 Hi, this is Gautam and welcome to Shankre's Academy YouTube channel. Now we are hardly one month away from films and what we thought is we will be having a series of discussions of previous year UPSC questions. So first for today's video we will be starting with geography then we will proceed with other subjects as economics, equality and history. Now I just want to make the objective of this session pretty clear. Now as you would expect the objective of the session is not to tell you about the technicalities which is part of the subject or the multiple things which you need to know dot for geography. The objective is just to tell you the pattern and the daemon or behind UPSC questions. The questions are not difficult but they have the prospect to be tricky and if you start to look at how previously UPSC questions are mostly done in general they follow a specific pattern and by following certain level of reasoning and logic you should be able to eliminate options and narrow down to questions. So that is what we will be mostly looking at for today. So we will have a series of discussion for 30 questions and you will see that at the end of the discussion if you are able to apply logic and reasoning even without you know very deep knowledge of the subject you will be able to narrow down to your answer. So we shall start with question one. So consider following statements the earth's magnetic field has reversed every few thousand few hundred thousand years. Now kindly note when you have a two statement or a three statement question or at times in terms of match the following you can have maybe four or five statements in those type of situations it is better if you could start from statement three or statement four. The reason being that when you start from the fourth or third statement there is more possibility in which you can eliminate your options. So we start from statement three. Now when living organisms originated they modified the earth's early atmosphere of the earth. Fine. You go to second statement when the earth was created more than four thousand million years ago there was 54% carbon dioxide 54% oxygen and no carbon dioxide. Now this is a pattern which you can see with respect to most questions in UPSC. The use of words know only all which have a complete negation. Now it is pretty logical if you applied like carbon dioxide even today's earth you know it's a very very important significant component even though the percentage of carbon dioxide in atmosphere is pretty incomparable to nitrogen or oxygen the role it plays in terms of global warming is extraordinary even in the minuscule percentage. But if you look at the word which is given here it simply says that like before four thousand million years there was absolutely no carbon dioxide which you know that is logically not correct. So you take out statement two which means options B and D goes out of contention so easily both of them are eliminated. Now if you look at the remaining options statement one automatically becomes correct. So all need to focus on a statement three when living organisms originated they modify the early atmosphere of the earth. Now everyone knows with a slight reading of the previous or you say the foundation of the universe that by the evolution of these organisms when they came into the picture cyanobacteria they modify the earth's atmosphere because these are the first organisms to functionalize photosynthesis and after photosynthesis became a part of living organisms carbon dioxide was taken in and oxygen was given out as part of the process. This changed the early atmosphere now if you look at the third statement yes you might need to do a level of reading but again that is preliminary reading. So this question is pretty easier just because of this one word no. So since third statement is correct the answer is C. Now applying the same principle we will go to the second question. What are the significances of a practical approach to sugarcane production known as sustainable sugarcane initiative. Now at the outset if you look at the four statements it is given here you might tend to think that this is a time consuming question because four statements again starting with the principle statement four scope for intercropping is more than is compared to conventional method statement three there is no application of chemical fertilizers statement two drip irrigation can be practiced effectively first statement seed cost is very low in this compared now kindly note to understand and answer this question all you need to focus on is a word in statement three. Now if you look at sustainable agriculture the statement three says there is no application of chemical or inorganic fertilizers at this if you look at your preliminary reading any subject any book when it talks about sustainable agriculture there is always this difference with respect to organic farming in organic farming or organic agriculture there is absolutely no application of chemical or inorganic fertilizers but when it comes to sustainable practices it is not that chemical fertilizers are completely dissolved at all they can be used but they use is to be monitored properly so you clearly know that statement three is wrong because of this factor if statement three is wrong option D goes out option C goes out and option one goes out the answer is B it is that simple you know need not break your head thinking about drip irrigation or scope of intercropping or talk about seed cost all you need to focus on is that sustainable agriculture in sustainable agriculture you can use chemical fertilizers that's only thing which matters so I I hope you're getting the pattern clear now moving to the next question comes the following statements again since we are dealing with the same pattern of questions you can clearly see it here there is no east flowing rivers in Kerala there are no west flowing rivers in Madhya Pradesh when you talk about river systems in India you pretty much know the level of rivers which we have it is innumerable and when you say that there is absolutely no east flowing rivers logically you know it is wrong at the same thing goes for your second statement too there are no west flowing rivers in Madhya Pradesh you have so many the major river being Tappi itself which flows to Madhya Pradesh so both statements are wrong because of this again complete negation statement the answer is Delhi moving to the next question with reference to the role of UN Habitat in United Nations program working towards a better urban future which are the following statements are correct now here we are moving to an international organization well you might ask me how is this related to geography well you know when you talk about urban habitat it is part of the program because classification of subjects is highly subjective after all now if you again we use the same principle UN Habitat contributes to overall UN in our nation system to reduce poverty promote access to safe drinking water and sanitation okay look at second statement it's partners or either governments or authorities only now this is a word which is frequently occurring in at least 10 to 15 questions if you take 100 questions in a question paper so all you need to focus on is that this only word is provided you need to focus more so logical thinking again you are talking about a United Nations organization and if in a United Nations organization you know it is a global institution which will obviously have interlinking or cooperation with so many institutions which are in and around the