Geography: previous-year questions
167 real UPSC Prelims questions (2011–2026) with the official answer and a clear explanation. 67 of them came in the last five papers.
How often UPSC asks this
Questions per year, counted from the official papers.
Subtopics
Attempt the questions
Newest papers first. Tap an option; the answer and the reason appear instantly.
Why are dewdrops not formed on a cloudy night?
Answer (b) & explanation
Clouds reflect the Earth's radiation back (b). Dew forms when the ground loses heat at night by sending out long-wave radiation, cooling the air touching it below its dew point. The water vapour then condenses into drops. On a cloudy night, clouds send much of this outgoing radiation back to the ground, so the surface stays warm and does not cool to the dew point. Option (a) is only partly true, since clouds absorb and re-radiate the heat, but the key's answer is the return of heat. Option (c) is wrong because cloudy nights are warmer. Option (d) is wrong because clouds do not deflect wind.
Clear, calm nights with moist air give the heaviest dew. Notice the same idea in winter frost and radiation fog over North India.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the management of minor minerals in India, consider the following statements :
- 1. Sand is a ‘minor mineral’ according to the prevailing law in the country.
- 2. State Governments have the power to grant mining leases of minor minerals, but the powers regarding the formation of rules related to the grant of minor minerals lie with the Central Government.
- 3. State Governments have the power to frame rules to prevent illegal mining of minor minerals.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer (a) & explanation
Statements 1 and 3 are correct (a). Statement 1 is right because sand used for ordinary purposes is a minor mineral under Section 3(e) of the MMDR Act, 1957. Other minor minerals include stone, gravel and clay. Statement 2 is wrong because, under Section 15, the state governments both grant leases and make the rules for minor minerals. The Centre does this for major minerals. Statement 3 is right because, under Section 23C, states can frame rules to prevent illegal mining, transport and storage of minerals.
Notice the 2023 change: offshore areas are covered by a separate law, the Offshore Areas Mineral Act, with sand blocks auctioned from 2024–25. Illegal sand mining is a recurring issue in Bihar, UP and Punjab.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
On 21st June, the Sun
Answer (a) & explanation
On 21 June the Sun does not set at the Arctic Circle (a). On the June solstice, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, and the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23.5°N) at noon. So places on and north of the Arctic Circle (66.5°N) have 24 hours of daylight, the "midnight sun". Option (b) is wrong because the Antarctic Circle has 24 hours of darkness then. Option (c) is wrong because the Sun is overhead at the equator only at the equinoxes (about 21 March and 23 September). Option (d) is wrong because it is overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn on about 22 December.
Notice that 21 June is also International Yoga Day, chosen as the year's longest day in the north.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which one of the following groups of plants was domesticated in the ‘New World’ and introduced into the ‘Old World’?
Answer (a) & explanation
Tobacco, cocoa and rubber came from the New World (a). After Columbus (1492), plants moved between continents in the Columbian exchange. Tobacco, cocoa and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis, from the Amazon) were all domesticated in the Americas, along with maize, potato, tomato, chillies, cashew, papaya and pineapple. Option (b) is wrong because cotton was domesticated separately in both worlds, including the Indus Valley. Option (c) is wrong because coffee came from Ethiopia and sugarcane from New Guinea and South Asia. Option (d) is wrong because wheat came from the Fertile Crescent in West Asia.
Notice that the Portuguese brought chillies, tobacco, potato and cashew to India. Henry Wickham took rubber seeds from Brazil to Kew in 1876, spreading it to Asia.
Cotton was domesticated in both the Old and the New World, so any option that includes it is unsafe.
One trap spotted is one mark saved. The PYQ Book lines up every trap UPSC has set, so you walk in prepared. Try the free sample
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Famous place | River
| 1. Pandharpur | Chandrabhaga
| 2. Tiruchirappalli | Cauvery
| 3. Hampi | Malaprabha
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer (a) & explanation
Pairs 1 and 2 are correct (a). Pandharpur, in Maharashtra's Solapur district, is home to the Vithoba (Vitthal) temple. It stands on the Bhima river, which is called the Chandrabhaga there because it curves like a crescent moon. Tiruchirappalli, with the Srirangam temple on its river island, lies on the Cauvery. Pair 3 is wrong because Hampi, the Vijayanagara capital, is on the Tungabhadra. The Malaprabha flows past Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami, the Chalukya temple sites.
