Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh is particularly known for the conservation of which animal?

The correct answer is B, Bhopal. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh and the seat of its Vidhan Sabha and secretariat. It is called the city of lakes because of the Upper and Lower Lakes at its centre, and it holds the Van Vihar National Park within the city limits. It is also remembered for the gas leak on the night of 2 and 3 December 1984, the worst industrial disaster in the country.

Option A, Indore, is the largest city of the state and its commercial centre, which is why many candidates mark it. Option C, Jabalpur, is the seat of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh and lies on the Narmada near the marble rocks of Bhedaghat. Option D, Gwalior, is known for its hill fort and for the tomb of Tansen. Only Bhopal is the capital, and the pair to remember is Bhopal for government and Jabalpur for the High Court.

The correct answer is C, 2000. Chhattisgarh became a separate state on 1 November 2000, taking sixteen districts from the eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, with Raipur as its capital. Two other states were created in the same year, Uttarakhand out of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand out of Bihar. After the division Madhya Pradesh lost its place as the largest state of India by area and became the second largest, after Rajasthan.

Option A, 1956, is the year Madhya Pradesh itself was formed under the States Reorganisation Act, on 1 November. Option B, 1972, is the year Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura became full states. Option D, 2014, is the year Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh. Note that both the formation of Madhya Pradesh and the creation of Chhattisgarh fall on 1 November, which is the detail a paper setter uses.

The correct answer is A, Amarkantak. The Narmada rises at Amarkantak on the Maikal range in Anuppur district and flows westward through a rift valley lying between the Vindhya range in the north and the Satpura range in the south. Because it flows through a rift rather than over a broad plain, it ends in an estuary in the Gulf of Khambhat instead of building a delta. The Son river also rises at Amarkantak but flows east to join the Ganga.

Option B, Multai in Betul district, is the source of the Tapti, the other large westward flowing river of the peninsula. Option C, the Janapav hills near Mhow in Indore district, is the source of the Chambal, which flows north to the Yamuna. Option D, Bhedaghat near Jabalpur, is not a source at all but the place on the Narmada where the Dhuandhar falls cut through marble rocks.

The correct answer is B, Chandela. The Khajuraho group of monuments in Chhatarpur district was built by the Chandela rulers of Bundelkhand between the tenth and the twelfth century. The temples are built in the Nagara style, standing on a high platform with a curving tower over the sanctum, and the Kandariya Mahadeva is the largest of them. The group was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986.

Option A, the Paramara dynasty, ruled Malwa from Dhar and is linked with king Bhoja and with the Bhojeshwar temple at Bhojpur. Option C, the Bundela rulers, came much later and built Orchha on the Betwa, with its palaces and cenotaphs. Option D, the Holkars, were the eighteenth century Maratha rulers of Indore, and Ahilyabai Holkar ruled from Maheshwar on the Narmada. Only the Chandelas match Khajuraho.

The correct answer is A, Raisen. The rock shelters of Bhimbetka lie in Raisen district, in the foothills of the Vindhya range not far from Bhopal. They hold paintings that begin in the prehistoric period and continue over thousands of years, showing hunting scenes, animals, dancing figures and later horses and riders. The site was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2003, and it is one of the earliest traces of human life in the subcontinent.

Option B, Umaria, is the district of the Bandhavgarh National Park. Option C, Sheopur, is the district of the Kuno National Park, which received cheetahs in September 2022. Option D, Chhatarpur, is the district of the Khajuraho temples. A useful link is that the Buddhist monuments of Sanchi are also in Raisen district, so two of the three World Heritage Sites of the state share one district.