world will it have cooperation with governments yes will it have cooperation with authorities yes of course you need executive bodies to function but when you use the word only you clearly know that it is kind of a restriction which the organization is placing on itself like if you want to provide safe drinking water and sanitation environmentally sustainable solutions why would you restrict yourself in operating with only governments and authorities why don't you go further so if you just use that logic you know that both option A and option C goes out of contention because your second statement is wrong now for tussle between options B and D you know that statement one is automatically correct now third statement requires some amount of reading of course in which you get the background on how it exactly works so the answer is Bombay for this it does contribute to United Nations system to reduce poverty and promote access to safe drinking water so the key word here was only moving to question five in India the problem of soil erosion is associated with which of the following now let's look at the three statements now again we use the same principle starting from statement three tropical climate fine deforestation fine terrace cultivation in these type of questions people usually spend much time on this one third one because deforestation is pretty inherent it is not just in India any place where you have any problem of deforestation there is bound to be a problem on soil erosion which means if two is correct you have the tussle between options A B and Delhi which is give or take C is completely out of out of contention now in these type of questions you go for a positive negation now you look at terrace cultivation now terrace cultivation most people know like when you read the basics of agriculture like in any area where there is sloping pattern especially if the sloping is steeper you modify the structure making it easier for water to percolate so in terrace cultivation the objective is to minimize soil erosion you are not contributing to soil erosion so this is a positive approach if terrace cultivation is not contributing to soil erosion then obviously options A C and D goes out of contention you need not worry about what is the inherent meaning behind tropical climate doesn't do you mean that tropical climate leads to increasing rainfall and increasing rainfall leads to soil erosion you need not even spend more time or speculating or overthinking or what exactly will be the option now thing is terrace cultivation is not bound to create soil erosion so statement one goes out of contention then the answer is be immediately this is a method of positive negation which you can use where an increasing level of overthinking is simply not necessary at all where you might tend to think in some areas there could be more soil erosion some areas there could be less soil erosion was that simple more than the next question comes to the following regions which are the following mention above or biodiversity hotspots now let's take eastern Himalayas I think most people are familiar is directly from your NCRT that eastern Himalayas is a very important biogeographic region and since there is more and more economic development which is stressed in this region eastern Himalayas is an important hotspot so you're talking about options A B and D now just look at this one eastern Mediterranean region when you talk about eastern Mediterranean region you're talking about countries like northern Africa and southern Europe so essentially you're talking about today's areas of civil war you're talking about Libya Egypt you're also talking about the areas the Balkan Peninsula countries comprising Albania Serbia and so and so so you clearly know that eastern Mediterranean region both in terms of biodiversity it is not such an important region so if you take out statement two obviously the answer is a you need to you not even worry about whether northwestern Australia has a you know brimming wildlife so all the focus was an option to itself if you got it right then the answer is fine moving to the next question comes the following pairs matching the famous place in region now again when the statement number goes beyond one two and three in those type of instances now let's take given the same thing five and four all you need to do is just locate this famous religious place with the area where it is located let's take Nasik when you read in reverse you know that this town is located in the state of Maharashtra at the same time when you say Malwa region you're talking about Madhya Pradesh Nasik is in Maharashtra and Malwa is in Madhya Pradesh the state itself varies which means four is wrong if four is wrong B goes out D goes out and A goes out of contention the answer is C it is that simple now when you look at it you might tend to think that you know you tend to overthink when you compare one two and three but all you need to find out is is one position matching keep this thumb rule in mind if there is more than four or five statements always think about one particular event which you need to find out is correct or incorrect if you can find that right you'll definitely be able to narrow down on your options then you can definitely get to your gambling position moving to the next one consider following statements in India the Himalayas are spread over five states only now and everyone knows that the extent of Himalayas is extremely high you're talking about starting from the states of Jammu and Kashmir and extending till Mizoram which is talking about the northwestern Himalayas then extending over states of Himachal Pradesh Uttarakhand Sikke Maranachal Pradesh then ending in Mizoram which is a very large extent so you can simply take the numerical value you need not even count the number one two three four and five to get to this answer because the key word was only so you take out first statement then immediately option A goes out option D goes out so statement three becomes automatically correct you need need not even spend time on statement three on evaluating where is pulicatholic located is it exactly on the border between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu that is not required at all you get first statement that it is wrong then you can you'll definitely find the statement three is correct because it is there in both the options all you need to do is spend your time on this option western guards are spread over five states only now this statement you need to spend some time because most people might think that when you talk about a mountain range it will you know pretty much end in a specific area so when you talk about western guards it's found in Tamil Nadu it is found in Kerala it is part of Karnataka it is part of Goa then it is part of Maharashtra and also remnants are found in Gujarat so it is split over six states and not five states hence the answer is C but you clearly saw that just by a normal application of logic you were able to narrow down to two options B and C so easily without much effort at all so that is how the questions are designed you get one or two right then you'll be able to narrow down the options now let's look at question number nine plays of pilgrimage and location now again using the same principle reading reverse let's take Pushkar now you know if you had looked about different states in India Pushkar is a very important place which is in Rajasthan and Mahadiya Hills is nowhere in western India you find that the third statement is wrong B goes out D goes out and