India's Geography and Environment for CUET General Aptitude

AnswerC · The Deccan Plateau

1. The Deccan Plateau covers most of peninsular India south of the Satpura range, across several states.

2. The Chota Nagpur Plateau in the east, the Malwa Plateau in the west and the Meghalaya Plateau in the north-east are all far smaller regions.

3. The Deccan is bounded by the Western Ghats on one side and the Eastern Ghats on the other, which is why the peninsula's major rivers cross it from west to east.

AnswerC · The Shiwaliks

1. The Himalayas run in three roughly parallel belts.

2. Himadri, the Greater Himalaya, is the northernmost and highest; Himachal, the Lesser Himalaya, lies below it.

3. The Shiwaliks are the outermost and lowest, and it is these that meet the northern plains.

AnswerD · Kanniyakumari

1. Kanniyakumari, at the tip of Tamil Nadu, is where the mainland ends.

2. Indira Point is the southernmost point of Indian territory, but it lies on Great Nicobar Island.

3. Because the question asks about the mainland, Indira Point is ruled out.

AnswerA · Sri Lanka

1. The Palk Strait lies between Tamil Nadu and the northern tip of Sri Lanka.

2. The chain of shoals called Adam's Bridge, or Ram Setu, runs across its southern end.

AnswerC · Nanda Devi

1. The question turns on the words 'entirely within', not on height alone.

2. Kangchenjunga is higher, but it stands on the border between Sikkim and Nepal, so it is not entirely within India.

3. Mount Everest lies on the Nepal-China border and does not touch India at all; K2 is in the Karakoram, in territory India claims but does not administer.

4. Nanda Devi, in Uttarakhand, is the highest peak that lies wholly inside India.

AnswerB · The Nilgiri Hills

1. The two Ghats come together in the south of the peninsula.

2. The meeting point is the Nilgiri Hills, whose highest point is Doddabetta.

3. The Cardamom and Anaimalai Hills lie further south, within the Western Ghats themselves.

AnswerC · Anaimudi

1. Anaimudi, about 2,695 m high in the Anaimalai Hills of Kerala, is the highest point south of the Himalaya.

2. Doddabetta is the highest peak of the Nilgiris, Mahendragiri a high point of the Eastern Ghats, and Guru Shikhar the highest point of the Aravallis.

AnswerB · Zoji La

1. Zoji La, in the Zaskar range, links the Kashmir valley with Ladakh and is often shut by snow in winter.

2. Nathu La links Sikkim with Tibet, Shipki La links Himachal Pradesh with Tibet, and Rohtang links Manali with Lahaul.

AnswerD · The Godavari

1. The Godavari is the longest river of peninsular India, rising near Trimbak in Maharashtra and reaching the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh.

2. Its length and the size of its basin earned it the name Dakshin Ganga.

3. The Krishna and the Kaveri are also large east-flowing peninsular rivers but shorter; the Narmada flows the other way, into the Arabian Sea.

AnswerB · The Narmada

1. The Deccan Plateau slopes from west to east, so almost every large peninsular river runs east into the Bay of Bengal.

2. The Narmada is one of the exceptions. It flows west through a rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges and meets the Arabian Sea in Gujarat.

3. The Godavari, the Krishna and the Mahanadi all follow the general slope and reach the Bay of Bengal.

AnswerB · The Jamuna

1. The Brahmaputra becomes the Jamuna once it enters Bangladesh.

2. The Ganga, on the same journey, becomes the Padma.

3. The two join and then meet the Meghna before reaching the Bay of Bengal.

AnswerB · The Brahmaputra

1. Majuli sits in the Brahmaputra, in Assam.

2. It is the largest river island in the world and became India's first island district in 2016.

3. Its area has shrunk considerably over the last century because the Brahmaputra keeps eroding it.

AnswerD · The Sharavati

1. The Sharavati drops about 250 m at Jog Falls in the Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

2. The Sharavati is a short west-flowing river that reaches the Arabian Sea.

AnswerB · the Alaknanda

1. The Bhagirathi, rising at Gangotri, and the Alaknanda, rising near Badrinath, meet at Devprayag in Uttarakhand; below that point the river is called the Ganga.

