Geography Question Bank

31. Madagan 2 oil field is located in ___: [A]South China Sea [B]Sea of Okhostk [C]Yellow Sea [D]Chukchi Sea

show answer Answer:[B]Sea of Okhostk Explanation:

Geography Question Bank

21. Which among the following areas are marked by the pedogenic regime of calcification? [A]Hot, humid areas near Sea [B]Cool temperate areas in continents [C]Continental regions with wet-dry climatic regimes [D]Desert Areas

show answer Answer:[C]Continental regions with wet-dry climatic regimes Explanation:

Geography Question Bank

11. Which among the following mineral is a carbonate of calcium and magnesium? [A]Huntite [B]Barytocite [C]Dolomite [D]Ankerite

show answer Answer:[C]Dolomite Explanation: Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone.Limestone that is partially replaced by dolomite is referred to as dolomitic limestone.

Geography Question Bank

1. Consider the following states: 1. West Bengal 2. Assam 3. Sikkim 4. Meghalaya 5. Mizoram Which of the above states share borders with Bangladesh? [A]Only 1, 2, 3 & 4 [B]Only 1, 2, 4 & 5 [C]Only 2, 3, 4 & 5 [D]1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Geography of India

India's Geography comprises

	Indian Climate
	Indian Rivers
	Indian Flora And Fauna
	Mineral Resource
	The God-Souled Himalayas
	Wildlife Sanctuaries In India

WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES IN INDIA

National parks and sanctuaries are administered at the state level and are promoted by them as a tourist attraction, which earns them sufficient revenue to keep the sanctuaries running.

Most of the sanctuaries provide well are at least optimum accommodation and other facilities but they had to be booked in advance. Some parks even provide modern guest houses. Usually van and jeep rides and also boat trips are arranged to give the visitors a good view of the animals in their natural habitats. Watchtowers and hides are also available.

Some of the notable parks and sanctuaries are listed below.

DACHIGAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

This sanctuary has a scenic valley and a meandering river. Wildlife here includes rare Kashmiri stags, black bears , and musk deers. In recent years the wildlife here have been vastly endangered. It is 22 km by road from Srinagar.It is best to visit it during June- July.

CORBETT NATIONAL PARK

This park in Uttar Pradesh is famous for its tigers. Other wild lives include cheetahs, deer, elephants, leopards, and sloth bears. The park has good scenery with sal and hardwood trees. There are numerous watch towers and daytime photography is allowed. Best time to visit is November to May.

SUNDERBANS WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

This reserve in West Bengal is to the southeast of the city of Calcutta. It contains the mangrove forests of the Gangetic delta. It is an important haven for tigers but it also includes fishing cats and a wide variety of birds. It is accessible by a boat ride only. It can be visited around February- March.

MANAS WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

This area bordering Bhutan is formed by the rivers Manas, Hakua and Beki Rivers and is situated in Assam state. The wildlife includes tigers, buffaloes , elephants , sambhars, swamp deers and langurs. The bodo rebels of Assam have recently used it and consequently most of its infrastructure has been destroyed. Visit it around January- March.

KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK

This park in Assam is famous for its one-horned Rhinos which are almost extinct now but for a few. The park is full of tall grasses and swampy areas. The rhinos can be spotted around the swampy areas, bathing. Egrets and other birds are also accommodated here. It can be visited from February to March.

RANTHAMBORE NATIONAL PARK

Ranthambore or Sawai Madhopur in Rajsthan is smaller in size when compared to most of the parks in India. It is famous for its lake tigers but nowadays the number has dwindled thanks to large-scale poaching in these areas. It is located on the Mumbai- Delhi rail-line and is 160 kms by road from Jaipur. Best time to visit- November to May.

KEOLADEO GHANA BIRD SANCTUARY

This is the best-known bird sanctuary in India, situated in Rajasthan. It is also called Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and features a large number of migrating birds from Siberia and China, which include herons, storks, cranes and geese. It also houses deers and other wildlife. Visit it around September to February.

SASAN GIR NATIONAL PARK

This Oasis in the deserts of Gujarat is famous for the Asiatic lions, which number around 250. They can be spotted around the lakes and other watering holes. It also includes crocodiles. The park remains closed from mid-May to mid-October.

