Consider the following statements regarding the rivers of India : 1. The Barak River, the head stream of the Meghna, rises in the hills of Meghalaya. 2. The Ghaggar River does not drain out to the sea and gets lost in the Rajasthan desert. 3. Puthimari and Manas are important tributaries of the Brahmaputra. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)1 and 2
- (d)2 and 3
Correct — D, 2 and 3. The false statement is the first one, and it fails on a single word. The Barak rises in the Manipur hills — at Liyai Kullen in Senapati district — and runs about 900 km through Manipur, Mizoram and Assam before crossing into Bangladesh, where it splits into the Surma and the Kushiyara and the two rejoin as the Meghna. So the Barak is indeed the head stream of the Meghna, but its source is Manipur, not Meghalaya. Statement 2 stands: the Ghaggar rises in the Shivalik foothills of Himachal Pradesh, flows through Punjab and Haryana into Rajasthan, and dies in the sand near Hanumangarh without ever reaching the sea — the textbook example of inland drainage in India. Statement 3 stands too: both the Puthimari and the Manas are north-bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra in Assam, and NCERT lists the Manas among the important right-bank tributaries alongside the Subansiri, Kameng and Sankosh.
- (a)1 only — Picks the one statement that is wrong. Manipur, not Meghalaya, is where the Barak begins.
- (b)2 only — Correct about the Ghaggar but drops the Brahmaputra tributaries, and Puthimari and Manas are both standard names on that list.
- (c)1 and 2 — Carries the Meghalaya error along with a sound statement. The Ghaggar half is right; the Barak half is not.
India's rivers fall into three drainage families. Most reach the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea, but a small group in the north-west never reaches any sea: the Ghaggar and its neighbours run out into the sand of the Rajasthan desert, and the Luni turns saline and disappears into the Rann of Kachchh. In the north-east the Brahmaputra collects a dense set of tributaries as it crosses Assam — Subansiri, Kameng, Puthimari, Pagladiya, Manas and Sankosh from the north, Burhi Dihing, Dhansiri and Kopili from the south — while the Barak drains the hills to the south of the Assam valley on its own course into Bangladesh.
Two of the three statements are safe, so the item is really a single test of whether you can place the source of the Barak. Sources of north-eastern rivers are easy to muddle because Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland all sit in the same block of hills. Anchor it with the river's course: the Barak flows west and then south-west through Mizoram and Cachar in Assam, and a river that ends up in the Cachar plain has come from the hills to the east, which are Manipur's. Meghalaya's own rivers, the Umngot and the Umiam and the streams off the Khasi and Garo hills, drain north into the Brahmaputra or south into the Bangladeshi plain, and none of them is the Barak.
- The Barak rises at Liyai Kullen in Senapati district, Manipur, and runs about 900 km through Manipur, Mizoram and Assam.
- In Bangladesh it divides into the Surma and the Kushiyara, which rejoin to form the Meghna.
- The Ghaggar rises in the Shivalik foothills of Himachal Pradesh and loses itself in the Rajasthan desert without reaching the sea.
- NCERT lists the Manas among the important right-bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra, with the Subansiri, Kameng and Sankosh.
- The Puthimari is another of the north-bank Assam tributaries of the Brahmaputra, alongside the Pagladiya.
- Assigning the Barak's source to Meghalaya because the Meghna sounds similar and the hills adjoin.
- Assuming every Indian river reaches the sea; the Ghaggar and the Luni do not.
- Mixing up the Manas with the Manas of Bhutan's national park — it is the same river, which is why the pairing works.
As a three-statement item mixing one source error with two safe facts, or as a tributary-to-main-river pairs question.
Consider the following pairs: Tributary River – Main River 1. Chambal : Narmada 2. Sone : Yamuna 3. Manas : Brahmaputra Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1, 2 and 3
- (b) 1 and 2 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 3 only
Answer(d) 3 only
Confirms half of statement 3 from UPSC's own key — the Manas is a tributary of the Brahmaputra, and it is the only pair that survives in that item.
Consider the following rivers : 1. Barak 2. Lohit 3. Subansiri Which of the above flows/flow through Arunachal Pradesh?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
Tests the Barak's course from the other side. UPSC's key excludes it from Arunachal Pradesh, which fits the river's route from the Manipur hills through Mizoram into the Cachar plain.
Which one of the following is a tributary of Barak River in Manipur?
- (a) Dhaleswari
- (b) Subansiri
- (c) Dhansiri
- (d) Manas
Answer(a) Dhaleswari
CDS asked about the Barak two years earlier and located it in Manipur in the stem itself — the very point on which statement 1 of this item fails.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which river, after entering Bangladesh, divides into the Surma and the Kushiyara that later rejoin as the Meghna?
- (a)Barak
- (b)Teesta
- (c)Dhansiri
- (d)Kopili
Answer(a) Barak — it rises in the Manipur hills and flows through Manipur, Mizoram and Assam before the split.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following rivers does not drain into the sea?
- (a)Mahanadi
- (b)Ghaggar
- (c)Subarnarekha
- (d)Periyar
Answer(b) Ghaggar — it is lost in the sands of the Rajasthan desert, the standard Indian example of inland drainage.