CDS (II) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 36 of 120

Correct — B, Yamuna. Read the journey as a line drawn north from the Deccan and ask which rivers lie across it. Bengaluru sits on the Mysore plateau south of the Krishna, and every rail route north from there runs up the peninsula and across central India before turning for Delhi. The Krishna and the Godavari both rise in the Western Ghats and flow eastward to the Bay of Bengal, so they cut the route squarely; the Godavari crossing is one of the landmarks of the journey whichever of the two main alignments the train takes. Further north the Narmada runs the other way, west to the Arabian Sea through its rift valley, and the line crosses it near Itarsi. The Yamuna is different in kind. It comes down from Yamunotri, runs south past Delhi, Mathura and Agra, and the railway to the capital runs beside it rather than over it — the Agra–Mathura–Faridabad main line and New Delhi station all lie on the right, western bank. The traveller does cross the Chambal, a Yamuna tributary, before Agra, but reaches New Delhi without ever crossing the Yamuna itself.

• (a)Narmada — Crossed. The Narmada flows westward across central India in a rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges, and the trunk route to Delhi cuts it in the Hoshangabad-Itarsi stretch of Madhya Pradesh.
• (c)Godavari — Crossed. The Godavari runs eastward right across the peninsula from the Western Ghats near Nashik to the Bay of Bengal, so no rail line from Bengaluru to the north can avoid it.
• (d)Krishna — Crossed. The Krishna is the first of the great east-flowing peninsular rivers on the way north out of Karnataka, and its tributary the Tungabhadra is crossed before it.

The item is a drainage map disguised as a travel plan. Peninsular India's big rivers run east to the Bay of Bengal — Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri — with the Narmada and Tapi as the westward exceptions. North Indian rivers run south-east to the Ganga. A route from the far south to Delhi crosses the east-flowing peninsular rivers and the Narmada, and then travels along, rather than across, the Yamuna's right bank.

The trick is to stop thinking about timetables and think about banks. Delhi grew on the western bank of the Yamuna, and the railway from the south approaches it along that bank through Mathura, Palwal and Faridabad, so the river stays to the traveller's right the whole way in. Anything approaching Delhi from the east — from Lucknow or Moradabad — would cross the Yamuna, which is why the question specifies the route from Bengaluru. A useful secondary check is that all three wrong options are rivers of the Deccan or of central India, lying between the two cities, while the Yamuna belongs to the destination itself.

• The Krishna and the Godavari rise in the Western Ghats and flow east to the Bay of Bengal, cutting across any south-to-north route through the peninsula.
• The Narmada flows west between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges; the Delhi trunk route crosses it near Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh.
• The Yamuna rises at Yamunotri and flows south past Delhi, Mathura and Agra to join the Ganga at Prayagraj.
• Delhi's core, New Delhi station and the rail approach from Mathura and Faridabad all lie on the right or western bank of the Yamuna.
• The Chambal, a Yamuna tributary, is crossed on the Gwalior-Agra stretch, which is why the traveller meets Yamuna water without meeting the Yamuna.

• Assuming that because Delhi stands on the Yamuna, arriving at Delhi means crossing the Yamuna.
• Forgetting the Godavari because the route's most memorable crossings are further north.
• Mixing up the Chambal with the Yamuna — one is crossed, the other is not.

As a journey or traveller item that hides a drainage question, or as a straight sequence of rivers from north to south.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following rivers of Peninsular India flows westward into the Arabian Sea?

  • (a)Godavari
  • (b)Krishna
  • (c)Tapi
  • (d)Mahanadi

  Answer(c) Tapi — like the Narmada it flows west through a rift valley, while the Godavari, Krishna and Mahanadi drain east to the Bay of Bengal.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Chambal river is a tributary of which one of the following?

  • (a)Ganga
  • (b)Yamuna
  • (c)Betwa
  • (d)Narmada

  Answer(b) Yamuna — the Chambal joins the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh after flowing north-east from the Vindhyan uplands of Madhya Pradesh.