Which of the following statements about the coasts of India is/are correct? 1. The West Coast of India is a high rocky, retreating coast. 2. The West Coast of India is dominated by erosional landforms. 3. The East Coast of India, however, is a low sedimentary coast exhibiting depositional forms. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. All three statements are one passage from the standard text, split into three. NCERT's chapter on landforms and their evolution sets out a boxed paragraph that reads: 'The west coast of our country is a high rocky retreating coast. Erosional forms dominate in the west coast. The east coast of India is a low sedimentary coast. Depositional forms dominate in the east coast.' Statement 1 is the first sentence, statement 2 the second, statement 3 the third and fourth combined. The physical reason behind the description is worth as much as the description. The western coast is short and steep because the Western Ghats rise abruptly behind it and the whole edge is a faulted, submerging one; rivers reach the sea through estuaries rather than deltas, and the sea attacks the rock directly, so cliffs, notches, sea caves, arches and stacks are what you find. The eastern coast is broad and gentle because the great peninsular rivers — the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri — arrive there carrying sediment from the whole interior and build deltas, spits, bars and lagoons on an emerging shelf.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Accepts both halves of the western description but drops the eastern one, which is the other half of the same textbook paragraph and equally correct.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Keeps the erosional and depositional contrast but drops the characterisation of the west coast as high, rocky and retreating — the very sentence from which the erosional claim follows.
- (c)1 only — The most cautious pick and the least defensible. Once the west coast is granted to be a high rocky retreating coast, erosional dominance follows from the definition of that coast type, and the eastern contrast is what the type exists to be contrasted with.
Coastal landforms are classified first by whether the land is rising out of the sea or sinking into it. A high rocky coast is a submerged or retreating one: the sea is advancing over the land, waves cut into rock, and the landforms are erosional — cliffs, wave-cut platforms, notches, sea caves, arches and finally stacks left standing offshore. A low sedimentary coast is an emerging one, where the sea floor is being exposed and rivers extend the land seaward; the landforms are depositional — beaches, spits, bars, barrier islands, lagoons and deltas. India carries one of each, which is why its coasts are the standard illustration of the pair.
An all-three answer is often distrusted on principle, and here that instinct costs the mark. The way to be confident is to notice that the three statements are not independent claims but one description read in sequence: a coast that is high, rocky and retreating is by definition erosional, so statements 1 and 2 stand or fall together, and statement 3 is simply the contrasting case. The Indian evidence supports all of it. The western coastal plain is narrow, hemmed in by the Western Ghats, indented by the Konkan and Malabar cliffs and creeks and by the backwaters of Kerala, and its rivers — the Narmada and the Tapi among them — reach the sea through estuaries, not deltas. The eastern coastal plain is wide, and every one of the four great deltas of the peninsula is on it. NCERT's companion volume on India's physical environment says the same thing from the other direction, calling the western coastal plains 'an example of submerged coastal plain' and the eastern coastal plain 'an example of an emergent coast' with well-developed deltas.
- The textbook formulation is exact: the west coast of India is a high rocky retreating coast where erosional forms dominate; the east coast is a low sedimentary coast where depositional forms dominate.
- High rocky coasts are submerged or retreating; their landforms are cliffs, notches, sea caves, arches and stacks.
- Low sedimentary coasts are emergent; their landforms are beaches, spits, bars, lagoons and deltas.
- The western coastal plain is narrow and backed by the Western Ghats; its rivers, including the Narmada and the Tapi, form estuaries rather than deltas.
- The eastern coastal plain is broad and carries the deltas of the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri.
- Gujarat has the longest coastline of any Indian State.
- Distrusting an all-three option out of habit; here the three statements are one passage divided in three.
- Assuming a coast must be either erosional or depositional everywhere; the labels describe which process dominates, not which occurs.
- Reversing the two coasts, which is easy to do because the east coast plain is the wider one and 'wider' can feel like 'more rugged'.
As a statements item on the character of the two coasts, or through a landform-to-process match involving stacks, spits and lagoons.
Which one of the following is NOT a coastal depositional feature ?
- (a) Tombolo
- (b) Sand bar
- (c) Stack
- (d) Spit
Answer(c) Stack
The two lists of landforms sorted directly. A stack is what is left when waves cut through a headland, so it belongs to the erosional coast; tombolos, bars and spits are all built up by deposition.
Which of the following statements regarding barrier islands is/are correct? 1. These are small chain of sand islands that form offshore, far from the coast. 2. Lagoons or shallower marshes separate the barrier islands from the mainland. 3. Such locations are hazardous for settlements because they are easily swept away by storms and hurricanes. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 2 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 2 and 3 only
The depositional half of the same chapter, tested in detail. Barrier islands, lagoons and marshes are exactly the furniture of a low sedimentary coast, which is what statement 3 of this item describes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A sea stack, an arch and a wave-cut notch are landforms typical of
- (a)a low sedimentary coast
- (b)a high rocky retreating coast
- (c)a delta front
- (d)a lagoon shore
Answer(b) a high rocky retreating coast — all three are erosional forms cut by waves attacking rock.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Narmada and the Tapi, unlike the Mahanadi and the Godavari, reach the sea through
- (a)deltas
- (b)estuaries
- (c)lagoons
- (d)inland deltas
Answer(b) estuaries — they flow west through rift valleys into a steep, submerging coast that gives sediment no room to build a delta.