GS Paper I — Q4
Differentiate the causes of landslides in the Himalayan region and Western Ghats. (Answer in 150 words)
हिंदी में प्रश्न पढ़ें
हिमालय क्षेत्र तथा पश्चिमी घाटों में भू-स्खलनों के विभिन्न कारणों का अंतर स्पष्ट कीजिए । (150 शब्दों में उत्तर दीजिए)
Model answer
Drafted with AI by UPSC Answer Check against this question's marking rubric, to the 150-word length. UPSC does not publish answers for Mains — this is one way to score well, not an official key. How we build rubrics and answers.
Geology and tectonics The Himalayas are young, tectonically active fold mountains of fragile sedimentary and metamorphic rock, so slope failure is often earthquake-triggered. The Western Ghats are an older, stable block of Deccan basalt (north) and Precambrian gneiss and charnockite (south); instability comes from deep weathering and laterite soils.
Climate and triggers Himalayan slides follow freeze–thaw, rapid snowmelt, cloudbursts and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, besides rock–ice avalanches (Chamoli, February 2021). Western Ghats slides are mainly monsoon-triggered: intense orographic rain saturates thick weathered regolith and produces debris flows (Kerala 2018 and 2019; Wayanad, July 2024).
Human pressures Himalaya: steep-slope deforestation, hydropower tunnelling and road widening (Joshimath subsidence, 2023). Western Ghats: quarrying, mining, plantation conversion and tourism construction.
How this answer will be evaluated
Framework: GS1 Geography: Physical Geography (Landslides)
What earns full marks: Clear distinction between tectonic/young geology (Himalaya) and weathering/old geology (WG) with specific examples.
Evaluation rubric
Each sub-part is marked on its own, against the marks and word limit printed on the paper.
- The answer Differentiate the specific geological and climatic causes of landslides in the Himalayas versus the Western Ghats. 10 marks · 150 words
compare— paired headings or point-wise contrast → key differences → significance → conclusion
Must cover
- Himalayan causes: young fold mountains, active tectonics, loose debris
- Himalayan causes: steep gradients, glacial melt, seismic activity
- Western Ghats causes: old crystalline rocks, deep weathering
- Western Ghats causes: monsoon intensity, laterite soil, quarrying and deforestation
Loses marks
- Listing general causes without differentiating the two regions
- Narrating chronology of events instead of causes
- Ignoring the geological age difference (young vs. old)
Earns more
- Mention of specific rock types (e.g., gneiss vs. sedimentary)
- Reference to specific human factors (e.g., road cutting vs. mining)
- Comparison of slope stability mechanisms
- Mention of specific events (e.g., Chamoli vs. Wayanad)
Extra mark
- Mention of GLOFs / rock-ice avalanches as Himalaya-specific triggers
- One robust statistic on landslide frequency or loss
What "Differentiate" is asking you to do
Fix the criteria on which the two differ and apply each criterion to both, so the pair can no longer be mixed up. Differentiate stems usually carry a further task attached — describe the mechanism, set out the principles, discuss the applications — and that task carries its own marks.
Structure that answers it
Criterion 1 applied to both → criterion 2 → criterion 3 → summary line or table → the attached second demand answered in full
Where marks are lost
Two standalone definitions placed side by side, leaving the reader to extract the difference. The second common loss is running out of space before the attached task, which is often worth as much as the differentiation.
Practice this exact question
Write your answer and it is marked point by point against the model answer above — what you covered, what you missed, what you got wrong.
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