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The Northern Plains and the Thar desert

తెలుగులో వివరణ

Physiography of India · Part 2 / 4 · Fact-checked on 8 November 2026 · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

How the Northern Plains were built from river sediment in a trough south of the Himalaya; the Bhabar, Terai, Bhangar and Khadar belts; the Punjab plains and their doabs, the Ganga plains and the Brahmaputra valley with Majuli; levees, oxbow lakes, braided channels and the Sundarbans delta; the Thar desert, the Luni and the salt lakes; the Rann of Kachchh; and why the plains matter, with their problems of floods, waterlogging and falling groundwater.

Each idea is explained first in Telugu (తెలుగు), ending with the English and Hindi exam terms, followed by the same point in exam English. UPSC Prelims is in English or Hindi, so understand it in Telugu and revise it in English.

మొదటి భాగంలో హిమాలయాలు చూశాం. ఇప్పుడు కిందికి దిగి ఉత్తర మైదానాలకు, తర్వాత పడమర థార్ ఎడారికి వెళ్తున్నాం. ఈ మైదానాలు రాయి కాదు; నదులు కొండల నుంచి తెచ్చి పరిచిన ఒండ్రు మట్టి. అందుకే ఇవి దేశంలో అన్నిటికంటే కొత్త భాగం. పొలంలో వరద నీరు తగ్గాక పైన ఒక పొర మెత్తటి మట్టి మిగులుతుంది కదా, అలాంటి పొరలు లక్షల ఏళ్ళు పేరుకుంటే ఈ మైదానాలు. ఉత్తరాన హిమాలయాలు నీరు, మట్టి పంపుతాయి; దక్షిణాన పాత పీఠభూమి కింద నేలగా ఉంటుంది. (→ English: alluvium · हिन्दी: जलोढ़)

In exam EnglishPart 1 followed the Himalaya, the youngest mountains on India's map. This part comes down from them onto the Northern Plains and then turns west to the Thar desert. The plains are the youngest of India's six divisions: they are not rock that was folded or lifted, but loose alluvium that rivers carried down from the mountains and spread out flat. They sit between the rising Himalaya to the north and the ancient Peninsula to the south, taught in Part 3, and they take their character from both: the Himalaya send the water and the silt, and the old plateau forms the floor on which the silt rests. Understanding how the plains were built explains almost everything an exam asks about them, from the belts of Bhabar and Khadar to the reasons the Kosi floods and the Punjab is running short of groundwater.

హిమాలయాలు లేచినప్పుడు వాటి దక్షిణాన నేల కిందికి వంగి పెద్ద గుంటలా మారింది. సింధు, గంగ, బ్రహ్మపుత్ర నదులు లక్షల ఏళ్ళుగా అందులో ఇసుక, మట్టి నింపాయి; ఈ నిక్షేపణ ఇప్పటికీ ప్రతి వరదతో జరుగుతోంది. ఇంటి ముందు గుంటలో వర్షం నీరు మట్టిని తెచ్చి నింపి చదును చేసినట్టు. అలా పంజాబ్ నుంచి అస్సాం వరకు దాదాపు 2,400 కి.మీ. చదునైన మైదానం ఏర్పడింది. అంబాలా దగ్గర ఒక చిన్న ఎత్తు రెండు నదీ వ్యవస్థలను వేరు చేస్తుంది. (→ English: deposition · हिन्दी: निक्षेपण)

In exam EnglishThe plains began as a long hollow. As the Indian plate pushed under Asia and the Himalaya rose, the crust just south of the new mountains was bent downward into a deep trough, which geologists call a foredeep. For millions of years the Indus, the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and their tributaries poured sediment into this trough, and the deposition still goes on with every monsoon flood; the Geological Survey of India describes the fill as a very thick pile of sand, silt and clay resting on the older rocks of the Peninsula below. The result is a plain that runs for roughly 2,400 km from the Punjab to Assam and is a few hundred kilometres wide, so flat that its slope is barely noticeable. The low, almost invisible water-parting between the Indus and Ganga systems lies near Ambala; rain falling on one side ends up in the Arabian Sea and on the other side in the Bay of Bengal.

