MPSC 2021 Prelims Paper-I · Question 24 of 100

Correct — option (2), which reads (a) - (i), (b) - (ii), (c) - (iii), (d) - (iv). Begin with the two pairs that admit no argument. The Gangotri glacier at (c) lies in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand and is the source of the Bhagirathi, which emerges from its snout at Gaumukh and becomes the Ganga at Devprayag; it can only take Uttarakhand at (iii). The Zemu glacier at (d) lies at the base of Kangchenjunga in Sikkim, is about 26 km long and is the largest glacier of the eastern Himalaya; it can only take Sikkim at (iv). That leaves Siachen at (a) and Rimo at (b) to be matched with Kashmir at (i) and Karakoram at (ii). Note what the paper has done here: the second column is headed 'Place', but it mixes two states, a mountain range and a region, so the four entries are not the same kind of thing. Both remaining glaciers lie in the Karakoram and both lie in the Ladakh region of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, so the pair has to be assigned as a set of two rather than one at a time. The Siachen glacier is the item that every general source locates by its region — 76 km long, the longest glacier in the Karakoram and the second longest outside the polar regions, running down from Indira Col to feed the Nubra and so the Shyok and the Indus, and known worldwide through the Kashmir dispute and Operation Meghdoot of 1984. Rimo is the obscurer one, named for and identified by its range: it forms the northern boundary of the Rimo Muztagh, one of the remotest subranges of the Karakoram, and drains east into the upper Shyok. So Siachen takes Kashmir at (i) and Rimo takes Karakoram at (ii), completing (a) - (i), (b) - (ii), (c) - (iii), (d) - (iv), which is option (2).

• (1)(a) - (iii), (b) - (iv), (c) - (ii), (d) - (i) — This row sends Siachen to Uttarakhand and Gangotri to Karakoram, which relocates both glaciers to the wrong side of the country. Gangotri is a Himalayan glacier of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand and is famous for one reason above all others — the Bhagirathi rises at its snout at Gaumukh — so it can never belong to the Karakoram, a range that lies far to the north-west beyond the Himalaya proper. Siachen is not in Uttarakhand at all; it is in Ladakh, in the eastern Karakoram. The row also gives Rimo to Sikkim and Zemu to Kashmir, so all four pairs fail. It is included to catch a candidate who reads the two columns as unordered lists and picks a row without testing a single pair against what they know.
• (3)(a) - (ii), (b) - (i), (c) - (iii), (d) - (iv) — This is the near-miss row, and it differs from the correct one in exactly one respect: it keeps Gangotri with Uttarakhand and Zemu with Sikkim, and then swaps the other two, giving Siachen to Karakoram and Rimo to Kashmir. Geographically both glaciers sit in the Karakoram and both sit in the same region, so the swap cannot be settled by asking where each glacier is; it is settled by asking which label the question is using for which glacier. The paper's column offers exactly one range name and one regional name, and Siachen is the glacier the world identifies by its region — it is the Kashmir glacier of the Siachen dispute — while Rimo is identified by the Rimo Muztagh subrange of the Karakoram. This row is worth remembering as a warning that a matching column headed 'Place' may hold entries of different kinds, and that the deciding cell is then the one where two entries compete.
• (4)(a) - (iv), (b) - (iii), (c) - (i), (d) - (ii) — This row runs the second column almost backwards against the first: Siachen is sent to Sikkim, Rimo to Uttarakhand, Gangotri to Kashmir and Zemu to Karakoram. Every pair is wrong and two of them are wrong by the width of the country — Siachen is in Ladakh in the far north-west and Zemu is at the foot of Kangchenjunga in the far north-east, and this row exchanges them. Gangotri, the source of the Bhagirathi, is in Uttarakhand and not in Kashmir. The quickest way to kill a row like this is to test the pair you are surest of, which for most candidates is Gangotri and Uttarakhand; any row that breaks it is finished, and that single test removes both this row and the first.

India's glaciers lie in three belts and the question draws from two of them. The Karakoram, north of the Ladakh range and beyond the Himalaya proper, carries the largest ice mass outside the polar regions and the great valley glaciers — Siachen at 76 km, the longest in the Karakoram and the second longest outside the polar regions, running from Indira Col to a snout at about 3,620 m and feeding the Nubra, which joins the Shyok and so the Indus; and its neighbours Rimo, in the remote Rimo Muztagh, and Chong Kumdan, which also drain to the upper Shyok. The Great Himalaya of Uttarakhand carries the Gangotri system in Uttarkashi district, source of the Bhagirathi at Gaumukh, along with Satopanth, Milam, Pindari and Chorabari. The eastern Himalaya carries the Zemu, about 26 km long at the base of Kangchenjunga in Sikkim, the largest glacier of that section. Two further ideas belong with the list. First, these glaciers are the perennial store that keeps the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra flowing through the dry season, which is why their retreat is a water-security question and not only a climate one. Second, glaciers are also landscape sculptors: cirques, aretes, horns, U-shaped valleys, hanging valleys and moraines are their work.

