Uttarakhand GK: Formation, Rivers, Parks and Exam Facts

The correct answer is C, 9 November 2000. On that day the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 came into force and separated the Garhwal and Kumaon hill districts from Uttar Pradesh to form the twenty seventh state of the Union, then named Uttaranchal. Option A is wrong because 1 November 2000 is the foundation day of Chhattisgarh, created out of Madhya Pradesh. Option B is wrong because 15 November 2000 is the foundation day of Jharkhand, carved out of Bihar; the three states of 2000 are asked together and their order is Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand. Option D is wrong because 1 January 2007 is the date on which the state was renamed Uttarakhand, not the date on which it was created. Nityanand Swami became its first Chief Minister.

The correct answer is A, Nainital. When the state was formed in 2000 its High Court was established at Nainital, the old summer headquarters of the hills, while the seat of government went elsewhere. Option B is wrong because Dehradun is the working capital of the state and the seat of the Secretariat and the Assembly, but not of the High Court; Uttarakhand is a standard example of a state whose High Court is not in its capital, alongside Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Option C is wrong because Haridwar is a pilgrim city and one of the four Kumbh Mela centres, with no High Court. Option D is wrong because Gairsain, also called Bhararisain, in Chamoli district was declared the summer capital in 2020 and holds no court.

The correct answer is B, Devprayag. Devprayag in Tehri Garhwal district is the last of the Panch Prayag, and below it the united stream is known as the Ganga; the Bhagirathi comes from the Gangotri glacier at Gaumukh and the Alaknanda from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers. Option A is wrong because Rudraprayag is where the Mandakini, which drains the Kedarnath valley, joins the Alaknanda. Option C is wrong because Karnaprayag is the confluence of the Alaknanda with the Pindar, which rises from the Pindari glacier. Option D is wrong because Vishnuprayag is the first prayag, where the Dhauliganga meets the Alaknanda near Joshimath. Nandprayag, on the Nandakini, is the fifth of the set. All five prayags except Devprayag lie in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts, and examiners test the river name against the town name, so learn the pairs Dhauliganga with Vishnuprayag, Nandakini with Nandprayag, Pindar with Karnaprayag, Mandakini with Rudraprayag and Bhagirathi with Devprayag.

The correct answer is D, Rudraprayag. The Mandakini flows down the Kedarnath valley and meets the Alaknanda at Rudraprayag, the town that gives its name to the district; the pair Mandakini with Rudraprayag is the most asked row of the Panch Prayag table. Option A is wrong because Nandprayag is the confluence of the Alaknanda with the Nandakini. Option B is wrong because Karnaprayag is the confluence with the Pindar, which comes from the Pindari glacier in the Kumaon hills. Option C is wrong because Devprayag is where the Bhagirathi joins the Alaknanda and the river takes the name Ganga. Vishnuprayag, on the Dhauliganga, completes the five. All except Devprayag lie on the Alaknanda in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts. Rudraprayag is also remembered as the place where Jim Corbett shot the man eating leopard, and the Kedarnath pilgrim road turns north from the town.

The correct answer is A, Jim Corbett National Park. It was notified in 1936 in the Nainital and Pauri Garhwal hills as Hailey National Park after the then Governor, was renamed Ramganga National Park and finally, in 1957, named after the hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett; Project Tiger was launched here on 1 April 1973. Option B is wrong because Kanha in Madhya Pradesh was constituted in 1955 and is famous for the hard ground barasingha. Option C is wrong because Rajaji, near Haridwar and Dehradun, was formed in 1983 by joining three sanctuaries and is known for its elephants. Option D is wrong because the Valley of Flowers, reached by Frank Smythe in 1931, became a national park only in 1982. Corbett spreads over the Ramganga valley and its reservoir at Kalagarh, and it was one of the nine reserves with which Project Tiger began.

The correct answer is C, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers. The Nanda Devi National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1988 and the Valley of Flowers National Park was added as an extension in 2005, so the two are listed together as one site in Chamoli district. Option A is wrong because neither Rajaji nor Jim Corbett carries the World Heritage tag, although Corbett is the oldest national park in the country. Option B is wrong because Gangotri and Govind Pashu Vihar are ordinary national parks of the upper Bhagirathi and Tons basins. Option D is wrong because it pairs a listed park with an unlisted one. The Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh is the other Himalayan site on the list.

