Match List-I with List-II and choose the correct answer using the codes given below the lists : List-I (Canals) A. Upper Bari Doab Canal B. Sirhind Canal C. Gurgaon Canal D. Indira Gandhi Canal List-II (Rivers) 1. Sutlej 2. Yamuna 3. Sutlej, Ravi, Beas 4. Ravi Codes :
- (a)A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2
- (b)A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4
- (c)A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3
- (d)A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4
Correct — C, A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3. The Upper Bari Doab Canal (A) off-takes from the Ravi at the Madhopur headworks in Punjab — it was opened in 1859 and today waters the Pathankot–Gurdaspur–Batala–Amritsar tract — so A goes with 4, the Ravi. The Sirhind Canal (B) draws from the Sutlej at the Ropar (Rupnagar) headworks, was inaugurated in 1882, and divides at Doraha in Ludhiana district into branches that irrigate the Malwa country of Punjab — so B goes with 1, the Sutlej. The Gurgaon Canal (C) is a Yamuna canal taken off at the Okhla barrage below Delhi, built in the Third Plan period to irrigate the Gurugram–Faridabad–Palwal tract of Haryana — so C goes with 2, the Yamuna. The Indira Gandhi Canal (D) — the Rajasthan Canal until it was renamed — begins at the Harike barrage, where the Sutlej and the Beas meet, and carries water some 837 km through Punjab and Haryana into the Thar Desert; the water it carries is Rajasthan's share of the eastern rivers of the Indus system, the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, which is why List-II names all three — so D goes with 3. That gives A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3, which is option (c).
- (a)A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2 — It starts correctly with the Ravi and the Sutlej but then swaps the last two, sending the Gurgaon Canal to the three Punjab rivers and the Indira Gandhi Canal to the Yamuna. The Indira Gandhi Canal has no connection to the Yamuna at all — it is an Indus-system canal that starts at Harike in Punjab.
- (b)A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4 — Every pair is wrong. It gives the Upper Bari Doab Canal all three Punjab rivers, puts the Sirhind Canal on the Yamuna, the Gurgaon Canal on the Sutlej and the Indira Gandhi Canal on the Ravi alone — none of which matches the actual headworks of these canals.
- (d)A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4 — This is the near miss: Sirhind–Sutlej and Gurgaon–Yamuna are right, but A and D are interchanged. The Upper Bari Doab Canal is a single-river canal fed by the Ravi at Madhopur, while it is the Indira Gandhi Canal — not the UBDC — whose supply is drawn from the combined eastern-rivers pool of Sutlej, Ravi and Beas.
Every canal is identified by its headworks — the barrage or weir where it leaves a river — not by the districts it eventually waters. In the north-west that river is almost always one of the eastern rivers of the Indus system (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej), except in the Delhi–Haryana tract, where the Yamuna is the source. Learn each canal as a pair of place-names: Upper Bari Doab at Madhopur on the Ravi, Sirhind at Ropar on the Sutlej, Gurgaon at Okhla on the Yamuna, Indira Gandhi at Harike where the Sutlej and Beas join.
The examiner has built the trap into List-II by putting one composite entry, 'Sutlej, Ravi, Beas', among three single rivers — so the whole item turns on which canal is the multi-river one. It is the Indira Gandhi Canal: its supply is Rajasthan's allocated share of the eastern rivers, delivered through the Harike barrage. A candidate who does not know that will attach the composite entry to the Upper Bari Doab Canal, purely because 'Doab' sounds like more than one river — which is precisely option (d). The cure is the etymology: the Bari Doab is the land between the Beas and the Ravi (Ba- from Beas, -ri from Ravi), and the canal that waters its upper part is fed by the Ravi at Madhopur. The other doabs follow the same pattern — Bist Jalandhar between the Beas and the Sutlej, Rechna between the Ravi and the Chenab, Chaj between the Chenab and the Jhelum.
- Upper Bari Doab Canal — off-takes from the Ravi at Madhopur headworks, Punjab; opened in 1859; the network runs to some 3,100 km and irrigates about 5.7 lakh hectares, serving Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Batala and Amritsar.
