Geography PYQs topic-wise — UPSC Prelims

Statement 1 is the correct statement, while the question asks for incorrect ones. Uttar Pradesh borders eight states; Delhi is additionally a Union Territory and should not be counted as a ninth state.

This wrongly marks statement 1 as false and misses the error in statement 3. Rajasthan does not have the longest international border, but Uttar Pradesh’s unusually high number of state neighbours is correct.

This correctly notices that Sikkim is not unique, but misses Rajasthan’s incorrect border-length claim. Meghalaya provides a direct counterexample to statement 3, while West Bengal disproves statement 2.

Relationship 1 is reasonable because growth in coastal and inland shipping and improved port performance are outcomes consistent with the programme’s objectives. It is incomplete, however: the innovation emphasis in Sagarmala 2.0 also extends those objectives, making relationship 2 correct.

Relationship 2 is correct, but relationship 3 invents a contradiction. The original programme’s infrastructure and logistics aims can support new technology and entrepreneurship; they do not require a permanent restriction to traditional methods. Relationship 1 must also be included.

Relationship 3 is incorrect: neither statement I nor the programme description excludes innovation. Sagarmala 2.0 builds upon port-led development rather than contradicting it, while the reported shipping and port improvements support relationship 1.

The humid tropical coastal description is correct, but the islands also receive rain from both monsoon systems. Their maritime setting and latitude explain warm, moist conditions without making the second statement false.

Both monsoons contribute, but statement 3 gives the wrong principal wet-season interval. The dry-season portion of the year cannot be treated as the period of maximum precipitation simply because rainfall is possible in many months.

The official state climate plan identifies maximum precipitation between May and December, not December and May. The islands’ year-round humidity does not mean rainfall has no seasonal concentration.

Vizhinjam is an international container-transshipment facility, not exclusively a domestic cargo hub. Its value includes connecting Indian cargo with global shipping, so eliminating foreign collaboration is not the policy shift described.

Neither domestic exclusivity nor a primary cruise-tourism mission explains the project. These claims miss the port’s commercial container and transshipment purpose.

Statement 3 correctly identifies the strategic advantage, but statement 2 adds an incorrect primary purpose. Possible passenger or ancillary activity would not make cruise tourism the reason for the structural logistics shift.

The NCMM statement is correct, but the technological-use statement is also correct. Rare earths are inputs to components used in advanced computing, robotics and aerospace systems, rather than a category with no relevance to those technologies.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct, but adding statement 4 makes this option wrong. The standard grouping has 17 elements, not 13; “critical minerals” is a broader policy category and should not be treated as an identical list.

This option includes both false claims: India is not the second-largest rare-earth miner, and the group does not contain 13 elements. It also leaves out the correct 2025 NCMM statement.

Statement 1 is correct: parts of the western margin have subsided, and the old Peninsular Block has experienced faulting and vertical movements. However, this choice omits statement 2: Veliconda and Mahendragiri are also examples of its residual relief.

Statement 2 is correct, but statement 3 incorrectly assigns the characteristic youthful Himalayan river profile to the Peninsular Block. Old peninsular landscapes generally have lower gradients and shallower valleys; statement 1 should also be included.

Deep V-shaped valleys cut by fast-flowing youthful rivers are characteristic of the Himalayan mountain belt in this comparison. The correct peninsular features are coastal submergence and residual hills, so selecting statement 3 alone reverses the distinction.

Bahrain is inside the Persian Gulf, but Syria is on the Mediterranean. Syria’s normal sea route toward the Indian Ocean goes through Suez and the Red Sea, not out of the Persian Gulf through Hormuz.

Qatar fits the Gulf-to-Hormuz route, but Syria does not. Locating a country in West Asia is insufficient; the decisive point is which sea its ports face.

Qatar must use the Gulf exit, but Egypt has Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts. Access from Egypt to the Indian Ocean uses the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb route rather than Hormuz.

The Brahmaputra satisfies several broad clues, including a Tibetan origin and passage through China, India and Bangladesh. It fails the distinguishing delta/distributary clue because its lower course participates in the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta system.

The Indus also rises on the Tibetan Plateau and flows through three countries. However, its lower course forms a delta with distributary channels in Pakistan, so the fourth clue rules it out.

The Teesta flows through India and Bangladesh, rather than the three-country route specified. Its Sikkim Himalayan origin also does not fit the intended Tibetan-Plateau source, so it fails before the final clue is considered.

The Nadi-Sukta is evidence for rivers in Vedic textual geography, but it is not the biological basis selected for a proposed Pleistocene drainage connection. Its textual date and purpose must be distinguished from a much earlier geological hypothesis.

The provisional key does not identify Foote’s explorations as the basis. Archaeological fieldwork and the biogeographic distribution of river dolphins are different kinds of evidence; the latter is the intended line of reasoning here.

Combining the hymn and the attributed explorations still omits the dolphin-distribution argument selected by UPSC. Neither a river-name list nor a general exploration claim substitutes for the particular biogeographic evidence in item 3.

Peru is also an Andean country, which makes it a plausible regional distractor. But UNESCO’s 2025 announcement places Tungurahua Volcano in Ecuador, not Peru.

Bolivia’s position in the Andes does not identify this particular geopark. The correct country is Ecuador, as stated in UNESCO’s designation announcement.

