Himalayas and Northern Plains: Ranges, Passes and Belts

The correct answer is C, Himadri or Greater Himalaya. The Himadri is the innermost and northernmost of the three parallel Himalayan ranges, with an average height of about 6,000 metres. It is the most continuous of the three, carries the loftiest peaks and stays under snow through the year, which is why the largest Himalayan glaciers, such as Gangotri and Yamunotri, lie in it. Option A is wrong because the Shiwalik is the outermost and lowest range, only about 900 to 1,100 metres high and built of loose sediment washed down by rivers. Option B is wrong because the Himachal or Lesser Himalaya lies between the other two, at about 3,700 to 4,500 metres, and holds the hill stations and the Kashmir, Kangra and Kullu valleys. Option D is wrong because the Purvanchal hills are the eastern extension beyond the Brahmaputra bend, not one of the three parallel ranges.

The correct answer is B, Shiwalik and Lesser Himalaya. Duns are flat-floored longitudinal valleys formed where rivers coming out of the Lesser Himalaya were held up behind the rising Shiwalik and filled the depression with gravel and silt. Dehra Dun in Uttarakhand is the largest, and Kotli Dun and Patli Dun are the other examples exams name. Option A is wrong because the valley belt between the Greater and the Lesser Himalaya includes the Kashmir valley, which is filled with Karewa lake deposits rather than being called a Dun. Option C is wrong because the Karakoram and the Ladakh range lie in the Trans-Himalayan zone north of the Greater Himalaya, where the Indus flows between them. Option D is wrong because the Zaskar range also belongs to the Trans-Himalayan system and holds no Duns.

The correct answer is A, Saffron. Karewas are thick beds of glacial clay, silt and other lake sediments laid down in the Kashmir valley, which lies between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya. Their fine, well-drained soil and the valley's cold winters suit saffron, and the Pampore area near Srinagar is the best-known growing tract; almond and apple orchards also stand on these deposits. Option B is wrong because tea needs a warm, humid climate with heavy, well-distributed rainfall and grows in Assam, the Darjeeling hills, the Nilgiris and Kerala. Option C is wrong because rubber is an equatorial crop grown mainly in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and the north-eastern states. Option D is wrong because jute needs the hot, humid alluvial flood plains of West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, not a cold mountain valley.

The correct answer is B, Bhabar. The Bhabar is a narrow belt about 8 to 16 kilometres wide, laid along the foot of the Shiwalik range, where the rivers leaving the hills drop their coarsest load. Because the deposit is a mass of pebbles and gravel, it is highly porous, and the streams sink into it and vanish from the surface. Option A is wrong because the Terai lies just south of the Bhabar and is the wet, marshy belt where those same streams re-emerge, once covered by dense forest. Option C is wrong because Bhangar is the older alluvium standing above the flood level in terraces and carrying lime nodules called kankar. Option D is wrong because Khadar is the newer alluvium of the flood plains, renewed by almost every flood and the most fertile part of the plain.

The correct answer is C, Bhangar. Bhangar is the older alluvial deposit of the Northern Plains. It forms terraces that stand above the present flood level, so fresh silt no longer reaches it, and long leaching has left calcareous concretions called kankar in its profile. Being less often renewed, it is the less fertile of the two alluviums. Option A is wrong because Khadar is the newer alluvium of the flood plains, renewed by almost every flood and therefore more fertile. Option B is wrong because Bhabar is the pebble belt at the foot of the Shiwaliks where streams disappear underground. Option D is wrong because Terai is the marshy, once heavily forested strip south of the Bhabar where those streams come back to the surface. Candidates often reverse Bhangar and Khadar, so fix that Bhangar is the older one.

The correct answer is D, Sikkim. Nathu La lies in eastern Sikkim on the old trade route from Gangtok to Lhasa and is one of the passes on India's border with the Tibet region of China; Jelep La, also in Sikkim, is the other. Option A is wrong because the passes of Himachal Pradesh are Rohtang, Baralacha La and Shipki La, the last carrying the Satluj across the border. Option B is wrong because Uttarakhand's passes are Mana, Niti and Lipulekh, used historically by pilgrims and traders. Option C is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh has Bomdi La and Bum La, the latter on the line facing Tibet near Tawang. Questions on this topic usually ask you to match a pass with its state, so it helps to group them state by state before the exam.