Notice the Pandharpur Wari, the yearly foot pilgrimage of the Warkaris on Ashadhi Ekadashi, carrying the padukas of Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram. Srirangam's Ranganathaswamy temple has one of Asia's tallest gopurams.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Sea | Bordering country
| 1. Adriatic Sea | Albania
| 2. Black Sea | Croatia
| 3. Caspian Sea | Kazakhstan
| 4. Mediterranean Sea | Morocco
| 5. Red Sea | Syria
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer (b) & explanation
Pairs 1, 3 and 4 are correct (b). Albania lies on the Adriatic Sea (1), facing Italy. Kazakhstan borders the Caspian Sea (3), the world's largest inland water body, along with Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan. Morocco has coasts on both the Mediterranean (4) and the Atlantic. Pair 2 is wrong because Croatia is on the Adriatic, not the Black Sea, which borders Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. Pair 5 is wrong because Syria's coast is on the Mediterranean, not the Red Sea.
Notice the news: Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping (2023–25) forced ships around Africa. The Black Sea grain corridor is key in the Russia–Ukraine war.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Glacier | River
| 1. Bandarpunch | Yamuna
| 2. Bara Shigri | Chenab
| 3. Milam | Mandakini
| 4. Siachen | Nubra
| 5. Zemu | Manas
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer (a) & explanation
Pairs 1, 2 and 4 are correct (a). Bandarpunch glacier in Uttarakhand feeds the Yamuna (1). Bara Shigri, the largest glacier in Himachal Pradesh, feeds the Chandra, which becomes the Chenab (2). Siachen in Ladakh is the source of the Nubra river (4). Pair 3 is wrong because the Milam glacier is the source of the Goriganga, while the Mandakini rises from Chorabari glacier near Kedarnath. Pair 5 is wrong because the Zemu glacier, Sikkim's largest, feeds the Teesta, not the Manas.
Notice the risks: the South Lhonak glacial lake outburst in Sikkim (2023) destroyed the Chungthang dam on the Teesta. Siachen is the world's highest battlefield, held by India since Operation Meghdoot (1984).
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsabati?
Answer (d) & explanation
All three are water reservoirs (d). Aliyar reservoir is in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, at the foot of the Anamalai hills, and is part of the Parambikulam–Aliyar project shared with Kerala. Isapur dam is on the Penganga river in Maharashtra's Yavatmal–Hingoli area. Kangsabati dam, at Mukutmanipur, is in West Bengal's Bankura district. None of them is a uranium deposit (a), rainforest (b) or cave system (c).
UPSC often picks reservoirs from different states to test map knowledge. Notice India's largest reservoirs: Indira Sagar (Narmada, MP) by storage, and the Hirakud dam, among the world's longest earthen dams. The Dam Safety Act, 2021 now covers about 6,000 large dams.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Towns sometimes mentioned in news | Country
| 1. Aleppo | Syria
| 2. Kirkuk | Yemen
| 3. Mosul | Palestine
| 4. Mazar-i-sharif | Afghanistan
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Pairs 1 and 4 are correct (b). Aleppo is in Syria (1). It was a major battleground in the civil war and was retaken by government forces in 2016. Mazar-i-Sharif is in northern Afghanistan (4), near Uzbekistan, and is famous for its Blue Mosque. Pair 2 is wrong because Kirkuk, the oil city disputed between Baghdad and the Kurds, is in Iraq, not Yemen. Pair 3 is wrong because Mosul, the ISIS stronghold retaken in 2017, is also in Iraq, not Palestine.
The Assad regime fell in December 2024, and Ahmed al-Sharaa leads Syria. Notice India's links: India rescued nurses from Mosul in 2014, and 39 Indian workers were killed there by ISIS.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following statements :
- 1. The Earth’s magnetic field has reversed every few hundred thousand years.
- 2. When the Earth was created more than 4000 million years ago, there was 54% oxygen and no carbon dioxide.
- 3. When living organisms originated, they modified the early atmosphere of the Earth.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (c) & explanation
Statements 1 and 3 are correct (c). Statement 1 is right because magnetic stripes in ocean-floor basalt show the Earth's field has reversed many times, roughly every few hundred thousand years. The last full reversal, Brunhes–Matuyama, was about 780,000 years ago. Statement 2 is wrong because the early atmosphere had almost no free oxygen. It was full of carbon dioxide, water vapour, nitrogen and other gases from volcanoes. Statement 3 is right because life changed the air: cyanobacteria began photosynthesis, releasing oxygen in the Great Oxidation Event about 2.4 billion years ago, which later allowed the ozone layer to form.