KANHA NATIONAL PARK

This is one of the spectacular and most exciting parks for wildlife in India and is in Madhya Pradesh. Originally it was conceived to protect the swamp deers also called Barasinghas but now it also includes tigers, chitals, blackbucks, langurs and leopards. The park is closed from July to October.

PERIYAR WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

This is a large and scenic park in Kerala state built around an artificial lake. It is famous for its large elephant population. Others include the wild dogs, Nilgiri Langurs, otters, tortoise, and hornbills. Best time to visit is around February to May.

VEDANTHANGAL BIRD SANCTUARY

This is situated around 35kms to the south of Chengalpattu in Tamilnadu and is home for a large variety of birds. Cormorants, egrets, herons, storks, ibises, pelicans, grebes and hornbills breed here from October to March. At the peak season of December to January more than 30, 000 birds can be spotted.

CALIMERE WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

This one also known as Koddikarai is situated in Tamilnadu, around 90 kms from Tanjore. This is a wetland area jutting out of the Palk Strait that separates India and Sri Lanka. It is famous for flocks of migratory birds mainly flamingoes. Black bucks, spotted deers and wild pigs are found here. Time to visit: November to January.

MUDANTHURAI TIGER SANCTUARY

This is located in Tamilnadu along its border with Kerala. It mainly consists of tigers but also has chitals, sambhars and lion tailed macaques. But it is extremely difficult to spot the tigers. Best time to visit is between January and March.

ANAMALAI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

This is along the slopes of the western ghat mountains in the border between Tamilnadu and Kerala. It is also known as Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It has an area of around 1000 sq Km and houses elephants, gaurs, tigers, panthers, deers, boars, porcupines and wild cats. In its heart lies the Parambiculam Dam, which is of good scenic beauty. The best time to visit this is between February and June.  

THE GOD-SOULED HIMALAYAS

Wonderful, mysterious, you can exhaust the most sublime words from your vocabulary: Yet the Himalayas will remain beyond them. It is the monarch of the mountains, the measuring pole of the earth.

The region is not a mere world, but it contains many worlds. There are no mountain ranges in the world, which have contributed so much to shape the life of a country as the Himalayas to the people of India. It is not only the political life of the people of Hindustan, but the religion, mythology, art, and literature of the Indian that bear the imprint of the great mountain barrier.

HIMALAYAN SUNSET

The majesty of the snow-clad peaks, visible from afar, the inaccessibility of even the much lesser ranges, the mysteries of the gigantic glaciers and the magnificence of the great rivers that emerge from its gorges have combined to give the Himalayas a majesty that no other mountain range can ever claim.

Monsoon is the traditional time to go up the Hills. In the lower Himalayas the choice is wide from Shimla right across to Darjeeling.

Fact File of Mount Everest

Alternate Names	Sagarmatha (Nepal) ,Chomolangma (TIbet)
Altitude	29,035 feet, 8850 meters
Location	27' 59' N Latitude, 86' 56' E Longitude
Best time to visit	April, May (pre-monsoon)
Year first climbed	1953
First Climbers	Edmund Hillary,Tenzing Norgay
Nearest Airport	Kathmandu, Nepal

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Its elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 meters) was determined using GPS satellite equipment on May 5, 1999. It was previously believed to be slightly lower (29,028 feet /8,848 meters), as determined in 1954 by averaging measurements from various sites around the mountain. The new elevation has been confirmed by the National Geographic Society

Mount Everest is also known by the Tibetan name Chomolangma (Goddess Mother of the Snows), and by the Nepali name Sagarmatha (Mother of the Universe).

Attempts on Mount Everest

The first seven attempts on Everest, starting with a reconnaissance in 1921 were all unsuccessful. Unsuccessful attempts continued through 1938, then halted during World War II. By the war's end, Tibet had closed its borders, and Nepal, previously inaccessible, had done the opposite.

Starting in 1951, expeditions from Nepal grew closer and closer to the summit, via the Khumbu Icefall, the Western Cwm, over the Geneva Spur to the South Col, and up the Southeast Ridge. In 1953 Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit.

Firsts on Mount Everest

Since the first successful ascent, many other individuals have sought to be the first at various other accomplishments on Everest, including many alternative routes on both the north and south sides.

