UPSC GK Questions 2026

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.

The Bhimbetka rock shelters, with their prehistoric paintings, lie in the Raisen district within the limits of the Ratapani sanctuary, a teak forest of the Vindhyan range south of Bhopal that was later notified as a tiger reserve.

Panna National Park, spread over Panna and Chhatarpur districts along the Ken river, lies beside the diamond bearing tract of Panna, the only diamond mining area worked in India, and it lost its tigers completely before animals brought from other reserves re-established a breeding population, a recovery cited as a…

Bandhavgarh National Park lies in Umaria district around the old Bandhavgarh fort, which stands on a hill inside the park and once belonged to the rulers of Rewa.

Kuno, in Sheopur district on the Kuno river, received the cheetahs flown in from Namibia in September 2022 under Project Cheetah, the first intercontinental translocation of a large carnivore; the area had been cleared and prepared years earlier as a second home for the Asiatic lions of Gir, which gave…

The hard ground barasingha or swamp deer had fallen to a few dozen animals in the Kanha meadows, and a long programme of grassland management and protection brought the population back, which is why the barasingha is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh and the emblem of Kanha.

Kanha, spread over Mandla and Balaghat districts in the Maikal range, was declared a national park in 1955, which makes it the oldest in the state, and it became one of the nine reserves with which Project Tiger began in 1973.

The Mysore peta is the turban of the Mysore court, worn by the Wadiyar rulers and now presented as a mark of honour to distinguished guests in Karnataka; the everyday dress of men in the state is the panche or lungi with a shirt, and women wear the Ilkal saree…

The rignai is the lower wrap woven on a loin loom by the tribal women of Tripura, and the risa is the narrower cloth worn over the upper body, a girl receiving her first risa in the Risa Sormani ceremony; the rikutu is the larger wrap used as a shawl.