India's first marine national park was established in which gulf?

The correct answer is B, 1 May 1960. On that day the bilingual State of Bombay was divided under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 into a Gujarati speaking Gujarat and a Marathi speaking Maharashtra, so both states share their formation day. Option A is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force, which created states such as Kerala and Karnataka but kept Bombay bilingual. Option C is wrong because 1 April 1936 is the day Odisha was carved out as a separate province, a favourite distractor in this set. Option D is wrong because 15 August 1947 is Independence Day, when Gujarat was still part of Bombay Province and the princely states of Saurashtra and Kachchh were separate. The Mahagujarat movement was the agitation that led to the division.

The correct answer is C, Gandhinagar. It is a planned city laid out in numbered sectors on the bank of the Sabarmati and named after Mahatma Gandhi, and it took over as capital after the state was formed. Option A is wrong, though it is the commonest mistake: Ahmedabad was the first capital of the new state and is still its largest city, its commercial centre and the seat of the Gujarat High Court, but not the capital. Option B is wrong because Surat, on the Tapi, is the centre of diamond polishing and textiles and was an important port of the Mughal period. Option D is wrong because Vadodara, the old Baroda of the Gaekwads, is a major industrial and cultural city but never the capital of the state. The pair to remember is first capital Ahmedabad, present capital Gandhinagar.

The correct answer is D, Gujarat. Its coast runs for about 1,600 km, longer than that of any other state, because the Saurashtra peninsula and the Kachchh region give it two deep gulfs, the Gulf of Kachchh in the north west and the Gulf of Khambhat in the south east. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu has a long eastern coastline but a shorter one than Gujarat. Option B is wrong because Andhra Pradesh has the longest coastline on the eastern seaboard yet still less than Gujarat. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra, with the Konkan coast, comes after both in length. Note the trap in the wording: among union territories and islands the answer would change, and the longest coastline of any state remains Gujarat.

The correct answer is B, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statue stands 182 metres tall at Kevadia, now Ekta Nagar, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada, and it was unveiled on 31 October 2018, the leader's birth anniversary; the name recalls his work in integrating the princely states. Option A is wrong because Gandhi, though born in Gujarat at Porbandar, is commemorated there by Kirti Mandir and by the Sabarmati Ashram, not by this statue. Option C is wrong because the tall statues connected with Dr Ambedkar stand elsewhere and none of them is this one. Option D is wrong because no statue of this scale commemorates Nehru. Ask yourself three things together in such questions: the person, the height of 182 metres and the place, Kevadia on the Narmada.

The correct answer is C, Gujarat. Gir lies in the Junagadh region of the Saurashtra peninsula and is the last place where the Asiatic lion survives in the wild; the lion is the state animal of Gujarat. Option A is wrong because Rajasthan is known for the tiger reserves of Ranthambhore and Sariska and for the Keoladeo bird park at Bharatpur. Option B is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Kuno, and Kuno has been discussed as a second home for lions, which is the reason this option looks attractive. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra has Tadoba and Melghat, both tiger reserves. Along with Gir, remember the Wild Ass Sanctuary in the Little Rann of Kachchh and the Blackbuck National Park at Velavadar.