UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 47 of 150

Correct — B, A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3. DUDHSAGAR, the 'sea of milk', is the four-tiered cascade of about 310 metres on the Mandovi in South Goa, on the Western Ghats escarpment where Goa meets Karnataka, and is conventionally listed as a Goa waterfall (A-4). BARKANA is in Karnataka, in the Shivamogga (Shimoga) district on the river Sita near Agumbe, one of the falls of the Agumbe rainforest belt, about 260 metres high (B-1). KHANDADHAR is in Odisha, in Sundargarh district in the iron-ore country of the north-west of the State — note that a second waterfall of the same name exists in Keonjhar district, so the DISTRICT is sometimes given differently, but the State is not in doubt and the State is all the question asks (C-2). That leaves PALANI with Himachal Pradesh (D-3). Be honest about this last pair: the Himachal attribution rests on the standard compiled lists of Indian waterfalls and is thinly documented elsewhere, and the name will pull most candidates towards the Palani Hills of Tamil Nadu. But Tamil Nadu is not in List-II at all, and once Goa, Karnataka and Odisha are taken by the three well-attested falls, Himachal Pradesh is the only location left — so the code holds by elimination whatever one makes of the Palani entry.

• (a)A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1 — The near-miss, and the one most candidates land on. It gets Dudhsagar–Goa and Khandadhar–Odisha right and then swaps the other two, sending Barkana to Himachal Pradesh and Palani to Karnataka. Barkana is a Western Ghats fall in the Agumbe belt of Karnataka's Shivamogga district — a monsoon-forest waterfall of the peninsular escarpment, not a Himalayan one.
• (c)A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1 — Nothing survives. It moves Dudhsagar to Himachal Pradesh, Barkana to Odisha, Khandadhar to Goa and Palani to Karnataka. Dudhsagar alone kills it: the cascade on the Mandovi, visible from the Braganza Ghat railway line, is among the best-known waterfalls in India and anchors the whole match-list to Goa.
• (d)A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 — The unshuffled 1-2-3-4 code, and it misplaces all four — Dudhsagar to Karnataka, Barkana to Odisha, Khandadhar to Himachal Pradesh and Palani to Goa. Dudhsagar does straddle the Goa–Karnataka border, so this is the one option with a sliver of an excuse, but the falls themselves lie in Sanguem taluka of South Goa and are always listed under Goa; and the remaining three pairs have nothing to support them.

India's great waterfalls cluster where a river crosses a sharp break of slope, and in peninsular India that break is the Western Ghats escarpment and the edges of the old plateaus. West-flowing rivers dropping off the Ghats give the tallest and best-known falls — Dudhsagar on the Mandovi in Goa, Jog on the Sharavati and Barkana on the Sita in Karnataka, and the many falls of the Agumbe belt, which is one of the wettest places in India. On the eastern side, the Chota Nagpur and Odisha plateaus give a second family, where rivers step off the plateau edge onto the coastal plain: Khandadhar in Sundargarh, Hundru on the Subarnarekha and Dassam on the Kanchi in Jharkhand, Chitrakote on the Indravati in Bastar. The Himalayan falls are a different type again — steeper, snow- and glacier-fed, and generally smaller in volume outside the melt season.

This is recall, but the recall can be organised rather than memorised item by item. Group the falls by escarpment, because the escarpment tells you the State. Anything on the Sita, the Sharavati or the Agumbe scarp is Karnataka; anything on the Mandovi is Goa; a fall in the Sundargarh or Keonjhar iron belt is Odisha. That handles three of four here. As so often in UPPSC's match-lists, the last pair is the weakest documented, and the paper does not require you to know it independently: with three pairs fixed there is exactly one location left, and the code is determined. Learn to spend your time confirming the pairs you can confirm rather than resolving the one you cannot.

• Dudhsagar Falls — on the Mandovi river in South Goa (Sanguem taluka), on the Goa–Karnataka border in the Western Ghats; a four-tiered fall of roughly 310 metres, crossed by the Braganza Ghat railway line.
• Barkana Falls — Shivamogga (Shimoga) district, Karnataka, on the river Sita near Agumbe; about 260 metres, in one of the wettest tracts of the Western Ghats.
• Khandadhar Falls — Odisha, in Sundargarh district in the north-western iron-ore belt; a second waterfall of the same name lies in Keonjhar district, which is why sources differ on the district while agreeing on the State.
• The Palani entry is the weak link: the Himachal Pradesh attribution comes from the standard compiled lists of Indian waterfalls and is not otherwise well documented. The much better known 'Palani' in Indian geography is the Palani HILLS of Tamil Nadu — but Tamil Nadu is not offered in List-II.
• Kunchikal Falls in Karnataka is generally cited as India's highest waterfall, and Jog Falls on the Sharavati as its most famous single-drop fall — both on the same Western Ghats escarpment as Barkana.

• Reading 'Palani' as Tamil Nadu because of the Palani Hills and the Palani temple town. Tamil Nadu is not in List-II here, and the option set does not permit it — always check what List-II actually offers before recalling from habit.
• Assuming Dudhsagar is in Karnataka because it sits on the border and is reached by many visitors from the Karnataka side. The falls are in Sanguem taluka of South Goa and are listed as a Goa waterfall.
• Fixing a fall by district rather than by State when the district itself is disputed. Khandadhar exists in both Sundargarh and Keonjhar; the State, Odisha, is the safe unit of recall.

UPPSC's habit with waterfalls is the pairing — waterfall to State here in 2022, waterfall to river in 2021 as a 'NOT correctly matched' item — so both tables are worth carrying. UPSC has used the river pairing rather than the State pairing, folding it into a 'which of the following pairs are correctly matched' format with three numbered pairs to judge.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Barkana Falls, in the Agumbe belt of the Western Ghats, lies on which river ?

  • (a)Sharavati
  • (b)Sita
  • (c)Kali
  • (d)Netravati

  Answer(b) Sita — Barkana Falls, in Shivamogga district of Karnataka, drops about 260 metres on the river Sita near Agumbe. The Sharavati carries Jog Falls, a different and more famous fall in the same State.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Dudhsagar Falls lies on which of the following rivers ?

  • (a)Zuari
  • (b)Mandovi
  • (c)Terekhol
  • (d)Sharavati

  Answer(b) Mandovi — the four-tiered Dudhsagar cascade falls about 310 metres on the Mandovi in South Goa, on the Western Ghats escarpment at the Goa–Karnataka border. The Zuari and Terekhol are Goa's other main rivers but carry no fall of this kind.