubai in the Sahyadri as its highest point. Since all four states lie along or near the Western Ghats, the examiner expects the candidate to know not only the name of the peak but the state that holds the summit.

The correct answer is D, Rajasthan. Rajasthan is the largest state of India by area, holding the Thar desert in its west and the Aravalli range running across it from the south-west to the north-east. The smallest state by area is Goa, while among the union territories Ladakh is the largest and Lakshadweep the smallest.

Option A, Madhya Pradesh, is the second largest state by area and became so after Chhattisgarh was carved out of it. Option B, Maharashtra, is third by area and the second most populous state. Option C, Uttar Pradesh, is the most populous state according to the 2011 Census but stands well below these in area. The trap in this question is the word area: a candidate who reads it as population will pick Uttar Pradesh, which is why the two superlatives should always be learnt as a pair.

The correct answer is B, Wular Lake. Wular Lake lies in the Kashmir valley in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, is fed by the Jhelum and is the largest freshwater lake in India. It is a Ramsar site and acts as a natural flood absorber for the valley.

Option A, Chilika Lake in Odisha, is the largest brackish water lagoon in India, connected to the Bay of Bengal by a narrow mouth, and is known for migratory birds and Irrawaddy dolphins; it is not freshwater. Option C, Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan, is the largest inland salt lake in the country and a major source of common salt. Option D, Vembanad in Kerala, is the longest lake in India and the heart of the backwater system, but it is a brackish lagoon as well. The question turns on the word freshwater, which rules out three of the four.

The correct answer is B, Brahmaputra. Majuli lies in the Brahmaputra in Assam and is the largest river island in India. It is inhabited, it has been made a district of Assam, and it is famous for the satras, the Vaishnava monasteries founded in the tradition of Srimanta Sankardeva. Its area has been shrinking steadily because of erosion by the river.

Option A, the Ganga, is the longest river of India and forms the Sundarbans delta with the Brahmaputra and the Meghna, but Majuli is not on it. Option C, the Godavari, is the longest river of peninsular India and is called the Dakshin Ganga; it forms a large delta on the eastern coast. Option D, the Mahanadi, flows through Chhattisgarh and Odisha and is dammed at Hirakud, the longest dam in India. All four are major rivers, so the question checks a single precise pairing rather than a general idea.

The correct answer is B, Bhagirathi. The Tehri dam stands on the Bhagirathi in the Tehri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand and rises to about 260 metres, which makes it the highest dam in India. It is a rock and earth fill dam and supplies power, irrigation and drinking water. Its reservoir submerged the old town of Tehri, which had to be rebuilt as New Tehri.

Option A, the Alaknanda, is the other headstream of the Ganga and joins the Bhagirathi at Devprayag, but the Tehri dam is not on it. Option C, the Yamuna, carries the Lakhwar and Hathnikund works, not Tehri. Option D, the Sutlej, is the river of the Bhakra dam in Himachal Pradesh, which is the second highest dam in India and was called a temple of modern India by Jawaharlal Nehru. Remember the pair for the paper: Tehri is the highest dam and Hirakud on the Mahanadi is the longest.

The correct answer is C, Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna. These three rivers meet near the head of the Bay of Bengal and drop an enormous load of silt, building the Sundarbans, the largest delta in the world, shared between India and Bangladesh. It also holds the largest mangrove forest on earth, is a national park and tiger reserve on the Indian side, and is a World Heritage Site.

Option A, the Godavari and the Krishna, build large deltas of their own on the eastern coast of peninsular India, but neither is the largest. Option B, the Narmada and the Tapi, flow west through rift valleys and form estuaries rather than deltas, a point examiners like to test on its own. Option D, the Mahanadi and the Subarnarekha, reach the Bay of Bengal in Odisha, and the Mahanadi builds a fair delta, but nothing of the scale of the Sundarbans.

The correct answer is B, Hemis National Park. Hemis lies in eastern Ladakh, in high cold desert country, and is the largest national park in India by area. It is best known as a stronghold of the snow leopard, and it also holds the Tibetan wolf, the bharal or blue sheep and the Asiatic ibex.

Option A, Jim Corbett in Uttarakhand, is the oldest national park in India and the place where Project Tiger was launched, but it is far smaller. Option C, Kaziranga in Assam, is a World Heritage Site famous for the one-horned rhinoceros and for its grasslands along the Brahmaputra. Option D, Gir in Gujarat, is the only natural home of the Asiatic lion. Each of the four is a park a paper setter likes to name, so the distinction being tested here is size, not fame.

The correct answer is C, NH 44. NH 44 runs roughly north to south from Srinagar to Kanyakumari, about 3,745 kilometres, and is the longest national highway in India. It was formed by merging several older highways, among them the stretch long known as NH 7, and it passes through the national capital and a long list of states on the way down the peninsula.

Option A, NH 27, is the long east to west highway linking Gujarat with Assam and is one of the longest in the country, but not the longest. Option B, NH 48, connects Delhi with Chennai through Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Option D, NH 16, runs along the eastern coast between Kolkata and Chennai. The numbering itself carries a rule worth remembering: highways running mainly north to south take even numbers and those running east to west take odd numbers.

The correct answer is A, Jama Masjid, Delhi. The Jama Masjid was built under Shah Jahan in the seventeenth century in red sandstone and white marble, opposite the Red Fort in Shahjahanabad, and its vast courtyard makes it the largest mosque in India. Its formal name is Masjid-i-Jahan Numa.

Option B, the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, was begun under the Qutb Shahi rulers and is one of the largest mosques of the Deccan, but not the largest in the country. Option C, the Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque in the Agra Fort, is a small white marble mosque built for the emperor's court, prized for its finish rather than its size. Option D, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in the Qutub complex at Delhi, is the earliest surviving mosque built by the Delhi Sultanate and stands beside the Qutub Minar, the tallest brick minaret in the world. All four are examinable monuments, so the size test is the point of the question.