Indian Geography Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 22)

The 2021 UNESCO tentative-list nomination says the Satpura forms a watershed between the Narmada and Tapi rivers. A watershed is a ridge that splits rain between two river systems. Memory hook: Satpura sits between Narmada and Tapi.

That density traces directly to the plain’s geology: flat terrain, deep fertile soil renewed by flooding, and year-round river water together make it exceptionally productive farmland, able to sustain very large populations.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain spans roughly 700,000 sq km across India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh; within India it covers Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam.

Khadar is the younger, lower alluvium on the active floodplain, flooding almost every year, while Bhangar is the older, higher alluvium containing calcium-carbonate nodules called kankar.

Bhabar is a narrow, porous, gravel-and-pebble strip along the Shiwalik foothills, where rivers vanish underground before re-emerging further south in the Tarai.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain was built entirely by silt carried down and deposited by the Indus, the Ganga, and the Brahmaputra river systems.

The Gadgil Committee’s 2011 report marked about 60% of the Western Ghats as the highest-priority Ecologically Sensitive Zone, while the Kasturirangan report later recommended a smaller Ecologically Sensitive Area, covering about 37% of the range.

About half of India’s amphibian species, and two-thirds of its fish species, are endemic to the Western Ghats.

The MoEFCC working group says the Western Ghats run about 1,500 km through six States. They are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The 2012 World Heritage sites cover only four of them.

The Western Ghats are also called the Sahyadri, running along India’s western coast for about 1,600 kilometres.

The Indian Plate keeps pushing north into the Eurasian Plate at roughly 5 centimetres a year, and that ongoing push still lifts the Himalaya by a few millimetres each year, keeping the region seismically active.

Geographers divide the Himalaya into five regional stretches: Punjab, Kumaon, Nepal, Assam, and the Eastern Hills (Purvanchal).

Longitudinal valleys called duns sit between the Shiwalik and Himachal ranges, formed as Lesser Himalayan rivers cut across the rising Shiwaliks, first forming lakes, then draining as the rivers cut through.

The Himalaya splits into three parallel belts, from north to south: Himadri (Greater Himalaya), Himachal (Lesser Himalaya), and Shiwalik (Outer Himalaya).

The Himalaya formed when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, roughly 50 million years ago, thrusting land upward into a fold-mountain range.

The correct answer is The Western Ghats catch the southwest monsoon’s moisture first, along this coast. Mongabay India explains that westerly winds are forced to rise at the Ghats. They form clouds on the windward side, and these pour down as rain. The coast is not a place with no mountains. It is not the highest coast either. Memory hook: the Ghats make the rain.

The correct answer is Vembanad Lake; about 75 km long. It is the largest lake of Kerala and a Ramsar site since 2002. Kerala Tourism gives about 60 km from the Thanneermukkom bund to Alappuzha, so lengths vary by source. Chilika, Wular and Pulicat are lakes in other regions. Memory hook: Vembanad is the big Kerala lake.

The correct answer is Kayals. These are the backwaters, shallow lagoons that run parallel to the coast. Bhabar is a foothill belt in the north. Tinai is a Tamil landscape term. Kari is the peaty soil of Kuttanad. Memory hook: kayal means backwater.

Peninsular hill soils in the Western Ghats and Nilgiris follow the same altitude-driven logic as the Himalayas, but support tea, coffee, and spices instead of temperate grains and fruit.

Despite rich organic matter, forest and mountain soil generally runs short on potash, phosphorus, and lime.

At higher altitudes, the soil turns more acidic and humus-rich, especially under dense forest cover of oak, pine, deodar, and rhododendron, whose leaf litter decomposes slowly in the cool climate.

Forest and mountain soil is still ‘immature’ because slope movement, rainfall erosion, and shifting climate keep reshaping it continuously.

Forest and mountain soil forms through mechanical weathering of rock, driven by temperature swings, snow, and ice.

The correct answer is Farmers cultivate paddy below sea level, behind protective bunds. Kerala Tourism says farming here runs 2.5 to 3 metres below sea level. Huge bunds keep saline water out. FAO listed the system as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2013. The other options are false. Memory hook: Kuttanad farms sit below the sea.

The correct answer is Rice. Paddy tolerates standing water. The Kuttanad soil is waterlogged but holds water well, which suits rice. Wheat, cotton and groundnut need well-drained land. Memory hook: wet soil, wet crop.