Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and other is Reason (R) –
Assertion (A) – The Tamil Nadu coast remains dry during South-West monsoon season.
Reason (R) – The Tamil Nad

Question

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and other is Reason (R) –
Assertion (A) – The Tamil Nadu coast remains dry during South-West monsoon season.
Reason (R) – The Tamil Nadu coast is situated parallel to the Bay of Bengal branch of South-West monsoon and it lies in the rain shadow area of the Arabian Sea branch of the South-West monsoon during monsoon season.
Select the correct answer using the code given below –

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). The Tamil Nadu (Coromandel) coast does stay largely dry during the June-September south-west monsoon (Assertion true). The reason is precisely why: the Bay of Bengal branch of the SW monsoon runs almost parallel to the Coromandel coast as it curves north toward the Ganga plains, so it gives little orographic rain there; and for the Arabian Sea branch, the Tamil Nadu plains lie on the leeward, rain-shadow side of the Western Ghats. With both branches failing to deliver rain, the coast stays dry in the SW monsoon and instead gets most of its rain from the retreating (north-east) monsoon in October-December. Since the reason correctly explains the assertion, the answer is (b).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The assertion is true, but so is the reason — both the 'parallel to the Bay of Bengal branch' and the 'rain shadow of the Arabian Sea branch' points are correct, so (R) is not false.  (c) (R) is not merely true alongside (A) — it states the actual cause of the dryness (parallel winds plus Western Ghats rain shadow), so it IS the correct explanation.  (d) The assertion is not false — the Tamil Nadu coast genuinely receives very little rain during the south-west monsoon season.

Concept: The south-west (summer) monsoon splits into two branches — the Arabian Sea branch and the Bay of Bengal branch. The Arabian Sea branch strikes the Western Ghats and drops heavy rain on the west coast, leaving the leeward east (including the Tamil Nadu plains) in a rain shadow. The Bay of Bengal branch is deflected north-westward up the Ganga plains and runs almost parallel to the Tamil Nadu (Coromandel) coast, so it too gives little rain there. Tamil Nadu therefore gets most of its annual rainfall from the retreating/north-east monsoon (October-December).

State PCS 2023 Q114 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q114 — Geography PYQ with Answer