Indian Drainage System - UPSC Geography Free MCQ Test with solutions

1 only. Dendritic drainage pattern occurs where the underlying rock or sediments are of fairly uniform resistance and lack a strong structural control, producing a tree-like network of tributaries; this pattern is commonly found in parts of the northern plains.

The second statement is incorrect. Rivers originating from the Amarkantak Range generally exhibit a radial drainage pattern, where streams flow outward in different directions from a central high point (examples include the Narmada and the Son, which rise in or near that upland). By contrast, centripetal drainage describes streams converging toward a central depression or lake.

Hence, only the first statement is correct.

Only one

Sardar Sarovar Dam is correctly matched with the Narmada River; it is a major concrete gravity dam on the Narmada, built under the Narmada Valley Project for irrigation, hydropower and drinking water supply.

Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is actually on the Krishna River (between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) and was completed in 1967; it is not on the Kaveri.

Baglihar is a hydropower project on the Chenab River (Ramban district, Jammu & Kashmir), not on the Indus; while the Chenab is a tributary of the Indus, the dam itself is located on the Chenab.

Therefore, only the Sardar Sarovar-Narmada pairing is correct, so the total number of correctly matched pairings is one.

B: Dhauliganga and Alaknanda

The Alaknanda rises from the Satopanth Glacier near Badrinath in Uttarakhand.

At Vishnuprayag, near Joshimath, the Dhauliganga joins the Alaknanda; this is the confluence at Vishnuprayag.

Other major confluences on the Alaknanda are: the Pindar at Karnaprayag, the Mandakini at Rudraprayag, and the Bhagirathi at Devprayag, where together they form the Ganga.

Therefore, the correct confluence at Vishnuprayag is between the Dhauliganga and the Alaknanda.

Only one

Ratle is constructed on the Chenab, not on the Jhelum, so the first pairing is incorrect.

Kishanganga (known in Pakistan as the Neelum) is a tributary of the Jhelum, so the second pairing with the Chenab is incorrect.

Ranjit Sagar (the Thein Dam) is located on the Ravi, so the third pairing is correct.

Therefore, exactly one pairing is correctly matched. For context, these rivers are part of the Indus river system (the five major tributaries being Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej), governed inter se by the Indus Waters Treaty (1960).

All three. All three rivers - Penganga, Indravati and Purna - are left-bank tributaries of the Godavari.

For a river flowing generally eastward, the left bank lies to the north, so left-bank tributaries are those joining the Godavari from its northern side.

Penganga rises in the Ajanta/Deccan area of Maharashtra and joins the Godavari system from the north (via the Pranhita/Wardha-Wainganga tributary system), making it a left-bank tributary.

Indravati originates in the Eastern Ghats (Dandakaranya region) and flows westward to meet the Godavari from the north side, so it is a left-bank tributary.

Purna rises in the hills of Maharashtra and enters the Godavari from the northern side, confirming it as a left-bank tributary as well.

Only two

Pair 1 is incorrect: Dhuandhar Falls is on the Narmada at Bhedaghat (Jabalpur) in Madhya Pradesh, not in Maharashtra.

Pair 2 is correct: Hundru Falls is on the Subarnarekha near Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Pair 3 is correct: Chuliya (also spelled Chulia) Falls is on the Chambal in Madhya Pradesh.

Pair 4 is incorrect: Dudhsagar Falls is on the Mandovi on the border of Goa and Karnataka, not in Rajasthan.

Thus, exactly two of the given pairs are correctly matched.

It passes through the Mana pass.

This statement is incorrect: the river does not pass through Mana Pass; it enters India from Tibet via Shipki La on the Tibet-Himachal Pradesh boundary.

The river rises from Raksas Tal (Rakas Lake) near Lake Manasarovar in western Tibet at about 4,570 m.

From its source it takes a north-westerly course to Shipki La, cuts deep gorges through the Greater Himalayas (one such gorge at Naina Devi Dhar is the site of the Bhakra dam), and then enters the plains near Rupnagar (Ropar).

The Beas joins this river near Harike, and its waters are harnessed by the Bhakra-Nangal project (forming the Gobind Sagar reservoir and feeding the associated canal systems).