కొండ దిగగానే నది వేగం ఒక్కసారిగా తగ్గి బరువైన గులకరాళ్ళు అక్కడే పడేస్తుంది; ఆ సన్నని పట్టీ భాబర్. జల్లెడలా రంధ్రాలున్న ఈ రాళ్ళ పొరలో చిన్న వాగులు ఇంకిపోయి కనిపించకుండా పోతాయి. కొంచెం దక్షిణాన ఆ నీరే మళ్ళీ బయటికి ఊరి, నేల చిత్తడిగా మారుతుంది; అదే టెరాయ్, పొడవాటి గడ్డి, దట్టమైన అడవి, జంతువులతో ఉండేది. దుధ్వా జాతీయ ఉద్యానం దాని ఒక భాగాన్ని కాపాడుతోంది. స్వాతంత్ర్యం తర్వాత చాలా భాగం పొలాలుగా మారింది. (→ English: Bhabar, Terai · हिन्दी: भाबर, तराई)

In exam EnglishWalking south from the Shiwalik foothills, the ground changes in a fixed order, and the first two belts are shaped by how rivers behave when they leave the hills. The Bhabar is a narrow strip right at the foot of the mountains where streams, suddenly losing speed, drop their heaviest load of pebbles and boulders. This coarse layer is so porous that the smaller streams sink into it and disappear from the surface. A little further south the water seeps out again, and the land becomes the Terai: wet, marshy and, in its natural state, covered with tall grass and dense forest full of wildlife. Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh protects a piece of this landscape. Since independence much of the Terai has been cleared and drained for farming, so the belt that once held back settlers is now productive cropland.

మైదానంలో మట్టి వయసే తేడా. బాంగర్ పాత ఒండ్రు, ఎప్పుడో పేరుకుని ఇప్పుడు సాధారణ వరదకు అందనంత కొంచెం ఎత్తులో ఉంటుంది; అందులో సున్నపు గడ్డలు (కంకర్) ఉంటాయి, నీరు సరిగ్గా పారకపోతే ఉప్పు తెల్లగా పైకి వచ్చి నేల పాడవుతుంది (రెహ్, కల్లర్). ఖాదర్ నది పక్కన కొత్త ఒండ్రు; ప్రతి ఏడాది వరద కొత్త మట్టి పొర వేస్తుంది కాబట్టి చాలా సారవంతం. పాత ఇంటి గోడ, కొత్తగా సున్నం వేసిన గోడ లాంటి తేడా. నది ఒడ్డున గాలి పోగేసిన ఇసుక దిబ్బలు భూర్. (→ English: Bhangar, Khadar · हिन्दी: बांगर, खादर)

In exam EnglishSouth of the Terai lies the main body of the plain, and here the key difference is the age of the alluvium. The Bhangar is the older alluvium, laid down long ago and now standing a little above the reach of ordinary floods. It often contains kankar, small lumpy nodules of lime, and in drier tracts poor drainage can bring salts to the surface as white crusts called reh or kallar, which make the soil barren. The Khadar is the newer alluvium of the floodplains close to the rivers; because floods cover it again and again, it receives a fresh layer of fine silt almost every year and stays very fertile. In the upper Ganga-Yamuna area there are also low mounds of sand called bhur along the river banks, heaped up by wind during the hot, dry months. The table below sets the four belts side by side.

The four relief belts of the Northern Plains, from the foothills southward
Belt	Where	Material	Key feature
Bhabar	Right at the foot of the Shiwalik; narrow	Pebbles and boulders, very porous	Small streams sink and vanish
Terai	Just south of the Bhabar	Finer, waterlogged ground	Streams re-emerge; marshy, once dense forest (Dudhwa)
Bhangar	Main plain, above ordinary floods	Older alluvium with kankar	Reh or kallar salt crusts in dry, badly drained tracts
Khadar	Floodplains next to rivers	Newer alluvium	Renewed by floods almost every year; very fertile

