WBP SI Prelims Geography Previous Year Questions with Answers

Correct Answer: (A) Karnataka

Explanation

Karnataka was the first state of India to start coffee plantation: the saint Baba Budan is said to have brought seven coffee beans from Yemen (Mocha) to the Chandragiri hills of Chikmagalur in about 1670, and these hills are now called Baba Budan Giri.

Exam Facts

• Karnataka produces about 70 per cent of India’s coffee, mainly in Kodagu (Coorg), Chikmagalur and Hassan.
• Kerala (option C) is the second largest producer, and Tamil Nadu (option D) is third.
• Andhra Pradesh (option B) grows coffee in the Araku Valley, but it is much smaller in output.
• The two main varieties are Arabica and Robusta.
• The Coffee Board of India has its headquarters at Bengaluru.
• Coffee needs warm and humid climate (about 15–28°C) with well-drained hill slopes and shade.
• Tea is grown mainly in Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu; the first tea garden of Assam was started in the 1830s.
• Rubber is mainly grown in Kerala.
• India is a top coffee exporter and most of its coffee is exported.
• Coffee grows on hill slopes of the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, and India’s coffee is mostly shade-grown.

Correct Answer: (A) Mizoram

Explanation

Mizoram has the highest percentage of forest cover, about 84.5 per cent of its geographical area according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021.

Exam Facts

• The ISFR is published every two years by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun.
• After Mizoram come Arunachal Pradesh (about 79%), Meghalaya (about 76%), Manipur and Nagaland.
• Madhya Pradesh (option C) has the largest forest cover in area (about 77,000 sq km), but its percentage is far lower (about 25%).
• Nagaland (option B) and Meghalaya (option D) are also high but behind Mizoram.
• India’s forest cover was about 21.7 per cent and the forest and tree cover together about 24.6 per cent of the area in ISFR 2021.
• The National Forest Policy aims at 33 per cent forest and tree cover.
• Tropical evergreen forests are found in the northeast, the Western Ghats and Andaman.
• The Forest Conservation Act was passed in 1980.
• Van Mahotsav (tree planting week) is celebrated in July.
• Forest cover is reported by satellite imagery (remote sensing) in the ISFR; the report also gives mangrove cover.

Correct Answer: (C) NH 44

Explanation

NH 44 (the old NH 7) is the longest national highway of India, about 3,745 km long, running from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu through eleven states and union territories.

Exam Facts

• It was renumbered as NH 44 in the new numbering system started in 2010.
• It passes through states such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was set up in 1988 and works under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
• The Golden Quadrilateral joins Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
• The North-South Corridor joins Srinagar and Kanyakumari, and the East-West Corridor joins Silchar and Porbandar.
• Options (A) NH 17, (B) NH 60 and (D) NH 10 are much shorter highways.
• The Grand Trunk Road is one of the oldest roads of India, built in its present form by Sher Shah Suri.
• In the new numbering, even numbers show east-west highways and odd numbers show north-south ones.
• India has the second largest road network in the world after the USA.
• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) builds roads in border and hilly areas.

Correct Answer: (B) Subarnarekha

Explanation

The Hindalco alumina plant at Muri (Ranchi district, Jharkhand) is located on the Subarnarekha river.

Exam Facts

• The Subarnarekha rises near Nagri, close to Ranchi, on the Chhotanagpur plateau.
• It flows through Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha and falls into the Bay of Bengal.
• The Hundru Falls (Ranchi) are formed on the Subarnarekha.
• Hindalco is an aluminium company of the Aditya Birla Group; bauxite is the ore of aluminium.
• Mahanadi (option A) flows through Chhattisgarh and Odisha and has the Hirakud Dam.
• Tungabhadra (option C) is a tributary of the Krishna in Karnataka.
• Kangsabati (option D) is a river of West Bengal (Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore) with the Kangsabati dam.
• Bauxite is mined mainly in Odisha, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
• Jharkhand is rich in coal, iron ore and mica.
• Jamshedpur, the steel city of Tata, lies at the meeting of the Subarnarekha and Kharkai rivers.