2. The Mandakini joins the Alaknanda earlier, at Rudraprayag.

AnswerD · The Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej

1. The treaty splits the Indus system into eastern and western rivers.

2. The eastern rivers — the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej — are for India's unrestricted use.

3. The western rivers — the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab — are allotted to Pakistan.

AnswerD · The Jhelum

1. Wular Lake lies in the Kashmir valley, in the Bandipora district, and the Jhelum flows through it.

2. The lake acts as a natural flood basin for the Jhelum.

AnswerD · The Kerala coast

1. The south-west monsoon usually arrives over Kerala around the start of June.

2. From there it advances north along the west coast and north-west from the Bay of Bengal.

3. The India Meteorological Department declares the onset over Kerala first each year.

AnswerB · Jaisalmer

1. Jaisalmer, in the Thar desert of western Rajasthan, gets only about 20 cm of rain a year.

2. The Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon passes over western Rajasthan without being forced to rise, because the Aravallis run parallel to it.

3. Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai all get well over 100 cm.

AnswerD · The Coromandel coast

1. As the monsoon withdraws between October and December, the winds blow from land to sea over most of India.

2. Crossing the Bay of Bengal, they pick up moisture and strike the south-east coast.

3. Tamil Nadu's Coromandel coast therefore gets its main rains when the rest of the country is drying out.

AnswerD · Meghalaya

1. Both lie on the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya.

2. The Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon is funnelled against these hills and forced to rise, which wrings the moisture out of it.

3. The name Meghalaya itself means the abode of clouds.

AnswerB · Eight

1. The Tropic of Cancer, at about 23°30′ N, cuts India roughly in half.

2. It crosses Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

3. That is eight states.

AnswerA · The Mediterranean region

1. Western disturbances are extratropical storms that form over the Mediterranean and Caspian region.

2. They travel eastwards on the subtropical westerly jet stream.

3. Reaching north-west India in winter, they bring rain to the plains and snow to the western Himalaya.

AnswerA · mango showers

1. In April and May thunderstorms bring early showers to Kerala and coastal Karnataka, just as mangoes are ripening, so they are called mango showers.

2. Kalbaisakhi is the violent evening storm of Bengal, and loo is the hot, dry summer wind of the northern plains.

AnswerD · West Bengal and Assam

1. Kalbaisakhi, also called nor'westers, strike West Bengal, Odisha and Assam in the hot season.

2. The name means 'calamity of Baisakh', the month in which they come. In Assam the same storms are called tea showers because they help the tea crop.

AnswerA · Alluvial soil

1. Alluvial soil, laid down by rivers, covers the northern plains and the coastal deltas.

2. It is the most widespread soil in India and the most heavily farmed.

3. Black soil dominates the Deccan trap region and red soil much of the rest of the peninsula.

AnswerA · Cotton

1. Black soil holds moisture well and is rich in lime, magnesium and potash.

2. Those properties suit cotton, which is why regur is commonly called black cotton soil.

3. It forms on the Deccan trap basalt of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

AnswerD · Wheat and rice

1. From the mid-1960s the Green Revolution combined high-yielding varieties with assured irrigation and fertiliser.

2. The gains came first in wheat and then in rice.

3. Pulses and oilseeds were largely left out, which is a large part of why India still imports edible oil heavily.

AnswerC · Sown in June and July, harvested in September and October

1. Kharif crops are the monsoon crops.

2. They go in as the south-west monsoon arrives, around June and July, and come off in September and October.

3. Rabi crops follow the opposite cycle, sown in October and November and harvested in spring.

AnswerC · High temperature with heavy seasonal rain, which leaches out silica and lime

1. Laterite forms where high temperature and heavy seasonal rain wash the soluble minerals out of the soil.

2. What is left behind is rich in iron and aluminium oxides, which gives laterite its red colour and its hardness.

3. It is poor in nitrogen, lime and organic matter, so it needs heavy manuring before it will farm well.

AnswerC · Jute, West Bengal

1. Jute is called the golden fibre for its colour and its value as a cash crop.

2. It grows best on the fertile, flooded alluvial soil of the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta, and West Bengal produces most of India's crop.