The correct answer is A, Chamoli. The movement began in 1973 at Mandal in Chamoli district, when villagers stopped a sporting goods firm from felling ash trees, and it is remembered above all for Reni village in the same district, where Gaura Devi led the women who embraced the trees in 1974. Chandi Prasad Bhatt of the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh organised the first protests. Option B is wrong because Almora, in Kumaon, was a centre of the Chand rulers and of later social reform, not of Chipko. Option C is wrong because Tehri Garhwal is linked with Sunderlal Bahuguna and the anti Tehri dam campaign. Option D is wrong because Pithoragarh, the border district, had no part in the first protests. Chipko won a fifteen year ban on green felling in the higher Uttarakhand Himalaya, and the Appiko movement of Karnataka followed it in 1983.

The correct answer is D, Nanda Devi. Nanda Devi in Chamoli district rises to 7,816 metres and is the highest peak of Uttarakhand as well as the highest mountain wholly inside India, since it lies far from any international boundary; the sanctuary around it is a World Heritage Site. Option A is wrong because Kamet, also in Chamoli, is about 7,756 metres and stands second in the state. Option B is wrong because Trishul, 7,120 metres, is lower and is the peak first climbed by Tom Longstaff in 1907. Option C is wrong because Kanchenjunga, 8,586 metres, is the highest peak in India but sits on the border of Sikkim with Nepal, so it is not entirely within India. Mount Everest is not in India at all, and among Indian peaks the order Kanchenjunga, Nanda Devi, Kamet is worth memorising.

The correct answer is A, Bhagirathi. The Tehri Dam stands near the old town of Tehri where the Bhilangana joins the Bhagirathi, rises about 260 metres and is the tallest dam in India and one of the tallest earth and rockfill dams in the world; Sunderlal Bahuguna led a long campaign against it. Option B is wrong because the Alaknanda carries other projects such as Vishnuprayag and Srinagar but not Tehri. Option C is wrong because the Yamuna in this state is used at Dakpathar and Ichari, far smaller works. Option D is wrong because the Ramganga is dammed at Kalagarh on the edge of the Corbett park. Remember Bhakra on the Sutlej as the tallest concrete gravity dam. The Tehri project submerged the old town of Tehri and a new town was built above the reservoir, while Koteshwar lies just downstream of the main dam.

The correct answer is B, Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand adopted Sanskrit as its second official language in 2010, the first state in India to do so, with Hindi remaining the first official language; the decision fits a state whose Char Dham and temple towns keep a living Sanskrit tradition. Option A is wrong because Himachal Pradesh took the same step later, in 2019, and is therefore the second such state, a pair examiners like to swap. Option C is wrong because Uttar Pradesh uses Hindi with Urdu as its second official language. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has Hindi alone as its official language. Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari are dialects of Uttarakhand but carry no official status. The state also keeps a network of Sanskrit schools and a Sanskrit university at Haridwar, which is why this fact is asked as a first among the states.

The correct answer is B, Himalayan monal. The monal, a bright pheasant of the high forests known locally as munal, is the state bird of Uttarakhand; the state animal is the alpine musk deer, the state tree the buransh or rhododendron and the state flower the Brahma Kamal. Option A is wrong because the western tragopan, or jujurana, is the state bird of Himachal Pradesh, and the two Himalayan pheasants are the standard confusion in this question. Option C is wrong because the sarus crane is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh, the parent state of Uttarakhand. Option D is wrong because the great Indian bustard is the state bird of Rajasthan, a desert species with no Himalayan range. The monal is also the national bird of Nepal, where it is called danphe, a link examiners occasionally use in a match the following question.

The correct answer is C, Lipulekh Pass. Lipulekh lies in Pithoragarh district at the meeting point of Uttarakhand, Nepal and Tibet, and the oldest official route for the Kailash Mansarovar yatra crosses it through the Kali valley; Mana and Niti in Chamoli are the other passes of the state to Tibet. Option A is wrong because the Rohtang Pass is in Himachal Pradesh and connects Kullu with Lahaul and Spiti. Option B is wrong because Shipki La is the Himachal pass through which the Sutlej enters India, and it serves a trade route rather than this pilgrimage. Option D is wrong because Nathu La is in Sikkim on the old Silk Route, and it carries a separate Kailash Mansarovar route opened much later. Lipulekh also stands on the old salt and wool trade route to Tibet that the Bhotiya traders of Pithoragarh used.