UPSC Prelims 2015 · Question 6 of 98
UPSC Prelims 2015 question on Easternmost Westernmost States
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2015
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectGeography
- TopicIndian Geography
- DifficultyEasy
- TypeDirect
Which one of the following pairs of States of India indicates the easternmost and westernmost State?
Show answer
Answer: D. Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat
Verdict
The answer is Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat. These are the easternmost and westernmost States of the Indian mainland.
Analysis
The mainland of India extends from Kashmir in the north to Kanniyakumari in the south, and from Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Gujarat in the west. Assam appears in two options and is the intended trap, because it is a large and familiar North-East State, but Arunachal Pradesh lies further east and includes the country's easternmost point. Rajasthan is the other trap, because it is India's largest State by area and shares a long western border, but Gujarat extends further west through the Kachchh region.
Source
NCERT Class XI, India: Physical Environment, page 2.
How to crack it
Extremity questions are decided by the extreme point, not by the size or prominence of the State, and UPSC builds the distractors from the large familiar neighbour in each direction. Fix the four cardinal extremities of India once, along with the southernmost point of the mainland at Kanniyakumari and of the territory at Indira Point. Note that the PDF left the difficulty and nature cells blank for this row, so the easy label here is inferred rather than taken from the analysis.