CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 105 of 120

Correct — B, Gujarat. Gujarat has the longest coastline of any Indian State — current references put it at about 2,340 km, most of it wrapped around the Kathiawar peninsula. The shape of the State is the reason: Gujarat is not a straight stretch of shore but a deeply indented one, with the Gulf of Kachchh biting in from the north-west and the Gulf of Khambhat from the south-east, so the peninsula is traced on three sides before the coast even reaches the mainland districts. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the next longest, run for roughly a thousand kilometres each along a far smoother eastern seaboard, and Maharashtra's Konkan shore is shorter still.

• (a)Tamil Nadu — Tamil Nadu has the longest coastline on the eastern seaboard after Andhra Pradesh and is often the right answer when Gujarat is absent from the options — but with Gujarat listed it is a clear second tier.
• (c)Maharashtra — The Konkan coast is relatively straight and comparatively short. Maharashtra does not come near Gujarat's figure, and it also trails the two long eastern-coast States.
• (d)Andhra Pradesh — Andhra Pradesh has the longest coastline on the east coast, which is why it is the strongest distractor here. It is still well short of Gujarat, whose indented gulfs and peninsula multiply the length of shore.

Coastline length is a function of indentation, not of how big a State looks on a map. A shore broken by gulfs, creeks, estuaries and peninsulas measures far longer than a smooth one of the same span. Gujarat has the most broken coast in the country — the Kathiawar peninsula flanked by the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat, plus the Rann and the creeks of the far north-west — and that is why it leads by a wide margin.

One caution about the numbers themselves. A coastline has no single true length: the more finely you trace the indentations, the longer the answer, so different official tables give different figures for the same State, and the totals have been revised upward as measurement has become more detailed. India's coastline is commonly quoted at 7,516.6 km including the island territories, and Gujarat's at about 2,340 km in current references. What is stable across every set of figures is the ranking, and that is what an examiner can safely test — Gujarat first, then Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu on the east coast. Treat the order as the examinable fact and the exact kilometre count as something that depends on the source.

• Gujarat has the longest coastline of any Indian State, put at about 2,340 km in current references.
• Most of that length lies around the Kathiawar peninsula, between the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat.
• India's coastline is commonly quoted as 7,516.6 km including the island territories.
• Nine States touch the mainland coast — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
• Measured coastline length depends on the scale of measurement, so published figures differ between sources while the ranking of States does not.

• Assuming a large or long-looking State automatically has the longest coast; indentation is what counts.
• Carrying an exact kilometre figure into the exam — published coastline lengths vary with the scale of measurement.
• Forgetting that Andhra Pradesh leads only among the east-coast States, not nationally.

Most often as a single ranking question, sometimes inverted to ask which State has the shortest coastline or how many States touch the coast.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  How many Indian States touch the mainland coastline?

  • (a)Seven
  • (b)Eight
  • (c)Nine
  • (d)Eleven

  Answer(c) Nine — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Gujarat's exceptionally long coastline is chiefly explained by

  • (a)the presence of a wide continental shelf
  • (b)the indented shore around the Kathiawar peninsula between two gulfs
  • (c)the length of its land border with Rajasthan
  • (d)the number of major ports on its shore

  Answer(b) the indented shore around the Kathiawar peninsula between two gulfs — the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat force the coast to be traced on three sides of the peninsula.