Match the following rivers with their Area of Origin and identify the correct code:
Rivers: (1) Kaveri (2) Sabarmati (3) Tapti (Tapi) (4) Damodar
Area of Origin: (i) Satpura range (ii) Brahmagiri hill

Question

Match the following rivers with their Area of Origin and identify the correct code:
Rivers: (1) Kaveri (2) Sabarmati (3) Tapti (Tapi) (4) Damodar
Area of Origin: (i) Satpura range (ii) Brahmagiri hills (iii) Mewad hills (iv) Chota Nagpur Plateau

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, (ii)(iii)(i)(iv). Kaveri rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri hills (Kodagu district, Karnataka) — pairing (1) Kaveri with (ii) Brahmagiri hills. Sabarmati rises in the Aravalli Range's Mewad hills near Udaipur, Rajasthan — pairing (2) Sabarmati with (iii) Mewad hills. Tapti (Tapi) rises near Multai, Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, on the Satpura range — pairing (3) Tapti with (i) Satpura range. Damodar rises on the Chota Nagpur Plateau (Jharkhand) and flows through a rift (graben) valley formed by down-warping — pairing (4) Damodar with (iv) Chota Nagpur Plateau. Option (c) is the only code that keeps all four pairings correct.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Places Kaveri at (i) Satpura range and Tapti at (iii) Mewad hills — both wrong; Kaveri rises in the Brahmagiri hills of Karnataka, and Tapti rises on the Satpura range, not in Rajasthan's Mewad hills.  (b) Places Kaveri at (iii) Mewad hills and Damodar at (ii) Brahmagiri hills — both wrong; a south Indian river (Kaveri) cannot rise in a north-western hill range, and Damodar, in Jharkhand, has no connection to Karnataka's Brahmagiri hills.  (d) Places Kaveri at (iv) Chota Nagpur Plateau and Damodar at (i) Satpura range — both wrong; Kaveri (Karnataka) and the Chota Nagpur belt (Jharkhand/Odisha) are geographically unrelated, and Damodar's established rift-valley origin is the Chota Nagpur Plateau, not the Satpura range.

Concept: This is a match-the-following on the 'Area of Origin' of four rivers spread across Peninsular and Central India. Each pairing is fixed by well-established physical geography: Kaveri (south, Karnataka) rises in the Western Ghats' Brahmagiri hills; Sabarmati (north-west, Rajasthan) rises in the Aravalli Range's Mewad hills; Tapti (central, Madhya Pradesh) rises on the Satpura range; and Damodar (east, Jharkhand) rises on the Chota Nagpur Plateau.

State PCS 2024 Q71 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q71 — Geography PYQ with Answer