UPSC Prelims 2017 · Question 8 of 99
UPSC Prelims 2017 question on Himalayas Western Ghats States
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2017
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectGeography
- TopicIndian Geography
- DifficultyHard
- TypeStatement
Consider the following statements:
1. In India, the Himalayas are spread over five states only.
2. Western Ghats are spread over five states only.
3. Pulicat Lake is spread over two states only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Show answer
Answer: B. 3 only
Verdict
The answer is 3 only. Pulicat Lake spans two states, but the Himalayas and the Western Ghats each spread over more than five.
Analysis
Statement 3 is CORRECT. Pulicat, the second largest brackish water lagoon in India, lies across the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu border. Statement 1 is INCORRECT. The Himalayas in India cover Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, with Shiwalik extensions in Punjab and Haryana. Statement 2 is INCORRECT. The Western Ghats run through six states, that is Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Source
Standard atlas.
How to crack it
The word only in statements 1 and 2 converts each into an exact count, and exact counts are falsified by finding one additional case. For the Western Ghats the forgotten state is nearly always Gujarat at the northern tip, and for the Himalayas it is West Bengal through Darjeeling. Whenever a statement fixes a number of states, run the range mentally from one end to the other rather than recalling a figure, because the endpoints are where the extra state hides.