What is the total length of India's coastline, counting the island groups?
- A.About 5,422 kilometres
- B.About 6,100 kilometres
- C.About 7,516 kilometres
- D.About 15,200 kilometres
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, about 7,516 kilometres. The figure usually quoted is 7,516.6 kilometres, which counts the coast of the mainland together with that of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Option B, about 6,100 kilometres, is the length of the mainland coastline alone, so a candidate who does not read the question carefully picks it. Option A is the figure that appears in some older surveys for the mainland and is used as a distractor. Option D, about 15,200 kilometres, is the length of India's land frontier, not its coastline, and this pair is the commonest trap in the topic. Remember the order: land frontier over fifteen thousand kilometres, total coastline about seven and a half thousand, mainland coast about six thousand.
Read the full article: India's Coastline and Maritime Zones: Facts and PYQs
Practice Questions
View allWhich Indian State has the longest coastline?
- A.Gujarat
- B.Andhra Pradesh
- C.Tamil Nadu
- D.Maharashtra
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Its coast runs along the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat and around the Kathiawar peninsula, which gives it a far longer shoreline than any other State, and it is followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Read the full explanation →The territorial waters of India extend up to how many nautical miles from the baseline?
- A.12 nautical miles
- B.24 nautical miles
- C.200 nautical miles
- D.350 nautical miles
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Under the Maritime Zones Act of 1976 the territorial waters extend to twelve nautical miles from the baseline, and within them India has sovereignty over the water, the seabed, the subsoil and the air space, subject only to the right of innocent passage of foreign ships.
Read the full explanation →The exclusive economic zone of a coastal State extends up to
- A.12 nautical miles
- B.24 nautical miles
- C.100 nautical miles
- D.200 nautical miles
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Within this zone the coastal State has sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-living resources of the water, the seabed and the subsoil, and exclusive jurisdiction over artificial islands, marine scientific research and the protection of the marine environment.
Read the full explanation →The Ten Degree Channel separates which two groups of islands?
- A.Andaman and Nicobar groups
- B.Lakshadweep and Minicoy
- C.Minicoy and the Maldives
- D.Great Nicobar and Sumatra
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The Ten Degree Channel runs roughly along the parallel of ten degrees north and separates Little Andaman in the south of the Andaman group from Car Nicobar in the north of the Nicobar group.
Read the full explanation →Chilika Lake, the largest brackish water lagoon in India, lies on the coast of which State?
- A.West Bengal
- B.Odisha
- C.Andhra Pradesh
- D.Tamil Nadu
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Chilika is a shallow lagoon on the Utkal coast, cut off from the Bay of Bengal by a long sand bar and connected to it by a narrow mouth, which is why its water is brackish; it is the largest lagoon of the country, a Ramsar site and the winter…
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