Arrange the following States of India in the ascending order on the basis of their area and select the correct answer from the code given below. 1. Haryana 2. Himachal Pradesh 3. Punjab 4. Uttarakhand Code :
- (a)1, 3, 2, 4
- (b)3, 1, 2, 4
- (c)3, 1, 4, 2
- (d)1, 3, 4, 2
Correct — D, 1, 3, 4, 2 (Haryana → Punjab → Uttarakhand → Himachal Pradesh). Ordered by geographical area the four states run: Haryana 44,212 sq km, Punjab 50,362 sq km, Uttarakhand 53,483 sq km and Himachal Pradesh 55,673 sq km. Ascending — smallest first — that is Haryana (1), Punjab (3), Uttarakhand (4), Himachal Pradesh (2), i.e. 1, 3, 4, 2. The neat fact that makes the whole item memorable is that these four occupy consecutive positions on the national area table: Himachal Pradesh is India's 17th largest state, Uttarakhand 18th, Punjab 19th and Haryana 20th. So the question is really asking whether you know that this cluster of four north-western states sits side by side in the middle of the table, and in exactly which order.
- (a)1, 3, 2, 4 — The first half is right — Haryana is indeed the smallest and Punjab next — but it then puts Himachal Pradesh (2) before Uttarakhand (4). Himachal Pradesh is the LARGEST of the four at 55,673 sq km against Uttarakhand's 53,483 sq km, so Himachal must come last in an ascending list, not third.
- (b)3, 1, 2, 4 — Two separate errors. It opens with Punjab (50,362 sq km) as the smallest when Haryana (44,212 sq km) is smaller by over 6,000 sq km, and it again ends with Uttarakhand instead of Himachal Pradesh.
- (c)3, 1, 4, 2 — This gets the top of the list right — Uttarakhand then Himachal Pradesh — but starts wrongly with Punjab. Haryana, not Punjab, is the smaller of the two Green Revolution twins; they separated in 1966 and Punjab retained the larger share of the old state's territory.
Area rank is a static of Indian physical geography that UPPSC and UPSC both reuse. Among India's states, Himachal Pradesh (55,673 sq km) is 17th, Uttarakhand (53,483 sq km) 18th, Punjab (50,362 sq km) 19th and Haryana (44,212 sq km) 20th — four consecutive ranks. Their present boundaries are all products of post-Independence reorganisation: Haryana and the modern Punjab were separated on 1 November 1966, Himachal Pradesh became a full state on 25 January 1971, and Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000.
The trap in this question is intuition. Punjab and Haryana feel 'big' because they are agriculturally and politically weighty and densely populated, while Himachal and Uttarakhand feel 'small' because they are hill states with sparse settlement. Area runs the other way: mountain states cover a lot of ground with few people on it. If you check the same four by population (Census 2011) you get Punjab about 2.77 crore, Haryana about 2.54 crore, Uttarakhand about 1.01 crore and Himachal about 0.69 crore — very nearly the mirror image of the area order. Whenever a paper asks for an ordering, ask yourself which magnitude is being ordered, because population rank and area rank frequently point in opposite directions.
- Areas: Haryana 44,212 sq km; Punjab 50,362 sq km; Uttarakhand 53,483 sq km; Himachal Pradesh 55,673 sq km
- These are consecutive ranks among Indian states: Himachal 17th, Uttarakhand 18th, Punjab 19th, Haryana 20th
- Himachal Pradesh is the largest of the four despite being the least populous of the four
- Haryana and the present Punjab were separated on 1 November 1966; Himachal Pradesh attained full statehood on 25 January 1971; Uttarakhand was created out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000
- Rajasthan is India's largest state by area and Goa the smallest; among union territories Ladakh is the largest and Lakshadweep the smallest
- Haryana — 44,212 sq km (20th largest state) · item 1
- Punjab — 50,362 sq km (19th) · item 3
- Uttarakhand — 53,483 sq km (18th) · item 4
- Himachal Pradesh — 55,673 sq km (17th, largest of the four) · item 2
Answer (d): 1, 3, 4, 2 — four consecutive national area ranks, 20th up to 17th.
- Reading 'ascending' as 'descending' — UPPSC prints both wordings and the option sets are usually mirror images of each other, so one careless reading flips the answer
- Assuming hill states must be small: Himachal Pradesh is larger than Punjab and Uttarakhand is larger than Punjab too
- Ordering by population, economic size or political prominence instead of by area
UPPSC asks for the sequence itself ('arrange in ascending order … select from the code'), while UPSC more often hides the same static inside a comparison — ascending order of forest cover, of literacy, of road density — so the underlying skill is ranking Indian states on a stated magnitude.
Consider the following States: 1. Chhattisgarh 2. Madhya Pradesh 3. Maharashtra 4. Odisha With reference to the States mentioned above, in terms of percentage of forest cover to the total area of State, which one of the following is the correct ascending order?
- (a) 2-3-1-4
- (b) 2-3-4-1
- (c) 3-2-4-1
- (d) 3-2-1-4
Answer(c) 3-2-4-1
The same task in UPSC's own words — take four named Indian states and put them in ascending order on a single geographical magnitude. There the magnitude is percentage of forest cover, here it is total area, but the discipline is identical: know the numbers, then read 'ascending' carefully before picking a code.
Which among the following districts of Uttar Pradesh is smallest in terms of area?
- (a) Hamirpur
- (b) Hardoi
- (c) Hathras
- (d) Hapur
Answer(d) Hapur
Same concept — ranking Indian administrative units by geographical area. UPPSC asked it at district level for Uttar Pradesh in 2021 and at state level in 2025, so area tables for both UP's districts and India's states are worth committing to memory.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is the correct descending order of these states by geographical area?
- (a)Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana
- (b)Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana
- (c)Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab
- (d)Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh
Answer(a) Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana — the exact reverse of the ascending order, 17th down to 20th among Indian states.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The present states of Punjab and Haryana were separated from each other in the year
- (a)1956
- (b)1960
- (c)1966
- (d)1971
Answer(c) 1966 — the Punjab Reorganisation Act came into force on 1 November 1966, creating Haryana and transferring hill areas to Himachal Pradesh.