Bihar Location and Physical Divisions: Extent and Plains

The correct answer is C, 94,163 square kilometres. Bihar covers 94,163 square kilometres, which makes it the twelfth largest state of India by area, although it stands third in population after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The state lost a large share of its old area when the plateau districts became Jharkhand in November 2000.

Option A, 79,716 square kilometres, is the area of Jharkhand, the state carved out of Bihar, and is the most tempting wrong answer for that reason. Option B, 88,752 square kilometres, is close to the area of Himachal Pradesh and is offered only as a near figure. Option D, 135,192 square kilometres, is the area of Chhattisgarh. The pair worth memorising together is Bihar 94,163 square kilometres and Jharkhand 79,716 square kilometres, because questions often ask which of the two is larger.

The correct answer is C, 24 degrees 20 minutes north to 27 degrees 31 minutes north. Stated exactly, Bihar lies between 24 degrees 20 minutes 10 seconds north and 27 degrees 31 minutes 15 seconds north latitude, and between 83 degrees 19 minutes 50 seconds east and 88 degrees 17 minutes 40 seconds east longitude. Because its southern edge is above 23 degrees 30 minutes north, the Tropic of Cancer does not pass through the state.

Option A, 21 degrees 6 minutes to 26 degrees 30 minutes north, is the latitudinal extent of Madhya Pradesh. Option B, 23 degrees 52 minutes to 30 degrees 24 minutes north, is the extent of Uttar Pradesh, the neighbour to the west, and is the commonest wrong choice in Bihar papers. Option D, 27 degrees 39 minutes to 30 degrees 55 minutes north, is the extent of Haryana. Remember Bihar as a narrow band between roughly 24 and 27 and a half degrees north, only about 345 kilometres from north to south.

The correct answer is B, Nepal. Bihar has an international boundary of about 726 kilometres with Nepal along its entire northern edge, and the rivers that make north Bihar fertile and flood-prone, the Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla Balan and Kosi, all cross that boundary into the state.

Option A, Bhutan, borders Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal lies between it and Bihar. Option C, Bangladesh, borders West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram; the narrow Siliguri corridor of West Bengal separates it from Bihar, so candidates who picture eastern India roughly often choose it. Option D, Myanmar, borders Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, far to the east. Bihar's other three neighbours are all Indian states: Uttar Pradesh in the west, Jharkhand in the south and West Bengal in the east.

The correct answer is C, Ganga. The Ganga enters Bihar near Chausa in Buxar district, flows from west to east for about 445 kilometres and leaves the state near Rajmahal. It splits the plain into the larger North Bihar plain and the narrower South Bihar plain, and almost every physical fact about the state is stated with reference to that line.

Option A, the Son, is the largest river of the south, flowing north to join the Ganga near Maner, but it drains only the south-western corner. Option B, the Gandak, is one of the Himalayan rivers of the north bank and meets the Ganga at Patna. Option D, the Kosi, is the most unstable of the northern rivers and is called the Sorrow of Bihar, but it too is a tributary and not the dividing line. The clean picture to carry into the exam is the Ganga running across the middle, Himalayan and perennial rivers joining from the north, plateau and seasonal rivers from the south.

The correct answer is A, Someshwar peak in West Champaran. The Someshwar hills form the narrow Shivalik belt in the extreme north-west of Bihar, with flat valleys called duns lying between the ridges, and Someshwar peak, about 880 metres, is the highest point of the state. It is the only genuinely hilly country Bihar kept after 2000.

Option B, the Rajgir hills of Nalanda, are low quartzite ridges rising out of the south Bihar plain and famous in history rather than for height. Option C, the Kharagpur hills of Munger, are an outlier of the Chhotanagpur plateau and also fall well short of Someshwar. Option D, the Kaimur hills of Rohtas, form the sandstone plateau fringe in the south-west with fine scarps and waterfalls, and they are the usual wrong answer because candidates associate height with plateau country. Keep the pairing Someshwar, West Champaran, about 880 metres.

The correct answer is B, Kosi. The Kosi rises in the Himalaya, carries an enormous load of silt and deposits it on the almost flat plain of north Bihar, raising its own bed until it breaks out and takes a new course. Over the last two centuries it has shifted its channel far to the west, leaving a wide belt of sand and abandoned beds, and the damage it does in flood has earned it the name Sorrow of Bihar.

Option A, the Bagmati, and option C, the Burhi Gandak, also flood north Bihar and shift their beds, but neither carries the nickname. Option D, the Punpun, is a river of the south bank, seasonal and relatively small, and floods only locally near Patna. Learn the family of north bank rivers in order from west to east, Ghaghara, Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla Balan, Kosi and Mahananda, and attach the nickname to the Kosi alone.

