Rivers, Lakes and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab of Uttar Pradesh

The correct answer is B, Bijnor. After leaving the hills at Haridwar in Uttarakhand, the Ganga enters Uttar Pradesh in Bijnor district and then flows south-east past Kannauj, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Ghazipur before passing into Bihar near Ballia. The state carries the longest course of the river of any state in India.

Option A, Saharanpur, is the district where the Yamuna enters Uttar Pradesh, and it stands at the northern tip of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, which is why it is the most tempting wrong choice. Option C, Meerut, and Option D, Bulandshahr, both lie in the upper doab and are watered by the Upper Ganga Canal, but the river crosses into the state above them. Fix the pair in memory: the Ganga enters at Bijnor and leaves at Ballia, and the Yamuna enters at Saharanpur.

The correct answer is B, Prayagraj. The Yamuna, the longest tributary of the Ganga, joins it at Prayagraj, and the meeting place is called the Sangam. Tradition adds the unseen Saraswati to the two visible rivers and calls the place Triveni, and it is here that the Kumbh Mela is held. The confluence also marks the southern end of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.

Option A, Varanasi, stands on the Ganga alone, with the small Varuna and Assi streams after which the city is named. Option C, Kanpur, is a Ganga city of the middle doab and an industrial centre, with no confluence of the two rivers. Option D, Mathura, lies on the Yamuna well upstream, in the Braj region. Remember the doab as a wedge that begins at Saharanpur in the north and closes at Prayagraj in the south.

The correct answer is B, Pilibhit. The Gomti rises from Fulhar lake, also called Gomat Taal, in Pilibhit district of the terai belt, flows south-east through Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Lucknow, Sultanpur and Jaunpur, and joins the Ganga east of Varanasi. Unlike the Ghaghara or the Ramganga it is not fed by snow, so it is a rain-fed river of the plain itself.

Option A, Shahjahanpur, lies on the Garra, a tributary of the Ramganga. Option C, Bahraich, is on the Ghaghara, which comes from Tibet as the Karnali and is a Himalayan river. Option D, Hardoi, is the district where the Sai rises, and the Sai later joins the Gomti in the Jaunpur region, which makes it a plausible distractor. Keep the plain-fed rivers, the Gomti, the Sai and the Varuna, apart from the Himalayan ones in your notes.

The correct answer is A, Kannauj. The Ramganga rises in the Kumaon Himalaya, enters the plain through Bijnor and Moradabad, waters Bareilly and the Rohilkhand districts and joins the Ganga near Kannauj. It is one of the Himalayan tributaries that keep flowing through the dry months, and the Ramganga dam at Kalagarh is built on it.

Option B, Kanpur, lies downstream of the confluence on the Ganga and is an industrial city, not a meeting point of the two rivers. Option C, Farrukhabad, lies on the Ganga just above Kannauj and is often marked by candidates who remember the stretch but not the exact town; the Kali Nadi joins near there. Option D, Allahabad, is the older name of Prayagraj, where the Yamuna, not the Ramganga, joins the Ganga. Keep the confluence towns in a list: Ramganga at Kannauj, Yamuna at Prayagraj, Tons in Prayagraj district.

The correct answer is B, Hamirpur. The Betwa rises on the Vindhyan plateau in Madhya Pradesh, flows north-east across Bundelkhand past Jhansi and Orchha and joins the Yamuna at Hamirpur. The Matatila dam is built on it, and like other plateau rivers it swells in the monsoon and runs low in summer.

Option A, Etawah, is where the Chambal joins the Yamuna, at Pachnada, the place named for the meeting of five streams. Option C, Banda, is the district in which the Ken joins the Yamuna, near Chilla. Option D, Jalaun, lies in the Betwa and Yamuna country of Bundelkhand but is not the confluence town. The three plateau tributaries are a standard match-the-pair set, so learn them together: Chambal at Pachnada in Etawah, Betwa at Hamirpur and Ken in Banda district.