Ultimately the river joins the Indus system (near Mithankot) and has an approximate total length of 1,450 km, of which about 1,050 km flow through Indian territory.

Statement-wise: A - true; B - false (explanation above); C - true; D - true.

Only one pair

Pair 1 is incorrect. Kunchikal Falls is formed by the Varahi River in Karnataka; its drop is about 455 metres (1,493 feet), so it is not on the Mandakini.

Pair 2 is correct. Chitrakote Falls is on the Indravati River in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, and is often called the "Niagara of India" with a fall of about 90 feet (≈29 m).

Pair 3 is incorrect. The Shivanasamudra (Shivsamudram) waterfalls are on the Kaveri (Cauvery) River in Karnataka (Mandya region), not on the Krishna River.

Therefore, only the second pairing is correctly matched.

Only one. Jabalpur is correctly paired with the Narmada; the other three pairings are incorrect.

Vijayawada is situated on the banks of the Krishna River, not the Godavari, so that pairing is incorrect.

Coimbatore lies on the banks of the Noyyal River (not on the main course of the Kaveri), so that pairing is incorrect.

Rourkela is located on the Sankha and Koel rivers (part of the Brahmani basin) and is not on the Mahanadi, so that pairing is incorrect.

Jabalpur lies on the banks of the Narmada and is known for the Marble Rocks and Dhuandhar Falls; this pairing is correct.

Lucknow, Srinagar and Kodagu

Lucknow is located on the banks of the Gomti River; the Gomti is a tributary of the Ganges.

Srinagar lies on the banks of the Jhelum River; the Jhelum originates at Verinag, flows through Wular Lake, and is a tributary of the Chenab.

The Kaveri (also called Ponni) has its source at Talakaveri in the Kodagu district of the Western Ghats and then flows through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

By contrast, Ayodhya is on the Sarayu and Madurai is on the Vaigai, so options listing those cities do not match the three rivers named above.

Only two pairs

Pair 1 - Malwa : Chambal - Correct. The Malwa plateau in Central India is drained by the Chambal, a major tributary of the Yamuna; this is the drainage cited in standard NCERT/CBSE geography descriptions.

Pair 2 - Telangana : Penneru - Correct. The Telangana plateau is drained mainly by the east-flowing rivers Godavari and Krishna, and also by the Pennar (Penneru) system in parts; NCERT lists all three as drainage systems for the Telangana plateau.

Pair 3 - Chota Nagpur : Son - Incorrect. The Chota Nagpur plateau is primarily drained by rivers such as the Damodar, Subarnarekha and tributaries of the Ganga (for example, the North Koel). The Son river originates near Amarkantak and does not primarily drain the Chota Nagpur plateau.

1 only

Statement 1 is correct: the Mahadayi (also called the Mandovi) rises in the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Belagavi district of Karnataka in the Western Ghats, making Karnataka the upper-riparian state.

Statement 2 is incorrect: the river is perennial (flows throughout the year), although its discharge reduces significantly in the dry season. While its flow is augmented by the monsoon, it also receives sustained inputs from springs and baseflow, so it does not rely entirely on monsoon rainfall and does not dry up completely.

This perennial character is one reason the river is central to the water-sharing dispute between Karnataka and Goa.

Punjab and Uttar Pradesh respectively. The Sirhind Canal takes off from the Sutlej (headworks at Ropar) in Punjab and supplies irrigation to large tracts of Punjab and adjoining Haryana.

The Sharda Canal (also spelled Sarda Canal) is fed from the Sharda (Sarda) river/barrage and provides irrigation to extensive areas of Uttar Pradesh, especially in the Terai and adjoining plains; it is not the longest canal in India (the longest major canal is the Indira Gandhi Canal).

Only one. The only river of the group that does not flow eastward is Sharavati.

Sharavati rises in the Western Ghats (Karnataka) and drains west into the Arabian Sea at Honnavar; it also forms Jog Falls with a drop of about 253 m.

The other three - Vamsadhara, Vaigai and Penner - all flow eastward and discharge into the Bay of Bengal (the Vaigai reaches the Palk Strait), so they are east-flowing rivers.

