Which of the following rivers fall into the Arabian Sea ?
1. Periyar
2. Pennar
3. Palar
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
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Correct — A, Only 1. The Periyar is the only one of the three that reaches the Arabian Sea. It is Kerala's longest river, about 244 km, rising in the Western Ghats in Idukki district and flowing west to the Arabian Sea through the Vembanad backwaters near Kochi — the 'lifeline of Kerala', dammed at Mullaperiyar and Idukki. The other two are east-flowing Deccan rivers. The Pennar, or Penna, rises in the Nandi Hills of Chikkaballapur district in Karnataka, runs about 597 km through Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, cuts the Gandikota gorge on its way through the Eastern Ghats and empties into the Bay of Bengal in coastal Andhra. The Palar also rises in the Nandi Hills, runs about 348 km through Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and meets the Bay of Bengal at Vayalur, some 75 km south of Chennai. Only statement 1 is therefore correct.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) Exactly the two that do not qualify. Both the Pennar and the Palar rise in the Nandi Hills of Karnataka and flow east across the Deccan to the Bay of Bengal — the Pennar into coastal Andhra, the Palar at Vayalur south of Chennai.  (c) The Palar is a Coromandel-coast river: it drains east through Vellore and Kanchipuram and enters the Bay of Bengal, not the Arabian Sea.  (d) Right about the Periyar, wrong about the Pennar. The Pennar's whole course runs eastward from the Karnataka uplands across Andhra Pradesh to the Bay of Bengal; it is the river that carved the Gandikota gorge, which UPSC asked about in 2022.

Concept: The Western Ghats are the peninsula's main water divide, and they run close to the west coast. Almost every large peninsular river therefore rises on the eastern flank of the Ghats and flows east across the Deccan into the Bay of Bengal — Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, Palar, Kaveri, Vaigai — building broad deltas as it goes. Only two big rivers, the Narmada and the Tapi, flow west into the Arabian Sea, and they do so because they occupy rift valleys; they form estuaries rather than deltas. Everything else on the Arabian Sea side is a short, swift coastal stream of the Konkan and Malabar coasts, and the Periyar is one of these.

State PCS 2025 Q25 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q25 — Geography PYQ with Answer