AnswerB · Assam

1. Assam grows about half of India's tea, mainly in the Brahmaputra valley.

2. Tea needs warm, wet weather and well-drained sloping land; West Bengal (Darjeeling and the Dooars) is second.

AnswerA · in the short summer season between the rabi harvest and the kharif sowing

1. India has two main cropping seasons: kharif in the monsoon and rabi in winter.

2. Zaid is the short season between them, roughly March to June, used on irrigated land for fast-growing crops such as melons, cucumbers, vegetables and fodder.

AnswerB · Jharkhand

1. Jharia lies in the Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.

2. It is the country's principal source of coking coal, which steel-making needs.

3. Raniganj, just across the border in West Bengal, is the other historic field of the Damodar valley.

AnswerA · Tamil Nadu

1. Kudankulam sits on the Gulf of Mannar coast in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu.

2. Built with Russian collaboration, it is India's largest nuclear station by installed capacity.

3. Kaiga is in Karnataka and Tarapur in Maharashtra.

AnswerC · Odisha

1. Odisha holds by far the largest share of India's bauxite resources, chiefly in the Kalahandi and Koraput belt.

2. Bauxite is the ore from which aluminium is refined.

3. Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra hold smaller shares.

AnswerA · Digboi

1. Digboi in Assam is the site of India's first oil well, drilled in 1889.

2. Its refinery, commissioned in 1901, is the oldest working refinery in Asia.

3. Bombay High, off the Maharashtra coast, was found much later, in 1974, and Ankleshwar in Gujarat in the 1960s.

AnswerC · copper

1. Khetri, in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, is one of India's main copper-mining areas, alongside Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh.

2. Hindustan Copper runs the Khetri Copper Complex there.

AnswerA · The Kerala coast

1. Monazite occurs in the beach sands of Kerala, particularly around Chavara.

2. It is the principal ore of thorium.

3. India's large thorium reserves are the reason the third stage of its nuclear programme is built around thorium rather than uranium.

AnswerD · gold

1. Hutti is India's main working gold mine, run by the Karnataka government's Hutti Gold Mines company.

2. The better-known Kolar Gold Fields, also in Karnataka, closed in 2001.

3. India's diamonds come from Panna in Madhya Pradesh, and its uranium mainly from Jaduguda in Jharkhand.

AnswerA · Tropical deciduous forest

1. Teak and sal are the characteristic trees of tropical deciduous, or monsoon, forest.

2. That forest grows where annual rainfall is roughly between 70 and 200 cm, which describes most of the country.

3. It is for the same reason the most widespread forest type in India.

AnswerD · The Forest Survey of India

1. The Forest Survey of India, at Dehradun, assesses the country's forest and tree cover.

2. Its findings appear as the India State of Forest Report, normally every two years.

3. The Botanical and Zoological Surveys catalogue species rather than measure cover.

AnswerC · The Ganges river dolphin

1. The Ganges river dolphin was declared the national aquatic animal in 2009.

2. It is almost blind and navigates by echolocation.

3. It lives in the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna and Karnaphuli–Sangu river systems.

AnswerB · 1973

1. Project Tiger began in 1973 with nine reserves.

2. It is administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a body constituted under the Wild Life (Protection) Act.

3. Project Elephant followed much later, in 1992.

AnswerC · Madhya Pradesh

1. Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover by area, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

2. As a share of its own area, a small north-eastern state such as Mizoram ranks highest instead.

AnswerB · Four

1. India contains parts of four recognised biodiversity hotspots.

2. They are the Himalaya, the Western Ghats, the Indo-Burma region and Sundaland, which reaches India through the Nicobar Islands.

