Which of the following pairs is NOT correctly matched? Name of Airport – District (a) Nainisaini – Pithoragarh (b) Gauchar – Rudraprayag (c) Chinyalisour – Uttarkashi (d) Pantnagar – Udham Singh Nagar
- (a)Nainisaini – Pithoragarh
- (b)Gauchar – Rudraprayag
- (c)Chinyalisour – Uttarkashi
- (d)Pantnagar – Udham Singh Nagar
Correct — B, Gauchar – Rudraprayag.
The stem asks which pair is NOT correctly matched, so the keyed letter marks the faulty row. Gauchar – Rudraprayag is that row: the Gauchar airstrip stands in Chamoli district, on the Alaknanda in the Karanprayag stretch of the Rishikesh–Badrinath road.
Gauchar and Rudraprayag town are neighbours on the same highway, separated by the district boundary rather than by distance. That closeness is what makes the wrong district read as plausible.
The idea to carry away: an airfield belongs to the district whose territory it stands on, not to the nearest well-known town.
- (a)Nainisaini – Pithoragarh — This pair holds, so it cannot answer a 'NOT correctly matched' stem. Naini Saini airport serves Pithoragarh town and lies in Pithoragarh district, in eastern Kumaon along the Nepal frontier.
It is the right answer to 'which airfield serves Pithoragarh town in eastern Kumaon'. The echo of Nainital in the name is a resemblance of sound, not of place.
- (c)Chinyalisour – Uttarkashi — This pair holds too. The Chinyalisaur airstrip lies in Uttarkashi district, in the Bhagirathi valley downstream of Uttarkashi town, on the flat ground the river terrace provides.
It is the right answer to 'which airstrip lies in the Bhagirathi valley of Uttarkashi district'. Sitting far downstream of the district headquarters, toward the Tehri reservoir, does not move a place into the next district.
- (d)Pantnagar – Udham Singh Nagar — This pair holds as printed. Pantnagar lies in the Tarai plains of Udham Singh Nagar district, whose headquarters is Rudrapur, and it is the site of Kumaon's plains airport.
It is the right answer to 'which airport serves the Tarai plains of Kumaon'. Pantnagar is a campus town, home to G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, which is why the airport's name differs from the district's.
Uttarakhand's civil aviation sits in two very different landscapes. Jolly Grant in Dehradun district and Pantnagar in Udham Singh Nagar are the two main plains-and-valley airports, and both take scheduled commercial flights.
In the hills are short fields laid along the few flat river terraces the terrain allows — Naini Saini (Pithoragarh) airport, Chinyalisaur in the Bhagirathi valley, Gauchar in the Alaknanda valley — flown mainly under the RCS-UDAN scheme, Naini Saini among them carrying scheduled flights.
A question of this shape is not really about aviation. It asks whether you can place a named point inside the correct district boundary.
Uttarakhand is divided into thirteen districts, and the boundaries cut across the river valleys rather than following them. One valley can therefore pass through two or three districts as it descends.
The Alaknanda is the clearest case. It runs through Chamoli, enters Rudraprayag, and lower down reaches Pauri Garhwal, so the towns strung along one road belong to different districts despite sharing a river and a naming pattern.
Any item that pins an airstrip, a dam, a road head or a temple to a district is testing that boundary, not the feature itself.
- The Gauchar airstrip lies in Chamoli district, on the Alaknanda in the Karanprayag (also written Karnaprayag) belt of the Rishikesh–Badrinath road.
- Chamoli district lists twelve tehsils: Chamoli, Joshimath, Pokhri, Karanprayag, Gairsain, Tharali, Dewal, Narayanbagar, Adibadri, Jilasu, Nandprayag and Ghat.
- Rudraprayag district is divided into four tehsils: Rudraprayag, Jakholi, Ukhimath and Basukedar.
- Naini Saini airport is at Pithoragarh, in Pithoragarh district, which borders Nepal along the Kali river.
- Chinyalisaur airstrip is in Uttarkashi district, in the Bhagirathi valley downstream of Uttarkashi town.
- Pantnagar airport is in Udham Singh Nagar district, in the Tarai; the district headquarters is Rudrapur.
- Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport is in Dehradun district, near Doiwala on the Rishikesh road.
- Uttarakhand has thirteen districts: seven in the Garhwal division and six in the Kumaon division.