పడమర నుంచి తూర్పుకు మైదానం మూడు భాగాలు. మొదటిది పంజాబ్ మైదానం; ఝీలం, చీనాబ్, రావి, బియాస్, సట్లెజ్ అనే ఐదు నదులు కట్టాయి, అందుకే 'ఐదు నీళ్ళ నేల' అని పేరు. ఎక్కువ భాగం ఇప్పుడు పాకిస్తాన్‌లో ఉంది. రెండు నదుల మధ్య ఉన్న నేల ముక్కే దోఆబ్; రెండు కాలువల మధ్య ఉన్న పొలానికి రెండు వైపులా నీళ్ళు అందినట్టు. బిస్త్-జలంధర్ దోఆబ్ పూర్తిగా భారత్‌లో, బారీ దోఆబ్ కొంత భాగం భారత్‌లో. గంగ-యమున దోఆబ్ దేశంలో అతి పెద్దది. (→ English: doab · हिन्दी: दोआब)

In exam EnglishFrom west to east the plains fall into three regions, each named after its river system. The westernmost are the Punjab plains, built by the five eastern tributaries of the Indus: the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Satluj, which give the region its name, 'land of five waters'. Most of these plains now lie in Pakistan. Between each pair of rivers lies a doab, a wedge of land that is especially well watered; the Bist-Jalandhar doab between the Beas and the Satluj lies wholly in India, and the Bari doab between the Beas and the Ravi lies partly in India. The same word is used further east, where the Ganga-Yamuna doab of western Uttar Pradesh is the largest in the country. South of the Punjab plains the land turns drier and grades into the Thar.

The doabs of the Punjab plains
Doab	Between the rivers	Mostly in
Bist-Jalandhar	Beas and Satluj	India
Bari	Beas and Ravi	Partly India, partly Pakistan
Rechna	Ravi and Chenab	Pakistan
Chaj	Chenab and Jhelum	Pakistan
Sind Sagar	Jhelum and Indus	Pakistan

గంగా మైదానం అన్నిటికంటే పెద్దది; హర్యానా నుంచి పశ్చిమ బెంగాల్ వరకు. పైభాగం పశ్చిమ, మధ్య యూపీ; మధ్యభాగం తూర్పు యూపీ, బీహార్; కిందిభాగం బెంగాల్. తూర్పుకు వెళ్ళే కొద్దీ వర్షం పెరుగుతుంది, నేల తడిగా ఉంటుంది; అందుకే పడమట గోధుమ, తూర్పున వరి. మన దగ్గర కూడా పొడి ప్రాంతాల్లో జొన్న, తడి డెల్టాలో వరి పండించినట్టే. ఉత్తరం నుంచి ఘాఘ్రా, గండక్, కోసీ మంచు నీరు, మట్టి తెస్తాయి; దక్షిణం నుంచి చంబల్, సోన్. సముద్రం దగ్గర గంగ, బ్రహ్మపుత్ర కలిసి ప్రపంచంలో అతి పెద్ద డెల్టా కడతాయి. (→ English: delta · हिन्दी: डेल्टा)

In exam EnglishThe Ganga plains form the largest region, stretching from the Yamuna and the old Ghaggar channel in the west to the Tista in the east, across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Geographers usually divide them into an upper part in western and central Uttar Pradesh, a middle part in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and a lower part in West Bengal. Moving east, rainfall increases, the land gets lower and wetter, and the rivers carry more water; this is why wheat dominates the drier west and rice the wetter east. Tributaries from the north, such as the Ghaghara, Gandak and Kosi, bring Himalayan snowmelt and heavy loads of silt, while those from the south, such as the Chambal and the Son, drain the old plateau. Near the sea the Ganga and the Brahmaputra together build the world's largest delta, whose seaward edge is the Sundarbans.