Notice the link: today's air is about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, the result of billions of years of life at work.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which one of the following is an artificial lake ?
Answer (a) & explanation
Kodaikanal Lake is artificial (a). This star-shaped lake in the Palani Hills, Tamil Nadu, was created in 1863 by Sir Vere Henry Levinge, then Collector of Madurai, by damming streams. Kolleru (b) is a large natural freshwater lake between the Godavari and Krishna deltas in Andhra Pradesh, a Ramsar site and bird sanctuary. Nainital (c) is a natural lake in Kumaon, generally thought to be tectonic in origin. Renuka (d) in Sirmaur, Himachal, is a natural lake, the largest in the state, and a Ramsar site.
Notice other well-known man-made lakes: Hussain Sagar (Hyderabad), Sukhna (Chandigarh), Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar (Rihand, UP), and Ooty Lake. India now has over 90 Ramsar sites.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following statements :
- 1. The Barren Island volcano is an active volcano located in the Indian territory.
- 2. Barren Island lies about 140 km east of Great Nicobar.
- 3. The last time the Barren Island volcano erupted was in 1991 and it has remained inactive since then.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (a) & explanation
Only statement 1 is correct (a). Barren Island, in the Andaman Sea, is India's only confirmed active volcano, and the only one in South Asia. Statement 2 is wrong because it lies about 140 km north-east of Port Blair, not east of Great Nicobar. Statement 3 is wrong because, after waking in 1991 following about 200 years of rest, it erupted again in 1994–95, 2005–07, 2017 and later. It sits where the Indian Plate slides under the Burma microplate.
Do not confuse it with Narcondam, a dormant volcano to its north and home of the Narcondam hornbill. Notice the link to the 2004 tsunami, caused by the same subduction zone off Sumatra.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Regions sometimes mentioned in news | Country
| 1. Catalonia | Spain
| 2. Crimea | Hungary
| 3. Mindanao | Philippines
| 4. Oromia | Nigeria
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched ?
Answer (c) & explanation
Pairs 1 and 3 are correct (c). Catalonia is in north-east Spain, with Barcelona as its capital. It held an illegal independence referendum in 2017. Mindanao is the big southern island of the Philippines, where ISIS-linked fighters held Marawi in 2017. The Bangsamoro autonomous region was created there in 2019. Pair 2 is wrong because Crimea is a peninsula of Ukraine, annexed by Russia in 2014, not part of Hungary. Pair 4 is wrong because Oromia is the largest region of Ethiopia, home to the Oromo people, not Nigeria.
Crimea is central to the Russia–Ukraine war (since 2022). Notice the Philippines' links to India: it bought BrahMos missiles (delivered from 2024).
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
As per the NSSO 70th Round “Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households”, consider the following statements :
- 1. Rajasthan has the highest percentage share of agricultural households among its rural households.
- 2. Out of the total agricultural households in the country, a little over 60 percent belong to OBCs.
- 3. In Kerala, a little over 60 percent of agricultural households reported to have received maximum income from sources other than agricultural activities.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (c) & explanation
Statements 1 and 3 are correct (c). In the NSSO 70th Round survey (2013), Rajasthan had the highest share of rural households that were agricultural, about 78% (1). In Kerala, about 61% of agricultural households earned most of their income from non-farm sources, such as wages, business and remittances (3). Statement 2 is wrong because about 45% of agricultural households were OBC, not over 60%. The national average income of a farm household was about ₹6,426 a month.
The 77th Round (2019) later found ₹10,218 a month, with wages now the largest income source. Notice how this links to the idea of doubling farmers' income (the Dalwai Committee) and to rural income diversification.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Among the following cities, which one lies on a longitude closest to that of Delhi?
Answer (a) & explanation
Bengaluru lies closest to Delhi's longitude (a). Delhi is at about 77.2° E. Bengaluru is at about 77.6° E, almost directly south of Delhi, a gap of only about 0.4°. Hyderabad (b) is at about 78.5° E, Nagpur (c) at about 79.1° E, and Pune (d) at about 73.9° E, all farther away. So the gap is smallest for Bengaluru.
A quick map trick: India's west coast slants towards the southeast, so cities in the south lie east of where you might expect. Notice the reference line too: IST is based on 82.5° E, which passes near Mirzapur (Prayagraj region), UP. That puts India 5:30 hours ahead of GMT. India stretches about 30° of longitude, from Gujarat to Arunachal, about two hours of solar time.