• Italy's Reinhold Messner has climbed Everest twice without oxygen, once in four days. He is also the first to solo climb Everest, which he did in 1980.
• Ten years earlier, Yuichiro Miura of Japan had been the first person to descend the mountain on skis.
• In 1975, Junko Tabei, also of Japan, was the first woman to climb Everest.
• The first disabled person to attempt Everest was American Tom Whittaker, who climbed with a prosthetic leg to 24,000 feet in 1989, 28,000 feet in 1995, and finally reached the summit in 1998.
• The record for most ascents belongs to Sherpa Ang Rita, who has reached the summit ten times.

Everest Climbers

Overall, more than 600 climbers from 20 countries have climbed to the summit by various routes from both north and south. Climbers' ages have ranged from 19 to 60 years.

At least 100 people have perished, most commonly by avalanches, falls in crevasses, cold, or the effects of thin air.

Climbing on Everest is very strictly regulated by both the Nepalese and Chinese Governments. Permits cost thousands of U.S. dollars and are difficult to obtain, and waiting lists extend for years .

TheFirst Climber accounts

Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay and Hillary stood on the top of Mount Everest, hugging each other one fine friday morning.This was the sixth try putting his life at stake for Tenzing. At last they stood on the top of the world.

Tenzing dug a hole in the snow and put down some small sacrifice gifts - symbolic things that he had brought with him.

He left a few biscuits, some chocolate and a blue-pen. The blue-pen was just a little piece that his youngest daughter Nima gave him when he left home.

Tenzing took foru small flages from his pocket, and attached them in a piece of rope, four foot long. He attached the rope on around his ice-axe. Hillary took a few photos whileTenzing let the flags fly .On the top of the world there were place for two, perhaps three persons if you removed some iceaccording tot eh first climbers. They stayed just longer than a quarter of an hour on the summit and were grateful that no storm had forced them down.  

MINERAL RESOURCES

India has a large number of economically useful minerals and they constitute one-quarter of the world's known mineral resources. About two-thirds of its iron deposits lies in a belt along Odisha and Bihar border.

Other haemaite deposits are found in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra and Goa. Magnetite iron-ore is found in Tamilnadu, Bihar and Himachal.

India has the world's largest deposits of coal. Bituminous coal is found in Jharia and Bokaro in Bihar and Ranigunj in West Bengal. Lignite coals are found in Neyveli in Tamilnadu.

Next to Russia, India has the largest supply of Manganese. The manganese mining areas are Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Bihar-Odisha area. Chromite deposits are found in Bihar, Cuttack district in Odisha, Krishna district in Andhra and Mysore and Hassan in Karnataka. Bauxite deposits are found in western Bihar, southwest Kashmir, Central Tamilnadu, and parts of Kerala, U.P, Maharastra and Karnataka.

India also produces third quarters of the world's mica. Belts of high quality mica are, Bihar, Andhra and Rajasthan. Gypsum reserves are in Tamilnadu and Rajasthan. Nickel ore is found in Cuttack in Bihar and Mayurbanj in Odisha. Ileminite reserves are in Kerala and along the east and the west coastal beaches.

Silimanite reserves are in Sonapahar of Meghalaya and in Pipra in M.P. Copper ore bearing areas are Agnigundala in Andhra, Singhbum in Bihar, Khetri and Dartiba in Rajasthan and parts of Sikkhim and Karnataka.

The Ramagiri field in Andhra, Kolar and Hutti in Karnataka are the important gold mines.

The Panna diamond belt is the only diamond producing area in the country, which covers the districts of Panna, Chatarpur and Satna in Madya Pradesh, as well as some parts of Banda in Uttar Pradesh.

Petroleum deposits are found in Assam and Gujarat. Fresh reserves were located off Bombay. The potential oil bearing areas are, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, west Bengal, Punjab, Himachal, Kutch and the Andamans.

India also possesses the all-too valuable nuclear uranium as well as some varieties of rare earths.

SOILS

Soil-types in India can be classified into three groups. The first group comprises of the alluvial, black and red soils, which are basically fertile and are arable and cultivatable.

The second group consists of the peaty and marshy, the saline and alkaline soils which are potentially arable.

The third group is the laterite and forest and hill soils, which are not at all suitable for cultivation.

The main alluvial area is found in the Indo-Gangetic plain and the Peninsular regions. The main crops are rice, sugarcane and wheat. Black soil is found in the northwestern regions and in the Deccan lava areas and Tamilnadu.

