1. What term was used by the British to geographically describe the southern region of Asia, mostly situated on the Indian Plate and projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. The region usually includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. And what more modern term is commonly used to describe this area particularly by the Americans?
2. The Latin word insula means island. What geographic term refers to the Indian subcontinent that means ‘almost an island’ because it is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to the mainland?
3. From what geographical feature does our country get its name?
4. Which desert is also known as the Great Indian Desert? It is mostly located in Rajasthan and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan.
5. Which is the largest single block of tidal halophytic (growing in salty conditions) mangrove forest in the world? It is also the only mangrove habitat in the world for the Panthera tigris tigris species – which animal is this?
6. Where in Gujarat would you find a salt marsh and how is it commonly known? It is considered the largest salt desert in the world and is the home of the wild ass.
7. Which are the only two rivers of India that flow westwards to the Arabian Sea?
8. What geographical feature lies between the Eastern and Western ghats?
9. From what word does ‘Deccan’ originate?
10. The southernmost region of the Indian peninsula between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal goes by the Anglicised name of the Tamil word ‘Cholamandalam’. What word is this?
11. Which 1000 km complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India roughly divides the country into the north and south region?
12. What is the name given to the belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests located south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya, the Siwalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and their tributaries?
13. What is the local Hindi word for the open valley in the Shivalik range or between the Shivaliks and higher Himalayan foothills (such valleys are termed Inner Terai in Nepal). The capital of the state of Uttarakhand bears this name as it lies in this valley.
14. The narrow Siliguri Corridor in West Bengal (which at one point is less than 14 miles (23 km) wide) is the only bridge between the northeastern part of India and the rest of the country. Nepal and Bangladesh lie on either side of the corridor. Bhutan lies on the northern side of the corridor as does China. What other common description is used to describe this narrow nationally sensitive region?
15. Barren Island is one of the 204 islands that make up the Andamans. What is unique about this island?
16. The governor of Madras Presidency (1755-1763) during the British Raj period has given his name to which geographical feature separating India from Sri Lanka?
17. The Chin Hills and Kachin Hills are deeply forested mountainous regions that separate India from which neighbour?
18. Which state/Union Territory shares maritime borders with Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia?
19. If Kuttanad in Kerala is the lowest point in India (-2.2m below sea level),which is the highest point in India (8598m above sea level)?
20. In which States/Union Territories are the northern, eastern, western and southernmost points of India?
Answers
1.Indian Subcontinent / South Asia
2. Peninsula
3. Indus river (The Hindi word *Sindhu* became Hind or Hindu)
4. Thar desert
5. Sundarbans / Royal Bengal Tiger
6. Rann of Kutch. *Rann* in Hindi means desert.
7. Narmada and Tapti
8. Deccan Plateau
9. Dakshin meaning south
10. Coromandel coast
11. Vindhya
12. Terai
13. Dun (Dehradun)
14. Chicken’s Neck
15. India’s only active volcano is situated here. It last erupted in May 2005.
16. Palk Strait (after Robert Palk)
17. Myanmar
18. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
19. Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak
20. Northern: Indira Col at the Siachen Glacier (Jammu and Kashmir); Southern: Indira Point on Great Nicobar Island (Andaman and Nicobar Islands); Eastern: Kibithu in Anjaw district (Arunachal Pradesh); Western: Guhar Moti near the Sir Creek in Kutch (Gujarat).