MPSC returns to Himalayan glaciers because they sit at the junction of physical geography, water resources and current affairs, and the Commission usually tests them by location rather than by process. A four-by-four match is the natural vehicle, and this one carries a lesson beyond its content: the right-hand column is headed 'Place' but holds two state names, one mountain range and one region. When the categories in a column are mixed, the pairs that are unambiguous have to be locked first and the ambiguous ones assigned by elimination from what is left. Here Gangotri and Zemu are unambiguous and settle two cells outright, after which only two rows survive and the choice narrows to a single decision. That is also the answer to the question of what to do when two rows agree on three pairs — the deciding cell is the one to think about, and the rest of the row need not be reread. As always, the side-by-side printing of the two columns is layout and asserts no pairing.

• The Siachen glacier lies in the eastern Karakoram in Ladakh, is 76 km long — the longest glacier in the Karakoram and the second longest outside the polar regions — and its meltwater feeds the Nubra, which joins the Shyok and so the Indus.
• India took control of the Siachen glacier and its tributaries through Operation Meghdoot in 1984; the glacier descends from about 5,753 m at Indira Col to about 3,620 m at its snout.
• The Rimo glacier forms the northern boundary of the Rimo Muztagh, one of the remotest subranges of the Karakoram, in Ladakh, and drains east into the upper Shyok.
• The Gangotri glacier is in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand and is the source of the Bhagirathi, which emerges at its snout at Gaumukh and becomes the Ganga after joining the Alaknanda at Devprayag.
• The Zemu glacier lies at the base of Kangchenjunga in Sikkim, is about 26 km long, and is the largest glacier of the eastern Himalaya.

• Assuming that every entry in a column headed 'Place' is the same kind of place; here two are states, one is a mountain range and one is a region, and the mixture is what makes the question hard
• Placing the Siachen glacier in the Himalaya proper — it is in the eastern Karakoram, a range that lies beyond the Himalaya to the north-west
• Confusing Gangotri, the glacier in Uttarakhand from which the Bhagirathi rises, with Gomukh or Gangotri town, or with the Gangotri National Park, in a question that names only the glacier
• Re-reading a whole row when two rows agree on three pairs; only the cell where they disagree can decide the question, and the time belongs there

Glaciers reach MPSC papers in three shapes: this glacier-to-place match, a single-line item asking which river rises from a named glacier, and a current-affairs item hung on a glacier event such as a glacial lake outburst flood or the Siachen deployment. The Commission favours the fixed attributes — range, state, length, the river fed — because they do not change from year to year. Prepare a single table of the dozen glaciers that recur, carrying range, state or region, approximate length and the river each feeds, and learn it against a map so that the north-west and north-east examples cannot be exchanged. Add the glacial landform vocabulary, since the same chapter is also tested through the erosional features.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which river emerges from the snout of the Gangotri glacier at Gaumukh in Uttarkashi district?

  • (a)the Alaknanda
  • (b)the Bhagirathi
  • (c)the Mandakini
  • (d)the Yamuna

  Answer(b) the Bhagirathi — it rises at Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri glacier in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, and becomes the Ganga after meeting the Alaknanda at Devprayag. The Alaknanda rises from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers near Badrinath, the Mandakini from the Chorabari glacier above Kedarnath, and the Yamuna from the Yamunotri glacier on the Bandarpunch massif.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Siachen glacier, the longest glacier in its range and the second longest outside the polar regions, lies in which mountain range and feeds which river?

  • (a)the Pir Panjal, feeding the Jhelum
  • (b)the Zaskar range, feeding the Chenab
  • (c)the eastern Karakoram, feeding the Nubra and so the Shyok and the Indus
  • (d)the Great Himalaya of Sikkim, feeding the Teesta

  Answer(c) the eastern Karakoram, feeding the Nubra and so the Shyok and the Indus — the glacier is 76 km long, runs down from Indira Col at about 5,753 m to a snout at about 3,620 m in Ladakh, and India took control of it and its tributaries in Operation Meghdoot in 1984. The Zemu glacier, not the Siachen, is the Sikkim one at the base of Kangchenjunga.