Black soil is especially suited for cotton. Red soil is particularly rich in potash and is found in northern and central India. The peaty and marshy soils are found in the Bengal deltas, Saline and alkaline soils in the semi-arid regions of Bihar, U.P, Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan. Desert soils are found in the minimum rain receiving areas of Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan. Laterite soil is common in the low hills of Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.

There are two crop seasons: Kharif, Rabi. The major Kharif crops are rice, jowar, maize, cotton, sugarcane, sesame and groundnut. The Rabi crops are wheat, jowar, barley, gram, rapeseed and mustard and the summer crops are rice, maize, groundnut and some cash crops.

INDIAN FLORA AND FAUNA

India boasts a wide variety of flora and fauna which are diversified in nature and which depend upon the geography of the region.

FAUNA

There are around 500 varieties of mammals, 2000 species of birds and 30,000 types of insects and a wide variety of fish, amphibians and reptiles are found in the country according to the latest census estimate.

ELEPHANTS ON THE MOVE IN MUDUMALAI SANCTUARY, TAMILNADU

INDIA'S FAME THE ONE-HORNED RHINO

Popular mammals include the Elephant , the famous white lions and some common lions, the Royal Bengal Tiger , Rhinos , Wild Bisons some varieties from the cat family, deer, monkeys, wild goats, etc. Elephants are found in the sparsely populated hill areas of Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha.

Lions are found in the rocky hills and forests of the Gir area of Gujarat, Tigers in the Sunderbans and the Brahmaputra valley. The famous Project Tiger is a scheme financed by the government of India to safeguard the tiger in its habitat in nine selected reserves. Indian Fauna also include the wild ass of Rajasthan, Nilgiri Langur , Lion-tailed macaque , Nilgiri mongoose and Malaber civer of the southern hills and the spotted deer. Leopards are found in many forests, Wolves roam the open country. Cheetahs are found in the Deccan plateau.

A huge number of snake varieties, lizards and crocodiles account for the reptile count. Snakes include the deadly King cobras to the equally poisonous Kraits. Scorpions and insects are aplenty in this country. Disease carrying mosquitoes and destructive locusts are to be found. Useful insects include the bees, silkworms and the Lac insect.

KING OF ANIMALSTHE MAJESTIC LION

Bird-Life in India is rich and colorful. The birds include the beautiful Peacock to the Parrots, and thousands of immigrant birds. Other common Indian birds are pheasants, geese ducks, mynahs, parakeets, pigeons, cranes, and hornbills. India now maintains 80 national parks, 441 wildlife sanctuaries and 35 zoological gardens.

FLORA

Thanks to its wide range of climatic conditions, India has a rich variety of vegetation that no other country in this world can boast of. According to the distribution of the flora, India can be classified into, Western Himalayas, Eastern Himalayas, Assam, Indus Plain, Ganga Plain, Deccan, Malabar and the Andamans.

Indian flora varies from the Western Himalayan and Assamese, from the species of the Indus Plain to those of the gangetic plain, from the Deccan and Malabari to the vegetation of the Andamans. The floral wealth ranges from the Alpine to the temperate thorn, from the coniferous to the evergreen, from scrubs to deciduous forests, from thick tropical jungles to cool temperate woods.

The Western Himalayan region is abound in Chirpine and other conifers deodar, blue pine, spruce, silver fir, and junipers. The Eastern Himalayan region consists of oaks, laurels, maples, rhododendrons, alder, and birch and dwarf willows. The Assam region is full of evergreen forests with lots of bamboo and tall grasses.

The Indus plain supports very scanty vegetation and the Ganges Plain is under cultivation. The Deccan region is full of scrubs and mixed deciduous forests. The Malabar region is under commercial crops like coconut, betel, pepper, coffee and tea. Andaman region is abounding in evergreen and mangrove forests.

MUNNAR TEA PLANTATIONS

India's original vegetation was mainly deciduous forest because of her tropical location. It is unfortunate that the forest cover has been reduced to 13% of the total surface area.

Of the deciduous trees Sal and Teak are the most important. Sal is found in eastern India and it is used for buildings because it is resistant to termites and fire. Deodars, Pines, cedars, firs ands spruce are found in the foothills of the Himalayas. Sandalwood is found in Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Coconut palms are dominant in Kerala.

Crops native to India

Rice, sesame, cotton, safflower, cucumber, eggplant, banana, Mango, pepper, tea, cardamom and citrus fruits.