C goes out A is definitely the answer you need not worry about where exactly Srisailam or Omkarishwar all what was required is finding the third statement is wrong I know that the same principle is getting repeated across multiple formats it might be with reference to match the following it might be with reference to two statement questions or three statement questions or even climatically logical questions so all you need to do is find the odd one out you'll be able to narrow down the answer now question 10 which of the following are possible consequences of heavy sand mining in riverbeds now this question like most people this was part of 2018 problems question and you know all you need to do to crack this question was apply semblance of logic let's you know talk about you're talking about heavy sand mining so pollution of groundwater yeah pretty much true so second statement will definitely stay if second statement is right sand mining will obviously contribute to pollution of groundwater which mean immediately you're narrowing down to options B and D pollution simply denotes the appearance or presence of any unwanted particle in that environment and when you go for heavy sand mining it is bound to cause pollution of groundwater you can immediately count on to options B and D you need not even worry about the lowering of the water table argument at all all you need to concern yourself is the first statement decreased salinity in the river now you're talking about a riverbed and when you talk about a riverbed you're talking about fresh water simple logic now if you're talking about a large amount of salt content variation when it comes to your riverbed then we'll not be consuming fresh water we'll not be consuming water from rivers at all that is simply not going to happen right which means a salinity component in rivers is extremely less which does not warrant point of discussion so inherently the concept of salinity is not associated with fresh water but we are talking about seawater and hence first statement has logically no connection with reference to heavy sand mining at all the answer is Bombay you can pretty much narrow it down without any problem at all now moving to the next question with reference to agricultural soils comes to the following statements a high content of organic matter in soil drastically reduces water holding capacity now look closely over statement two soil does not play any role in the sulphur cycle you might not know what sulphur cycle is at all you might not know how sulphur is getting regenerated not regenerated I'd say redistributed between different components of the biosphere lithosphere and the atmosphere and hydrosphere but look at the statement statement to say soil does not play any role now soil is a component of lithosphere and you know that sulphur is an important element or component which is part of most of the living systems which means sulphur will become part of soil at the same time sulphur will be removed from soil so if the statement was plays minor role or plays major role there is some point of discussion may need to think that is it such an important component or not major component as such but the question is pretty simple it sees does not play any role at all which means there is absolutely no role of soil you simply know it logically cannot stand statement two is wrong and A and D goes out of contention which means statement three is inherently correct we have used this technique many times so need not worry about statement three all you need to concern yourself is statement one a high content of organic matter in soil drastically reduces its water holding capacity now when you talk about water holding you're talking about how far the water molecules will be retained in the top portion of the soil and it's that their percolation reduces that's what they're essentially talking about again logic here you're talking about a high content of organic matter which means you're talking about large amount of dead and decaying matter which is mostly composed of plants and animals and when you have large amount of those components in the top layer of the soil it simply means it is not easier for H2O to percolate easily which means water will mostly be found in the top portion of soil here the answer is again Bombay it doesn't reduce your water holding capacity but it actually increases your water holding capacity it is simply like you're placing large number of obstacles for water to percolate multiple layers of soil so here there is it's not that you need to learn soil science or need to do a deep research on agriculture to get this first statement right higher content of organic matter in the soil drastically decreases water holding capacity it's simpler in top layer of soil if i'm add going to add more components i'm going to make the composition top layer more complex i'm adding more components will water move in easily or will water stay water will obviously stay because there are more obstacles that is the only logic you need to apply here to get the answer Bombay it is now the other options are simply not worthy of discussion at all so again you clearly see that to crack this question it is not expertise in agriculture but simple logical reasoning moving to question 12 the annual temperature range in the interior of the continents is high as compared to coastal areas what are the reasons okay thermal difference is the first statement thermal difference between land and water now this i think is the most basic concept when you talk about climatology because only based on this most of the components are explained you talk about land breeze sea breeze and the variation in climate climate between land the interior of the continents and the coastal areas it is principally because your land and water behaves differently to temperature conditions so you know that first statement is inherently part of the reason look at statement two variation in altitude between continents and oceans now look at the question very carefully the question says you're talking about variation in coastal areas and variation in interior of the continent so you're talking about interior versus coast look at second option it says variation in altitude between continents and oceans now the logic on which the statement relies on is when you talk about interior of continents you're essentially saying that all parts of the interior of the continent will be at a higher latitude higher altitude when compared to the ocean system that is the indication which the statement is trying to convey right but we definitely know that it is not that all the segments of the continent right from the coastal area to the center will definitely have a higher altitude when compared to the ocean basin there are large number of areas which are depressions when you talk about the continent itself so comparing interior with coastal is completely different when you talk about altitude even interior areas can be at a lower altitude when compared to the oceans which is very much possible that's why you have depressions and lakes so if you look at it logically second statement is making a wrong argument second statement is wrong the answer is a need not worry about you know does interior have strong winds do we have heavy rains in interior as compared to coastal areas even this can be deciphered logically because coasts are absolutely having more chances of receiving rainfall as you are closer to more source of water so even when you say that this statement is wrong you'll be able to narrow it