The correct answer is C, Son. The Son rises on the Amarkantak plateau in Madhya Pradesh, flows north-east through the hard rock country of the south and joins the Ganga near Maner, west of Patna. It is the largest southern tributary of the Ganga and the river on which Bihar's oldest canal system, the Son canals of the Rohtas belt, was built.

Option A, the Gandak, known as the Narayani in Nepal, rises in the Himalaya and meets the Ganga at Patna. Option B, the Bagmati, rises in the hills of Nepal near Kathmandu and floods the Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi belt. Option D, the Mahananda, rises in the Darjeeling hills and drains the north-eastern corner near Kishanganj. The test is simple: rivers of the north bank are Himalayan and perennial, while those of the south bank, the Son, Punpun, Phalgu, Kiul and Chandan, come off the plateau and are seasonal.

The correct answer is C, 15 November 2000. The southern plateau districts of Bihar became the state of Jharkhand on 15 November 2000, the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, under the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000. With them Bihar lost most of its minerals, forests and heavy industry and was left with the plain and a narrow plateau fringe in the south-west.

Option A, 1 November 2000, is the date Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh. Option B, 9 November 2000, is the date Uttarakhand, then Uttaranchal, was separated from Uttar Pradesh. All three states were created within a single month, which is why the dates are asked together. Option D, 22 March, is a real Bihar date but of another kind: Bihar was created as a separate province out of the Bengal Presidency on 22 March 1912, and the day is observed as Bihar Diwas.

The correct answer is C, Chaur. A chaur, also called a maun, is a shallow saucer-shaped depression in the north Bihar plain, left behind when a silt-laden river abandons a channel and raises the land around it. Chaurs hold water through much of the year, support fisheries and makhana cultivation, and are a standard answer in Bihar geography papers.

Option A, diara, names the sandy, shifting land inside the flood plain of the Ganga itself, cultivated with melons and vegetables after the flood recedes. Option B, tal, names the low waterlogged tract south of the Ganga between it and the Punpun, around Patna, Nalanda and Begusarai, which is sown with pulses once the water drains. Option D, bhangar, is a general term of the Ganga plain for older alluvium above the flood level and is not specific to Bihar. Learn the three local words, diara, tal and chaur, with the part of the plain each belongs to.

The correct answer is A, Rohtas and Kaimur. The Kaimur plateau is a block of Vindhyan sandstone that continues into Bihar from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and occupies the south-western corner of the state in Rohtas and Kaimur districts. Its steep scarps, waterfalls and the famous Rohtasgarh fort all belong to this plateau fringe.

Option B, Munger and Jamui, carry the Kharagpur hills, residual outliers of the Chhotanagpur plateau rather than the Kaimur block. Option C, Gaya and Nawada, lie in the south Bihar plain with low isolated hills breaking through, and are chosen by candidates who remember only that the south is rocky. Option D, Purnia and Katihar, lie in the far north-east, in the flat, flood-prone part of the plain with no plateau at all. For the exam, fix the south-west for Kaimur sandstone and the south-east for the Kharagpur hills.

The correct answer is A, about 345 kilometres and 483 kilometres. Bihar measures about 345 kilometres from north to south and about 483 kilometres from east to west, so it is a broad band lying across the Ganga rather than a tall state. The figures match its latitudinal spread of roughly three degrees and its longitudinal spread of nearly five degrees.

Option B simply swaps the two numbers, which is the trap in this question; a candidate who learns the pair without noting which is which loses the mark. Option C, about 826 kilometres and 869 kilometres, gives the extents of Rajasthan, a far larger state. Option D is too small for either direction and would describe a state of about a third of Bihar's area. Tie the numbers to the shape: east to west is the longer measure, because the Ganga crosses the state in that direction.

The correct answer is C, 1912. Bihar, together with Odisha, was separated from the Bengal Presidency and constituted as a new province on 22 March 1912, with Patna as its capital. That date is observed every year as Bihar Diwas, and it is the starting point of the state's modern administrative history.

Option A, 1905, is the year of the first partition of Bengal, an entirely different measure, which was annulled in 1911. Option B, 1911, is the year of that annulment and of the announcement shifting the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi, so it is the closest and most tempting wrong answer. Option D, 1936, is the year Odisha was separated from Bihar to become a province of its own, leaving Bihar with roughly the shape it kept until 2000. The three dates to keep in order are 1912, 1936 and 15 November 2000.