BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 122 of 142

Correct — B, Madhubani. Fox nut is makhana, the seed of the aquatic plant Euryale ferox, and it is a crop of one specific part of Bihar: the pond country of the Mithila region in the north and north-east of the state. The Mithila region accounts for roughly 80 per cent of India's makhana cultivation, and the crop's identity is legally tied to it — the Geographical Indication granted in 2022 is for 'Mithila Makhana', registered in the name of the Mithilanchal Makhana Utpadak Sangh of Purnia. Madhubani sits in the heart of that belt, and it is the only one of the four districts offered that belongs to the makhana country at all. Patna, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali lie outside it: they are districts of the Ganga plain with their own agricultural identities and no makhana tradition. So the question is settled by regional elimination rather than by a production table, and it is worth being honest about that. District-level rankings for makhana vary between sources and between years, and Darbhanga and Purnia are also routinely named as leading producers — but neither appears on this option list, which leaves Madhubani as the only defensible choice. The Maithili saying that describes the region says the same thing in four words: pag-pag pokhari, maach, makhaan — ponds at every step, fish and makhana.

• (a)Patna — The state capital's district, and the reflex answer for anyone who reaches for the biggest name in Bihar. It lies on the south bank of the Ganga, outside the Mithila pond belt, and is not a makhana district; being the largest urban district says nothing about which crop is grown there.
• (c)Muzaffarpur — A north Bihar district, so it is geographically closer to the mark than Patna, but its agricultural fame belongs to litchi — the Shahi litchi of Muzaffarpur carries its own Geographical Indication — and to Sujini embroidery. It is not part of the makhana belt.
• (d)Vaishali — Also in north Bihar and also outside the makhana country. Vaishali is remembered for its ancient republic and its Buddhist and Jain associations rather than for any aquatic crop; the option relies on a candidate treating 'north Bihar' as a single agricultural zone, which it is not.

Makhana is grown in standing water, which is why its geography is so tightly defined. Euryale ferox is a thorny aquatic plant whose seeds are collected from ponds, dried, roasted and popped to give the white puffed kernel sold as fox nut. The traditional method was brutal: harvesters dived without breathing equipment to depths of around two and a half metres in pond mud, working among the plant's thorns. In this century the National Research Centre for Makhana has developed cultivation in fields flooded to only about thirty centimetres, which makes sowing and harvesting far easier, has bred a more productive variety and is working on a harvesting machine — changes that have expanded the area under the crop considerably. The economics have moved with the agronomy: makhana is now marketed internationally as a superfood, India is its largest exporter, and the United States is the largest importer. That is the context in which the crop's regional identity was formalised through a Geographical Indication in 2022 and in which it has become a recurring subject for the Commission.

Bihar district questions are best attacked by region rather than by memory of a statistic. Ask first which agro-ecological zone the crop belongs to — makhana belongs to the pond-rich Mithila and Kosi tracts — and then check which of the offered districts lies in it. Here that test leaves exactly one option standing. Build the district-to-product table the Commission keeps drawing on: makhana from the Mithila belt, Shahi litchi from Muzaffarpur, Katarni rice and Jardalu mango from Bhagalpur, Magahi paan from the Gaya–Nawada tract, Madhubani painting from Madhubani, and Bhagalpuri silk from Bhagalpur. Note also the honest limit of this particular item: 'produced highest' asks for a ranking, and published district rankings for makhana are not consistent, so a candidate who reasons from the belt reaches the intended answer more safely than one who tries to recall a production figure.

• Fox nut is makhana, the seed of the aquatic plant Euryale ferox, grown in ponds and shallow flooded fields
• The Mithila region accounts for about 80 per cent of India's makhana cultivation; India is the world's largest exporter and the United States the largest importer
• 'Mithila Makhana' received a Geographical Indication in 2022, registered in the name of the Mithilanchal Makhana Utpadak Sangh, Purnia
• Makhana was traditionally harvested by divers working without breathing equipment at depths of about 2.4 metres in pond mud, among the plant's thorns
• The National Research Centre for Makhana has pioneered cultivation in fields flooded to about 30 cm, developed a higher-yielding variety and is designing a harvesting machine
• In Mithila the crop is part of the region's self-description — pag-pag pokhari, maach, makhaan: ponds at every step, fish and makhana

• Answering with Patna because it is the largest and best-known district; administrative importance is unrelated to crop geography
• Treating all of north Bihar as one agricultural zone — the makhana belt is the pond-rich Mithila and Kosi tract, not Muzaffarpur or Vaishali
• Trying to recall a production ranking that published sources do not agree on; the safer route is to eliminate districts outside the belt

BPSC asks the crop-to-district pairing for Bihar's signature products and fills the option list with well-known districts from elsewhere in the state, so the preparation is a district-and-product table rather than production statistics. UPSC does not ask Bihar districts; it asks what a Geographical Indication is and which products hold one, so the same crop appears in a national question about intellectual property rather than in a question about place.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Geographical Indication granted in 2022 for Bihar's fox nut was registered under which name ?

  • (a)Bihar Makhana
  • (b)Mithila Makhana
  • (c)Darbhanga Makhana
  • (d)Kosi Makhana

  Answer(b) Mithila Makhana — registered in the name of the Mithilanchal Makhana Utpadak Sangh, Purnia, tying the crop to the Mithila region rather than to the state as a whole.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Shahi litchi, which carries a Geographical Indication, is associated with which district of Bihar ?

  • (a)Bhagalpur
  • (b)Muzaffarpur
  • (c)Madhubani
  • (d)Gaya

  Answer(b) Muzaffarpur — Bhagalpur's GI products are Katarni rice and the Jardalu mango, and Gaya's is Magahi paan.