UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 110 of 150

Correct — D, only 1, Lalitpur. Lalitpur is Uttar Pradesh's southernmost district and effectively a salient of the state pushed down into Madhya Pradesh: it is bounded by Sagar and Tikamgarh to the east and south-east and by Ashoknagar to the west across the Betwa, all in Madhya Pradesh, and it touches its own state at only one point — a narrow corridor in the north-east that connects it to Jhansi. That single intra-state neighbour is what the question is after. The other two districts named are corner districts too, but corner position works the other way for them. Saharanpur, in the far north-west, borders Muzaffarnagar and Shamli within Uttar Pradesh, in addition to Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana outside it. Sonbhadra, at the south-eastern tip, borders Mirzapur and Chandauli within the state, in addition to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar — it is in fact the only district in India that touches four other states. Both therefore have two Uttar Pradesh neighbours, not one, so only statement 1 qualifies and the code gives (d).

• (a)Only 1 and 2 — Lalitpur qualifies, Saharanpur does not. Saharanpur lies in Uttar Pradesh's north-western corner, wedged between Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, which makes it feel isolated from the rest of the state — but within Uttar Pradesh it still has two neighbours, Muzaffarnagar to the south and Shamli to the south-west. Shamli is the one people forget, since it was carved out of Muzaffarnagar only in 2011.
• (b)Only 2 and 3 — This drops the one district that actually fits and keeps the two that do not. Saharanpur borders Muzaffarnagar and Shamli within Uttar Pradesh, and Sonbhadra borders Mirzapur and Chandauli — two intra-state neighbours each. Sonbhadra's fame comes from the opposite property: it touches four different states, which is why candidates wrongly assume it must be cut off from Uttar Pradesh.
• (c)All 1, 2 and 3 — Only one of the three has a single Uttar Pradesh neighbour. Being on the edge of the state means having many inter-state neighbours, not few intra-state ones; Saharanpur and Sonbhadra each keep two districts of their own state on their inner side, and only Lalitpur narrows to a single connection, through Jhansi.

Lalitpur is the extreme case of a familiar map feature — a district that projects out of its own state into a neighbour's territory. Sitting at the southern end of Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand, in Jhansi division, it is almost entirely ringed by Madhya Pradesh, with Sagar and Tikamgarh on the east and south-east and Ashoknagar across the Betwa on the west, so its only link to the rest of Uttar Pradesh is a narrow neck in the north-east that meets Jhansi. That geometry makes it the answer to the specific question of which Uttar Pradesh district borders just one other Uttar Pradesh district. Saharanpur and Sonbhadra occupy the other two extremities of the state and are the natural distractors, because their outer sides are all inter-state boundary; but each still faces two districts of its own state on the inner side.

Questions of this type are answered on the shape of the district, not on its position, and the two are easily confused. A corner district has a long external boundary and therefore looks isolated, which is why Saharanpur and Sonbhadra are offered here; but a long external boundary tells you nothing about how many of your own state's districts you touch. What matters is whether the district narrows to a neck. Lalitpur does — it hangs off Jhansi. Saharanpur does not: it broadens southwards into the Doab and meets both Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. Sonbhadra does not either: it runs north-west into Mirzapur and Chandauli. It also helps to hold the two headline district facts together, because they are opposites that examiners like to pair. Sonbhadra is India's only district bordering four states, and Lalitpur is Uttar Pradesh's district bordering just one district of its own state. Note that the counting is intra-state — the question asks only about other districts of Uttar Pradesh, so boundaries with Madhya Pradesh, Bihar or Uttarakhand are irrelevant to the count.

• Lalitpur is Uttar Pradesh's southernmost district, part of Bundelkhand and of Jhansi division, and it borders only Jhansi within Uttar Pradesh — it is otherwise almost entirely surrounded by Madhya Pradesh
• Madhya Pradesh's Sagar and Tikamgarh lie to Lalitpur's east and south-east, and Ashoknagar lies to its west across the Betwa
• Saharanpur, in Uttar Pradesh's north-western corner, borders Muzaffarnagar and Shamli within the state, and Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana outside it
• Sonbhadra, at the state's south-eastern tip, borders Mirzapur and Chandauli within Uttar Pradesh and is the only district in India touching four states — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar
• Sonbhadra is also Uttar Pradesh's most forested district, at roughly 36 to 37 per cent of its area, which is why the same corner of the state keeps appearing in UPPSC's geography questions
• Uttar Pradesh as a whole borders nine states and union territories — Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar — besides an international boundary with Nepal

• Assuming a corner district must have few neighbours within its own state; edge position multiplies inter-state neighbours instead, which is why Saharanpur and Sonbhadra are the distractors here
• Forgetting Shamli, created out of Muzaffarnagar in 2011, when counting Saharanpur's intra-state neighbours
• Counting inter-state boundaries by mistake — the question asks only about other districts of Uttar Pradesh
• Confusing Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh with Lalitpur in Nepal, the city also known as Patan

UPPSC's Uttar Pradesh geography block asks district-level adjacency and district-level extremes almost every year — the smallest district by area in 2021, which district contains a named sanctuary in 2023, and here which district touches only one other; UPSC asks the same skill one level up, counting how many states a given state or route touches.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following districts of Uttar Pradesh shares its boundary with four other Indian States?

  • (a)Lalitpur
  • (b)Sonbhadra
  • (c)Chandauli
  • (d)Ballia

  Answer(b) Sonbhadra — it touches Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, and is the only district in India bordering four states.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh belongs to which one of the following administrative divisions?

  • (a)Chitrakoot division
  • (b)Jhansi division
  • (c)Prayagraj division
  • (d)Kanpur division

  Answer(b) Jhansi division — which comprises Jhansi, Jalaun and Lalitpur; Jhansi is also the only Uttar Pradesh district that Lalitpur borders.