Nagpur is India's geographic centre, but its longitude is about 2° east of Delhi's.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
At one of the places in India, if you stand on the seashore and watch the sea, you will find that the sea water recedes from the shore line a few kilometres and comes back to the shore, twice a day, and you can actually walk on the sea floor when the water recedes. This unique phenomenon is seen at
Answer (c) & explanation
This happens at Chandipur (c). At Chandipur beach in Balasore district, Odisha, the shore slopes so gently that at low tide the sea pulls back up to about 5 km. You can walk on the exposed sea floor, and the water returns with the next tide, twice a day. This "hide-and-seek beach" is also home to horseshoe crabs, and DRDO's Integrated Test Range for missiles is nearby. Bhavnagar (a) is in Gujarat and has high tides but no such walkable retreat. Bheemunipatnam (b) and Nagapattinam (d) are ordinary beaches.
Tides happen twice a day because of the Moon's pull. Notice the extremes: the Gulf of Khambhat has India's highest tidal range, which makes it a site for possible tidal power.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to river Teesta, consider the following statements :
- 1. The source of river Teesta is the same as that of Brahmaputra but it flows through Sikkim.
- 2. River Rangeet originates in Sikkim and it is a tributary of river Teesta.
- 3. River Teesta flows into Bay of Bengal on the border of India and Bangladesh.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Only statement 2 is correct (b). Statement 1 is wrong because the Teesta rises from glaciers and lakes in north Sikkim, such as Tso Lhamo/Cholamu and the Zemu glacier near Kangchenjunga. The Brahmaputra starts at the Chemayungdung glacier near Mansarovar in Tibet. Statement 2 is right because the Rangeet rises in west Sikkim and joins the Teesta near the Sikkim–West Bengal border. Statement 3 is wrong because the Teesta flows into the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) inside Bangladesh, not straight into the Bay of Bengal.
The Teesta water-sharing deal with Bangladesh is still unsigned because of West Bengal's objections. Notice the related events: the South Lhonak GLOF in October 2023 destroyed the Chungthang dam, and China has offered to fund Teesta projects in Bangladesh.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
If you travel by road from Kohima to Kottayam, what is the minimum number of States within India through which you can travel, including the origin and the destination ?
Answer (b) & explanation
The minimum is seven States (b). The shortest route by number of States is Nagaland → Assam → West Bengal → Odisha → Andhra Pradesh → Tamil Nadu → Kerala, which is seven States, including the start and end. The narrow Siliguri Corridor ("Chicken's Neck") makes passing through West Bengal unavoidable. Going inland through Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh or Telangana adds States, so 8 (c) or 9 (d) is not the minimum, and 6 (a) is not possible.
The national highway along the east coast makes this route practical. Notice the strategic point: the Siliguri Corridor, about 20–22 km wide, is the northeast's only land link to the rest of India, which is why projects through Bangladesh and the Kaladan route matter.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Mediterranean Sea is a border of which of the following countries ?
- 1. Jordan
- 2. Iraq
- 3. Lebanon
- 4. Syria
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Answer (c) & explanation
Only Lebanon and Syria border the Mediterranean (c). Lebanon (3) has a coastline with Beirut, Tyre and Sidon, and Syria (4) has its coast at Latakia and Tartus. Jordan (1) is almost landlocked, reaching the sea only at Aqaba on the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Iraq (2) reaches the sea only at the head of the Persian Gulf, near Basra and Umm Qasr. So any option with 1 or 2 is wrong.
Other countries on the eastern Mediterranean are Israel, Turkey, Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Notice the map points that matter today: Haifa port (Adani-run, part of IMEC), Russia's naval base at Tartus, and the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
Jordan sits right next to the Levant coast, but its only sea access is Aqaba on the Red Sea.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following statements :
- 1. In India, the Himalayas are spread over five States only.
- 2. Western Ghats are spread over five States only.
- 3. Pulicat Lake is spread over two States only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Only statement 3 is correct (b). Statement 1 is wrong because the Indian Himalayas cross many States and UTs, about 12: Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal (Darjeeling), Arunachal Pradesh, and the northeastern hill ranges. Statement 2 is wrong because the Western Ghats run through six States: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Statement 3 is right because Pulicat Lake, India's second-largest brackish lagoon, lies in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu only.
Sriharikota, with ISRO's launch centre, separates Pulicat from the sea. Notice that Chilika (Odisha) is the largest lagoon. The Western Ghats are a UNESCO site (2012) and one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.