The correct answer is B, the Chambal. Pachnada, in Etawah district, takes its name from the meeting of five streams, where the Chambal joins the Yamuna along with the Sindh, the Kwari and the Pahuj. The Chambal itself rises at Janapav hill in Madhya Pradesh and is known for its ravines, which spread across the Etawah, Agra and Jalaun country.

Option A, the Ken, meets the Yamuna further east, in Banda district near Chilla, and is the river of the Ken-Betwa link proposal. Option C, the Betwa, joins the Yamuna at Hamirpur, further down the same stretch, so the three plateau rivers are easily interchanged in the options. Option D, the Gomti, is a plain-fed river that never meets the Yamuna at all; it joins the Ganga east of Varanasi. Learn the word Pachnada as five rivers and attach the Chambal to it.

The correct answer is B, the Rihand. The Rihand dam in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh holds back the Rihand river, a tributary of the Sone, and its reservoir, named Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar after the state's first chief minister, is the largest man-made lake in India by surface area. The surrounding belt is the industrial and power heartland of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Option A, the Betwa, carries the Matatila dam in the Jhansi and Lalitpur country, a much smaller reservoir. Option C, the Ken, is the Bundelkhand river proposed for linking with the Betwa and has no reservoir of this size in the state. Option D, the Sone, is the larger river into which the Rihand flows, but the dam and the lake are on the Rihand itself, which is the distinction the question is built on. Note the person too: Govind Ballabh Pant was the first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The correct answer is B, Haridwar. The Upper Ganga Canal, designed by Proby Cautley and opened in 1854, leaves the Ganga at Haridwar and waters the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab through Meerut, Bulandshahr and Aligarh. It was among the first great irrigation works of the plain and set the pattern for the canal network of western Uttar Pradesh.

Option A, Narora, is the head of the Lower Ganga Canal and is also known for the atomic power station and the Ramsar stretch from Brijghat to Narora, so it is the closest distractor. Option C, Kanpur, lies in the area the canal serves rather than at its head. Option D, Banbasa, is where the Sharda Canal takes water from the Sharda river for the districts of Awadh. Keep the four heads together: Haridwar, Narora, Okhla for the Agra Canal and Banbasa for the Sharda Canal.

The correct answer is B, the Yamuna. The Yamuna rises at the Yamunotri glacier in Uttarakhand, flows past Delhi, Mathura and Agra and joins the Ganga at Prayagraj after a course of more than thirteen hundred kilometres, which makes it the longest tributary of the Ganga. Its own tributaries, the Chambal, the Sindh, the Betwa and the Ken, drain the plateau country of Bundelkhand.

Option A, the Ghaghara, rises in Tibet as the Karnali, waters eastern Uttar Pradesh and is the tributary that carries the greatest volume of water to the Ganga, which is exactly why it is offered here; volume and length are different measures. Option C, the Gomti, is a plain-fed river of moderate length. Option D, the Son, is the main right-bank tributary of the Ganga and joins it in Bihar, but it is shorter than the Yamuna. The land between the Ganga and the Yamuna is the doab of this chapter.

The correct answer is B, Sant Kabir Nagar. Bakhira, in Sant Kabir Nagar district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, is the largest natural lake of the state. It is protected as a bird sanctuary for the migratory birds that winter there and is also listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance.

Option A, Gorakhpur, has Ramgarh Tal, a large lake beside the city, and lies in the same eastern region, which makes it the natural wrong answer. Option C, Unnao, has the Nawabganj bird sanctuary, also called the Chandra Shekhar Azad sanctuary, another Ramsar wetland. Option D, Mainpuri, has the Saman wetland. Group the state's wetlands by district when you revise: Bakhira in Sant Kabir Nagar, Nawabganj in Unnao, Sandi in Hardoi, Samaspur in Raebareli, Parvati Arga in Gonda, Saman in Mainpuri, Sarsai Nawar in Etawah and Sur Sarovar near Agra.