UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The Bhadawari buffalo comes from the Bhadawar tract along the Yamuna and Chambal in Agra, Etawah and the neighbouring districts, and although its yield is modest the fat percentage of its milk is the highest among Indian buffalo breeds, which makes it valued for ghee.

The Jamunapari takes its name from the Yamuna and comes from the ravine country where the Yamuna, Chambal and Kwari meet around Etawah and Chakarnagar; it is the largest Indian goat breed, recognised by its long drooping ears, roman nose and tuft of hair on the hindquarters, and it has…

Mustard is a rabi oilseed, sown in October and November and harvested in February and March, and in Uttar Pradesh it is grown mainly in the Agra, Mathura and Aligarh tract; the cool dry weather of the rabi season suits it.

Barley is a rabi crop of northern India, sown between October and December after the monsoon and harvested in March and April along with wheat, gram, pea, lentil and mustard; it tolerates poorer and saltier soils than wheat, which is why it is grown in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan…

Where many people depend on a limited area of land, as in the Ganga plain of Uttar Pradesh, holdings are small, the farmer uses a great deal of family labour and manure, irrigation is applied wherever possible and two or three crops are taken from the same field each year…

Uttar Pradesh grows more sugarcane than any other state, chiefly in the western districts of Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Bijnor and in the Tarai belt, where deep alluvial soil, assured canal and tubewell water and a long growing season suit the crop; the state also has the largest number of…

The Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve lies in the Kota region of south-eastern Rajasthan, taking in the old Darrah sanctuary along with the Jawahar Sagar and Chambal tracts, and it was notified as a tiger reserve in 2013, making it the third of the state after Ranthambore and Sariska.

The Kumbhalgarh sanctuary, spread over Rajsamand, Pali and Udaipur districts around the Kumbhalgarh fort, is counted among the better habitats of the Indian wolf in the state and also shelters leopard, sloth bear, four-horned antelope and the Indian wolf prey base of smaller animals.

At Khejarli in Jodhpur district in 1730, when men sent by the state began felling khejri trees for lime kilns, Amrita Devi Bishnoi embraced a tree and was killed, and hundreds of Bishnoi men, women and children died in the same way; the Bishnoi faith, founded by Guru Jambheshwar, forbids…

Keoladeo Ghana at Bharatpur was added to the Ramsar list in 1981 and Sambhar Lake, the large saline lake spread across Jaipur and Nagaur districts and a major source of salt, was added in 1990; both are also important bird habitats, Sambhar drawing flamingos in the wet season.

Ranthambore lies in Sawai Madhopur district, where the Aravalli meets the Vindhyan plateau.

The Desert National Park, spread over Jaisalmer and Barmer, is the largest protected area of Rajasthan and the main surviving habitat of the Great Indian Bustard, called godawan in Rajasthani and the state bird; the Sudasari enclosure within the park is set aside for it, and the Akal wood fossil…

The Sitamata sanctuary, spread over Pratapgarh and the neighbouring tracts of southern Rajasthan, is the known home of the Indian flying squirrel, the udan gilahri, and it also carries the best teak and bamboo forest of the state along with the Jakham river.

The khejri, Prosopis cineraria, is the state tree of Rajasthan. It survives on very little water, its leaves called loong serve as fodder, its pods are eaten as the vegetable sangri, and because it gives shade, fuel and food in the driest tracts it is called the kalpavriksha of the…

Sariska lies in the Aravalli hills of Alwar district. It was notified a wildlife sanctuary in 1955 and brought under Project Tiger in 1978, and it earned a place in every exam list when tigers were flown in and released here after the reserve lost its tigers, the first such…

Keoladeo National Park lies at Bharatpur in eastern Rajasthan. It began as a duck shooting reserve created by Maharaja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur, who built the Ajan Bandh whose waters still flood the shallow marshes, was declared a bird sanctuary and later a national park, entered the Ramsar list in…

Tendu leaf, the wrapper in which the beedi is rolled, is collected from the dry deciduous forests of Madhya Pradesh in the hot months, and the state leads the country in its production, the collection being organised through forest produce cooperatives that pay a collection rate to tribal gatherers; sal…

Pench lies in Seoni and Chhindwara districts and continues across the state line into the Nagpur district of Maharashtra, so that each state manages its own Pench reserve on either side of the Pench river that gives the park its name; the forest is teak country and is often linked…

The Bhoj wetland is the pair of lakes at Bhopal, the Upper Lake built in the eleventh century in the time of Raja Bhoj and the Lower Lake beside it, and it was added to the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance in 2002, the first Ramsar site of…

The Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve covers the Satpura National Park with the Bori and Pachmarhi wildlife sanctuaries in the Satpura range, and it is part of the UNESCO world network of biosphere reserves; Pachmarhi, the only hill station of the state, and Dhoopgarh, its highest point, lie inside this landscape.