down so just by saying that second statement is strong you're narrowing it to option A moving to question number 13 this is a wonderful question this is technically a reading comprehension question this is not a geography question or a question of international organization if you read the question all you need to do is just spend time reading this question india's party to the ramsa convention has declared many areas of ramsa's rights which are the following statements best describes as to how we should maintain these sides in context of this convention now let's just say that you have a convention you're not talking about ramsa convention you're just having a convention to conserve bio divers areas look at the statements and tell me which is logically or practically possible in doing look at statement one keep all the sites completely inaccessible to man so that they will not be exploited option B conserve all the sites through ecosystem approach and permit tourism and recreation only statement three conserve all the sites through ecosystem approach for a period for a period without any exploitation with specific criteria specific period for each side and allow sustainable use of them by only future generations and look at option D conserve all the sites through ecosystem approach and allow their simultaneous sustainable use now looking at the four options you definitely see that D is practically possible you can't keep a site which is completely inaccessible at all which is a harsh restriction at the same time you can say like you are saying in option B that you want to use the ecosystem approach but you know permit use of tourism and recreation only what about economic approaches like if you say a large lake is considered as a ramsa site then why can't you do any possible economic activity again first and second statement falls because it is too negative you look at statement C it is a very specific restriction they say that for a period with a specific criteria specific period for each site and access for future generations but when you compare all the four statements with option four itself conserve all the sites through ecosystem approach and allow their sustainable use this is the most logical conservation method which any convention will prescribe so this is technically reading comprehension question you need not know what is ramsa convention you need not know when it was confined you need not even understand why we have ramsa convention the first place all you need to understand is which is practically possible get the option the only thing which this question will test you is your patient and is your patience and not your logic move to question 14 now this is one of the interesting questions Indian Ocean Dipole with reference to Indian Ocean Dipole sometimes mentioned in news when we were forecasting Indian monsoon which are the four link statements are correct now if you ask me this is a reading comprehension question again look at statement two an Indian ocean dipole phenomenon can influence an ellenos impact on monsoon if you have worked for UPSC you'll definitely know the Indian monsoon you will definitely have studied about ellenio also you'll definitely would have studied what exactly is indian ocean you'll at least have a vague idea see if the question was about indian ocean dipole can positively impact ellenos impact on indian monsoon or indian ocean dipole can negatively impact ellenos monsoon or there is no effect on indian monsoon monsoon these are specific statements you can simply saying that there will be an increase in rainfall or decrease in rainfall or there will not be any impact in rainfall but if you look at second statement it says indian ocean dipole you're talking about an atmospheric phenomenon which happens in indian ocean whether it can influence or not it can be a positive influence it can be a negative influence that doesn't really matter all you're saying is whether indian monsoon will be affected by indian ocean dipole of course it does any statement any even the first you know definition or any part which you read in any sort of textbook will tell you that iod is closely related to how rainfall distribution is done in india so even if you have absolutely no idea where it's a positive influence negative influence that is not required all you need to know is iod will definitely influence the impact on indian monsoon and second statement is inherently correct so that's why it totally it's an ask a question you look at statement one the statement is indian ocean dipole iod phenomena is characterized by a difference in sea surface temperature of tropical western indian ocean agreed eastern pacific ocean tropical region now if you think about it logically where your indian ocean is located and where your pacific ocean is located you're trying to compare a difference in sea surface temperature between western indian ocean and eastern part of pacific ocean you can pretty much understand how far they are located and you know in terms of monitoring whether it is possible for two different parameters in two different oceans to be compared to come with a logical number so you're talking when it comes to indian ocean dipole you're simply comparing parameters between western and eastern indian ocean eastern pacific is somewhere else western indian is somewhere else first statement is wrong so if you know where it is indian ocean it can't be as far as eastern pacific you just need to know the location that's it the answer with second statement being right is bombay so now i think you're getting the grip that most questions which you see as logic which you see as difficult is actually logical all you need to do is follow the news for question 15 reference to river tistha consider the following statements starting from statement three river tistha flows into bay of mingol on the border of india and bangladesh now if it is flowing along into bay of mingol exactly at the border of indian bangladesh then we will not be having the problem of river-water dispute which is arising between the state of mingol and west mingol in itself statement three is inherently wrong all you need to know is it flows from west mingol to bangladesh that's the reason so the answer is bombay it is not exactly at the border so just following the political news we'll be able to narrow it down need not break your head where exactly is river rangi does it really originate in sikkim is it a tribute to river tistha where exactly does tistha originate where is where does brahmaputra originate what is the glacier from which both originating these are facts which you might you know which you might require to learn for the exam but for asking this question and getting the plus two marks it is absolutely not required to know these facts at all all you need to know is just follow up the news and just from the logic you can understand that it is not at the border the river is entering from west mingol to bangladesh that is why there is a river dispute hence you can simply narrow down to option bombay it's that easier moving to question number 16 this is one of my favorite questions we're asked in upc this was asked in 2015 this has been discussed multiple times in class also but we'll do it once more again which one of the following regions of india has a combination of mangrove forest evergreen forest and deciduous forest now you know the characteristic of mangrove forest you know the characteristic of evergreen forest and deciduous forest also i given you four regions north coastal andhra pradesh