తూర్పు చివర అస్సాంలో బ్రహ్మపుత్ర లోయ; ఉత్తరాన హిమాలయాలు, దక్షిణాన మేఘాలయ కొండల మధ్య పొడవాటి, సన్నని మైదానం. బ్రహ్మపుత్ర అరుణాచల్‌లో సియాంగ్ పేరుతో వస్తుంది; చాలా నీరు, ఇసుక తెస్తుంది, చదును నేల మీద ఇసుక దిబ్బల చుట్టూ చాలా పాయలుగా చీలుతుంది. ఆ నది మధ్యలో మనుషులు నివసించే పెద్ద దీవి మాజులీ; 2016లో అస్సాం ప్రభుత్వం దాన్ని జిల్లా చేసింది. దాదాపు ప్రతి ఏడాది వరదలు; నేల సారవంతమవుతుంది, కానీ ఇళ్ళు, పంటలు పోతాయి. (→ English: Brahmaputra valley · हिन्दी: ब्रह्मपुत्र घाटी)

In exam EnglishThe easternmost region is the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, a long, comparatively narrow plain hemmed in by the eastern Himalaya to the north and the Meghalaya plateau and the Purvanchal hills to the south. The Brahmaputra, which enters India in Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang or Dihang, carries enormous amounts of water and sediment, and on the flat valley floor it splits into many shifting channels around sandbars. Within it lies Majuli, a large inhabited river island that the Government of Assam made a separate district in 2016. Because the river is so heavily loaded and the monsoon rainfall so high, much of the valley floods almost every year, which renews its soil but also destroys homes, crops and embankments. This makes the Assam plain fertile and at the same time one of India's most flood-prone regions.

చదును నేల మీద నది ఎటు పడితే అటు తిరుగుతుంది. వరదలో నది పక్కనే బరువైన మట్టి పడి, ఒడ్డు వెంట తక్కువ ఎత్తు సహజ కట్ట తయారవుతుంది. నదీ వంపు పెద్దదై, ఒక వరదలో నది ఆ వంపు మెడను కోసి నేరుగా పోతుంది; వదిలేసిన వంపు చంద్రవంక సరస్సు అవుతుంది. మట్టి ఎక్కువైతే నది జడ అల్లినట్టు చాలా పాయలుగా చీలుతుంది; బ్రహ్మపుత్ర, కోసీ అలానే. కోసీ దారి మార్చుకుంటూ పడమరకు జరిగింది, 'బీహార్ దుఃఖం' అంటారు. చివర సుందర్బన్స్ మడ అడవులు, బెంగాల్ పులి. (→ English: levee, meander, oxbow lake · हिन्दी: प्राकृतिक तटबंध, विसर्प, गोखुर झील)

In exam EnglishOn such a gentle slope, rivers wander, and their wandering leaves a recognisable set of landforms. When a river overflows, it drops its coarser silt first, right beside the channel, so repeated floods build low ridges called levees along its banks. Loops or meanders grow wider over time until the river cuts across the narrow neck of a loop during a flood; the cut-off bend is left stranded beside the new channel as a curved oxbow lake. Where a river carries more sediment than it can move, as the Brahmaputra and the Kosi do, it splits into many interlacing channels separated by sandbars, a pattern called braiding. The Kosi has shifted its course far to the west over the last two centuries, and its floods have earned it the name 'sorrow of Bihar'. At the far end, the Sundarbans are a maze of tidal channels and mangrove islands, protected as a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the Bengal tiger.

ఆరావళి కొండలకు పడమర థార్, ఒక ఉష్ణ ఎడారి. రుతుపవన గాలి దాని మీదుగా వెళ్ళినా పైకి నెట్టే ఎత్తైన కొండ లేదు; ఆరావళి గాలికి అడ్డంగా కాక సమాంతరంగా ఉంది. అందుకే వర్షం చాలా తక్కువ. గాలి ఇసుకను పోగేసి ఇసుక దిబ్బలు కడుతుంది; అర్ధచంద్రాకారంగా, కొమ్ములు గాలి వెళ్ళే వైపు ఉండేవి బర్ఖాన్. పడమటి అసలు ఎడారి మరుస్థలి, తూర్పున కొంచెం తేమ ఉన్న పట్టీ బాగడ్. లూని ఒక్కటే పెద్ద నది, కిందికి వెళ్ళే కొద్దీ ఉప్పు నీరు. సాంభర్ దేశంలో అతి పెద్ద లోతట్టు ఉప్పు సరస్సు. (→ English: hot desert, sand dune, barchan · हिन्दी: उष्ण मरुस्थल, बालुका स्तूप, बरखान)

