Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Geography) – April 17, 2020

Gondwanaland or “Gondwana” is the name for the southern half of the Pangaean supercontinent that existed some 300 million years ago. Gondwanaland is composed of the major continental blocks of South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India, Antarctica, and Australia. The name “Gondwana” is derived from a tribe in India (Gonds) and “wana” meaning “land of.” Gondwanaland is superficially divided into a western half (Africa and South America) and an eastern half (India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Antarctica, and Australia).

Cauvery basin extends over an area of 87,900 sq. km. which is nearly 2.7% of the total geographical area of the country. It is bounded by the Western Ghats on the west, by the Eastern Ghats on the east and south and by the ridges separating it from Krishna basin and Pennar basin on the north. The basin lies in the States Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Physiographically, the basin can be divided into three parts—the Western Ghats, the Plateau of Mysore and the Delta. The delta area is the most fertile tract in the basin. The principal soil types found in the basin are black soils, red soils, lateritic, alluvial soils, forest soils and mixed soils. Red soils occupy large areas in the basin. Alluvial soils are found in the delta areas. The cultivable area of the basin is about 5.8 M.ha which about 3% of the cultivable area of the country.

The Carpathian Mountains form a 1,500km-long range in Central and Eastern Europe. They stretch west to east in an arc from the Czech Republic to Romania. The Tatra range between Slovakia and Poland is a national park and has several peaks above 2,400 meters. More than half of the Carpathian range lies in Romania, where spruce forests are home to brown bears, wolves and lynxes.

The coal deposits in India primarily are concentrated in the Gondwana sediments occurring mainly in the eastern and central parts of Peninsular India, although Gondwana coal deposits also are found to occur in the north-eastern part of the country mainly in Assam and Sikkim. The Tertiary coal-bearing sediments are found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Indian lignite deposits occur in the Tertiary sediments in the southern and western parts of peninsular shield particularly in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and Gujarat & Rajasthan and also in Jammu & Kashmir.