south west bengal southern saurashra and the maranikabar islands see i'm not telling you that you will not be able to find the answer if you apply the relationship between natural visitation and rainfall you will get the answer for sure it might take maybe 15 seconds not more than that it is pretty straightforward because you need to think about it but there is even you know even if you have absolutely no understanding of the relationship between natural visitation and rainfall this is definitely a plus two logic is simple see you're talking about three forest types mean forget this mangrove evergreen deciduous the names are not required you're talking about three different forest types which means three different forest types they will have three different climatic regions that's all you need to remember look at the options here north coastal andhra pradesh south west bengal southern saurashra andhra maranikabar islands i think you've already found the similarity between first three now you might tell you know first all the three options are coastal areas the logic is not that all these three options if you see are extremely specific extremely localized regions think about it you're talking about three forest types which means three different climatic conditions but the options given is north coastal andhra pradesh you're talking about a very specific region southwest bengal specific southern saurashra three different forest types in a very specific region is logically not possible at all look at andhra maranikabar islands andhra maranikabar islands is not localized it is spread over a large area across hundreds of kilometers and it moves across latitudes which means with respect to each and every latitude there'll be variation in temperature which means there will be variation in rainfall if there is variation in climatic conditions then obviously your diversity will increase the answer is deli there is no need to understand the relationship between rainfall and natural vegetation like what is the rainfall in andhra pradesh what is the rainfall in bengala saurashra to narrow down to this answer all you need to understand is these three are specific locations and this is spread over location you got that you got you got your answer deli and that is your plus two marks so see upsc frames questions as tricky and not difficult and this is a very good sample every year in the hundred questions you'll definitely find five to six questions peppered across you know spread across different subjects this 2015 it was in geography you'll find it in art and culture polity and economics all you need to understand is the logic you will get the answer in spite of the fact that you may not know the actual relationship in subject terms move into 17 which of the following will have coral reefs now any preliminary reading on coral reefs will tell you that coral reefs will have will require a certain level of salinity to survive they can't survive in freshwater because they require salts for generation of or secretion of calcium carbon this any preliminary reading will give you take sundar bonds sundar bonds is possibly an area where there is so much of freshwater which is moving in you have the rivers of both ganga and brown putra draining their freshwater into sundar bonds which means an area with so much freshwater cannot technically have coral reefs so you need not worry that okay i did not have a list which says these are the areas in which coral reefs are present i haven't read the list which means i should not be attending the question no that is not how you approach upc in general you within the provided possibility to try to encounter how to work things out so you take out fourth statement option b goes out of contention option d goes out of contention all you need to worry about is option c and option a look at option a and option c three is right one is right inherently they are there in both the options all need to worry about a statement two so gulf of kutch gujrat of course it is present so you got it you'll be able to eliminate the options moving to 18 again this is a okay it's not exactly reading comprehension question but like once you read the options you know which is a better one himalayan range is very rich in species so they've already given that it is very rich which one among those the most appropriate reason for this phenomenon now let's look at options here a it has high rainfall that supports luxuriant vegetation growth option b it is confluence of different geographical regions option c exotic and invasive species have not been introduced in this region so you see that option c is a negative statement first two are positive option d again is a negative statement does it has less human interference now if you look at the question carefully the question does not say that himalayan range is you know is facing threat of that the statement simply says himalayan region is rich in species diversity simple logic if you need more biodiversity then if your bio geographical zones are different then obviously your biodiversity will be very very high you take the first option it's simply false rainfall is only one component it is not that if you have large amount of water plants will grow plants not need now just h2o they need carbon dioxide which is very well present but they also need optimum temperature in which they can grow so it is not that rainfall is the most important factor which dictates it but if you look at option b option b is very clear different bio geographical regions in which multiple ecosystems coexist and that simply talks about biodiversity so you take the answer directly from the question itself you need not break your head about less human interference or whether infers invasive species is present in himalayas are not present in himalayas so the answer is derived from the question itself it's again a logical reasoning based question moving to 19 with reference to India which of the following statements is not correct now again reading from reverse the mountain areas account for about 30 percentage of the surface area of the country okay you need to make some sort of calculation here alluvial soil is a predominant type of soil in the northern plains of the country no problem you definitely know it is correct the dominant source of irrigation the country is well look at option a about one-third of the area of the country records more than 750 millimeters of annual rainfall now if you look at option d this is pretty reasonable when compared to option a mountainous areas account for one-third of the country same thing one-third here because most of the terrain if you look at in India you take the northern northern section of India the entire northern section comprising of northern northwestern Himalayas you take Sikkim and in northeast in India there is a large amount of area which is simply hilly region at the same time if you look at your peninsular plateau you have both your western guards and eastern guards and the peninsular plateau gets separated from the northern plains again through your mountains of the central highlands which is again a mountainous region so when says that one-third it is pretty okay that it is part of your mountainous area but if you look at option a and option b you clearly know that this is so much of an area when you talk about rainfall distribution because significant portion of India suffers from drought and even if you look at areas of high rainfall it is specifically distributed only across few parts of northeastern India at the same time