SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 20 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following sets of locations in India is known for having significant coral reef ecosystems?

(a)Bay of Bengal coast and deltas
(b)East coast of India near major river mouths
(c)Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Lakshadweep, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
(d)Deep-sea trenches in the Indian Ocean

Answer

Why

Correct — C. An FAO review of India's coral reefs says the major reef formations are restricted to the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, the Gulf of Kutch, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep islands.

Option (c) names four of those five areas: gulfs and island groups with the warm, shallow, clear water corals need → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bay of Bengal coast and deltas — River deltas are where reefs fail. The FAO review attributes the lack of reefs on the Bay of Bengal coast to the immense quantity of freshwater and silt its rivers bring.
(b)
East coast of India near major river mouths — River mouths pour out the freshwater and silt that keep reefs off the Bay of Bengal coast. The mainland east-coast reef areas the FAO review names are the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay.
(d)
Deep-sea trenches in the Indian Ocean — Deep-sea trenches are the ocean's deepest, darkest parts. NCERT describes corals as living mainly in warm, shallow sea water.

Concept

A coral is a small, calcium-secreting marine polyp that lives in colonies, mainly in warm shallow sea water. Its colonies build reefs.

That rules out muddy, river-fed coasts and deep water. India's reefs lie in gulfs and island groups: the Gulf of Kutch, the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, and the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.

Lakshadweep's reefs are atolls, and NCERT says the entire island group is built of coral deposits.

Option (c) leaves out Palk Bay, the fifth area the FAO review names. The option is still the right set, because every place in it is a reef area.

Key facts

The FAO review lists India's major reef formations as the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, the Gulf of Kutch, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
The Lakshadweep reefs are atolls.
NCERT says the entire Lakshadweep island group is built of coral deposits.
Freshwater and silt from rivers keep reefs off India's Bay of Bengal mainland coast.

Study next

Fringing reefs, barrier reefs and atollsCoral bleaching and rising sea temperaturesMarine protected areas in the Gulf of Mannar and the Gulf of Kutch

Common traps

Picking the east coast because the Gulf of Mannar is there, and missing the words near major river mouths.
Assuming corals need deep water, when they grow mainly in warm, shallow sea.

The Gulf of Mannar's location, between India's south-eastern tip and Sri Lanka's western coast, is asked at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.7. A reef animal, the black-lipped pearl oyster, is asked at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.20.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 135 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.