The four pairs as printed in the stem, with Dehradun's airport added for the wider map. The highlighted row is the mismatch: Gauchar's district is Chamoli.
- Gauchar and Rudraprayag town are close on the same highway; judging by travel distance instead of the district boundary puts the airstrip in the wrong district.
- A 'NOT correctly matched' stem inverts the task — confirming that a pair is true is a reason to eliminate it, not to mark it.
- Naini Saini's name echoes Nainital, but the airport is at Pithoragarh; following the name breaks a pair that is already correct.
- Pantnagar is a campus town rather than a district headquarters, so an airport named unlike its district can still be paired correctly.
- Chinyalisaur sits far downstream of Uttarkashi town toward the Tehri reservoir; distance from the headquarters does not shift it into Tehri Garhwal.
- Karanprayag and Rudraprayag are both Alaknanda confluence towns with the same '-prayag' ending, yet they fall in different districts.
The device here is a four-row pair grid with a negative stem: find the single row that is false. The same content can be set positively — which pair is correctly matched — in which case one row is true and three are false.
The underlying fact also travels alone, as 'in which district is the Gauchar airstrip', or inside a statement-based item where one statement places an airfield and another places a confluence town.
What is being tested each time is the boundary. Learn the district for each named point, not the pairing as a memorised phrase.
UKPSC_2016_PRE_PaperI_Q202016The same device on the same skill: four Uttarakhand feature–district pairs with a negative stem, settled by where a Garhwal district boundary runs — the choices there include Uttarkashi, Tehri, Chamoli and Rudraprayag, the same neighbourhood as this item. What differs is the feature type: high-altitude lakes rather than airfields, so placement follows the valley head that holds the lake instead of the road-accessible terrace that holds an airstrip.
UKPSC_2016_PRE_PaperI_Q212016Same underlying demand — put a named Uttarakhand feature inside its district, with Tehri-Garhwal, Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Pithoragarh offered as districts. What differs is the format and the object: one glacier asked directly rather than four pairs to audit, and a glacier is located by the valley it feeds, while an airstrip is located by the flat ground it occupies.
UPPSC_2022_PRE_GSI_Q622022The same 'NOT correctly matched' pair grid keyed on districts, so the elimination discipline carries over — verify each row, mark the one that fails. What differs is the state and the kind of fact: Uttar Pradesh's One District One Product assignments are a policy list that can be revised by government order, while an airstrip's district follows fixed administrative boundaries.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Gauchar airstrip, on the Rishikesh–Badrinath road in the Alaknanda valley, lies in which district of Uttarakhand?
- (a)Rudraprayag
- (b)Chamoli
- (c)Tehri Garhwal
- (d)Pauri Garhwal
Answerb — Gauchar lies on the Alaknanda in Chamoli district, in the Karanprayag stretch of the highway.Rudraprayag district is made up of the Rudraprayag, Jakholi, Ukhimath and Basukedar tehsils, and Gauchar sits upstream of that block. Tehri Garhwal lies mainly in the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana valleys around the Tehri reservoir, meeting the Alaknanda at Devprayag.
Pauri Garhwal meets the Alaknanda much lower down, around Srinagar, well below Gauchar.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs of airport/airstrip and district is correctly matched?
- (a)Chinyalisaur – Tehri Garhwal
- (b)Naini Saini – Nainital
- (c)Pantnagar – Udham Singh Nagar
- (d)Gauchar – Rudraprayag
Answerc — Pantnagar lies in the Tarai plains of Udham Singh Nagar district, so this pair holds.Chinyalisaur is in Uttarkashi district, even though it sits toward the Tehri reservoir end of the Bhagirathi valley. Naini Saini is at Pithoragarh, so pairing it with Nainital follows the name rather than the place.
Gauchar is in Chamoli district, which is the mismatch the parent question turns on.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Karanprayag, the confluence of the Alaknanda and the Pindar, lies in which district of Uttarakhand?
- (a)Rudraprayag
- (b)Chamoli
- (c)Uttarkashi
- (d)Pauri Garhwal
Answerb — Karanprayag is one of the twelve tehsils of Chamoli district, and the Alaknanda–Pindar confluence sits inside it.Rudraprayag district takes its name from the Alaknanda–Mandakini confluence downstream, a different prayag. Uttarkashi lies in the Bhagirathi basin, a separate river system.
Pauri Garhwal touches the Alaknanda much further down, around Srinagar.