UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q61: What percentage (approximately) of Uttarakhand is plain

Q: What is the answer to UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q61?

C. Correct — C, 14. Uttarakhand covers 53,483 sq km. The state's own figures put the hilly part at 46,035 sq km, leaving about 7,448 sq km of plain. That works out to roughly 86 per cent hill and **14** per cent plain, so option (c) is the keyed answer. The plain belt runs along the southern edge of the state: Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, the Doon valley of Dehradun and the Tarai-Bhabar strip below Nainital. The land from the Shivaliks northward is counted as hill. The idea to carry away is the pair **86 : 14, hill to plain**. Remember one half and the other follows, whichever way the question is turned.

UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 61 of 147

Verified against the official question booklet. Answer as per UKPSC's provisional answer key.

Answers from UKPSC's provisional answer key. The Commission publishes a provisional key for UKPSC Prelims 2024 and invites objections before issuing a final key. Every answer shown here is the Commission's own provisional answer (key PDF), not our derivation. If the final key changes an answer, this page is updated to match.

What percentage (approximately) of Uttarakhand is plain area?

(a)25
(b)18
(c)14
(d)20

Answer

Why

Correct — C, 14.

Uttarakhand covers 53,483 sq km. The state's own figures put the hilly part at 46,035 sq km, leaving about 7,448 sq km of plain. That works out to roughly 86 per cent hill and 14 per cent plain, so option (c) is the keyed answer.

The plain belt runs along the southern edge of the state: Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, the Doon valley of Dehradun and the Tarai-Bhabar strip below Nainital. The land from the Shivaliks northward is counted as hill.

The idea to carry away is the pair 86 : 14, hill to plain. Remember one half and the other follows, whichever way the question is turned.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
25 — A quarter of the state would be about 13,400 sq km of plain, nearly double the actual 7,448 sq km. It would also push the hill share down to 75 per cent, well below the 86 per cent that the state's figures give.
(b)
18 — Eighteen per cent would put about 9,600 sq km under plain, some 2,200 sq km more than the real figure.
It is the closest wrong option, so hold the exact pair, 86 and 14, rather than a vague sense that the plains are a small share.
(d)
20 — One-fifth of Uttarakhand is about 10,700 sq km, but the hill area alone is 46,035 sq km, which leaves only 7,448 sq km for everything else. A fifth is too much; the plain share is well under that.

Concept

Uttarakhand is a Himalayan state, and its land is classed by terrain into hill and plain. The hill part stretches from the Shivalik foothills through the Lesser and Greater Himalaya to the Trans-Himalayan tracts; the plain part is the narrow Tarai-Bhabar and Doon belt along the border with Uttar Pradesh.

By area the split is about 86 per cent hill to 14 per cent plain. The plain is small in area but holds much of the state's farmland and several of its larger towns, such as Haridwar, Roorkee, Rudrapur, Kashipur and Haldwani.

The hill-plain split runs through Uttarakhand's politics and administration. The state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000 largely on the demand of the hill region, yet the small plain belt carries a large share of population, industry and revenue.

Sitting beside it are separate area statistics that use the same 53,483 sq km base: forest cover of about 45 per cent and recorded forest area of about 71 per cent. Keep them apart from the terrain split.

Key facts

Uttarakhand's geographical area is 53,483 sq km, about 1.63 per cent of India's land area (ISFR 2019).
The hilly part is 46,035 sq km, about 86 per cent of the state (Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board figure).
The plain part is about 7,448 sq km, roughly 14 per cent of the state.
The plains lie along the southern edge: Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, the Doon valley of Dehradun and the Tarai-Bhabar belt of Nainital.
Forest cover is a different figure: ISFR 2019 put it at 24,303 sq km, 45.44 per cent of the state.
Recorded forest area, the legally notified forest land, is 38,000 sq km, about 71 per cent of the state (ISFR 2019).
ISFR 2019 states that the state's 13 districts are hill districts; the 14 per cent is a terrain share, not a district count.

Uttarakhand by terrain: hill vs plain

Hill: 46,035 sq km→Plain: 7,448 sq km

About 86% of the state→About 14% of the state

Shivaliks to the Trans-Himalaya→Haridwar, US Nagar, Doon, Tarai-Bhabar

Garhwal and Kumaon uplands→Farm belt and larger towns

Total 53,483 sq km. Forest cover (about 45%) and recorded forest area (about 71%) are separate statistics on the same base.

Study next

Physiographic divisions of Uttarakhand: Trans-Himalaya, Greater Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya, Shivalik, Tarai-BhabarUttarakhand's 13 districts and the Garhwal-Kumaon splitForest cover versus recorded forest area in the India State of Forest Report, for UttarakhandDoon valley and Tarai-Bhabar: how they formed and what they growUttarakhand statehood on 9 November 2000 and the hill-plain divide

Common traps

Reading 'plain area' as non-forest land: forest cover is about 45 per cent and recorded forest area about 71 per cent, and neither is the plain share.
Answering with the hill share (86) when the stem asks for the plain share, or the reverse; check which half of the 86 : 14 pair is wanted.
Guessing from district counts: the plains are parts of a few southern districts, and ISFR 2019 classes the 13 districts as hill districts, so the share cannot be read off a district list.
Rounding drift: 7,448 of 53,483 is 13.9 per cent; the stem says 'approximately', so 14 is the match and 18 or 20 are not close enough.

The figure is asked directly as a percentage, with four numbers close together, so a rough sense of 'mostly hills' is not enough; the exact pair has to be recalled.

It can also arrive inverted, asking for the hill share, or as an area in square kilometres. Holding the three numbers together, 53,483 total, 46,035 hill and 7,448 plain, covers each form.

Related PYQs

UKPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q262024

Same paper, same device of a share of geographical area, but it asks for forest cover at district level from ISFR 2021, not the hill-plain terrain split of the whole state.

UKPSC_2012_MAINS_PaperIV_Q132012

A Mains question asking for Uttarakhand's location and area, the 53,483 sq km base on which the 14 per cent is computed; it does not ask for the hill-plain split itself.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Approximately what percentage of Uttarakhand's geographical area is hilly or mountainous?
- (a)45
- (b)71
- (c)86
- (d)14
Answerc — the hilly part is 46,035 sq km of 53,483, about 86 per cent. 14 is the plain share, the other half of the same pair.
45 is the state's forest cover share under ISFR 2019 and 71 is its recorded forest area share; both are forest statistics, not terrain.
practice — not a real PYQ
The total geographical area of Uttarakhand is approximately:
- (a)38,863 sq km
- (b)44,212 sq km
- (c)53,483 sq km
- (d)55,673 sq km
Answerc — Uttarakhand covers 53,483 sq km, about 1.63 per cent of India's area.
55,673 sq km is Himachal Pradesh, the neighbouring hill state; 44,212 sq km is Haryana; 38,863 sq km is Kerala. Each is a real state area, so a vague 'around 50,000' does not separate them.
practice — not a real PYQ
The plain area of Uttarakhand, in square kilometres, is closest to:
- (a)7,400
- (b)12,500
- (c)24,300
- (d)38,000
Answera — the plain area is about 7,448 sq km, 14 per cent of 53,483.
24,300 is the forest cover area reported in ISFR 2019 and 38,000 is the recorded forest area; 12,500 would be about 23 per cent of the state, which contradicts the 86 per cent hill share.