parts of east western guards that is only the western section when you move interior towards India you know that the rainfall is extremely less to say that you know more than one-third of the country records you know more than 75 centimeters rainfall that is a pretty bold and outlandish statement compared to the rest of the three hence the answer is a so of the all the 18 questions which we discussed about 19 questions will definitely take your time but if you look at it carefully all you're doing is just comparing option a and option d this is also one of the ways in which you can narrow down to your question especially for not correct statements if they are more overtly technical so within the options you can compare one with the other and take your answer move into question 20 now this question is actually easier if you look at the ground level but kindly note keep this thumb rule in mind this type of question is usually asked in geography and at times you can have it in environment also these type of questions are time trap questions they just take time you'll definitely get the answer but it'll take time because kottayam is in kerala and kohimaya talking about nagaland which means you know the states where exactly it is located the question is about what is the minimum number of states within india through which you can travel including the origin and destination so you know where is nagaland you know where is kerala so you will be able to find a route through which you can get to the one states remember this any question any question if you are doing this principle of counting how things work we saw on question previously regarding how many states does western guards pass through that was relatively an easy question because you know where western guards are exactly located so there is no problem in narrowing that to the question but here you need to find an alternate route you will definitely get the answer for the question if you start counting the only problem is it will consume time kindly note when you find these type of questions you can mark this question please do this question in either round two or round three please don't take it in round one because these these tend to consume at least 90 seconds of your time they need to process information you know find out these places and think where exactly they are then proceed do attend this question it might look tough but it is very easier just make sure you take it in round two or round three now we know that asam is a state just for solving this question asam shares boundary with pretty much every state in your every state in your northeast in india so closest to kerala's tamil nado so you talk about the eastern coastal states so after tamil nado you have andhra pradesh and after andhra pradesh you have odisha and after odisha you have west bengal and that is the connection so you have totally one two three four five six and seven states which pump out of the chain and b is your answer so you know that by traveling through the shortest route you will get it but you know under exam pressure to make this you know recollection of all the states which is located in this area it will slightly consume more time so that is why i told you just take it as a round two or round three question but you'll definitely get this answer need not do it as round one move into question number 21 now this is an interesting question particular state in india has a falling characteristics it is located on the same latitude this is the major hint which passes through north and rajasthan now you look at the four options immediately when you talk about north and rajasthan section and compare the latitude so you talk about aranashal pradesh okay asam himashal pradesh and utrakan now even if you look at these four regions you know the how this how the distribution of the state is states are actually formed when you talk about himashal pradesh and utrakan you talk about this region essentially and the question is focusing on the latitude comparing north and rajasthan so when you compare with the options these two are not very close now look at option one first statement it is 80 percent of its area under forest cover now if the state has less rates of urbanization if the state has less number of renowned towns then you definitely know that the state will have a large amount of forest area you need not worry about okay do i know whether it's 85 percent 86 percent i don't know the forest area in asam i don't know the forest here in himashal pradesh that discussion is not required if the if the state which is under discussion if it is going to have a less number of towns it simply means there are large areas mostly rural or it is predominantly forest so you know that asam is not going to be a part of it most of asam is a plane and it's also an important contributor to agriculture b goes out of contention and from the first part itself that talking about parallel to northern rajasthan same latitude you pretty much know that himashal pradesh nutrakand is not going to work out so the answer is immediately arunachal pradesh where you can just by reading first statement you can get it because second statement if you look at it this is not the statement which gives you the clue over 12 percent of the forest cover constituted protected area of network in the state think about it logically it is not possible for anyone to memorize national parks and wildlife sanctuaries at the same time even if you know or i have a vague idea about the distribution of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries you will definitely be not in a position to say that it will be over 12 percent or less than 12 percent the takeaway which i want you to have from this question is that at times the clue or the logic for deriving the answer may not be in the statement which is given but it will be present in the question please make sure that if you look at two statement questions the clue will be here on the top and not on the statement that is why we had this point of discussion because this is an older question but even then we had to take this as part of discussion because this is an interesting type which upc has framed and this 12 percent 80 percent is simply not necessary at all not the percentage the clue is here once you got the first statement right then these two pretty much vanish all you need to consent about a statement one you narrowed on the answer to Arunasal Pradesh move to question 22 consider following statements now it is interesting Rajasthan has iron ore mines this is the only thing you need to consider now mostly people think that Rajasthan is part is a desert area and hence when you talk about mining there is not much possibility of metallic mineral mining here just remember this when you talk about the structure of the Indian subcontinent you have the Himalayan ranges followed by the northern plains then you have the peninsular plateau so if you take the states of the northern plains you're talking so for example if this is Jamun, Kashmir if this is Himachal Pradesh then maybe this state is Uttar Pradesh or Bihar and this state could be Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat or Zarkand it could be any of the states you're talking about peninsular the states which are in the northern plains do not have metallic mining at all the logic is simple if you want to go for metallic mineral mining then you need to hit the peninsular plateau the plateau region will need to be hit you need to hit the crust in Zarkand it is there in Sathisgarh you're