At one of the places in India, if you stand on the seashore and watch the sea, you will find that the sea water recedes from the shore line a few kilometres and comes back to the shore, twice a day, and you can actually walk on the sea floor when the water recedes. This unique phenomenon is seen at
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) Chandipur
Chandipur, on the Bay of Bengal coast in Balasore district of Odisha, has a very gently sloping shore: at low tide the sea pulls back up to about 5 km, so visitors can walk on the exposed sea bed, and the water returns with the high tide.
- ✓ (c) Odisha Tourism calls Chandipur a 'hide and seek' beach: at each low tide it recedes up to about 5 km, exposing the sea bed, and the sea comes back at high tide (tides come roughly twice a day).
- ✗ (a) Bhavnagar is a port city on the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat; it is not the beach known for this walk-on-the-sea-floor phenomenon.
- ✗ (b) Bheemunipatnam is a coastal town near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh with an ordinary beach, not a receding one.
Remember · Chandipur (Balasore, Odisha) = the 'vanishing sea' beach: at low tide the sea recedes up to about 5 km and you can walk on the sea bed.
Sources
- Odisha Tourism (Government of Odisha): Chandipur ↗ “Chandipur is a beach like no other. During low tides the beach recedes upto 5 KM offering visitors the opportunity to walk on the sea bed.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·