Which of the following districts of Bihar has the highest percentage of Scheduled Tribe population in 2011 census ?
- (a)Jamui
- (b)Katihar
- (c)Banka
- (d)Purnia
Correct — B, Katihar. On the Census 2011 district figures compiled by the National Health Systems Resource Centre, Katihar's Scheduled Tribe population is about 6 per cent of the district total, while Jamui, Banka and Purnia each stand at about 4 per cent — so Katihar is clearly the highest of the four offered. The ranking is not an artefact of one compilation, which is what makes it safe to rely on. The Government of Bihar's own district-wise Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe table, drawn from the Primary Census Abstract for the previous census, puts Katihar at 5.9 per cent against Jamui 4.8, Banka 4.7 and Purnea 4.4, with the state as a whole at 0.9 per cent. Two different censuses, two different sources, the same order. Set those numbers against the state background and the answer stops being arbitrary. Bihar's Scheduled Tribe share is only about 1 per cent of its population, because the tribal heartland of undivided Bihar — the Chota Nagpur plateau — went to Jharkhand when the state was divided on 15 November 2000. What remains is concentrated in a few pockets, and Katihar's, in the Seemanchal belt where Bihar meets West Bengal and Jharkhand, is one of the two largest. One honest qualification belongs on this card: in the same Census 2011 compilation, Pashchim Champaran also rounds to 6 per cent, so a claim that Katihar leads every district in Bihar is finer than the published rounding can support. Within the four options the question actually gives, however, Katihar wins by a clear two percentage points, and nothing in the question turns on the West Champaran comparison.
- (a)Jamui — Genuinely one of Bihar's more tribal districts, at about 4 per cent in Census 2011 and 4.8 per cent in the previous census — but roughly two percentage points behind Katihar in both. It is the most tempting wrong answer because Jamui sits on the Jharkhand border in the hill country of south Bihar, which is where a candidate expects the tribal population to be.
- (c)Banka — About 4 per cent in Census 2011, and 4.7 per cent in the earlier count — third of the four on both. Banka adjoins Jamui in the same south Bihar upland belt along the Jharkhand border, so it shares Jamui's plausibility without ever having led the table.
- (d)Purnia — About 4 per cent in Census 2011 and 4.4 per cent earlier, the lowest of the four. It is Katihar's immediate neighbour in Seemanchal and has a large tribal population in absolute terms, which is exactly the confusion the option exploits — a big district can hold many tribal residents and still have a smaller percentage than the district next door.
Scheduled Tribes are specified State by State: under Article 342 the President, after consulting the Governor, notifies the communities that shall be deemed Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular State, so the same community can be Scheduled in one State and not in another. That constitutional design is why Bihar's tribal profile changed overnight in 2000. Undivided Bihar had a very large tribal population concentrated in the Chota Nagpur plateau; when Jharkhand was carved out on 15 November 2000 almost all of it went with the new state, leaving residual Bihar with a Scheduled Tribe share of roughly 1 per cent — one of the smallest of any large Indian state. What survives in Bihar is not spread evenly but sits in two peripheral pockets: the Seemanchal districts of the north-east, where Katihar and Purnia adjoin West Bengal and Jharkhand, and the Terai of West Champaran along the Nepal border, whose tribal population is largely Tharu. The exam habitually tests percentage rather than absolute numbers, and the two rankings differ, because Bihar's districts vary enormously in total population.
Read the phrase 'highest percentage' before anything else, and then ask which districts are peripheral. Bihar's tribal population survives on the state's edges — where it borders Jharkhand, West Bengal and Nepal — and not in the Gangetic core, so the four options given are all plausible on that test and none can be eliminated by geography alone. What separates them is the arithmetic. Katihar is at about 6 per cent, the other three at about 4 per cent, and the gap has been stable across two censuses, which is unusually reassuring for a question of this kind. A second discipline is to keep percentage and absolute count apart. Purnia is a much larger district than Banka, so it can hold more tribal residents while ranking lower on share; the question asks for share. And keep the level right: this is a district-level statistic within a state whose overall figure is about 1 per cent, so a district at 6 per cent is roughly six times the state average, not a tribal-majority district in any sense.