directly hitting the peninsular plateau you take the structure of the continent here the peninsular plateau is subsided and over that you have large amount of alluvial deposition that is why you have the great plains so this is the reasoning behind it so no metallic mineral mining in UP in Bihar in Punjab in Haryana in Assam that's why no metallic mineral is there but if you take Rajasthan you pretty much know Vrindavan mountains you're talking about a part of peninsular plateau that's where most people do not make this correlation at all Rajasthan even though you have sections of the plain it is primarily related to your peninsular plateau and peninsular plateau is basically continental crust and definitely you will have metallic mines in this location there is no need to you know know the exact place where iron mining is done in Rajasthan that is not required at all all you need to have is an idea that this is not part of the great plains once you know the third statement is right you know that DNC is right there is no need to worry about second statement at all need not even worry that whether Andhra Pradesh and Zarkand has gold mines or do not have gold mines because iron is far more evenly distributed when compared to gold because gold is very specific and since iron is distributed you need to worry about statement three and not statement two or the exact location of gold mines is not required once you got statement three right then CND is the only thing which you need to consider yourself so for statement one yeah for this you need to know some sort of polity so for the answer is C for that so in this question just the understanding of geography let you know this you need not know the exact location or the exact place where mining is done just a vague idea three more questions which are the following or advantage or advantages of practicing drip irrigation now for answering this question all you need to understand is what is drip irrigation now usually when you go for irrigation the entire field is flooded with water when you talk about drip irrigation the you have a specific irrigation channel which feeds water to the roots of the plants directly that is the only understanding you need to have look at the options and you'll be able to narrow down logically reduction in soil erosion yeah of course because if you have a flood type of irrigation then the top soil of soil is eroded but when you go for a mechanized farm of you know supplying water to the root of the soil then water is present only here which means soil erosion is prevented statement three is right which means B and C is definitely right need not even worry about soils and identity in large numbers look at option one reduction in weed yeah more possibility because if you go for flood irrigation you're supplying water to unwanted areas also to the entire field but when you talk about drip irrigation you're applying water specifically to the roots of plants which means weed you know generation will be low because water is not getting diverted which means one is also correct the answer is C it is that simple so need not be an expert in agriculture here also moving to question 24 what are the possible limitations of India in mitigating the global warming in present and in the immediate future now rarely you do find questions like that and statements are given like a joke look at the question carefully you're talking about limitations of India and mitigating global warming let's start from statement three many developed countries have already set up their polluting industries in India now this is a fact this does not mean that India will be able to limit even if developed countries come and set their industries we can still curb them it does not put a limitation on our own expertise of mitigating global warming in India so third statement is practically given like a joke so third statement is wrong option C and D goes out of contention option two becomes immediately correct concern yourself with statement one appropriate alternate technology is not sufficiently available it is true even today like cost effective technologies for mitigating global warming is still not available so the answer is A so again it is primarily a reasoning question not a geography question moon at 25 again reasoning southeast Asia has captivated the attention of global community over space and time so they are not talking about a specific war period like cold war period or let's say a second world war or something like that as a geostrategic significant region which among the following is a most convincing explanation for the global perspective again look at the question they've already given that it is not concerned with space and time and look at the options it clearly says second world war which means this is not the answer look at options B and C B and C has a similarity it says located between Asian powers of China and India it was the arena of superpowers of China and India so both of them pretty much convey the same meaning it's not that since they are located between India and China there has been so many times in history that it was the arena of you know interaction of superpowers China and India so if you look at the terms China and India again it is vaguely subjective because when you talk about China you're talking about empires which dotted China and when you talk about India you're not talking about the present day India but you're talking about multiple empires which held sway over India and when you talk about Indian empires you know that only for specific period of time that an empire had control over large states of India and it was mostly disintegrated so just by reading options B the same point is getting repeated look at option D it's location between Pacific and Indian oceans fine and it's preeminent maritime character yeah that is the reason because Southeast Asia is primarily a region of connectivity and archipelagos which means it will become important geostrategic locations over a period of time and Delhi is the answer again reading comprehension with logic moving to question 26 this is an interesting one as per UN habitats global report on human settlements 209 it is true even for today which one of the falling regions has shown the fastest growth rate of urbanization in the last three decades now think about it okay you're talking about growth rates you're not talking about the present rate of urbanization so any region or any area if it is mostly rural or mostly developing then that region will move towards an urban settlement pattern that is obviously will happen because you're talking about growth you're not talking about percentage look at it Europe and North America you definitely know that Europe is already having it's a developed nation with large amount of urban population North America and Europe got urbanized in early section of 20th century itself so both of them cannot have growth rates because they've already reached their saturation so it's pretty much like this they are here you're talking about this region here of growth rate you look at options C and A again Latin America and Caribbean and Asia and if you look at the largest share of developing countries it is mostly in area and if you look at population also it is mostly Asia so you clearly know that the answer is A need not worry that you have not read this report global report on human settlements to narrow down to the answer that is not required at all all you need to understand is growth rates which means it should be mostly rural so it can't be