Geography MCQs for UPSC Prelims — September 2026

Q1. In the context of the tribal geography of the Bastar region, the term 'Abujhmadiya' is used for which one of the following?

  • A. The Madia, Gond, Muria and Hill Muria communities of Abujhmad, taken together
  • B. The cycle of shifting cultivation practised on the hill slopes of Abujhmad
  • C. The unsurveyed forest tract of Abujhmad lying west of the Indravati river
  • D. The council of village elders regulating customary forest use in Abujhmad

Q2. Purse seine nets, which encircle a shoal and are then closed at the bottom by drawing in a purse line, are used almost exclusively to catch which one of the following categories of fish?

  • A. Pelagic shoaling fish such as sardines, mackerels and tunas
  • B. Demersal bottom-dwelling fish such as soles and threadfin breams
  • C. Benthic shellfish such as crabs, lobsters and clams
  • D. Anadromous fish ascending rivers from the sea to spawn

Q3. Marine Fishing Regulation Acts, enacted on the basis of a model bill circulated by the Union Government in 1979, govern fishing within the territorial waters of India's maritime States and Union Territories. How many such coastal States and Union Territories does India have?

  • A. 9
  • B. 11
  • C. 13
  • D. 15

Q4. Which one of the following was the principal consideration behind fixing India's standard time at a half-hour rather than a whole-hour offset from Greenwich?

  • A. It was a midpoint between the two whole-hour zones proposed for India, adopted in place of a two-zone scheme
  • B. It corresponded to the local mean time of Calcutta, then the capital of British India, which was retained as the national standard
  • C. It matched the timetable reference already used by the railways at Bombay, which was extended to the whole of British India
  • D. It was fixed so as to keep India's clocks aligned with the standard meridian adopted by neighbouring Nepal

Q5. Consider the following statements regarding the evolution of Indian Standard Time as a uniform time reference: 1. The meridian of 82°30′ E, passing near Mirzapur, was announced as the basis of Indian Standard Time by Viceroy Lord Curzon. 2. Indian Standard Time was formally adopted by the British authorities with effect from 1 January 1906. 3. Calcutta continued to keep its own local time and shifted to Indian Standard Time only in 1948. 4. Bombay was the earliest of the presidency capitals to abandon its local time, switching to Indian Standard Time well before Calcutta did. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. The meridian of 82°30′ E, passing near Mirzapur, was announced as the basis of Indian Standard Time by Viceroy Lord Curzon.
  2. Indian Standard Time was formally adopted by the British authorities with effect from 1 January 1906.
  3. Calcutta continued to keep its own local time and shifted to Indian Standard Time only in 1948.
  4. Bombay was the earliest of the presidency capitals to abandon its local time, switching to Indian Standard Time well before Calcutta did.
  • A. 1 and 2
  • B. 3 only
  • C. 4 only
  • D. 2 and 4

Q6. Which one of the following SCO member States is the largest landlocked country in the world by area?

  • A. The Republic of Uzbekistan
  • B. The Republic of Kazakhstan
  • C. The Republic of Tajikistan
  • D. The Republic of Belarus

Q7. Consider the following statements regarding recent inter-State water arrangements brokered at the Union level: 1. The Rajasthan–Haryana agreement of June 2026 provides for conveying Rajasthan's share of Yamuna waters through underground pipelines from the Western Yamuna Canal, that share deriving from the 1994 Memorandum of Understanding on the Upper Yamuna Basin. 2. Unlike the Yamuna arrangement, the Bihar–Jharkhand Memorandum of Understanding on the Sone created an entirely new allocation, wholly independent of any pre-existing inter-State agreement. 3. The consensus reached on the Kishau Multipurpose Dam Project involves six States, namely Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. The Rajasthan–Haryana agreement of June 2026 provides for conveying Rajasthan's share of Yamuna waters through underground pipelines from the Western Yamuna Canal, that share deriving from the 1994 Memorandum of Understanding on the Upper Yamuna Basin.
  2. Unlike the Yamuna arrangement, the Bihar–Jharkhand Memorandum of Understanding on the Sone created an entirely new allocation, wholly independent of any pre-existing inter-State agreement.
  3. The consensus reached on the Kishau Multipurpose Dam Project involves six States, namely Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 1 and 3 only
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q8. In the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Bihar and Jharkhand on the Sone, the quantum of 7.75 MAF that was divided between the two States denotes which one of the following?

  • A. The total quantum of Sone waters apportioned among the basin States by the tri-State agreement of 1973
  • B. The quantum that the tri-State agreement of 1973 had allotted to the then undivided State of Bihar
  • C. The quantum assessed as additionally available in the Sone basin after the reorganisation of Bihar in the year 2000
  • D. The quantum that the tri-State agreement of 1973 had allotted to the upper riparian State of Madhya Pradesh

Q9. Which one of the following tributaries of the Sone has been dammed to create a large reservoir supplying hydroelectric power?

  • A. The Kanhar, from which a share of the Sone basin waters was assigned to a basin State in 1973
  • B. The Gopad, which drains the northern slopes of the Sone valley in Madhya Pradesh
  • C. The North Koel, which drains the Chota Nagpur plateau on the southern flank of the Sone
  • D. The Rihand, which drains the northern flank of the Sone valley

Q10. Under the Bansagar Agreement of 1973, which one of the following States received the second-largest allocation of Sone waters?

  • A. Bihar, then undivided, whose entitlement was drawn partly from the storage of the Bansagar Dam
  • B. Uttar Pradesh, whose entitlement included a component drawn from the river Kanhar
  • C. Madhya Pradesh, whose entitlement combined upstream, downstream and dam-storage components
  • D. Odisha, whose entitlement was drawn from the lower reaches of the Sone basin

Q11. The 'Bansagar Agreement' referred to in the context of river water apportionment in India denotes which one of the following?

  • A. A 1973 accord among Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar apportioning the waters of the Sone basin, including storage created in the Sone valley
  • B. A 1973 accord between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra apportioning the waters of the Narmada basin and the power benefits of a joint storage project
  • C. A 1956 accord among the Ganga basin States constituting a statutory River Board for the Sone valley with powers to regulate withdrawals
  • D. A 1994 memorandum among the basin States allocating utilisable surface flows of the Upper Yamuna and providing for a joint monitoring body