Correct Answer: (A) Ganges

Explanation

The Tehri Dam in Uttarakhand is built on the Bhagirathi river, the main headstream of the Ganga, so among the options the Ganges is the answer. Flag: strictly the dam stands on the Bhagirathi near its meeting with the Bhilangana, and none of the options names the Bhagirathi exactly.

Exam Facts

• The Bhagirathi and Alaknanda meet at Devprayag to form the Ganga.
• Tehri is about 260.5 m high, the tallest dam in India.
• The dam is at Tehri (New Tehri) in Tehri Garhwal, and it makes Tehri hydropower and supplies water.
• The project has been opposed because of its location in the seismically active Himalayas and the displacement of people.
• Ravi (option B) has the Ranjit Sagar (Thein) Dam on it.
• Iravati (option D) is the ancient name of the Ravi in Sanskrit, and it is also close to the name of the Irrawaddy of Myanmar.
• Ichhamati (option C) is a river of West Bengal and Bangladesh.
• The Bhakra Nangal Dam is on the Sutlej, and Hirakud is on the Mahanadi.
• Sardar Sarovar is on the Narmada in Gujarat.
• The Ganga is about 2,525 km long and is the longest river within India.

Correct Answer: (C) South America

Explanation

The Pampas are the temperate grasslands of South America, mostly in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. The question spells it as ‘Pompus’.

Exam Facts

• The Pampas have fertile soil and are known for wheat farming and cattle rearing.
• Argentina’s Pampas supply much of the country’s beef and wheat.
• The Prairies are the temperate grasslands of North America (option B).
• The Steppes are the temperate grasslands of Eurasia (option A).
• The Veld is the temperate grassland of South Africa (option D).
• The Downs are the grasslands of Australia, and the Canterbury grassland is in New Zealand.
• The Savanna is the tropical grassland, best known in Africa.
• Llanos are the tropical grasslands of the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Colombia.
• The Campos of Brazil are tropical grasslands.
• The Gran Chaco is a different South American lowland of grass and scrub forest.

Correct Answer: (A) Damodar Valley

Explanation

Most of India’s Gondwana coal, including nearly all the coking coal, lies in the Damodar Valley (Jharkhand and West Bengal), and this is the textbook answer. Flag: the statement is loosely worded, because the 80 per cent figure is not exact for any single valley; the Damodar valley is simply the best option.

Exam Facts

• Gondwana coals make up about 98 per cent of India’s coal reserves and production.
• Jharia (Dhanbad, Jharkhand) is India’s largest coking coal field.
• Raniganj (West Bengal) is the oldest coalfield, where mining began in 1774.
• Bokaro, Giridih and Karanpura are other Damodar valley coalfields.
• Mahanadi valley (option B) has Talcher in Odisha, and the Godavari valley (option C) has Singareni in Telangana.
• Son valley (option D) has coalfields such as Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh).
• Tertiary coal is found in Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir, and lignite at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu.
• Anthracite is the best quality coal (highest carbon), and bituminous is the most common type in India.
• Coal India Limited has its headquarters at Kolkata.
• India has the fifth largest coal reserves in the world and is among the top producers.

Correct Answer: (D) Damascus

Explanation

Damascus, the capital of Syria, is regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited capital city of the world, with a history of several thousand years.

Exam Facts

• Damascus is on the Barada river and is famous for its old Umayyad Mosque.
• Canberra (option A) is the capital of Australia, a planned city named in 1913 after a design by Walter Burley Griffin.
• Oslo (option B) is the capital of Norway, founded about 1040.
• Accra (option C) is the capital of Ghana.
• Varanasi is often called the oldest living city of India.
• Athens and Rome are also very old capitals of Europe.
• Syria’s neighbours are Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel.
• Washington D.C. is the capital of the USA, selected as the capital site in 1790–91.
• Brasilia and Canberra are examples of planned capitals.
• Cairo and Jerusalem are also very old cities of the Middle East.