an already urbanized area between these two which is the best possible option go for Asia because most Latin American countries got independent just in 19th century itself and if you look at Asia most countries in Asia got you know independence only after 1950s so they are trying to move towards an urban settlement pattern and not Latin American and Caribbean countries so it is again not based on the report so any question you feel that it's based on report discussion or something like that it is not required that you take the you need to know the report to get to the answer just from the keyword you can get your answer moving to the next question are there in India and China which are the falling countries border Myanmar now again the principle of negation I've chosen a map question since last two to three years there has been last discussion on map now we clearly know that Bangladesh is closer to Myanmar like because we have this discussion of northeastern India and Mizoram separates Bangladesh and Myanmar and they have their own border in these two countries share border so need not worry about option B and C because Bangladesh should be there in the options so Thailand goes you need not have this discussion on Thailand at all you need to discuss regarding Laos and Vietnam if you look at the structure of Southeast Asia you know that Vietnam is the farthest Southeast Asian country which is located as as the entire area of Vietnam if you look it is located you know across latitudes along the Southeast Asia area so this is the structure of Vietnam and this is far away from Myanmar so negating Vietnam you can go for option D but what I'm trying to convey is even without knowing the discussion about Thailand you can narrow down between options A and D and between Laos and Vietnam if you know that Vietnam is located on the eastern side of Indochina peninsula you can get the answer as D because Vietnam is far away and hence it has to be Laos moving to question 28 comes the following statements the baron island volcano is an active okay active volcano in the territory sounds fine this is one of the important statements given in NCRT so if you know the first statement itself you know that the answer will have to be between A and D need not worry about options B and C at all this is not required and this is the first statement which is given in your NCRT this is the most preliminary discussion okay let's say you do not know the first statement not very sure about it let's take this one baron island lies about 140 kilometers east of great Nicobar even if you don't know you clearly know that this statement is wrong because Andaman and Nicobar highlands will have this type of a structure in which they are spread over north to south you need not worry about 140 kilometers if the islands are located in an east-west direction then you can worry about distances of 140 kilometers or 150 kilometers it's a very simple not our discussion which means it is simply not possible now between options A and D for the last year if you had followed current affairs then you can get this statement three easily last time baron alcano erupted was in 1990 one it has remained inactive since then now this was in use actually in the month of january baron volcano had an eruption and only based on that this question was framed so the answer is deli for this so just by having the preliminary understanding two options can be easily eliminated month 29 simple question if you travel through Himalayas you're likely to see which of the falling plants naturally growing there the discussion should only be on this one sandalwood sandalwood is a species which is found in peninsular plateau it is absolutely no reason to associate itself with Himalayas you take out statement three answer is A need not worry about different species of oak or different species of rotor and drone that is not part of discussion at all just to understand the distribution of sandalwood where the species is located you will be able to narrow down the options moving to the last one south atlantic and southeastern pacific regions and tropical latitudes cyclone does not originate what is the reason now we'll spend some this is the last question we'll spend some discussion here see when you talk about these type of reasoning questions this is either asked in climate or your oceans at times you have this in part of environment also remember this whenever you talk about a specific cause effect questions you need to focus on the cause why there is less possibility of cyclones or which are the falling factors which cause it if you look at the four options usually three options are given which will simply be statements or facts in that area I'll give an example let's take this one Coriolis forces two week now if you look at this particular statement this is a statement it is not a cause or a reason which can influence the formation of cyclones okay you take this one absence of land in those regions yeah if you take southern hemisphere compared to northern hemisphere southern hemisphere has very low percentage of land it is mostly composed of water so you take the south atlantic region you take the southeastern pacific you don't find large amount of land mass again this is a fact you take the first one sea surface temperatures are low yes it is low again it is a fact but the question is on reason what people tend to do is since they try to find these facts as true they make the connection that since these facts are true then these facts should contribute that to that specific effect that is not the usual way things work out remember this there's a usual pattern how things are framed when it comes to reasoning questions need not focus on facts look at the reason this is the reason why you have less number of cyclones intertropical conversion zone rarely occurs in this specific region so to wrap it up I'll just explain what exactly it is so if you look at the structure of a tropical cyclone you're talking about an increasingly low pressure area and that's intensifies your tropical cyclone your ITCZ is nothing but a low pressure area your equatorial low pressure belt as such now if you take the distribution of land in earth you take your northern hemisphere northern hemisphere has more land which means land has the capacity to trap more heat so if it is more hotter mostly your ITCZ is found in the northern hemisphere and hence even during your winter season the ITCZ does not shift too much into the southern hemisphere beyond a specific point of time so if you don't have a low pressure region which is getting created in southern hemisphere then your cyclones will not occur because this is contributing strongly to the formation of cyclones and that is a discussion B now even though this is I think of all the question this is the most technical which you're dealt today the objective is this why we talked about this remember facts are not reasons when you talk about reasoning questions think about the principle of cause and effect you'll be able to get the answer is Bombay so that is the end of discussion for geography I believe the objective of the session was clarified because it is not about technicalities but just to tell you that in spite of the fact that in some areas you may not know the exact answer and in some areas you may not even know the report just by using your logic and reasoning you'll be able to trap enough number of questions to get you through the prillims and all the very best we will be following up with sessions on other subjects also shortly thank you