NDA (II) 2023 General Ability Test · Question 82 of 146

Correct — D, Uttarakhand. Roopkund is a small glacial lake in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, lying at about 5,020 m — a little over 16,000 feet — in the Garhwal Himalaya. It is known worldwide for the hundreds of human skeletons found at its edge and on its bed, which become visible when the snow melts, and that is why it is popularly called the Skeleton Lake. Nothing about a lake at that altitude fits the other three states offered.

• (a)Kerala — Kerala's famous water bodies are coastal backwaters and lagoons close to sea level, such as Vembanad and Sasthamkotta. The state has no terrain anywhere near the 5,000 m at which Roopkund sits.
• (b)Manipur — The lake associated with Manipur is Loktak, with its floating phumdis, and it lies in the Manipur valley rather than in high glacial country. Loktak is the usual answer when Manipur appears in a lake question, which is exactly why it is offered here.
• (c)Himachal Pradesh — The most tempting wrong option, because Himachal does have high-altitude glacial lakes. But Roopkund is not among them — it lies east of Himachal, in the Garhwal Himalaya of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district.

Roopkund is a cirque lake, a small basin scooped out by ice and later filled with meltwater, of the kind that occurs in great numbers in the higher Himalaya. Its fame rests on the human remains around it, which is unusual for a physical-geography feature and is why it appears in general-knowledge papers more often than lakes of comparable size.

The safest route to the answer is altitude rather than the skeleton story. A lake at about 5,020 m can only be in a state that reaches into the high Himalaya, which removes Kerala and Manipur immediately and leaves a straight choice between Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Fix Roopkund to Chamoli district in Garhwal and the choice is settled. On the skeletons themselves, as of the September 2023 exam the accepted explanation was the 2019 study that combined radiocarbon dating with genome-wide analysis of 38 individuals, and that finding still stands today — the remains come from different eras and three distinct groups, which rules out the older popular story of a single disaster killing everyone at once.

• Roopkund lies in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, at an altitude of about 5,020 m or 16,470 feet.
• Human skeletal remains are visible at the bottom of the lake when the snow melts, giving it the name Skeleton Lake.
• Radiocarbon dating combined with genome-wide analysis of 38 individuals showed that the remains are from different eras and belong to three distinct groups.
• One group has South Asian ancestry and dates to about 800 CE, while a Southeast Asian individual and an eastern Mediterranean group date to about 1800 CE — findings that counter the theory of a single catastrophic event.

• Confusing Roopkund with Loktak in Manipur or with one of the Himachal high lakes.
• Assuming every famous Indian lake carries a Ramsar designation.

As a lake-to-state item like this one, as a lake-type classification, or through the archaeology of the skeletons.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Roopkund lake, famous for the human skeletal remains found around it, lies in which district of Uttarakhand?

  • (a)Pithoragarh
  • (b)Chamoli
  • (c)Uttarkashi
  • (d)Bageshwar

  Answer(b) Chamoli — the lake sits at about 5,020 m in the Garhwal Himalaya.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Sambhar Salt Lake is located in which one of the following states?

  • (a)Gujarat
  • (b)Rajasthan
  • (c)Haryana
  • (d)Madhya Pradesh

  Answer(b) Rajasthan — it lies in Jaipur district, west of Jaipur city.