In exam EnglishWest of the Aravalli lies the Indian Desert, or Thar, a hot desert spread mostly over western Rajasthan and continuing into Pakistan. It is dry because the Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon passes over it without meeting high ground to force the air up, and because the Aravalli run parallel to that wind rather than across it; rainfall is low and unreliable, falling below about 250 mm a year over much of the west. Wind shapes the land: sand dunes cover large areas, including crescent-shaped barchans whose horns point downwind. The driest, sandiest western part is called the Marusthali; the semi-arid strip to its east, along the Aravalli, is the Bagar. Most streams are short and end in sand or in salt lakes; the Luni, which rises in the Aravalli near Ajmer and flows south-west towards the Rann of Kachchh, is the only large river, and its water turns salty downstream. Sambhar is the largest inland salt lake in India and a Ramsar wetland.

ఎడారి నైరుతి అంచున గుజరాత్‌లో కచ్ రణ్; ఇది ఇసుక ఎడారి కాదు, పెద్ద చదునైన ఉప్పు చిత్తడి. ఉత్తరాన పెద్ద రణ్ (పాకిస్తాన్ సరిహద్దు), ఆగ్నేయాన చిన్న రణ్. వర్షాకాలంలో సముద్రం నీరు, నదుల నీరు పరుచుకుని లోతులేని నీటి పొర అవుతుంది; ఎండాకాలంలో నీరు ఆవిరై తెల్లటి ఉప్పు పొర మిగులుతుంది. మన తీరంలో ఉప్పుమడుల్లో నీరు ఎండి ఉప్పు మిగిలినట్టే, కానీ చాలా పెద్ద ఎత్తున. చిన్న రణ్‌లో అడవి గాడిదలకు అభయారణ్యం ఉంది. (→ English: Rann of Kachchh · हिन्दी: कच्छ का रण)

In exam EnglishAt the south-western edge of the desert, in Gujarat's Kachchh district, lies the Rann of Kachchh, a vast, flat salt marsh rather than a sandy desert. It has two parts: the Great Rann to the north, along the border with Pakistan, and the smaller Little Rann to the south-east. During the monsoon, sea water and the flow of rivers such as the Luni spread across it and turn much of it into a shallow sheet of water; in the dry season the water evaporates and leaves a glaring white crust of salt. The Little Rann is the last home of the Indian wild ass, protected in the Wild Ass Sanctuary, and salt workers called agariyas harvest salt from its pans. The Rann shows that the north-west of India is not one uniform desert: sand, salt flat and dry scrub sit side by side.

మొత్తం చూస్తే మైదానం, ఎడారి రెండూ ఒకే భూగోళ కథ. హిమాలయ నదులు నీరు, ఒండ్రు మట్టి పరిచిన చోట నేల సారవంతమై, జనం దట్టంగా నివసించే ప్రాంతమైంది; పంజాబ్, హర్యానాలో హరిత విప్లవం అక్కడే. చదును నేల కాబట్టి రోడ్లు, రైళ్ళు, కాలువలు, గంగపై జాతీయ జలమార్గం 1 సులువు. కానీ కోసీ, బ్రహ్మపుత్ర వరదలు; కాలువ నీరు ఎక్కువై నీరు నిలవడం, ఉప్పు; బోర్లు ఎక్కువై భూగర్భ జలం పడిపోవడం. బ్యాంకులో వేసినదానికంటే ఎక్కువ తీస్తే ఖాతా ఖాళీ అయినట్టు. నదులు అందని థార్ పొడిగా ఉంది; ఇందిరా గాంధీ కాలువ కొంత మార్చింది. (→ English: alluvium · हिन्दी: जलोढ़)