3. To count as a hotspot a region must be exceptionally rich in endemic species and have lost most of its original habitat.

AnswerB · the Nilgiri, Anamalai and Palani hills

1. Sholas are montane forests of the southern Western Ghats, above about 1,500 m, growing in sheltered valleys among rolling grassland.

2. The grassland and forest mosaic stores water that feeds the region's rivers.

AnswerC · The one-horned rhinoceros

1. Kaziranga lies in the floodplain of the Brahmaputra in Assam, a landscape of tall grassland and marsh.

2. That habitat suits the Indian one-horned rhinoceros, and Kaziranga holds the largest population of the species anywhere.

3. The Asiatic lion is found in Gir in Gujarat, the snow leopard in the high Himalaya, and the great Indian bustard in the dry grasslands of Rajasthan.

AnswerA · Jim Corbett National Park

1. It was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park, the first in India.

2. It was renamed after the hunter turned conservationist Jim Corbett in 1957.

3. It was also where Project Tiger was launched in 1973.

AnswerA · Gujarat

1. Gir, in the Junagadh region of Gujarat, holds the world's only wild population of the Asiatic lion.

2. The population fell to a few dozen a century ago and has recovered under protection.

3. Keeping the whole population in one place is itself the main risk to it.

AnswerB · Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks

1. Nanda Devi National Park was inscribed in 1988 and the Valley of Flowers was added as an extension in 2005.

2. The two are listed together as a single World Heritage property in Uttarakhand.

3. Kaziranga, Manas, Keoladeo, the Sundarbans and the Western Ghats are India's other natural World Heritage properties.

AnswerC · Jammu and Kashmir

1. Dachigam lies close to Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir.

2. The hangul is a critically threatened red deer, and Dachigam holds most of the surviving population.

AnswerD · A biosphere reserve is zoned, with a protected core and buffer and transition zones open to regulated human use

1. A biosphere reserve is built around zoning rather than a single boundary.

2. The core is legally protected and left undisturbed; the buffer allows research and limited use; the transition zone supports settlement and farming.

3. A national park, by contrast, prohibits habitation and most use throughout its area.

AnswerA · Manipur

1. Keibul Lamjao lies on Loktak Lake in Manipur, on floating mats of vegetation and soil called phumdis.

2. It is the last natural home of the sangai, the brow-antlered deer, which is Manipur's state animal.

AnswerC · 121 crore

1. The 2011 Census counted 1.21 billion people, or about 121 crore.

2. That was an increase of about 18.2 crore over the 2001 count.

3. Any figure above 121 crore is a projection rather than a census count.

AnswerB · Kerala

1. Kerala recorded the highest literacy rate of any state in 2011, at about 94 per cent.

2. Mizoram and Tripura came next among the states.

3. Lakshadweep recorded the highest figure among the union territories.

AnswerA · Uttar Pradesh

1. Uttar Pradesh was the most populous state, with about 19.98 crore people.

2. Maharashtra was second and Bihar third.

3. Sikkim was the least populous state.

AnswerD · Kerala

1. Kerala recorded 1,084 females per 1,000 males, the highest of any state.

2. Haryana recorded the lowest, at 879.

AnswerB · Females per 1,000 males

1. The Census of India defines the sex ratio as the number of females per 1,000 males.

2. The figure in the final Primary Census Abstract for 2011 was 943.

3. Several other countries use the opposite convention, which is why the definition has to be stated rather than assumed.

