UPSC Prelims 2024 Q9: Dhuandhar, Hundru, Gersoppa Falls — Explained
Consider the following information:
| Sl.No. | Waterfall | Region | River |
| 1 | Dhuandhar | Malwa | Narmada |
| 2 | Hundru | Chota Nagpur | Subarnarekha |
| 3 | Gersoppa | Western Ghats | Netravati |
In how many of the above rows is the given information correctly matched?
- Only one
- Only two
- All three
- None
Answer: (a) Only one
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: incorrect — The river is right but the region is wrong. Dhuandhar is at Bhedaghat, about 25 km from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. Here the Narmada narrows through the Marble Rocks gorge and falls about 30 m, throwing up a spray that looks like smoke ('dhuan'). Jabalpur lies in the Narmada valley south of the Vindhyas, in the Mahakoshal area. It is not on the Malwa plateau, which the Vindhya Range bounds on the south and east and which is drained by the Mahi, Chambal and Betwa.
- 2: correct — Hundru Falls is near Ranchi in Jharkhand. It is where the Subarnarekha drops off the edge of the Ranchi plateau, part of the Chota Nagpur plateau. Britannica notes that the Subarnarekha leaves the Chota Nagpur plateau by the Hundru (Hundrughagh) fall. The river then flows east through West Bengal and Odisha to the Bay of Bengal.
- 3: incorrect — Gersoppa is another name for Jog Falls in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. The region is right, but the river is the Sharavati, which drops about 253 m in four cascades (Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket) and reaches the Arabian Sea at Honnavar. The Netravati is a different west-flowing river that enters the sea at Mangaluru.
How to eliminate
This question can only be solved by knowing the facts. Each row has two links to check (fall–region and fall–river), and one wrong link makes the whole row wrong. Use quick anchors. (1) Dhuandhar is near Jabalpur, and Jabalpur is not in Malwa. Malwa means Indore–Ujjain–Bhopal–Mandsaur, the land of the Chambal, Mahi and Betwa headwaters. (2) Hundru is near Ranchi, so it has to be the Subarnarekha, the river Ranchi stands on. (3) Gersoppa is Jog Falls, and Jog is always the Sharavati. If you remember only that Jog = Sharavati and Hundru = Subarnarekha, you can already rule out 'All three' and 'None'. The row on Malwa then decides between one and two rows. Facts to memorise: Jog/Gersoppa–Sharavati; Hundru–Subarnarekha; Dhuandhar–Narmada at Bhedaghat (Jabalpur), not Malwa.
Know more
Why Peninsular India has so many waterfalls
Peninsular rivers flow over old, hard rock and step down from one plateau level to the next. Wherever a river crosses a steep scarp (the edge of a plateau) or a band of resistant rock, it forms a waterfall. Below the fall the river often cuts a gorge, a deep valley with steep sides. Bhedaghat's Marble Rocks are a textbook example.
- Chota Nagpur plateau: rivers fall off the edges of the Ranchi plateau. This gives the 'falls of Ranchi', Hundru on the Subarnarekha among them.
- Western Ghats: short, swift west-flowing rivers drop off the steep western scarp. Jog on the Sharavati is the best known, and its water is used for hydropower (Sharavathi Valley Project).
- Narmada rift valley: the Narmada flows west between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges. It forms Kapildhara near its source at Amarkantak, then Dhuandhar at Bhedaghat.
| Waterfall | River | State / region |
|---|---|---|
| Jog (Gersoppa) | Sharavati | Karnataka, Western Ghats |
| Shivanasamudra | Kaveri | Karnataka |
| Hundru | Subarnarekha | Jharkhand, Chota Nagpur |
| Dhuandhar | Narmada | MP, near Jabalpur |
| Kapildhara | Narmada | MP, Amarkantak |
| Chitrakote | Indravati | Chhattisgarh, Bastar |
| Athirappilly | Chalakudy | Kerala |
| Dudhsagar | Mandovi | Goa–Karnataka border |
Region trap: Malwa is the volcanic plateau of western MP and south-east Rajasthan, about 500–600 m high and drained by the Mahi, Chambal and Betwa. The Narmada flows south of it, below the Vindhyas. Do not tag every MP feature as 'Malwa'. The Jabalpur area is Mahakoshal.
Bhedaghat–Lametaghat (Narmada valley) has been on India's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List since 2021.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Marble Rocks and Dhuandhar Falls: Row 1 names Dhuandhar. This entry places the fall, so you can test both the region and the river given.
- Malwa plateau: Row 1 depends on what the Malwa plateau covers and whether the fall's location lies within it.
- Narmada river: Helps you trace the Narmada's course across Madhya Pradesh and see which regions it actually passes through.
- West-flowing rivers of the Peninsula: Row 3 names a west-flowing Western Ghats river. Knowing this group helps you tell its members apart.