Malwa, Vindhya and Satpura: Plateaus of Madhya Pradesh

The correct answer is A, Dhupgarh. Dhupgarh rises to 1,350 metres at Pachmarhi, in Narmadapuram district, and is the highest point both of the Satpura range and of Madhya Pradesh. It stands in the Mahadeo hills, the block of the Satpura that also carries the state's only hill station, and the sunset point there is the standard tourist description that papers borrow.

Option B, Amarkantak, is the plateau at the eastern end of the Satpura where the Narmada, the Son and the Johila rise; it is high ground but lower than Dhupgarh, and it is the most tempting wrong answer because it is so often named in river questions. Option C, Chauragarh, is a peak in the same Mahadeo hills near Pachmarhi, famous for its Shiva shrine, and is second to Dhupgarh. Option D, Janapav, is a hill near Mhow in Indore district on the Malwa Plateau, remembered as the source of the Chambal, not for its height.

The correct answer is B, the Amarkantak plateau. Amarkantak lies at the eastern end of the Satpura, where that range, the Maikal hills and the Vindhya come together, and three rivers begin there: the Narmada, which turns west along the rift valley, the Son, which runs east towards the Ganga, and the Johila, a tributary of the Son. One plateau sending rivers to two different seas is exactly the kind of fact examiners like.

Option A, Janapav hill near Mhow in Indore district, is the source of the Chambal, a Malwa river that flows north to the Yamuna. Option C, Multai in Betul district, is the source of the Tapti, which flows west to the Arabian Sea along a trough south of the Satpura. Option D, Pachmarhi, is the hill station in the Mahadeo hills with Dhupgarh above it, and the Tawa, the largest tributary of the Narmada, drains that area but does not rise at the same spot. Learn the four sources as a set: Amarkantak, Janapav, Multai and the Tawa country.

The correct answer is C, the basalt of the Deccan trap. Malwa was covered by the great lava flows that spread over western and central India, and the basalt they left weathers into the deep black cotton soil, locally called regur, which makes Malwa a wheat, gram, cotton and soyabean region. The flat, step-like surface of the plateau and its average height of about 500 metres are both products of the same lava sheets.

Option A, granite and gneiss, is the rock of the Bundelkhand plateau in the north, which is why that region is rocky, broken and infertile by comparison. Option B, Vindhyan sandstone, builds the Rewa and Panna country and the scarps of the Vindhya, and supplies building stone and the diamond-bearing ground of Panna. Option D, alluvium, occurs in the Narmada-Son rift and in the northern river valleys, but not on the Malwa tableland. Pair each division with its rock before the exam, because match-the-following questions use these four together.

The correct answer is A, Janapav hill near Mhow in Indore district. The Chambal begins on the Malwa Plateau at Janapav, flows north through Madhya Pradesh into Rajasthan and finally joins the Yamuna, which is why it belongs to the Ganga drainage although it starts in central India. On its way through Bhind, Morena and Sheopur it has cut the deep gullies known as the Chambal ravines, and the National Chambal Sanctuary on the river protects the gharial.

Option B, Dhupgarh at Pachmarhi, is the highest peak of the state in the Satpura and is not a river source of note. Option C, Amarkantak, gives rise to the Narmada, the Son and the Johila, and is the usual distractor in any source question about Madhya Pradesh. Option D, Multai in Betul district, is the source of the Tapti. Remember also that the Chambal's own tributaries, the Kali Sindh, the Parbati and the Shipra, are Malwa rivers that flow north for the same reason: the plateau slopes that way.

The correct answer is B, the Vindhya. The Vindhya Range runs west to east along the northern edge of the Narmada valley, and the rivers that rise on its northern slope, the Chambal, the Betwa, the Ken and the Tons, go to the Yamuna and the Ganga, while those on its southern slope go to the Narmada. That makes it the water divide between the two basins, and in tradition the line between northern and southern India.

Option A, the Satpura, lies south of the Narmada and separates the Narmada basin from the Tapti basin, which is the distinction the question is testing. Option C, the Maikal range, links the Satpura with the eastern hills and separates the Narmada headwaters from the Mahanadi and Wainganga country, a local divide rather than the great one. Option D, the Aravalli, lies in Rajasthan and is the divide between the Chambal and the Luni drainage. The Vindhya is also worth remembering as a scarp, not a folded mountain chain.

The correct answer is A, the Kaimur range. Beyond the Son valley the Vindhyan rocks continue east as the Kaimur range, which passes through the Rewa and Satna country of Madhya Pradesh into Uttar Pradesh and then into the Kaimur and Rohtas districts of Bihar, where it forms the southern plateau fringe of that state. The range is low, flat-topped and built of the same hard sandstone as the Vindhyan scarps.

Option B, the Maikal range, is the hilly link between the Satpura and the eastern highlands near Kanha and Amarkantak, so it lies south of the Narmada and belongs to a different system. Option C, the Mahadeo hills, are part of the Satpura around Pachmarhi, with Dhupgarh and Chauragarh on them. Option D, the Bhander plateau, is a tableland cut out of the Vindhyan rocks in the north of Madhya Pradesh, not the eastward continuation of the range. The same range gives its name to the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary, the largest wildlife sanctuary of Bihar.