Colombia is Ecuador’s northern neighbour and shares the Andean chain. Nevertheless, Tungurahua Volcano and the named 2025 geopark lie in Ecuador, so regional similarity is not enough.

Statement 1 is correct: UNESCO identifies Turkana as the world’s largest desert lake. But statement 3 is also accepted: the Lake Turkana National Parks form a World Heritage property and the lake is popularly called the Jade Sea.

Statement 2 is geographically incorrect: Turkana lies in the Kenya–Ethiopia region of East Africa, not in South Sudan on the Sahara’s eastern fringe. Statement 3 is accepted, but statement 1 should replace statement 2.

The inclusion of statement 2 makes this combination wrong. A desert lake is not necessarily in the Sahara: Turkana belongs to the East African Rift setting, while its largest-desert-lake status and Jade Sea association are correct.

Mallorca belongs to Spain, Normandy is a region of France, and Sardinia is part of Italy. Only one might seem tempting, but every single pairing assigns the wrong country.

Each of the three regions has been matched to the wrong country, so two correct is not possible.

All three are incorrectly matched: Mallorca is Spanish, Normandy is French, and Sardinia is Italian.

More than two of the listed countries lie along the Andes chain. Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela are all Andean nations.

Four, not three, of the listed countries are traversed by the Andes: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Only four of the six listed countries are Andean. Brazil and Paraguay are both outside the Andes system.

Statement II does explain Statement I. The differential heating between land and ocean is the direct cause of the isotherm bending pattern.

Statement II is correct. Oceans have higher specific heat and retain warmth longer in winter compared to continental landmasses.

Statement I is correct. This is a well-established pattern visible on any January isotherm map of the Northern Hemisphere.

This excludes the Ghana gold deposit evidence. The similarity of gold-bearing formations across the Atlantic was cited by Wegener as supporting evidence for continental drift.

This excludes the Gondwana sediment correlation. The Gondwana system of sediments found across India, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Australia is a key evidence for continental drift.

This excludes the rock belt matching evidence. The geological continuity of Precambrian rock formations from Brazil to West Africa was one of the earliest and strongest arguments for continental drift.

The original question listed five countries including Denmark and New Zealand. Not all five have more than four time zones.

Four is not the right count based on the actual time zone coverage of these nations.

All three of these countries have more than four time zones.

Statement 1 is correct because the International Date Line runs between the two cities. Statement 2 reverses the day relationship — Anadyr is ahead, not behind.

Statement 2 is wrong. Anadyr (UTC+12) is ahead of Nome (UTC-9), so when it is Monday in Anadyr, it is Sunday in Nome, not Tuesday.

Statement 1 is correct. The International Date Line does cause the two cities to experience different calendar dates at the same moment.

Statement II is incorrect. Subtropical and temperate zones have significant dry wind activity, which is actually one of the reasons dust loading is high there.

Statement II is factually wrong. These regions include major desert and dryland zones where dry winds are prevalent.

Statement I is correct. Major dust sources like the Sahara, Arabian, and Central Asian deserts lie in subtropical and temperate latitudes.

All three pairings are correct, not just one. Each country is a globally recognised leader in the mineral listed against it.

All three pairings are correct, not just two. Botswana is a top diamond producer, Chile leads in lithium, and Indonesia is the world's largest nickel producer.

All three pairings are factually correct. These are well-established country-mineral associations in world economic geography.

Statement III is incorrect because clay is actually porous; its fine particles can hold water in tiny spaces. However, clay's extremely small pore size makes it effectively impermeable, not non-porous.

Statement III claims clay is not at all porous, which is factually wrong. Clay has porosity but very low permeability due to its fine grain size, so both statements cannot be correct.

Statement II is correct. Chalk is indeed porous and can absorb water through its connected pore spaces and joints, which explains its high permeability.

Statement 2 is also correct. The atmosphere's greenhouse effect maintains Earth's average temperature well above what it would be without it.

Statement 3 is also correct. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapour are efficient absorbers of outgoing longwave radiation.

Statement 1 is also correct. Without the atmospheric blanket, Earth's blackbody temperature would be far below freezing.

Denmark and New Zealand do not exceed four time zones even when overseas territories are counted.

Only three countries — the UK, Australia and Brazil — meet the criterion when their overseas territories or island possessions are included.

Three, not two, of the listed countries have more than four time zones.

While both statements are factually correct, solar flares impact the magnetosphere and ionosphere but are not the mechanism behind the observed polar drift or rotational shift.

Both Statement II and Statement III are individually true. Solar flares do bombard the outer atmosphere, and polar meltwater does migrate equatorward.

Both statements are factually accurate. Solar flares deliver energy to the magnetosphere, and polar ice melt redistributes water mass toward lower latitudes.

Lake Tanganyika lies entirely south of the equator (roughly 3°S to 9°S), so even this one is not crossed by the equator.

None of the three water bodies is intersected by the equator, so two is incorrect.

All three lie away from the equator, so none is crossed by it.

Statement 2 is also correct. The Red Sea has no major perennial river draining into it, making it one of the most saline water bodies in the world.

Statement 1 is also correct. The Red Sea lies in an arid belt with negligible rainfall over most of its basin.

Both statements are factually correct. The Red Sea's high salinity is a direct consequence of minimal freshwater input from rain or rivers.