AnswerC · Bihar

1. Bihar recorded the highest density of any state in 2011, at 1,106 persons per square kilometre.

2. West Bengal came next, then Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

3. Among the union territories Delhi was far higher still.

AnswerA · About 17.7%

1. The 2011 Census recorded decadal growth of about 17.7%, the lowest since independence at that time.

2. The previous decade, 1991 to 2001, had grown by about 21.5%, and the fastest decade was 1961 to 1971, at about 24.8%.

AnswerD · Bangladesh

1. The India–Bangladesh border runs about 4,096 km, the longest India shares with any neighbour.

2. China is next, followed by Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan.

3. The border with Afghanistan is the shortest.

AnswerD · Rajasthan

1. Rajasthan covers about 3.42 lakh sq km, roughly a tenth of India's area.

2. Madhya Pradesh is second and Maharashtra third; Uttar Pradesh is the largest by population, not area.

AnswerC · West Bengal

1. The corridor is a narrow strip of West Bengal around the town of Siliguri.

2. It is roughly 20 to 22 km across at its narrowest.

3. Nepal lies to its west and Bangladesh to its east, which is what squeezes it so tightly.

AnswerA · Arunachal Pradesh

1. Arunachal Pradesh borders China to the north, Myanmar to the east and Bhutan to the west.

2. Sikkim borders China, Nepal and Bhutan, but not Myanmar.

3. Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram border Myanmar, but none of them touches China.

AnswerD · The Andaman and Nicobar Islands

1. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie in the Bay of Bengal.

2. Lakshadweep, the other island union territory, lies in the Arabian Sea.

3. Puducherry is made up of four separate coastal enclaves on the mainland.

AnswerC · 2014

1. Telangana became a state on 2 June 2014 under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

2. 2000 is the year Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were created; in 2019 Jammu and Kashmir became two union territories.

AnswerA · Gujarat

1. Gujarat has the longest coastline of any state, with its deeply indented Gulfs of Kachchh and Khambhat.

2. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have the longest coastlines on the east side.

AnswerC · Uttar Pradesh

1. Uttar Pradesh borders eight states: Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.

2. It also touches the National Capital Territory of Delhi, which is a union territory rather than a state.

3. Assam, the next highest, borders seven states.

AnswerA · 1972

1. The Wild Life (Protection) Act was passed in 1972.

2. The Water Act followed in 1974, the Forest (Conservation) Act in 1980 and the Environment (Protection) Act in 1986.

3. It is the 1972 Act that creates national parks and sanctuaries and sets out the schedules of protected species.

AnswerB · The Ramsar Convention

1. The Ramsar Convention, signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971, covers wetlands of international importance.

2. CITES governs trade in endangered species, the Basel Convention the movement of hazardous waste, and the Montreal Protocol ozone-depleting substances.

3. India has designated a large and growing number of Ramsar sites.

AnswerB · The Bhopal gas disaster of 1984

1. The leak of methyl isocyanate at Bhopal in December 1984 exposed how little the existing law could do.

2. The Environment (Protection) Act followed in 1986 as umbrella legislation giving the central government wide powers.

3. It is the Act under which the Environment Impact Assessment notification is issued.

AnswerD · The ozone layer

1. The Montreal Protocol, agreed in 1987, phases out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances.

2. It sits under the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.

3. The Kigali Amendment of 2016 extended it to hydrofluorocarbons, which harm the climate rather than the ozone layer.

AnswerA · The National Green Tribunal Act, 2010

1. The National Green Tribunal was set up by its own Act, passed in 2010.

2. It hears cases on environmental protection and on the enforcement of legal rights relating to the environment.

3. It replaced the National Environment Appellate Authority.

AnswerC · 2006

1. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in 2006 and came into force in 2008.

2. Gram sabhas play the central role in deciding claims under it.

3. 1980 is the Forest (Conservation) Act and 1996 the PESA Act for Scheduled Areas.

AnswerC · Chennai

1. The National Biodiversity Authority was established in 2003 with its headquarters in Chennai.

2. It regulates access to India's biological resources and makes sure the benefits are shared, working with State Biodiversity Boards and local Biodiversity Management Committees.

3. Dehradun is home to the Forest Survey of India and the Wildlife Institute of India, and Kolkata to the Botanical and Zoological Surveys.