- Sirhind Canal — off-takes from the Sutlej at the Ropar (Rupnagar) headworks; inaugurated in 1882 and among the oldest and largest irrigation works of the Indus system; it splits at Doraha in Ludhiana district into branches that cover the Malwa region.
- Gurgaon Canal — a Yamuna canal taken off at the Okhla barrage below Delhi (the Agra Canal leaves the same barrage) and built during the Third Five Year Plan period to irrigate the Gurugram–Faridabad–Palwal tract of Haryana.
- Indira Gandhi Canal — named the Rajasthan Canal until it was renamed after Indira Gandhi; construction began in 1958; head at the Harike barrage at the Sutlej–Beas confluence; total length about 837 km through Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan into the Thar Desert.
- The 'Sutlej, Ravi, Beas' entry reflects the allocation, not a single junction: Rajasthan's entitlement is a share of the eastern rivers of the Indus system, while the barrage at Harike itself stands where only the Sutlej and the Beas meet.
- Reading 'Bari Doab' as a canal fed by more than one river. It names the tract between the Beas and the Ravi; the canal itself takes off from the Ravi at Madhopur.
- Attaching the Indira Gandhi Canal to the Ghaggar — UPSC asked exactly this in 2000, and the answer is that the canal carries Sutlej–Beas water from Harike, not Ghaggar water.
- Confusing the Sirhind Canal (Sutlej, at Ropar) with the Sirhind Feeder, and the Gurgaon Canal with the Agra Canal — both of the latter leave the Yamuna at the same Okhla barrage.
UPPSC sets this as a four-pair match list of canals or projects against rivers or States; UPSC prefers a single 'which of these pairs is not correctly matched' line on dam–river or wetland–confluence pairs. Both reward knowing the headworks, not the command area.
Which one of the following statements is not true?
- (a) Ghaggar’s water is utilised in the Indira Gandhi Canal
- (b) Narmada rises from Amarkantak region
- (c) Nizam Sagar is situated on the Manjira River
- (d) Penganga is a tributary of the Godavari
Answer(a) Ghaggar’s water is utilised in the Indira Gandhi Canal
The same fact tested from the other side — UPSC's falsifier is precisely the claim that the Indira Gandhi Canal runs on Ghaggar water, when it in fact carries Sutlej–Beas water drawn at Harike.
Consider the following pairs : Wetlands — Confluence of rivers 1. Harike Wetlands : Confluence of Beas and Satluj/Sutlej 2. Keoladeo Ghana National Park : Confluence of Banas and Chambal 3. Kolleru Lake : Confluence of Musi and Krishna Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 only
Fixes the head of the Indira Gandhi Canal: Harike, the barrage from which the canal starts, stands at the Beas–Sutlej confluence — the single most useful fact for row D.
Which of the following Mughal period canals, was constructed by restoring the Rajabwah of Firuz Shah ?
- (a) Shekhnu-Ni
- (b) Shahab Nahr
- (c) Nahr-i-Bihisht
- (d) Nahr-i-Agra
Answer(b) Shahab Nahr
The historical ancestor of the same Yamuna canal system that the Gurgaon Canal belongs to — Firuz Shah's Rajabwah, restored under Akbar, is the line that eventually became the Western Yamuna Canal network of the Delhi–Haryana tract.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Indira Gandhi Canal takes off from which one of the following barrages?
- (a)Madhopur headworks
- (b)Ropar headworks
- (c)Harike barrage
- (d)Okhla barrage
Answer(c) Harike barrage — it stands at the confluence of the Sutlej and the Beas in Punjab. Madhopur is on the Ravi (Upper Bari Doab Canal), Ropar on the Sutlej (Sirhind Canal) and Okhla on the Yamuna (Agra and Gurgaon canals).
- practice — not a real PYQ
The 'Bari Doab' of the Punjab plains is the tract lying between which two rivers?
- (a)Sutlej and Beas
- (b)Beas and Ravi
- (c)Ravi and Chenab
- (d)Chenab and Jhelum
Answer(b) Beas and Ravi — the name itself is built from Beas + Ravi. Sutlej–Beas is the Bist Jalandhar Doab, Ravi–Chenab the Rechna Doab and Chenab–Jhelum the Chaj Doab.