Himachal Pradesh GK: Formation, Rivers and Exam Facts

The correct answer is C, 25 January 1971. The State of Himachal Pradesh Act, 1970 came into force on that day and Indira Gandhi inaugurated the new state at Shimla, with Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar as its first Chief Minister. Option A is wrong because 15 April 1948 is the day about thirty princely hill states were merged into a chief commissioner province, which the state marks as Himachal Day, not as statehood. Option B is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the day the unit became a Union Territory under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. Option D is wrong because 1 November 1966 is the day the Punjab Reorganisation Act transferred the Punjab hill districts to Himachal Pradesh, nearly doubling it while it was still a Union Territory.

The correct answer is B, Dharamshala. Dharamshala, the headquarters of Kangra district and the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, was declared the second or winter capital of Himachal Pradesh in 2017, while Shimla remains the capital and the seat of the High Court. Option A is wrong because Mandi, called the Varanasi of the hills for its temples and its Shivratri fair, is only a district headquarters. Option C is wrong because Solan, known for mushrooms and its brewery, is a district town on the Kalka Shimla line. Option D is wrong because Bilaspur, the princely state merged in 1954, is known for the Bhakra Dam and the Gobind Sagar, not for any capital status. The pattern of a second capital also appears in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.

The correct answer is D, Shipki La. The Sutlej, which rises from the Rakshastal near Mansarovar in Tibet, crosses into India at Shipki La in Kinnaur district, and it is the longest river of Himachal Pradesh, carrying the Bhakra, Nathpa Jhakri and Kol Dam projects. Option A is wrong because the Rohtang Pass on the Pir Panjal connects Kullu with Lahaul and Spiti and is now bypassed by the Atal Tunnel. Option B is wrong because Baralacha La in Lahaul lies on the Manali Leh road near Suraj Tal. Option C is wrong because the Kunzum Pass joins the Lahaul valley with Spiti. The Sutlej is the only one of the Indus tributaries that cuts through the Greater Himalaya in this way. The Sutlej is called Satadru in the Vedas and Langchen Khambab in Tibet, and below Bhakra it leaves the state for Punjab.

The correct answer is A, Kullu. The Great Himalayan National Park lies in the upper Beas basin of Kullu district and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014 for its alpine biodiversity; it protects the western tragopan, the monal and the Himalayan brown bear. Option B is wrong because Chamba holds the Kalatop Khajjiar sanctuary and the Chamera dam, not this park. Option C is wrong because Kinnaur holds Reo Purgyil and the Nathpa Jhakri project, while Pin Valley National Park lies in the Spiti part of Lahaul and Spiti. Option D is wrong because Sirmaur holds Renuka lake and the Simbalbara National Park. Nanda Devi with the Valley of Flowers is the other Himalayan natural site on the list. The Kalka Shimla railway is the cultural World Heritage Site of the state, listed among the Mountain Railways of India.

The correct answer is B, Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar. Parmar led the hill states movement from the 1940s, headed the government through the Union Territory years and took office as the first Chief Minister of the full state on 25 January 1971; the horticulture university at Nauni near Solan is named after him. Option A is wrong because Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma is credited with giving the state its name, Himachal, the lap of snow, but held no such office. Option C is wrong because Raja Sansar Chand was the Katoch ruler of Kangra who patronised the Kangra school of painting. Option D is wrong because Samuel Evans Stokes introduced improved apple varieties at Kotgarh and shaped the horticulture of the state, not its politics.

The correct answer is B, Beas Kund near the Rohtang Pass. The Beas, the Vipasha of the Vedas, rises at Beas Kund on the southern side of the Rohtang Pass, flows past Manali, Kullu and Mandi, is dammed at Pandoh and Pong in Kangra and finally joins the Sutlej at Harike in Punjab. Option A is wrong because Bara Bhangal in Kangra is the source of the Ravi, the Iravati. Option C is wrong because the Chandra and the Bhaga meet at Tandi in Lahaul to form the Chandrabhaga, which becomes the Chenab. Option D is wrong because Renuka is the largest natural lake of the state and a Ramsar site, not a river source. The Yamuna only enters the state in Sirmaur. Of the five rivers, only the Beas rises and ends its Himachal course wholly within the state, which is why its source is asked so often.

