Geography of India and Karnataka
What is tested
Physiographic divisions of India, monsoon mechanics, drainage, soils, and Karnataka's three-fold division from coast to plateau.
Core rules
- Karnataka divides into the coastal Karavali plain (narrow, very heavy rainfall), the Malnad (Western Ghats, evergreen forest, source of west-flowing rivers) and the Maidan or Bayaluseeme (split into northern and southern plateau).
- Highest peak: Mullayyanagiri (about 1,930 m) in Chikkamagaluru district. Agumbe and Hulikal in Shivamogga district record some of India's highest rainfall outside the northeast.
- East-flowing rivers: Krishna, Cauvery, Tungabhadra and Pennar, draining to the Bay of Bengal. West-flowing: Sharavathi (Jog Falls), Kali, Netravati and Aghanashini - short, steep and fast.
- The Western Ghats form the water divide; they are a UNESCO World Heritage site (2012) and one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
Worked example
Question: Why does the Malnad carry evergreen forest while the Maidan has scrub and dry deciduous vegetation? Reasoning: orographic lift of the southwest monsoon against the Ghats gives the windward slope over 2,500 mm of rain, supporting evergreen species; the leeward Maidan lies in rain shadow with roughly 500–700 mm, supporting dry deciduous and thorn vegetation.
Traps that cost marks
- Listing the Cauvery as west-flowing because it rises in Kodagu - it flows east.
- Placing Mullayyanagiri in Kodagu rather than Chikkamagaluru.
- Confusing northern Karnataka's black cotton soil with the coast's red lateritic soils.