- Census 2011, as compiled by the National Health Systems Resource Centre: Katihar's Scheduled Tribe share is about 6 per cent, against about 4 per cent each for Jamui, Banka and Purnia, and about 1 per cent for Bihar as a whole
- The Government of Bihar's own district-wise table from the earlier Primary Census Abstract gives Katihar 5.9 per cent, Jamui 4.8, Banka 4.7 and Purnea 4.4, with a state figure of 0.9 per cent — the same ranking a decade before
- Pashchim Champaran also rounds to about 6 per cent in the Census 2011 compilation, so Katihar and West Champaran are Bihar's two most tribal districts by share; West Champaran's tribal population is largely Tharu, in the Terai along the Nepal border
- Bihar's tribal share collapsed to roughly 1 per cent when Jharkhand, containing the Chota Nagpur tribal heartland, was carved out on 15 November 2000
- Bihar's Census 2011 literacy rate was 61.80 per cent and Katihar's 52.24 per cent (literates as a share of population aged 7 and above); Scheduled Tribe literacy ran well below both
Katihar leads the four options by roughly two percentage points, and the same ranking appears in the Government of Bihar's district table from the previous census. Pashchim Champaran, not offered here, also rounds to about 6 per cent.
- Confusing the largest tribal population in absolute numbers with the highest tribal percentage; big districts can lead on one and trail on the other
- Assuming Bihar's tribal districts must all lie along the Jharkhand border in the south — the Seemanchal north-east and the West Champaran Terai matter at least as much
- Carrying over pre-2000 Bihar figures, when the Chota Nagpur plateau was still part of the state and its tribal share was several times higher
BPSC asks district-level extremes — highest or lowest Scheduled Tribe share, literacy, density, sex ratio — and expects the Census figure attached to a named district, so build a short table of Bihar's district extremes rather than reading prose about them. UPSC never asks which Indian district leads on a statistic; it tests the framework instead, such as who notifies a Scheduled Tribe, whether the status travels between States, or which schedule protects tribal land.
Consider the following statements: 1. It is the Governor of the State who recognizes and declares any community of that State as a Scheduled Tribe. 2. A community declared as a Scheduled Tribe in a State need not be so in another State. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
Set in the same year, and it supplies the rule behind the BPSC number. Scheduled Tribe status is notified State by State under Article 342, which is exactly why Bihar's tribal share collapsed when Jharkhand was created and why a district figure has to be read against its own state's list.
Which one of the following statements is not correct?
- (a) There is no definition of the Scheduled Tribe in the Constitution of India.
- (b) North-East India accounts for a little over half of the country’s tribal population.
- (c) The people known as Todas live in the Nilgiri area.
- (d) Lotha is a language spoken in Nagaland.
Answer(b) North-East India accounts for a little over half of the country’s tribal population.
The distribution question at national scale, and the same trap in a different frame: the region that feels most tribal is not where most of India's tribal population lives. Central India holds the bulk of it, just as Bihar's leading district is in Seemanchal rather than the south Bihar hills.
The specifications required for a community to be declared as a Scheduled Tribe are 1. indications of primitive traits 2. distinctive culture 3. shyness of contact with the community at large 4. backwardness and geographical isolation Which of the above are correct?
- (a) Only 1 and 2
- (b) Only 2, 3 and 4
- (c) Only 1, 3 and 4
- (d) All of the above
Answer(d) All of the above
The 69th asked what makes a community Scheduled in the first place, using the four criteria the Lokur Committee formulated; this paper asks where the resulting population is concentrated in Bihar. The Commission works both ends of the same topic.
Which districts in Bihar will benefit from the Kosi Mechi Link Project?
- (a) Patna, Nalanda, Gaya, Siwan
- (b) Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Begusarai
- (c) Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar
- (d) More than one of the above
Answer(c) Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar
The same Seemanchal cluster tested a year later, this time as the command area of a river link. Katihar and Purnia appear in both questions, which is a fair signal that this group of four north-eastern districts is worth learning as a unit.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Bihar's Scheduled Tribe population fell to about one per cent of the state total mainly because of which event ?
- (a)The reorganisation of states in 1956
- (b)The creation of Jharkhand in November 2000
- (c)The separation of Bihar from the Bengal Presidency in 1912
- (d)The delimitation exercise of 2008
Answer(b) The creation of Jharkhand in November 2000 — the Chota Nagpur plateau, which held almost all of undivided Bihar's tribal population, went to the new state.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Tharu, the principal Scheduled Tribe community of Pashchim Champaran, live mainly in which physical belt ?
- (a)The Chota Nagpur plateau
- (b)The Terai along the Nepal border
- (c)The Kaimur plateau
- (d)The Kosi floodplain
Answer(b) The Terai along the Nepal border — the Tharu belt of West Champaran, which is why that district's tribal share is among the highest in Bihar.