India: climate, soils & vegetation

Answer: (b) 1 and 2

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration's own statistics describe a humid, tropical, coastal climate, with rain from both the south-west and the north-east monsoons. The maximum rainfall is from May to December, so the wettest period is not December to May.

• ✓ 1. The Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration says the climate of the islands can be defined as humid, tropical and coastal; the Forest Department also describes a hot, humid climate with abundant rains.
• ✓ 2. The islands get rain from both monsoons: the south-west monsoon from mid-May to the end of September and the north-east monsoon from November to January, according to the Administration's meteorological statistics.
• ✗ 3. The Administration's statistics put the maximum rainfall between May and December, which is the opposite of December to May.

Remember · Andaman and Nicobar: humid, tropical, coastal climate; rain from both south-west and north-east monsoons; maximum rainfall May to December (about 3,000 mm a year).

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Answer: (b) Only two

Teak and mahua are typical trees of India's tropical deciduous (monsoon) forests and shed their leaves in the dry season. Jackfruit keeps its leathery leaves all year and is an evergreen tree, so only two of the three are deciduous.

• ✗ 1. Jackfruit is an evergreen tree with glossy, leathery leaves; it does not drop its foliage in a dry season.
• ✓ 2. Mahua is listed among the main species of India's tropical deciduous forests, which shed leaves in the dry months.
• ✓ 3. Teak is the best-known tree of the tropical deciduous (monsoon) forests of India.

Remember · Tropical deciduous (monsoon) forests: teak, sal, shisham, mahua, amla, semul, kusum, sandalwood. Jackfruit is an evergreen tree.

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Answer: (d) tropical rain forest

The description fits a tropical rain forest, where constant heat and moisture make dead leaves rot very fast, leaving the ground almost bare, and where climbers and epiphytes reach the tall canopy by using tree trunks and branches.

• ✓ (d) In a rain forest, NASA notes, leaf litter on the floor decomposes rapidly in wet, warm conditions, so the ground stays nearly bare. Woody vines climb the trees to reach the light, and epiphytes such as orchids and ferns grow on the branches. NCERT links tropical evergreen forests with a dense canopy.
• ✗ (a) Coniferous forests grow in cold regions, where decay is slow, so they do not show the fastest leaf-litter breakdown of any biome.
• ✗ (b) Dry deciduous forests have a long dry season, which slows decay, and they lack the dense layered canopy of climbers and epiphytes described here.
• ✗ (c) Mangroves stand in tidal, salty waterlogged mud, so a description of bare forest soil with epiphytes in the canopy does not point to them.

Remember · Tropical rain forest: fast litter decay, thin humus, dense canopy, and climbers and epiphytes reaching the light. Nutrients sit in living plants, not in the soil.

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Answer: (b) fissure volcanic rock

Black cotton soil (regur) forms from the weathering of the basalt lava that poured out of fissures to make the Deccan Traps, so the parent rock is fissure volcanic rock.

• ✓ (b) NCERT calls black soil typical of the Deccan trap (basalt) region and says it is made up of lava flows. The Deccan Traps are a flood basalt province built by lava outpourings through cracks in the crust.
• ✗ (c) Granite and schist are crystalline rocks; NCERT links red soil, not black soil, with crystalline igneous rocks on the Deccan plateau.
• ✗ (a) Brown forest soil is itself a soil, not a rock, so it cannot be the rock whose weathering produces black soil.
• ✗ (d) Shale and limestone are sedimentary rocks; black soil forms from volcanic basalt.

Remember · Black (regur) soil comes from Deccan Trap basalt, which erupted from fissures; it holds moisture well and suits cotton.

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Answer: (d) Valley of Flowers National Park

The Valley of Flowers in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, is a high-altitude West Himalayan park of alpine meadows, lying wholly above the tree-dominated lower zones. The other three begin in the foothills or low valleys and climb through tropical and subtropical forests, so they are not completely temperate alpine.

