Durmital is located in which of the following districts of Uttarakhand?
- (a)Nainital
- (b)Chamoli
- (c)Rudraprayag
- (d)Pithoragarh
Correct — B, Chamoli.
Durmital is Durmi Tal, better known today as Gohna Tal, and it lay in Chamoli district. It was a landslide-dammed lake in the valley of the Birahi Ganga, a tributary that joins the Alaknanda at Birahi, between Chamoli town and Pipalkoti.
The lake was born in September 1893, when a great rockslide near Gohna village blocked the Birahi Ganga. It partially breached in August 1894 and finally burst in the July 1970 Alaknanda floods, so the lake no longer exists, but the name survives in geography and disaster history.
The idea to carry away: Durmi Tal is the landslide lake of the Birahi Ganga valley in Chamoli, not one of the tourist lakes of Nainital or the trekking lakes of Rudraprayag.
- (a)Nainital — Nainital is the lake district of Kumaon, and the '-tal' ending pulls a guess here. But the suffix simply means lake and appears across the state.
Nainital is the right answer to Naini Lake, Bhimtal and Sattal, with Naukuchiatal and Khurpatal nearby. Durmi Tal belonged to the Birahi Ganga valley in Garhwal, on the far side of the Kumaon–Garhwal divide.
- (c)Rudraprayag — Rudraprayag holds the Mandakini valley and the lakes on the Kedarnath side. It is the right answer to Deoria Tal, the lake near Sari village on the Ukhimath–Chopta road that mirrors Chaukhamba, and to Vasuki Tal above Kedarnath.
Durmi Tal lay in the Birahi Ganga valley, which drains to the Alaknanda inside Chamoli.
- (d)Pithoragarh — Pithoragarh is the far-eastern border district of Kumaon, with high lakes of its own. It is the right answer to Parvati Kund, the lake near Jolingkong below Adi Kailash in Dharchula tehsil.
Durmi Tal was a Garhwal lake in Chamoli, a district that shares a boundary with Pithoragarh but not the Birahi Ganga valley.
A landslide-dammed lake forms when a rockslide or debris slide blocks a river valley and water ponds behind the natural barrier. Because the barrier is loose rock rather than engineered material, it tends to overtop or fail, sending a sudden flood downstream.
Durmi Tal, or Gohna Tal, is the classic Uttarakhand example: formed on the Birahi Ganga in Chamoli in 1893, partly breached in 1894, destroyed in 1970.
Chamoli sits on the Alaknanda and its tributaries, so its lakes are of two kinds: high tarns such as Roopkund, Hemkund and Satopanth Tal, and the landslide lake of Gohna. Durmi Tal is asked as place geography, but it is also disaster history.
The 1894 breach was anticipated: the dam was watched, downstream settlements were warned, and Srinagar (Garhwal) was wrecked with few deaths. The 1970 burst fed the Alaknanda flood that reached Haridwar, an event often linked to the environmental awakening behind the Chipko movement.
- Durmi Tal, also called Gohna Tal or Durmi Lake, lay in the Birahi Ganga valley of Chamoli district, near Gohna village.
- The Birahi Ganga joins the Alaknanda at Birahi, between Chamoli town and Pipalkoti.
- A rockslide in September 1893 dammed the Birahi Ganga and created the lake.
- The dam partially breached on 25–26 August 1894; Srinagar (Garhwal) was badly damaged, but advance warning kept deaths very low.
- The residual lake burst during the July 1970 Alaknanda floods, and Gohna Tal ceased to exist.
- Roopkund, Hemkund and Satopanth Tal are also lakes of Chamoli district.
- Deoria Tal, near Sari village on the Ukhimath–Chopta road, is in Rudraprayag district at about 2,438 m.
- Naini Lake, Bhimtal, Sattal, Naukuchiatal and Khurpatal are in Nainital district.
- Parvati Kund, near Jolingkong below Adi Kailash, is in Pithoragarh district.
Durmi Tal is the 1893 landslide lake of the Birahi Ganga in Chamoli; each of the other three districts has lakes of its own, which is where a guess goes astray.
- The '-tal' ending pulls the eye to Nainital; the suffix means lake and appears on lakes across the state, so it does not point to a district.
- Durmi Tal and Deoria Tal look alike on the page; Deoria Tal is in Rudraprayag, Durmi Tal in Chamoli.
- Gohna Tal and Durmi Tal name the same lake, so the question may use either name.
- A lake that no longer exists is still asked as geography; Durmi Tal burst in 1970 but keeps its Chamoli address.
The device is a named feature and four districts. It can be reversed: a district is named and the odd lake out must be found, or four lake–district pairs are offered and the wrong pairing has to be spotted.
Gohna Tal also appears as disaster history: the river it dammed, the year of the landslide, or the year of the final breach.
UKPSC_2025_PRE_GSI_Q522025Same: places a named Uttarakhand feature, and the Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks that form the state's natural World Heritage Site lie in Chamoli, the district keyed here. Differs: it asks at state level which sites are in Uttarakhand, not which district a feature belongs to.
UKPSC_2021_PRE_GSI_Q212021Same: district-level geography of Uttarakhand, and Chamoli and Pithoragarh, two of this question's options, are among the districts touching the international boundary. Differs: it asks for a count of border districts, not the district of a lake.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Gohna Tal (Durmi Tal) landslide lake of 1893 in Chamoli district was formed on which river?
- (a)Birahi Ganga
- (b)Pindar
- (c)Nandakini
- (d)Dhauliganga
Answera — The September 1893 rockslide near Gohna village dammed the Birahi Ganga, which joins the Alaknanda at Birahi.Pindar (joins at Karnaprayag), Nandakini (joins at Nandprayag) and Dhauliganga (joins at Vishnuprayag) are also Alaknanda tributaries in Chamoli, but Gohna Tal formed on the Birahi Ganga.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following lakes is NOT located in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand?
- (a)Roopkund
- (b)Hemkund
- (c)Deoria Tal
- (d)Satopanth Tal
Answerc — Deoria Tal lies near Sari village on the Ukhimath–Chopta road in Rudraprayag district.Roopkund on the slopes of Trishul, Hemkund near the Valley of Flowers and Satopanth Tal beyond Badrinath each lie in Chamoli.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following lake–district pairs of Uttarakhand is incorrectly matched?
- (a)Bhimtal – Nainital
- (b)Deoria Tal – Rudraprayag
- (c)Durmi Tal – Pithoragarh
- (d)Parvati Kund – Pithoragarh
Answerc — Durmi Tal (Gohna Tal) lay in the Birahi Ganga valley of Chamoli, not Pithoragarh.Bhimtal is in Nainital, Deoria Tal in Rudraprayag, and Parvati Kund on the Adi Kailash route in Pithoragarh, so those three pairs are correct.