The correct answer is B, Bilaspur. The Bhakra Dam stands at the Bhakra gorge in Bilaspur district, impounds the Gobind Sagar and is the tallest concrete gravity dam in India; the old town of Bilaspur was submerged by the reservoir and a new town built above it. Jawaharlal Nehru called Bhakra a temple of modern India. Option A is wrong because Kinnaur holds the Nathpa Jhakri project, the largest hydel station on the Sutlej in the state. Option C is wrong because Mandi holds the Pandoh dam on the Beas and the Shivratri fair. Option D is wrong because Una, carved out in 1972, is a low lying district with no major dam. Pong on the Beas lies in Kangra. Bhakra Nangal is a joint project of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, and the Gobind Sagar is named after Guru Gobind Singh.

The correct answer is B, western tragopan. The western tragopan, known locally as jujurana or the king of birds, is a rare pheasant of the western Himalayan forests and the state bird of Himachal Pradesh; the Great Himalayan National Park is its best refuge. Option A is wrong because the Himalayan monal is the state bird of Uttarakhand and the national bird of Nepal, and the swap between monal and tragopan is the trap in this question. Option C is wrong because the Himalayan snow cock is a high altitude bird with no state status. Option D is wrong because the chir pheasant, or cheer, is another Himalayan pheasant but is not a state symbol. The state animal here is the snow leopard and the state tree the deodar.

The correct answer is C, 1972. The Simla Agreement was signed at Shimla on 2 July 1972 by Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the Bangladesh war, converting the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir into the Line of Control and binding the two countries to settle disputes bilaterally. Option A is wrong because 1966 is the year of the Tashkent Declaration signed by Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan after the 1965 war, and also of the Punjab Reorganisation Act. Option B is wrong because 1971 is the year of the war itself and of Himachal statehood. Option D is wrong because 1975 saw the merger of Sikkim as a state, not any agreement with Pakistan. Shimla had been the summer capital of British India from 1864, which is why so many agreements and conferences carry its name.

The correct answer is C, Lahaul and Spiti. Lahaul and Spiti is the largest district of the state in area and one of the most thinly peopled districts in India, a cold desert beyond the Pir Panjal that holds the Tabo, Key and Dhankar monasteries and the Chandra Tal Ramsar site. Option A is wrong because Kangra is the most populous district and holds Dharamshala and the tea gardens, but is smaller in area. Option B is wrong because Chamba, with the Ravi and the Minjar fair, ranks behind Lahaul and Spiti. Option D is wrong because Shimla district holds the capital but is smaller still. Hamirpur is the smallest district by area, and Kinnaur is the other tribal district. Una was carved out of Hamirpur in 1972, and the twelve districts were completed in that reorganisation of the new state.

The correct answer is A, Rohtang Pass. The Atal Tunnel runs about nine kilometres under the Rohtang Pass on the Pir Panjal, was inaugurated in October 2020 and gives the Lahaul valley a road to Manali through the winter, when the pass itself is closed by snow. Option B is wrong because Shipki La in Kinnaur is the pass through which the Sutlej enters India from Tibet and has no such tunnel. Option C is wrong because the Jalori Pass is a low crossing on the Kullu Shimla road through the Seraj valley. Option D is wrong because the Kunzum Pass joins Lahaul with Spiti and stays shut in winter. Baralacha La and Sach are the other high passes of the state. The tunnel is named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who approved the project, and it lies at about 3,000 metres above sea level.

The correct answer is C, Kullu Dussehra. Kullu Dussehra begins on Vijayadashami, the day the Dussehra of the plains ends, runs for seven days at the Dhalpur maidan and centres on the chariot of Raghunath ji, whom the village deities of the valley come to attend; it is recognised as an international festival. Option A is wrong because the Minjar fair is held at Chamba in the rainy season, when a silk tassel is offered to the Ravi. Option B is wrong because the Lavi fair at Rampur Bushahr is a November trade fair for wool, dry fruit and horses, dating from a treaty with Tibet. Option D is wrong because the Renuka fair in Sirmaur is held at the lake on Kartik Ekadashi. Mandi holds the Shivratri fair, the fourth of the great fairs, and all four are asked as a set with their districts.