Which Dalai Lama was born at Urgelling near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh?

The correct answer is C, Itanagar. Itanagar stands in Papum Pare district at the foot of the hills and has been the seat of government since the territory was being readied for statehood. Its name comes from Ita Fort, a brick fort of about the fourteenth or fifteenth century that still stands in the town, ita meaning brick. Option A, Pasighat, is wrong; founded in 1911 on the Siang in East Siang district, it is the oldest town of the state, which is why it is offered here. Option B, Tawang, is wrong; it is the home of Tawang Monastery, the largest in India, and of the sector that saw the fighting of 1962, but it is a district headquarters in the far north-west. Option D, Ziro, is wrong; it is the Apatani valley in Lower Subansiri, known for its paddy-cum-fish fields. Naharlagun is the railhead for Itanagar and Donyi Polo Airport at Hollongi serves it.

The correct answer is D, 1987. Under the State of Arunachal Pradesh Act, 1986 the Union Territory became the twenty-fourth state of India on 20 February 1987, the same day on which Mizoram became the twenty-third state. Option A, 1972, is the commonest wrong answer; on 20 January 1972 the North East Frontier Agency was merely renamed Arunachal Pradesh and raised to a Union Territory, not a state. Option B, 1975, is wrong; that is the year the Union Territory received a Legislative Assembly and Prem Khandu Thungan became its first Chief Minister. Option C, 1986, is wrong because it is the year Parliament passed the Act, which came into force only in February of the next year. Goa followed as the twenty-fifth state on 30 May 1987, so the three entries are usually tested together.

The correct answer is B, Siang. The Yarlung Tsangpo of Tibet turns round the Namcha Barwa massif and enters India in Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang, also written Dihang; in Assam, after it is joined by the Lohit and the Dibang near Sadiya, it takes the name Brahmaputra, and in Bangladesh it is the Jamuna. Option A, Lohit, is wrong but is a real river of the state; it is one of the two tributaries that join the Siang to form the Brahmaputra, and Parasuram Kund stands on it. Option C, Barak, is wrong; the Barak, also called the Surma, drains southern Assam around Silchar and belongs to a different system altogether. Option D, Teesta, is wrong; it rises in Sikkim, flows through north Bengal and joins the Brahmaputra only in Bangladesh. The chain Tsangpo, Siang or Dihang, Brahmaputra, Jamuna is worth memorising as a single line.

The correct answer is D, Article 371H. It makes the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh specially responsible for law and order in the state, a responsibility he discharges on his individual judgment after consulting the Council of Ministers, and it provides that the Legislative Assembly shall consist of not less than thirty members. Option A, Article 371A, is wrong; that is the well-known provision for Nagaland, protecting Naga religious practices, customary law and land. Option B, Article 371F, is wrong; it was inserted by the Thirty-sixth Amendment for Sikkim when it joined the Union in 1975. Option C, Article 371G, is wrong; it is the matching provision for Mizoram. A further point examiners add is that although Arunachal Pradesh is largely tribal, it is not covered by the Sixth Schedule, which applies in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

The correct answer is B, Namdapha National Park. Namdapha lies in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh near the Myanmar border, is the largest national park in north-east India, and is famous as the one protected area said to hold four big cats: the tiger, the leopard, the snow leopard and the clouded leopard. Option A, Kaziranga, is wrong; it is the one-horned rhinoceros park of Assam, on the Brahmaputra, and a World Heritage Site. Option C, Manas, is wrong; it too lies in Assam, on the border with Bhutan, and is both a tiger reserve and a World Heritage Site. Option D, Keibul Lamjao, is wrong; it is the floating park on Loktak lake in Manipur, home of the sangai deer. Mouling in Upper Siang is the second national park of Arunachal Pradesh, and Pakke and Kamlang are its other tiger reserves.