Correct Answer: (A) Amazon and Congo basin

Explanation

The ‘4 o’clock rain’ is typical of the equatorial climate of the Amazon and Congo basins: the Sun is overhead, heating is strong, and convectional rain falls almost every afternoon at about 4 p.m.

Exam Facts

• The equatorial region lies within about 5° to 10° north and south of the equator.
• It is hot and wet throughout the year, with no dry season and an annual rainfall above 200 cm.
• Its natural vegetation is the tropical evergreen rainforest (selvas in the Amazon).
• The Amazon basin (South America) and the Congo basin (Africa) are the largest equatorial regions.
• Convectional rainfall occurs when hot moist air rises, cools and condenses, with thunder and lightning.
• Yenisei (option B) lies in cold Siberia, with taiga and tundra climate.
• Huang He (Yellow River) (option C) lies in China with a temperate monsoon climate.
• Nile (option D) flows through the Sahara and savanna regions, which are dry.
• The Amazon is the largest river in the world by water volume.
• Because of the afternoon rain, the days in the equatorial region are hot and humid with high relative humidity.

Correct Answer: (D) Indus

Explanation

Among the given rivers the Indus is the longest, about 3,180 km in total. Flag: the Ganga (about 2,525 km) is the longest river within India, and the question does not say whether it means the total length or the length inside India, so the question is ambiguous.

Exam Facts

• The Brahmaputra is about 2,900 km long overall (about 916 km in India).
• The Godavari (about 1,465 km) is the longest peninsular river and is called Dakshin Ganga.
• The Indus rises near Lake Mansarovar in Tibet and flows through Ladakh and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea; only about 709 km lies in India.
• The Ganga (option A) is considered the longest river of India and flows about 2,525 km from Gangotri.
• The Nile is the longest river in the world, and the Amazon is the largest by volume.
• The Indus Waters Treaty (1960) shares the Indus system rivers between India and Pakistan.
• The Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum are the tributaries that make Punjab.
• The Brahmaputra is called Tsangpo in Tibet and Jamuna in Bangladesh.
• The Ganga was declared the National River in 2008.
• The Mississippi-Missouri, Yangtze and Yenisei are among the world’s other great rivers.

Correct Answer: (A) Krishna river

Explanation

The Tungabhadra is a major tributary of the Krishna; it is formed by the joining of the Tunga and Bhadra rivers, which rise in the Western Ghats (Karnataka), and joins the Krishna near Kurnool/Alampur.

Exam Facts

• The Tungabhadra Dam is at Hosapete (Hospet) in Karnataka.
• Hampi, the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, stands on its banks.
• The Krishna is about 1,400 km long and rises near Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats.
• The Krishna flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and falls into the Bay of Bengal.
• Godavari (option B) is the longest river of peninsular India.
• Kaveri (option C) rises at Talakaveri in the Western Ghats and has the Mettur Dam.
• Brahmaputra (option D) is a Himalayan river and not connected with the peninsular tributaries.
• Other tributaries of the Krishna are the Bhima, Koyna, Panchganga, Musi and Ghataprabha.
• The Nagarjuna Sagar dam is on the Krishna.
• The Krishna-Tungabhadra doab has the fertile Raichur region of Karnataka.

Correct Answer: (A) Kandala

Explanation

Kandla (now called Deendayal Port) in Gujarat is the tax-free port among the options: the Kandla Free Trade Zone (set up in 1965, the first export processing zone of Asia) offers duty-free trade and manufacture for export.

Exam Facts

• Kandla is a tidal port in the Gulf of Kutch, developed after Partition when Karachi went to Pakistan.
• It is run by the Deendayal Port Authority (renamed from the Kandla Port Trust in 2017).
• Mumbai (option B) has a large natural harbour, and the JNPT (Nhava Sheva) near it is India’s biggest container port.
• Cochin (option C) in Kerala is a natural harbour called the ‘Queen of the Arabian Sea’.
• Haldia (option D) is a dock complex of the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata in West Bengal.
• Visakhapatnam is the deepest landlocked harbour, and Chennai is an artificial port.
• Paradip is a major port in Odisha on the Bay of Bengal.
• Free Trade Zones and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) give tax benefits for exports.
• Kolkata (Syama Prasad Mookerjee) Port is the only major riverine port of India.
• Marmagao (Goa) and New Mangalore are major ports on the west coast.

