On the outline map of India provided to you, mark the location of all of the following. Write in your QCA Booklet the…

(a) Locations and their significance

1. Lunkaransar (Bikaner district, Rajasthan; about 28.5° N, 73.75° E): a Thar town with a saline lake used for salt making; irrigation from the Indira Gandhi Canal has made it a noted groundnut-growing centre.
2. Gua (West Singhbhum, Jharkhand; about 22.2° N, 85.4° E): SAIL's iron-ore mines in the Noamundi–Kiriburu belt, feeding the steel plants of eastern India.
3. Raidak River (the Wang Chhu of Bhutan): flows south through Alipurduar and Cooch Behar (West Bengal) into Bangladesh to join the Brahmaputra; Bhutan's Chukha and Tala hydropower projects lie on it, and it borders the Buxa Tiger Reserve and floods the Duars.
4. Ekta Nagar (formerly Kevadia, Narmada district, Gujarat; about 21.8° N, 73.7° E): site of the Statue of Unity and the Sardar Sarovar Dam; being developed as an electric-vehicle-only tourist town.
5. Chandanwari (near Pahalgam, Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, on the Lidder; about 34.1° N, 75.4° E): base of the traditional trek route of the Shri Amarnath Yatra.
6. Babina (Jhansi district, Uttar Pradesh; about 25.2° N, 78.5° E): a large Army cantonment with armoured formations and field firing ranges in Bundelkhand.
7. Tatipaka (Konaseema, Godavari delta, Andhra Pradesh; about 16.5° N, 81.9° E): ONGC's mini-refinery processing crude oil from the Krishna–Godavari basin.
8. Along Airport (Aalo, West Siang, Arunachal Pradesh; about 28.2° N, 94.8° E): an advanced landing ground of strategic value near the China border, also used for civil connectivity to remote areas.
9. Karaikal (Puducherry UT enclave in Tamil Nadu; about 10.9° N, 79.8° E): former French settlement on the Kaveri delta coast with a deep-water commercial port.
10. Panna (Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh; about 24.7° N, 80.2° E): India's diamond-mining centre (NMDC Majhgawan mine) and the Panna Tiger Reserve, a tiger-reintroduction success now affected by the Ken–Betwa link project.

(b) Explanations for the formation of the Shiwalik

The Shiwalik (Outer Himalaya) stretches from the Potwar plateau near the Indus to the Brahmaputra and is built of Mio-Pliocene to Lower Pleistocene molasse: sandstones, clays and conglomerates of the Siwalik Group (Lower: Kamlial–Chinji; Middle: Nagri–Dhok Pathan; Upper: Tatrot–Pinjor–Boulder Conglomerate).

1. Siwalik (Indobrahm) River hypothesis (Pascoe and Pilgrim, 1919): a single large river flowing north-west along the foot of the Himalaya, from Assam to Punjab, deposited the Siwalik sediments; it was later dismembered by uplift of the Potwar plateau and the Delhi ridge into the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra systems. Palaeocurrent studies weaken this view, since they show mostly south-flowing transverse streams.
2. Coalescing alluvial-fan (piedmont) hypothesis: many transverse rivers from the rising Himalaya built large fans in the foreland; the coarsening-upward sequence and the thick Upper Siwalik conglomerates fit a proximal fan setting.
3. Foreland-basin and thrust-uplift model (current view): continued India–Eurasia convergence created a flexural foredeep that trapped the molasse; the Himalayan Frontal Thrust then uplifted, folded and faulted these deposits, making the Shiwalik the youngest, outermost and seismically active range.
4. Climatic and structural controls: stronger monsoon erosion from the late Miocene raised sediment supply, while folding and thrusting produced the longitudinal duns (Dehra Dun, Patli Dun, Kotli Dun) behind the Shiwalik ridges.

Together these views treat the Shiwalik as a tectono-sedimentary unit: foreland deposition by rivers, followed by frontal thrust uplift.

(c) Conservation and breeding centres in the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020–2025

Populations of India's three resident Gyps vultures (white-rumped, long-billed and slender-billed) crashed by over 90%, and by about 99% for the white-rumped vulture, from the 1990s, mainly because of diclofenac residues in livestock carcasses. Conservation breeding centres are central to the plan because:

• Slow breeding: vultures mature at about five years and raise one chick a year, so wild populations cannot recover quickly on their own.
• Insurance population: captive flocks at centres such as the BNHS-run ones at Pinjore (Haryana), Rajabhatkhawa (West Bengal) and Rani (Assam) safeguard the species against extinction.
• Reintroduction: captive-bred birds are released into drug-free Vulture Safe Zones; the plan targets at least one safe zone in every state.
• Expansion and rescue: the plan proposes new breeding centres in Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and four rescue centres at Pinjore, Bhopal, Guwahati and Hyderabad for injured or poisoned birds.
• Research and drug safety: centres support testing of veterinary NSAIDs for vulture safety; after the 2006 ban on veterinary diclofenac, ketoprofen and aceclofenac were banned for animal use in 2023.

Breeding works only if food is safe, so the centres are paired with drug regulation and carcass monitoring.

(d) Geopolitical sensitivity and strategic significance of the North-Eastern States

• International borders: the region has over 5,000 km of international border with China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, which is almost all of its boundary, and is linked to the rest of India only through the Siliguri Corridor (about 22 km wide at its narrowest).
• China factor: China claims Arunachal Pradesh; the 2017 Doklam standoff near the corridor, and China's large hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo at Medog (construction began in 2025), raise security and water concerns.
• Myanmar frontier: the conflict in Myanmar, insurgent camps, arms and drug trafficking, and refugee flows have led India to end the Free Movement Regime and fence the 1,643 km border; ethnic violence in Manipur since 2023 adds to the sensitivity.
• Bangladesh and migration: a porous border, identity politics and changing ties after Bangladesh's 2024 political transition.
• Gateway to Southeast Asia: the Act East Policy, the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project and the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway link the region to ASEAN and the Bay of Bengal.
• Resources and ecology: large hydropower potential on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, oil and gas, and biodiversity hotspots.

These factors make infrastructure, border management and inclusive development in the North-East a national security priority.