Which one among the following States has the longest extension in north-south direction?
- (a)Jharkhand
- (b)Telangana
- (c)Odisha
- (d)Chhattisgarh
Correct — D, Chhattisgarh. Compare the four by the latitudes they reach rather than by area or by the shape they take on a map. Chhattisgarh is one of the eight states the Tropic of Cancer crosses, so its northern edge lies beyond 23½ degrees North, and its northernmost district, Balrampur-Ramanujganj, borders Uttar Pradesh. Its southernmost district, Sukma, borders Malkangiri in Odisha, Bhadradri Kothagudem in Telangana and Alluri Sitharama Raju in Andhra Pradesh — that is, it comes down to the same deep-south corner as Odisha itself. Odisha, whose own extent is 17.78 to 22.73 degrees North, spans a little under five degrees. Chhattisgarh starts from roughly the same southern latitude but carries on nearly a degree further north, and so runs to about six degrees, some six or seven hundred kilometres from the Surguja plateau down to Bastar. That is the longest north-south reach of the four.
- (a)Jharkhand — Jharkhand is the shortest of the four from north to south. The Tropic of Cancer crosses it too, but it does not extend far below the Tropic — it has no southern arm reaching towards the Godavari country — and it is broader from east to west than it is tall.
- (b)Telangana — Telangana is a wholly peninsular state, lying entirely south of the Tropic of Cancer and bounded on its north by Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. It has neither the northern reach of Chhattisgarh nor a comparable southern one.
- (c)Odisha — The strongest rival, because Odisha reaches just as far south — Malkangiri sits beside Sukma. But its northern limit is 22.73 degrees North, short of the Tropic of Cancer, so it stops about a degree lower than Chhattisgarh does. Odisha's great length lies east to west, from roughly 81.4 to 87.5 degrees East, not north to south.
North-south extent is a matter of latitude alone, so the question reduces to which state's southern and northern limits are furthest apart in degrees. Chhattisgarh is unusual in central India for being long in that direction: the Surguja plateau in the north sits against Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the Chhattisgarh plain occupies the middle around the upper Mahanadi, and the Bastar plateau runs south to the Godavari country where Telangana and Andhra Pradesh begin. Odisha, by contrast, is stretched the other way, with a long coastline running north-east to south-west.
Map questions of this kind are usually decided by two anchors rather than by remembered coordinates. The first anchor is the Tropic of Cancer, which crosses eight states from west to east — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Chhattisgarh is on that list and Odisha is not, which immediately tells you Chhattisgarh reaches further north than Odisha does. The second anchor is the southern end: Sukma in Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri in Odisha are neighbouring districts, so neither state has an advantage there. Same floor, higher ceiling, longer state. Jharkhand and Telangana fall away because each is missing one end of that range — Jharkhand the southern reach, Telangana the northern one.
- The Tropic of Cancer crosses Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand but not Odisha or Telangana.
- Odisha lies between 17.78 and 22.73 degrees North and between 81.37 and 87.53 degrees East — its long axis runs east to west.
- Sukma is the southernmost district of Chhattisgarh and borders Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
- Balrampur-Ramanujganj is the northernmost district of Chhattisgarh and borders Uttar Pradesh.
- Chhattisgarh's three physiographic belts run in a north-south line: the Surguja plateau, the Chhattisgarh plain of the upper Mahanadi, and the Bastar plateau.
Same southern limit as Odisha, a higher northern one — that is why Chhattisgarh wins.
- Judging by area. Odisha is larger than Chhattisgarh but is stretched the other way.
- Confusing extent with shape on a small map, where a compact state can look tall.
- Forgetting that Chhattisgarh reaches down to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana borders through Bastar and Sukma.
As a comparison of states by north-south or east-west extent, as a Tropic of Cancer state list, or as an identify-the-state item built from latitude and boundary clues.
CDS_GK_2021_II_Q372021Identify the State on the basis of the following characteristics: 1. Tropic of Cancer passes through the State. 2. The State has more north-south extension. 3. The State has international border with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) Tripura
- (b) Mizoram
- (c) Nagaland
- (d) Manipur
Answer(b) Mizoram
The same two ideas — a state's north-south extension and whether the Tropic of Cancer crosses it — combined into a single identification. That item is worth attempting alongside this one because it drills the habit of reading a state's shape from its latitudes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Tropic of Cancer passes through which one of the following pairs of states?
- (a)Odisha and Telangana
- (b)Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand
- (c)Bihar and Maharashtra
- (d)Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
Answer(b) Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — both are on the list of eight states the Tropic crosses; Odisha, Telangana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are not.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The southernmost district of Chhattisgarh, which borders Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, is
- (a)Surguja
- (b)Raigarh
- (c)Sukma
- (d)Kabirdham
Answer(c) Sukma — it lies in the Bastar region at the state's southern tip, next to Malkangiri in Odisha.