Correct Answer: (C) 1989

Explanation

Flag: the Sundarban National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, which is not among the options. 1989 is the year the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve was declared, and it is the nearest option, so it is kept as the answer. The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove delta.

Exam Facts

• The Sundarban Tiger Reserve was created in 1973 under Project Tiger, and the National Park in 1984.
• It was declared a Ramsar site in 2019.
• The Sundarbans is the home of the Royal Bengal Tiger and gets its name from the sundari tree (Heritiera fomes).
• It lies in the delta of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna, in West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh.
• The Sundarban area in Bangladesh was made a World Heritage Site in 1997.
• Kaziranga (Assam) was inscribed in 1985, and Keoladeo (Rajasthan) in 1985.
• West Bengal’s Sundarban National Park is the only mangrove tiger habitat in the world.
• The Biosphere Reserve scheme is part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme.
• A UNESCO World Heritage Site is chosen by the World Heritage Committee.
• The Sundarbans is home to estuarine crocodiles, river dolphins and fishing cats.

Correct Answer: (A) Mediterranean Sea

Explanation

Africa and Europe are separated by the Mediterranean Sea. The two continents come closest at the Strait of Gibraltar, only about 14 km wide, between Spain and Morocco.

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Correct Answer: (C) 7516.6 Kms

Explanation

India’s total coastline, including the mainland (about 6100 km) and the islands (Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep), is 7516.6 km, so option (C) is correct.

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Correct Answer: (C) Atacama

Explanation

The Atacama Desert in Chile (and Peru) is the world’s driest desert (outside the polar regions), with parts getting almost no rain for years.

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Correct Answer: (B) West Bengal

Explanation

Jaldapara is a wildlife sanctuary (now a national park) in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal, on the banks of the Torsa river, famous for the Indian one-horned rhinoceros.

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Correct Answer: (C) Betwa in Uttar Pradesh

Explanation

The Matatila Dam (hydel project) is on the Betwa river in Uttar Pradesh, near Lalitpur and Jhansi.

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Correct Answer: (B) Regur

Explanation

Black cotton soil is also called Regur. It is formed from the weathering of the basalt of the Deccan Trap and is ideal for cotton.

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Correct Answer: (C) (i)-c, (ii)-d, (iii)-a, (iv)-b

Explanation

Kangsabati (Kansai) flows through Purulia, Bankura and Paschim Medinipur (c); the Teesta drains the Jalpaiguri plains (d); the Ganga enters West Bengal in Murshidabad (a, near Farakka) and flows on as the Bhagirathi-Hooghly; the Torsa flows through Cooch Behar (b). So the pairs are (i)-c, (ii)-d, (iii)-a, (iv)-b.

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Correct Answer: (C) Narmada

Explanation

The Sardar Sarovar Dam is built on the Narmada river near Kevadia (Navagam), Gujarat. It is one of the biggest dams of the Narmada Valley Project and was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on 17 September 2017.

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Correct Answer: (B) Uttar Pradesh

Explanation

Uttar Pradesh is traditionally called the Sugar Bowl of India. It has the largest area under sugarcane and the largest sugar-producing belt (the Ganga-Yamuna doab and Terai).

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Correct Answer: (C) Narmada

Explanation

The Narmada rises at Amarkantak (Maikal range, Anuppur district, Madhya Pradesh) at about 1,057 m and flows west through a rift valley to the Gulf of Khambhat.

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Correct Answer: (C) Tropic of Cancer

Explanation

The Tropic of Cancer (23½° N) passes almost through the middle of India and divides the country into the tropical (south) and subtropical (north) zones.

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Correct Answer: (B) Chhotanagpur plateau

Explanation

The Damodar rises in the Khamarpat hill (Palamu district) on the Chhotanagpur plateau in Jharkhand and flows east through Jharkhand and West Bengal to join the Hooghly.

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