Crops, which were introduced into India

Wheat, maize, grams, jute, potato, carrot, cabbage, spinach, soyabeans, watermelon, tobacco, mustard, cashew, coffee, rubber, sapota, guava, custard apple, walnut, papaya, apple, pear, pomegranate, litchi, coconut and cinnamon.

INDIAN RIVERS

India's river system comprises

	The Himalayan Rivers,
	The Deccan Rivers,
	The coastal rivers and
	The rivers of the inland drainage basin.

The snow-fed rivers of the Himalayas are perennial and they flood during the winter.

The rain-fed rivers of the Deccan Plateau are non-perennial and have an uncertain flow.

Also most of the western coastal rivers are non-perennial because they have limited catchments area. Many of them are non-perennial.

The fourth type consists of rivers of western Rajasthan and is very few, like the Sambhar, which is lost in the desert sands, and the Loni, that drains into the Rann of Kutch.

The largest river basin of India is the Ganga basin, receiving water from an area bounded by the Himalayas in the north and the Vindhyas in the South. The Ganga, the Yamuna, the Ghagra, Gandak and Kosi are the main constituents. The second is the Godavari basin; the third is the Krishna basin, which is the second largest river in peninsular India. The Mahanadi traverses through this basin. The Narmada basin, and that of the Tapti and the Panner are smaller ones, though they are agriculturally important.

In India, rivers are considered holy with lot of reverence. People take bath in these holy rivers during special occasions with a belief that their sins would be wiped off! Of all, the Ganges is the longest with a length of 2500 kms. It rises in the Himalayas and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet and ends up in the Bay of Bengal after traveling a distance of around 2900 kms. The Mahanadi, the Godaveri, the Krishna and the Kaveri of Peninsular India flow into the Bay of Bengal while the Narmada and the Tapti end up in the Arabian Sea. 

Indian Climate

CLIMATE

The Indian climate is a cycle of six seasons. There are areas where the distinction of the seasons is felt, but in most areas the six seasons overlap.

The Indian seasons in the Christian calendar are:

	Spring	Mid-Feb to April
	Summer	May and June
	Monsoon	July to September
	Autumn	Sept to Mid-November
	Pre-winter	Mid-Nov to December
	Winter	Mid-December to Mid-February

It is quite possible to tour India the year round, avoiding blistering heat and the monsoons, provided we choose the area. While it is roasting in the South, it would be mild in the north and the Himalayan peaks will be covered with snow most of the year. The plains of India are at their freshest in the winter. The optimum season to travel in northern India, from Rajasthan to Delhi is between September and March, although it would be quite chilly from December to January. To the east, the more extreme combination of heat, humidity and monsoon leaves only November to February fairly comfortable. Southern India is always hot but again, it is at its best between November and February. The green strip of Kerala down the Malabar Coast is more temperate, with a much gentler climate.

The scorching pre-monsoon heat, the monsoon deluge and the post-monsoon humidity strike almost everywhere some time between May and September. The stultifying pre-monsoon heat is to be avoided throughout the country. But when the rains come, they have their own attraction, provided the humidity between showers is bearable. It is a repeated agony-ecstasy cycle.

The winter is more or less pleasant throughout the country. In the north temperatures falls steeply; in western, southern and eastern India, the winter is cool.

The summer is hot is most parts of the country. But there are a number of hill resorts to provide cool retreats for the tourists.

The southwest monsoon begins on the west coast in early June and spreads to other parts. In most of India it rains from June to September. But the southeastern regions experience greater rainfall during November to January, due to the advent of the northeast monsoon. 

Cool spots are mostly British -built retreats from the boiling Madras and Bombay, such as Ootacamund and Kodaikanal in the Nilgiris and the Cardamom hills dividing Tamilnadu and Kerala states, Mahabaleshwar and Pune in the Western Ghats of Maharastra, and Mount Abu on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border.

Rainfall in India is variable. The northeastern region, the western slopes of the Western Ghats and parts of the Himalayas have very high rainfall of around 2000mm annually. The eastern part of the peninsula extending up to the northern plains receive around 1000 to 2000mm rainfall, while the area from the Western Deccan up to the Punjab plain gets around 100mm to 500mm rainfall. Kutch and Ladakh areas have hardly any rainfall. Chirapunji in Assam is said to receive the highest amount of rainfall in the whole world.