The correct answer is B, Kanchenjunga. Kanchenjunga rises to 8,586 metres on the Sikkim-Nepal border and is the highest peak in India's undisputed territory, as well as the third highest in the world after Everest and K2. K2 or Godwin Austen, at 8,611 metres in the Karakoram, is higher but lies in the part of Kashmir under dispute. Option A is wrong because Nanda Devi, 7,816 metres in Uttarakhand, is the highest peak lying wholly inside India but is lower than Kanchenjunga. Option C is wrong because Nanga Parbat, 8,126 metres, stands in the western Himalaya in the disputed part of Kashmir. Option D is wrong because Dhaulagiri, 8,167 metres, is entirely in Nepal and is not an Indian peak at all. A quick way to hold the order is that Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga are the world's first three, and of those only Kanchenjunga touches Indian soil that is not in dispute.

The correct answer is C, Young fold mountains. The Himalayas were raised when the northward-moving Indian plate collided with the Eurasian plate and the sediments of the shallow Tethys Sea between them were compressed into great folds and thrust upward. The process continues, so the range is still rising and the belt remains earthquake-prone. Option A is wrong because block mountains, such as the Vosges and the Black Forest, are formed when a block of land stands up between two faults. Option B is wrong because volcanic mountains, such as Mount Kilimanjaro or Barren Island in the Andamans, are built of erupted material. Option D is wrong because residual or relict mountains, such as the Aravalli and the Nilgiris in India, are worn-down remains of much older ranges rather than young structures.

The correct answer is A, Pir Panjal. The Pir Panjal is the longest and most important range of the Lesser or Himachal Himalaya, running from the Jhelum through Jammu and Kashmir towards Himachal Pradesh and separating the Kashmir valley from the Jammu plains. The Banihal pass, through which the Jammu-Srinagar road runs, crosses it. Option B is wrong because the Dhauladhar is also part of the Lesser Himalaya but is a shorter range, lying mainly in Himachal Pradesh above the Kangra valley. Option C is wrong because the Zaskar range belongs to the Trans-Himalayan system north of the Greater Himalaya. Option D is wrong because the Ladakh range lies still further north, between the Zaskar and the Karakoram, with the Indus flowing along its southern side. A useful check in the exam hall is that any name carrying Zaskar, Ladakh or Karakoram belongs to the Trans-Himalayas, while Pir Panjal, Dhauladhar and Mahabharat belong to the Lesser Himalaya.

The correct answer is B, Brahmaputra. Majuli lies in the Brahmaputra in Assam and is counted the largest river island in the world. The Brahmaputra carries an enormous load of silt from a young, rapidly eroding basin, and because its channel is braided and shifts often, it has built large islands and sandbars called chars. Majuli is also a centre of Assamese Vaishnavite culture, with its satras or monasteries. Option A is wrong because the Ganga's delta holds Sagar Island and the Sundarbans, which are delta islands rather than the largest river island. Option C is wrong because the Godavari is a peninsular river with a delta on the east coast but no island of this size. Option D is wrong because most of the Indus basin lies outside India today.

The correct answer is D, Aravalli Hills. The Purvanchal or Eastern Hills are the southward continuation of the Himalayas beyond the eastern bend of the Brahmaputra, and they are made up of the Patkai Bum, the Naga Hills, the Manipur Hills and the Mizo or Lushai Hills. They are lower than the main Himalayan ranges and are composed largely of soft sandstone. The Aravalli, by contrast, is one of the oldest fold mountain systems in the world, a residual range running north-east from Gujarat through Rajasthan to Delhi, with Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu as its highest point. Option A is wrong because the Patkai Bum lies along the Arunachal Pradesh border with Myanmar. Option B is wrong because the Naga Hills are in Nagaland, and Option C is wrong because the Mizo Hills are in Mizoram.

The correct answer is C, Doab. Doab, from the Persian words for two and water, is the name for the tract of land between two rivers. The Punjab plains, built by the Indus and its tributaries, are divided into such tracts, among them the Bari doab between the Beas and the Ravi, the Bist doab between the Beas and the Satluj, the Rachna doab between the Ravi and the Chenab and the Chaj doab between the Chenab and the Jhelum. Option A is wrong because a Dun is a longitudinal valley between the Shiwaliks and the Lesser Himalaya. Option B is wrong because Bhabar is the pebble belt at the foot of the Shiwaliks. Option D is wrong because Karewas are the lake deposits of the Kashmir valley on which saffron is grown.