Physiography of India Quiz: Himalayas, Plains, Plateau, Coasts & Islands

Spoilers! These are the Starter quiz’s answers. Easy, Medium, Hard and Mixed rounds show their own answers when you finish.

1. The narrow belt of pebbles at the foot of the Shiwaliks, where streams disappear underground, is called the:

   • Terai
   • Bhabar
   • Bhangar
   • Khadar

   Answer: Bhabar. Rivers coming down from the hills deposit pebbles and boulders in the bhabar, and the streams sink into this porous belt. They re-emerge further south in the marshy terai.

2. In the northern plains, the newer alluvium of the floodplains, renewed almost every year, is known as:

   • Khadar
   • Bhangar
   • Kankar
   • Bhabar

   Answer: Khadar. Khadar is the new, fertile alluvium of floodplains. Bhangar is the older alluvium lying above flood level, often with calcareous kankar nodules.

3. The highest peak of peninsular India is:

   • Doddabetta
   • Mahendragiri
   • Anaimudi
   • Guru Shikhar

   Answer: Anaimudi. Anaimudi (about 2,695 m) in the Anamalai hills of Kerala is the highest peak south of the Himalayas. Doddabetta is the highest peak of the Nilgiris.

4. The Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats meet at the:

   • Cardamom Hills
   • Javadi Hills
   • Mahendragiri Hills
   • Nilgiri Hills

   Answer: Nilgiri Hills. The two Ghats converge at the Nilgiri hills. The Western Ghats are continuous and higher; the Eastern Ghats are broken by rivers draining into the Bay of Bengal.

5. Which channel separates the Andaman Islands from the Nicobar Islands?

   • Ten Degree Channel
   • Eight Degree Channel
   • Nine Degree Channel
   • Palk Strait

   Answer: Ten Degree Channel. The Ten Degree Channel lies between Little Andaman and Car Nicobar. The Nine and Eight Degree Channels lie in the Lakshadweep–Maldives region.

6. India's only active volcano, Barren Island, lies in the:

   • Arabian Sea
   • Andaman Sea
   • Gulf of Mannar
   • Lakshadweep Sea

   Answer: Andaman Sea. Barren Island lies in the Andaman Sea, east of the main Andaman group. The Lakshadweep islands, by contrast, are of coral origin.

7. Longitudinal valleys such as Dehra Dun lie between which two ranges?

   • Greater Himalaya and Lesser Himalaya
   • Karakoram and Ladakh
   • Lesser Himalaya and Shiwaliks
   • Shiwaliks and the Indo-Gangetic plain

   Answer: Lesser Himalaya and Shiwaliks. These flat-floored valleys between the Himachal (Lesser Himalaya) and the outermost Shiwaliks are called duns, e.g. Dehra Dun, Kotli Dun and Patli Dun.

8. Guru Shikhar, the highest peak of the Aravalli range, is located at:

   • Kumbhalgarh
   • Udaipur
   • Ajmer
   • Mount Abu

   Answer: Mount Abu. Guru Shikhar (about 1,722 m) is on Mount Abu in Rajasthan. The Aravallis are among the oldest fold mountains in the world, now heavily eroded.

9. The Coromandel Coast lies along the coast of:

   • Tamil Nadu
   • Odisha
   • Kerala
   • Gujarat

   Answer: Tamil Nadu. The eastern coastal plain is called the Northern Circars in its northern part and the Coromandel Coast in the south (Tamil Nadu). Malabar is the southern part of the west coast.

10. The Tropic of Cancer does NOT pass through which of these states?

    • Tripura
    • Mizoram
    • Odisha
    • Jharkhand

    Answer: Odisha. It passes through eight states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Odisha lies wholly south of it.