Find out the descending order of the following districts regarding density of population as per census 2011.
(a) Kolhapur
(b) Jalgaon
(c) Pune
(d) Nagpur
(e) Solapur

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (4), which reads (c), (a), (d), (b), (e). Density of population is population divided by area, and the Census of India 2011 puts these five Maharashtra districts at Pune 603, Kolhapur 504, Nagpur 470, Jalgaon 360 and Solapur 290 persons per square kilometre. Descending order means highest first, so the sequence runs Pune, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Jalgaon, Solapur — that is (c), then (a), then (d), then (b), then (e), the row printed at option (4). The question is harder than the arithmetic because density does not follow population. Solapur, with 43.18 lakh people, has more inhabitants than Kolhapur's 38.76 lakh and Jalgaon's 42.30 lakh, yet it comes last on this list, because its 14,895 square kilometres are nearly twice Kolhapur's 7,685. Kolhapur is the smallest of the five in population and the second densest, for the same reason in reverse. Pune leads on both counts, with 94.29 lakh people and the highest density of the five. A candidate who ranks these districts from a memory of how populous they are will produce a different and wrong sequence, and that is precisely what the wrong rows are built from. Two checks settle the row without recalling all five figures: only one row begins with Pune, and only one row ends with Solapur, and they are the same row. Maharashtra's own density in 2011 was 365 per square kilometre, so Pune, Kolhapur and Nagpur are above the state average, Jalgaon sits just below it and Solapur well below.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This row opens with Jalgaon and closes with Pune, which is the ranking almost exactly inverted: Pune is the densest of the five at 603 persons per square kilometre and cannot occupy the last place in a descending sequence, while Jalgaon at 360 is fourth of five and cannot lead it. The row does place Solapur second, which is its only nod to the data, and Solapur is in fact the least dense of the five. What this option really tests is whether the reader has fixed the direction of the sequence before looking at any row. The stem turns on the words 'descending order', and a row that puts the largest value last is answering the opposite question. Checking the first and last cells of an ordering row is the fastest way to dispose of it.  (b) This row runs Kolhapur, Pune, Nagpur, Jalgaon, Solapur — the correct sequence with its first two members exchanged. It is the near-miss, and it is built on the one comparison in the list that a candidate is likely to get wrong from general impression rather than from figures. Pune district recorded 603 persons per square kilometre in 2011 against Kolhapur's 504, so Pune leads comfortably; the impression that western Maharashtra's compact sugar belt must be denser than a district that includes the Sahyadri and the eastern plateau is what this row trades on. Everything after the first two cells is right, which makes the row look convincing to a candidate who checks the tail. On an ordering question the top of the sequence deserves as much attention as the rest.  (c) This row reads Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Solapur, Jalgaon, so it starts correctly with Pune and then makes two errors: it puts Nagpur ahead of Kolhapur, and it puts Solapur ahead of Jalgaon at the tail. The census figures are Kolhapur 504 against Nagpur 470, and Jalgaon 360 against Solapur 290, so both swaps are wrong. The Solapur and Jalgaon exchange is the more instructive of the two: Solapur has the larger population of the pair, 43.18 lakh against 42.30 lakh, and a candidate ranking by population rather than by density will place it higher — but Solapur's area is 14,895 square kilometres against Jalgaon's 11,765, and area is what decides. This row is the reason to compute or recall density itself rather than to reason from population size.

Concept: Density of population is the number of persons per square kilometre of land, and it is one of three related measures that are regularly confused. Arithmetic density, the one used by the census and by this question, divides total population by total area. Physiological density divides population by cultivable land, and agricultural density divides the agricultural population by cultivable land; both are higher than arithmetic density and both say more about pressure on land. India's density in 2011 was 382 persons per square kilometre against 325 in 2001. Maharashtra's was 365, a little below the national figure, but the state average conceals an enormous range: the two Mumbai districts are urban districts of a few hundred square kilometres holding millions of people, while Gadchiroli and the forested districts of the east are thinly peopled. Density responds to relief, rainfall, soil, water, urbanisation and industry rather than to administrative size, which is why Pune, with a large industrial and urban core, leads a list that also contains districts of similar population but much larger area. The decadal growth rate, the sex ratio and the level of urbanisation are the companion measures the census reports alongside density, and MPSC examines all four.

State PCS 2021 Q27 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q27 — Geography PYQ with Answer