Rani told her friends that last year she did boating in four different lakes, namely, Loktak, Barapani, Kolleru and Pulicat. Which of the following States did she visit?
- (a)Manipur, Meghalaya, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
- (b)Manipur, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
- (c)Mizoram, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
- (d)Mizoram, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
Correct — B, Manipur, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu. Take the lakes in the order the stem gives them. Loktak, famous for the floating mats of vegetation called phumdis and for the deer park at Keibul Lamjao, lies in Manipur. Barapani is the local name for Umiam Lake, the reservoir north of Shillong in Meghalaya. Kolleru is the great freshwater lake of coastal Andhra Pradesh, sitting between the Krishna and Godavari deltas. Pulicat is the brackish lagoon on the east coast, second in size only to Chilika, and it runs across the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu border, with the Tamil Nadu portion in Thiruvallur district. Read in that order the four states are Manipur, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
- (a)Manipur, Meghalaya, Kerala, Tamil Nadu — Starts correctly and then moves Kolleru to Kerala. Kerala's celebrated water bodies are the backwaters and Vembanad; Kolleru is a freshwater lake of the Andhra deltaic plain and a designated Ramsar site there.
- (c)Mizoram, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu — Wrong on the first three. Loktak is in Manipur, not Mizoram; Barapani is in Meghalaya, not Assam; and Kolleru is in Andhra Pradesh, not Kerala.
- (d)Mizoram, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu — Gets the two southern lakes right and both north-eastern ones wrong, swapping Manipur for Mizoram and Meghalaya for Assam.
Indian lakes are commonly grouped by how they formed, and these four cover three different origins. Loktak is a natural freshwater lake in a tectonic basin, notable for the phumdis, floating mats of soil and vegetation on which the world's only floating national park, Keibul Lamjao, sits. Umiam or Barapani is not natural at all but a reservoir, impounded behind a dam on the Umiam river north of Shillong. Kolleru is a shallow freshwater lake in the deltaic plain between the Krishna and the Godavari. Pulicat is a coastal lagoon, cut off from the Bay of Bengal by the long barrier island of Sriharikota.
The names are the whole difficulty, and the useful discipline is to answer the two you are surest of and let them cut the options down. Anyone who knows Loktak is in Manipur has already halved the list; adding Kolleru in Andhra Pradesh leaves only one option standing. Barapani is the trap for candidates who have learned it only by its formal name of Umiam. One honest qualification about the last pair: Pulicat straddles the state line and the greater part of the lagoon is in Andhra Pradesh, with a smaller share in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. Calling it a Tamil Nadu lake is therefore only partly right, but the option set requires nothing more — no other choice puts Loktak in Manipur and Kolleru in Andhra Pradesh.
- Loktak Lake is in Manipur and carries the phumdis on which Keibul Lamjao, the only floating national park, is situated.
- Barapani is the local name of Umiam Lake, a reservoir north of Shillong in Meghalaya.
- Kolleru Lake lies in Andhra Pradesh, in the plain between the Krishna and Godavari deltas.
- Pulicat is India's second largest brackish-water lagoon after Chilika and straddles the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu boundary, the Tamil Nadu part falling in Thiruvallur district.
- Sriharikota, the barrier island separating Pulicat from the Bay of Bengal, carries India's satellite launch centre.
- Not recognising Barapani as another name for Umiam Lake.
- Placing Kolleru in Kerala because the two names begin alike.
- Treating Pulicat as lying wholly in Tamil Nadu, when most of the lagoon is in Andhra Pradesh.
As a lake-to-state matching item, as an identify-the-lake item from a description, or as a statements item on how many states a particular lake spans.
Consider the following statements: 1. In India, the Himalayas are spread over five States only. 2. Western Ghats are spread over five States only. 3. Pulicat Lake is spread over two States only. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1 and 3 only
Answer(b) 3 only
The nuance this item glosses over, tested head-on. Pulicat lies across two states, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, which is why assigning it to a single state is a simplification the option set happens to allow.
Consider the following pairs: 1. Nokrek Biosphere Reserve : Garo Hills. 2. Loktak Lake : Barail Range. 3. Namdapha National Park : Dafla Hills. Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1, 2 and 3
- (d) None
Answer(a) 1 only
Loktak mismatched on purpose, exactly as this item invites you to mismatch it. Placing it in Manipur rather than in the Barail Range of Assam is the single fact that decides both questions.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The floating national park of Keibul Lamjao is situated in which one of the following lakes?
- (a)Chilika Lake
- (b)Loktak Lake
- (c)Wular Lake
- (d)Kolleru Lake
Answer(b) Loktak Lake — the park rests on phumdis, floating mats of vegetation, in Loktak Lake in Manipur.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The largest brackish-water lagoon in India is
- (a)Pulicat Lake
- (b)Vembanad Lake
- (c)Chilika Lake
- (d)Kolleru Lake
Answer(c) Chilika Lake — Chilika in Odisha is the largest, with Pulicat on the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu border coming next.