The correct answer is A, Pachmarhi. Pachmarhi lies in the Mahadeo hills of the Satpura in Narmadapuram district, at a height of about a thousand metres, and is the only hill station in Madhya Pradesh. Dhupgarh, the highest point of the state at 1,350 metres, rises above it, and the surrounding forest is the core of the Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve, which also takes in the Satpura and Bori protected areas.

Option B, Amarkantak, is high ground at the eastern end of the Satpura and a pilgrimage centre as the source of the Narmada, but it is not counted as a hill station. Option C, Bhedaghat, near Jabalpur, is famous for the marble rocks and the Dhuandhar falls on the Narmada, a river gorge rather than a hill resort. Option D, Mhow, in Indore district, is a cantonment town on the Malwa Plateau, remembered as the birthplace of Dr B. R. Ambedkar and for the nearby Janapav hill. Pachmarhi is also called the queen of the Satpura in state papers.

The correct answer is A, a rift valley. The trough between the Vindhya and the Satpura sank along two roughly parallel faults, leaving the land on either side standing up as block mountains. That is the definition of a rift valley, and the Narmada-Son trough is the standard Indian example of one in geography papers. The Narmada flows west along it and the Son east, and the valley floor carries alluvium while the ground on both sides is hard rock.

Option B, a hanging valley, is a glacial feature where a tributary valley meets a deeper main valley, as in the Himalaya. Option C, a synclinal valley, is formed in the downfold of folded rocks, which is not how the Narmada trough came about. Option D, a glacial U-shaped valley, is carved by ice and has no place in central India. Two consequences worth remembering follow from the rift: the Narmada flows west instead of east, and it makes an estuary rather than a delta.

The correct answer is B, the Bundelkhand Plateau. Khajuraho is in Chhatarpur district, which lies on the Bundelkhand Plateau, the tract of old granite and gneiss north of the Vindhya that takes in Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Datia, Sagar and Damoh. The plateau is drained north by the Betwa, the Dhasan and the Ken, and the Chandela rulers who built the Khajuraho temples held this country.

Option A, the Malwa Plateau, is the lava tableland of the west with Indore and Ujjain on it. Option C, the Baghelkhand Plateau, lies in the north-east, along the Son, and carries the Singrauli coalfield and the limestone of Satna. Option D, the Nimar plain, is the lower Narmada valley around Khandwa, Khargone and Barwani, far to the south-west. A useful pairing for the exam is Khajuraho with Bundelkhand and the Chandelas, Panna with the Rewa-Panna sandstone and diamonds, and Sanchi with the Malwa edge near Vidisha.

The correct answer is A, Rewa. The Chachai falls lie in Rewa district, where the Bihad river plunges over the edge of the Vindhyan sandstone plateau. Rewa is the waterfall country of the state for exactly this reason: the hard, flat-lying sandstone ends in steep scarps, and several streams drop over them, the Keoti and the Bahuti falls among them. A question on waterfalls in Madhya Pradesh almost always has Rewa as the answer unless the Narmada is named.

Option B, Jabalpur, has the Dhuandhar falls, where the Narmada drops through the marble rocks at Bhedaghat, so it is a genuine waterfall district but the wrong one here. Option C, Panna, is known for diamonds and for the Panna Tiger Reserve on the Ken. Option D, Chhindwara, lies in the Satpura and is known for its forests and the Pench reserve. Remember the pairing of scarp with waterfall: Vindhyan sandstone and Rewa on one side, Narmada gorge and Jabalpur on the other.

The correct answer is A, Betul. The Tapti, or Tapi, begins at Multai in Betul district on the southern side of the Satpura and flows west through Maharashtra and Gujarat to the Gulf of Khambhat. Like the Narmada it runs west down a fault trough and ends in an estuary rather than a delta, and the two together are the standard pair of west-flowing peninsular rivers in exam questions.

Option B, Chhindwara, lies next to Betul in the same Satpura belt and is drained by the Pench and the Kanhan, tributaries of the Godavari system, which makes it a believable but wrong answer. Option C, Khandwa, is in the Nimar plain on the Narmada, where the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar projects stand. Option D, Anuppur, is the district of Amarkantak, the source of the Narmada and the Son. Learn the three sources together with their districts: Multai in Betul, Amarkantak in Anuppur and Janapav in Indore.

The correct answer is A, the Vindhya and the Satpura. The Nimar plain is the lower part of the Narmada valley, around Khandwa, Khargone and Barwani, shut in by the Vindhyan scarp on the north and the Satpura on the south. Because it is a low trough between two walls of hills it is one of the hottest parts of the state, and its alluvial and black soils carry cotton, jowar and wheat; the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar projects on the Narmada lie along it.

Option B, the Aravalli and the Vindhya, enclose the Malwa and Mewar country to the north-west, and the Aravalli does not enter Madhya Pradesh in any case except as low outliers. Option C, the Satpura and the Maikal, meet each other in the east near Amarkantak rather than enclosing a plain. Option D, the Kaimur and the Bhander, are both Vindhyan tablelands in the north of the state. Remember the order from north to south: Malwa, Vindhya, Narmada valley with Nimar, Satpura, and then the Tapti trough.