How many states and union territories share a boundary with Uttar Pradesh?

The correct answer is B, 240,928 square kilometres. Uttar Pradesh covers 240,928 square kilometres, about 7.3 per cent of the area of India, which makes it the fourth largest state after Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. It is at the same time the most populous state of the country, and that gap between area rank and population rank is itself a favourite question.

Option A, 196,024 square kilometres, is the area of Gujarat. Option C, 308,245 square kilometres, is the area of Madhya Pradesh, the second largest state. Option D, 342,239 square kilometres, is the area of Rajasthan, the largest. Candidates who remember that Uttar Pradesh leads in population often assume it leads in area as well and pick the largest figure offered, which is the trap built into this set of options. Fix the order for area as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and then Uttar Pradesh.

The correct answer is B, 23 degrees 52 minutes north to 30 degrees 24 minutes north. Uttar Pradesh lies between these parallels and between 77 degrees 5 minutes east and 84 degrees 38 minutes east longitude. The southern limit is important: at 23 degrees 52 minutes north it lies just above the Tropic of Cancer, so the line does not touch the state at all.

Option A, 21 degrees 6 minutes to 26 degrees 30 minutes north, is the latitudinal extent of Madhya Pradesh, the state to the south. Option C, 24 degrees 20 minutes to 27 degrees 31 minutes north, is the extent of Bihar, the state to the east. Option D, 27 degrees 39 minutes to 30 degrees 55 minutes north, is the extent of Haryana. All three are neighbours, so the options are built from the states around Uttar Pradesh; remembering the rounded pair, nearly 24 degrees in the south and about 30 degrees in the north, is enough to answer safely.

The correct answer is A, Mirzapur. The standard meridian of India is 82 degrees 30 minutes east, and it passes through Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh. Indian Standard Time is reckoned from this longitude and is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, so the clock of the whole country is set by a line crossing this state.

Option B, Prayagraj, lies close to the meridian and is the usual wrong choice because the city is better known; the Sangam of the Ganga and the Yamuna is its landmark, not the standard meridian. Option C, Varanasi, lies east of the meridian, at about 83 degrees east. Option D, Lucknow, the state capital, lies well to the west, at about 80 degrees 56 minutes east. The chain to remember is 82 degrees 30 minutes east, Mirzapur, Indian Standard Time, five and a half hours ahead of Greenwich.

The correct answer is C, Nepal. Uttar Pradesh has an international boundary of about 579 kilometres with Nepal along its northern edge, and seven districts stand on it: Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj. This open border runs through the terai, which is why the belt is important for trade and for border management questions.

Option A, Bhutan, touches Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, not Uttar Pradesh. Option B, China, touches Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh; Uttarakhand, carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, took that frontier with it, which is why older material sometimes confuses candidates. Option D, Bangladesh, touches West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Only Nepal remains, and the seven border districts are worth learning in order from west to east.

The correct answer is B, Bhabhar. The bhabhar is the narrow belt of coarse gravel, pebbles and boulders laid down by hill streams where they leave the Shivalik hills. It is so porous that the smaller streams sink into it and run underground, which is why the belt looks dry even in the rains.

Option A, the terai, lies just south of the bhabhar and is the opposite case: there the same water comes back to the surface as springs, making a damp, marshy and heavily forested strip. Option C, khadar, is the new alluvium of the river flood plains much further south in the Ganga plain, renewed by silt every year. Option D, bhangar, is the older alluvium of the uplands above the flood level, often with lime nodules called kankar. The order from north to south, Shivalik, bhabhar, terai, bhangar and khadar, answers most questions from this chapter.