In peninsular India the general slope of the plateau is toward the Bay of Bengal, and the Western Ghats act as the western divide; major west-flowing exceptions among peninsular rivers are Narmada and Tapi, but among the four named rivers only Sharavati is west-flowing.

Son

Rihand, North Koel and Gopat are tributaries of the Son river.

The Son rises from the Amarkantak Plateau in Madhya Pradesh at an elevation of about 610 m. It flows generally northeast and east across central India and has a length of about 784 km. Its drainage basin covers roughly 71,259 sq km.

The river receives several important tributaries (for example, Rihand, North Koel, Gopat, Johilla, Kanhar), many joining from the southern or right bank as the Son flows eastward, before it meets the Ganges in Bihar.

D: None

Statement 1: Correct. The Krishna rises in the Western Ghats near Mahabaleshwar at about 1,337 m and flows roughly 1,400 km, passing through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The Godavari rises at Trimbakeshwar (Nashik) at about 1,067 m and, at roughly 1,465 km, flows through Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh before reaching the Bay of Bengal. Thus both rivers do pass through the three states listed.

Statement 2: Incorrect. The two basins differ substantially in area: the Godavari basin ≈ 3,12,812 km², whereas the Krishna basin ≈ 2,58,948 km², so the Godavari basin is significantly larger than the Krishna basin.

Statement 3: Correct. Kolleru Lake is a large freshwater lake in Andhra Pradesh situated in the inter-deltaic plain between the Krishna and Godavari systems and is described as one of the largest freshwater lakes in India (area ≈ 90,100 ha ≈ 901 km²), so the statement about its inter-deltaic location and status is accurate.

Therefore the true correct statements are 1 and 3 only. Since that combination is not among the listed options A, B or C, none of the provided option choices correctly matches the correct set of statements (hence the selection above).

B: 2 only

Statement 1 (False): The Gomti does not originate on the Tibetan Plateau. Its source is a small lake/spring called Gomat Taal near Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh.

Statement 2 (True): The Gomti flows through Uttar Pradesh and passes by Lucknow, Sultanpur, and Jaunpur; it is a tributary of the Ganges.

Krishna: Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, built across the Krishna River, is the world's largest masonry dam. Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1967.

The dam's height is about 124.5 m and its spillway is fitted with 26 crest gates. The gross storage capacity is approximately 11,472 million cubic metres (≈11.47 billion m3).

Situated in Nalgonda District, it provides major irrigation and hydroelectric benefits. For context, other major dams on the Krishna are Srisailam and Almatti, while notable dams on the Kaveri include Krishnarajasagara (KRS), Kallanai and Mettur.

Only two

Statement 1 is incorrect: Gandhi Sagar is constructed on the Chambal River (part of the Chambal Valley Project) in Madhya Pradesh, not on the Narmada.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Maithon Dam is built on the Barakar River, a tributary of the Damodar, in Jharkhand; it is not on the Kaveri.

Statement 3 is correct: Tehri Dam is a multi-purpose project on the Bhagirathi (a headstream of the Ganga) in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand.

Statement 4 is correct: Nagarjuna Sagar is built across the Krishna River (on the border region of present-day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh).

All three

Statement 1 is true. Himalayan rivers are largely perennial because they are fed year-round by glacial and snow melt in addition to the monsoon. Peninsular rivers are primarily seasonal (rain-fed) with much reduced discharge outside the monsoon months, owing to the absence of permanent snow/ice sources and generally smaller catchments.

Statement 2 is true. Rivers of the Peninsular plateau usually follow more straight, structurally controlled courses because they flow over hard, crystalline rocks and along pre-existing fractures. Himalayan rivers, especially in their middle and lower reaches on the plains, develop pronounced meanders, ox-bow features and shifting channels due to large discharge, fine alluvium and low gradients.

Statement 3 is true. In their upper reaches Himalayan rivers cut steep, narrow profiles and form deep V-shaped valleys and gorges due to active vertical erosion. Peninsular rivers, being older and flowing over a more stable plateau with gentler gradients, occupy relatively shallow, graded valleys and broader courses.

Since each statement is correct when evaluated against standard geomorphological and hydrological characteristics, all three statements are true.