MPPSC 2022 Prelims Paper-I · Question 15 of 100

Correct — A, Dindori. Dindori, a hilly, heavily forested tribal district in Madhya Pradesh's Mahakoshal region (carved out of the erstwhile Mandla district in 1998), recorded the lowest population density among MP's districts in the 2011 Census — its large forest cover and hill terrain leave little land under dense settlement or intensive cultivation.

• (b)Alirajpur — Alirajpur is also a sparsely populated, forested tribal district (carved from Jhabua), but its 2011 density was higher than Dindori's.
• (c)Niwari — Niwari, carved out of Tikamgarh district in 2018, did not exist as a separate district at the time of the 2011 Census, so it cannot be the answer to a Census-2011 question.
• (d)Mandla — Mandla, the parent district Dindori was carved out of, is also forested and tribal, but its 2011 density was higher than Dindori's.

Population density in Madhya Pradesh varies sharply between the fertile, urbanised Malwa-Nimar belt (Indore, Bhopal — dense) and the forested, hilly, tribal-dominated Mahakoshal and Vindhyan districts (Dindori, Mandla, Alirajpur — sparse). Density tracks terrain, forest cover and urbanisation, not district area alone.

'Least density' questions are really about matching low-density districts to their landscape — heavily forested, hilly, tribal-dominated districts almost always rank lowest, which narrows the option set even without memorising an exact figure.

• Dindori district was carved out of Mandla district in 1998
• Dindori lies in Madhya Pradesh's forested, hilly Mahakoshal region
• Niwari district was created only in 2018 (from Tikamgarh) — it did not exist during the 2011 Census
• Sparse-density MP districts (Dindori, Alirajpur, Mandla) are consistently forested and tribal-dominated

• Picking a newly created district (like Niwari) as the answer to a Census-2011 question — it did not exist yet
• Confusing Dindori with its parent district, Mandla

MPPSC likes to plant a post-2011 district (Niwari, Agar Malwa, Singrauli) as a distractor in Census-2011 questions — always check the district's creation year before answering.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh was carved out of which parent district?

  • (a)Tikamgarh
  • (b)Chhatarpur
  • (c)Datia
  • (d)Guna

  Answer(a) Tikamgarh — Niwari was created out of Tikamgarh district in 2018.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which type of terrain most commonly correlates with low population density districts in Madhya Pradesh?

  • (a)Fertile river-valley plains
  • (b)Forested, hilly, tribal-dominated belts
  • (c)Urban industrial clusters
  • (d)Coastal plains

  Answer(b) Forested, hilly, tribal-dominated belts — such areas (Dindori, Mandla, Alirajpur) consistently record the lowest densities.