In exam EnglishPutting it together, the plains and the desert are two outcomes of the same geography. Where Himalayan rivers spread water and fresh alluvium, the land became deep, fertile and easy to farm, and it grew into one of the most densely settled regions of the world, the heartland of the Green Revolution in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Flat ground also made it easy to lay roads, railways and canals, and National Waterway 1 runs along the Ganga from Prayagraj to Haldia. The same features bring problems: floods on the Kosi and the Brahmaputra; waterlogging and salty soil where canal water is used without drainage; and, as the Central Ground Water Board's assessments show, groundwater pumped faster than it refills in much of Punjab and Haryana. Further west, where the rivers do not reach, the Thar stays dry, and the Indira Gandhi Canal, which carries water from the Satluj and the Beas, has changed farming in parts of it.

Exam traps

Order from the foothills southward is Bhabar, then Terai, then the main plain of Bhangar and Khadar. Streams vanish in the Bhabar and re-emerge in the Terai, not the other way round.
Bhangar is the OLDER alluvium (above flood level, with kankar); Khadar is the NEWER alluvium of the floodplains. Students often swap them because 'new' sounds like it should be higher.
Reh and kallar are salt crusts on badly drained land; kankar is lime nodules in the Bhangar; bhur is wind-blown sand along river banks. Do not mix the three.
Bist-Jalandhar doab (Beas-Satluj) is wholly in India; Rechna, Chaj and Sind Sagar are in Pakistan; Bari (Beas-Ravi) is shared. The Ganga-Yamuna doab is the largest in India.
The Luni is the only large river of the Thar; it rises in the Aravalli near Ajmer and ends in the Rann of Kachchh, not in the Arabian Sea directly, and its lower course is salty.
The Rann of Kachchh is a salt marsh flooded in the monsoon, not a sand desert. The Indian wild ass lives in the LITTLE Rann.
Barchan horns point DOWNWIND. Marusthali is the true sandy desert in the west; Bagar is the semi-arid strip to its east along the Aravalli.
The Kosi ('sorrow of Bihar') and the Brahmaputra are braided rivers. Majuli is a river island in the Brahmaputra in Assam, made a district in 2016.

Recap

The Northern Plains are the youngest division: a foredeep south of the Himalaya filled with alluvium by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra systems.
About 2,400 km long and very flat; the Indus-Ganga water-parting lies near Ambala.
Belts: Bhabar (pebbles, streams vanish), Terai (streams re-emerge, marshy), Bhangar (older alluvium, kankar, reh), Khadar (newer floodplain alluvium).
Regions: Punjab plains and their doabs; Ganga plains (upper, middle, lower, delta); Brahmaputra valley with Majuli.
Landforms: levees, meanders and oxbow lakes, braided channels (Kosi, Brahmaputra), the Sundarbans delta.
Thar: west of the Aravalli, under about 250 mm of rain over much of the west, dunes and barchans, Marusthali and Bagar, the Luni, Sambhar and other salt lakes.
Rann of Kachchh: seasonal salt marsh in Gujarat; Great and Little Rann; wild ass in the Little Rann.
Importance: farming, groundwater, dense settlement and transport (NW-1); problems of floods, waterlogging, salinity and over-pumped groundwater.

Practice questions

Q1. In which belt of the Northern Plains do small streams sink into porous pebble beds and disappear from the surface?

Terai
Bhabar
Khadar
Bhangar

Show answer

Answer: B. Bhabar

The Bhabar, at the foot of the Shiwalik, is made of coarse, porous pebbles in which small streams vanish. The Terai is where they come up again; Khadar and Bhangar are the newer and older alluvium of the main plain, not pebble beds.

Q2. Consider the following statements:
1. Bhangar is the newer alluvium that is flooded almost every year.
2. Kankar nodules are commonly found in the Bhangar.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Show answer

Answer: B. 2 only

Statement 1 is wrong: Bhangar is the older alluvium standing above ordinary floods; the newer, regularly flooded alluvium is Khadar. Statement 2 is correct: kankar nodules are typical of the Bhangar. So '1 only' and 'Both' are wrong, and 'Neither' rejects a true statement.

Q3. The Bist-Jalandhar doab lies between which two rivers?

