Majuli, the largest river island in India, lies in which river?
- A.Ganga
- B.Brahmaputra
- C.Godavari
- D.Mahanadi
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Brahmaputra. Majuli lies in the braided channel of the Brahmaputra in Assam, where the river splits into many arms and deposits enormous quantities of silt. The island is a centre of Vaishnava culture, with satras founded in the tradition of Srimanta Sankardeva, and it loses land steadily to erosion each flood season.
Option A, the Ganga, carries islands and sandbanks but nothing on the scale of Majuli. Option C, the Godavari, is the largest peninsular river and builds a large delta on the eastern coast, but the question is about a river island, not a delta. Option D, the Mahanadi, drains Chhattisgarh and Odisha and also builds a delta, and its best known feature in exams is the Hirakud dam rather than any island. The braided Brahmaputra is the answer to look for whenever a question mentions river islands or shifting channels.
Read the full article: Physiography of India: Physical Divisions and PYQs
Practice Questions
View allWhere is Lakshadweep located?
- A.Bay of Bengal
- B.Pacific ocean
- C.Arabian sea
- D.Atlantic ocean
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Lakshadweep is a group of small coral islands, atolls and reefs lying off the Malabar coast of Kerala in the Arabian Sea, built on a submarine ridge.
Read the full explanation →The narrow, pebble-studded belt at the foot of the Shiwaliks, where the streams descending from the mountains disappear underground, is called the
- A.Terai
- B.Bhabar
- C.Bhangar
- D.Khadar
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Where the rivers leave the hills they drop their coarsest load, and the resulting belt of gravel and pebbles is so porous that the smaller streams sink into it and vanish.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the highest peak of peninsular India?
- A.Doda Betta
- B.Anaimudi
- C.Mahendragiri
- D.Guru Shikhar
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Anaimudi stands in the Anaimalai hills of Kerala, where the Anaimalai, Palani and Cardamom hills meet, and rises to about 2,695 metres.
Read the full explanation →The Narmada and the Tapi are unusual among peninsular rivers because they
- A.rise in the Himalaya
- B.flow through rift valleys and drain into the Arabian Sea
- C.form large deltas on the eastern coast
- D.are entirely seasonal streams
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Both rivers flow westward along faulted troughs, or rift valleys, that lie between the Vindhya and the Satpura ranges, and both empty into the Arabian Sea through estuaries instead of deltas.
Read the full explanation →The Palghat Gap, an important break in the Western Ghats, lies between which two hill groups?
- A.Nilgiri and Anaimalai hills
- B.Cardamom and Palani hills
- C.Satpura and Maikal hills
- D.Javadi and Shevaroy hills
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The Palghat Gap is a wide trough about thirty kilometres across, and it is the principal natural break in the otherwise continuous wall of the Western Ghats.
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