• ✓ (d) Part of the Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers World Heritage Site, it is known for meadows of endemic alpine flowers in the high West Himalaya, in the transition between the Zanskar and Great Himalaya ranges.
• ✗ (a) Manas in Assam lies on a gentle slope in the Himalayan foothills with alluvial grasslands and tropical forests — a lowland park.
• ✗ (b) Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh rises from about 200 m to 4,571 m, so it runs from tropical evergreen forest up to alpine vegetation rather than lying wholly in one zone.
• ✗ (c) Neora Valley in West Bengal is known for dense subtropical and temperate forest on the Eastern Himalayan slopes, not for a park lying wholly in the alpine belt.

Remember · Valley of Flowers NP (Chamoli, Uttarakhand) = wholly alpine meadows; part of the Nanda Devi–Valley of Flowers World Heritage Site (1988, extended 2005).

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Answer: (c) 3–2–4–1

Lowest to highest forest cover as a share of the State's area is Maharashtra (about 16.5%), Madhya Pradesh (about 25.1%), Odisha (about 33.2%) and Chhattisgarh (about 41.1%). This gives the order 3–2–4–1.

• ✓ 3. Maharashtra has the smallest share: 50,777.56 sq km of forest cover, 16.50% of its area (ISFR 2019).
• ✓ 2. Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in absolute area (77,482.49 sq km) but only 25.14% of its area, because the State is so large.
• ✓ 4. Odisha has 51,618.51 sq km of forest cover, which is 33.15% of its area.
• ✓ 1. Chhattisgarh has the highest share of the four: 55,610.57 sq km, or 41.14% of its area.

Remember · Forest cover share of state area: Maharashtra 16.5% < Madhya Pradesh 25.1% < Odisha 33.2% < Chhattisgarh 41.1%. Madhya Pradesh is first in area but not in percentage.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are ways in which dry-area plants cut water loss through transpiration. A waxy coat seals the surface, small leaves expose less evaporating surface, and thorns or spines replace leaves almost entirely.

• ✓ 1. A thick, waxy cuticle on hard leaves slows the escape of water vapour; plants of very dry habitats often have such a coat.
• ✓ 2. Small leaves have less surface from which water can evaporate and heat up less in the sun.
• ✓ 3. In plants such as cacti the leaves are reduced to thorns or spines, so the plant loses very little water through leaves at all.

Remember · Desert (xerophytic) plants save water with waxy coats, small leaves, thorns/spines, deep roots and fleshy water-storing stems.

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Answer: (b) 3 only

Only statement 3 is correct: repeated irrigation can leave salts in the soil and make farmland saline. Organic matter (humus) helps soil hold water, and soil is where sulphur is stored and converted into a form plants can use.

• ✗ 1. Humus, the dark organic matter of soil, is rich in nutrients and retains moisture. More organic matter raises water-holding capacity; it does not drastically reduce it.
• ✗ 2. Soil is a main site of the sulphur cycle. Sulphur added as elemental S must be oxidised to sulphate in the soil before plants can take it up.
• ✓ 3. NCERT notes that intensive irrigation in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh is increasing soil salinity, because irrigation water leaves dissolved salts behind as it evaporates.

Remember · Organic matter (humus) holds water; soil is a working part of the sulphur cycle; long-term irrigation can make soil saline.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) is endemic to a small tract of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh, so it is found only in a part of South India. It grows in dry deciduous forest, not in tropical rainforest, so statement 2 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. The IUCN describes it as an Indian endemic tree with a restricted range in the Eastern Ghats, in a distinct tract of forest in Andhra Pradesh.
• ✗ 2. It grows in dry deciduous forests, on dry, hilly and often rocky ground, and is not a tree of the tropical rainforests of South India.

Remember · Red Sanders: endemic to the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh; a dry-deciduous-forest tree, not a rainforest one; IUCN Endangered and listed under CITES Appendix II.

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