Prelims 2014 · archive
MediumConsider the following pairs:
Region: Well-known for the production of
- 1.Kinnaur: Areca nut
- 2.Mewat: Mango
- 3.Coromandel: Soya bean
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) None
No pair is correct. Kinnaur is a cold, high-altitude district famous for apples and dry fruits, while areca nut is a humid-tropical palm. Mewat is a dry Haryana district of wheat, bajra and mustard, with guava, aonla and ber as its main fruits. The Coromandel plain in Tamil Nadu is not a soya bean region; soya bean is concentrated in central India.
- ✗ 1. Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh) is famous for apples, chilgoza and other dry fruits. Areca nut is grown mainly in Karnataka, Kerala, Assam and Meghalaya, with some in West Bengal and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is not a crop of the cold Himalayan belt.
- ✗ 2. Mewat (Haryana) is a wheat, bajra and rapeseed-mustard district. Its listed fruit crops are guava, aonla and ber, and mango is not among them.
- ✗ 3. Coromandel is the Tamil Nadu coastal plain. Soya bean is a central-Indian kharif oilseed, and Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra together produce about 90 per cent of national output.
Remember · Kinnaur means apple and chilgoza. Areca nut belongs to Karnataka, Kerala and Assam. Soya bean belongs to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, not the Coromandel coast.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 India: People and Economy, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 1 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- About Kinnaur – District Administration, Kinnaur (hpkinnaur.nic.in) ↗ “The apples, chilgoza and other dry fruits are grown here are world famous.”
- ICAR-CRIDA Agriculture Contingency Plan: Mewat (Haryana) ↗ · reference work “Horticulture crops - Fruits Total area Guava 0.5 Aonla 0.3 Ber 0.3”
- ICAR-CPCRI / Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, Calendar for Arecanut (Technical Bulletin 67) ↗ “Arecanut (Areca catechu L.) is one of the important commercial crops grown in parts of Karnataka Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.”
- ICAR – Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh (state profile) ↗ · reference work “The major crops are soybean, wheat, chickpea and cotton.”
- NCERT Class 12 · India: People and Economy, Chapter 3 “These two states together produce about 90 per cent of total output of soyabean in the country.”
- NCERT Class 7 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Chapter 1 “Coastal regions, including the Malabar (Kerala) and Coromandel (Tamil Nadu) plains, receive rainfall from both the southwest and northeast monsoons.”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2014, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·