Ravi and Chenab
Beas and Ravi
Beas and Satluj
Chenab and Jhelum

Show answer

Answer: C. Beas and Satluj

The Bist-Jalandhar doab lies between the Beas and the Satluj and is wholly in India. Ravi-Chenab is the Rechna doab, Beas-Ravi the Bari doab, and Chenab-Jhelum the Chaj doab.

Q4. Match the following:
A. Reh
B. Bhur
C. Kankar
D. Oxbow lake
1. Wind-blown sand along river banks
2. Salt crust on badly drained land
3. Abandoned meander loop
4. Lime nodules in older alluvium
Select the correct code:

A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3

Show answer

Answer: A. A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3

Reh is a salt crust (2), bhur is wind-blown sand (1), kankar is lime nodules (4) and an oxbow lake is an abandoned meander (3). The second option swaps reh and bhur; the third swaps bhur and kankar; the fourth swaps reh and kankar.

Q5. Which of the following is the only large river of the Thar desert?

Ghaggar
Chambal
Mahi
Luni

Show answer

Answer: D. Luni

The Luni rises in the Aravalli near Ajmer, crosses the desert south-westward and ends in the Rann of Kachchh. The Chambal and the Mahi drain the plateau east and south of the desert, and the Ghaggar is a seasonal stream along the desert's northern edge, not its main river.

Q6. Consider the following statements about the Rann of Kachchh:
1. It is a salt marsh that is largely covered by shallow water during the monsoon.
2. The Indian wild ass is protected in a sanctuary in the Great Rann.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Statement 1 is correct: the Rann is a salt marsh flooded in the monsoon. Statement 2 is wrong: the Wild Ass Sanctuary is in the Little Rann, not the Great Rann. So '2 only' and 'Both' are wrong, and 'Neither' rejects a true statement.

Q7. Consider the following statements:
1. A barchan is a crescent-shaped dune whose horns point downwind.
2. The Bagar is the driest, sandiest part of the Thar, lying close to the Pakistan border.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong: the driest, sandiest western part is the Marusthali; the Bagar is the semi-arid strip to its east along the Aravalli. So '2 only' and 'Both' are wrong, and 'Neither' rejects a true statement.

Q8. Majuli, often in the news, is best described as:

a salt lake in the Thar desert
an inhabited river island in the Brahmaputra in Assam
a mangrove island of the Sundarbans
an oxbow lake of the Kosi in Bihar

Show answer

Answer: B. an inhabited river island in the Brahmaputra in Assam

Majuli is a large inhabited river island in the Brahmaputra, made a district of Assam in 2016. It is not a desert lake (that would be Sambhar), not part of the Sundarbans delta, and not on the Kosi.

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Sources

Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Mines: the Indo-Gangetic foreland basin, Quaternary alluvium of the Northern Plains, and the geology of western Rajasthan — https://www.gsi.gov.in
Survey of India, Department of Science and Technology: physical map of India showing the Northern Plains, the rivers of the Punjab, the Thar and the Rann of Kachchh — https://surveyofindia.gov.in
Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti: the alluvial aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic plain, waterlogging and salinity, and the Dynamic Ground Water Resources assessments of over-exploited blocks — https://cgwb.gov.in
NASA Earth Observatory: satellite images of the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta and the Sundarbans, the shifting Kosi river, the braided Brahmaputra and Majuli, and the Rann of Kachchh (US government) — https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur: the Thar desert, its rainfall, sand dunes, the Luni basin and the saline lakes of western Rajasthan — https://cazri.icar.gov.in
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change: the Sundarbans, the Wild Ass Sanctuary of the Little Rann of Kachchh, Dudhwa National Park in the Terai, and Sambhar lake as a Ramsar site — https://moef.gov.in
Inland Waterways Authority of India and Ministry of Jal Shakti: National Waterway 1 on the Ganga, the Indira Gandhi Canal, and flood management of the Kosi and the Brahmaputra — https://iwai.nic.in
Government of Assam: creation of Majuli district, the river island in the Brahmaputra (2016) — https://majuli.assam.gov.in