Geography of UP: Location, Relief, Structure and Climate

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies VI.

Geography of UP: Geographical Location, Relief and Structure, Climate, Irrigation, Minerals, Drainage System and Vegetation.

Topics in detail

The official line on the geography of UP is long, so it is split over two pages. This page covers location, relief and structure, and climate; the next page covers drainage, irrigation, minerals and vegetation. Practise both with an outline map of the state's districts and rivers.

Geographical location

• Latitudinal and longitudinal extent: about 23°52' N to 30°24' N, and about 77° E to 84°39' E
• Area of about 2,40,928 sq km, the fourth largest state by area (after Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra)
• Neighbours: Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar
• International border with Nepal along the districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj
• Sonbhadra as the district bordering four states (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar)
• Administrative divisions: 18 divisions and 75 districts
• The formation of Uttarakhand (2000) and how it changed UP's geography: loss of the Himalayan region and most of its forests
• Location advantages and disadvantages: central position in the Ganga plain, landlocked, far from the sea

Relief and structure

• Geological history: the Ganga plain as a foredeep filled with alluvium brought down from the Himalaya
• Physiographic divisions: the Bhabar and Terai belt in the north, the Ganga-Yamuna plain in the centre, and the southern plateau (Bundelkhand and the Vindhyan region)
• Bhabar: a narrow belt of porous pebbles and boulders at the foot of the hills, where streams vanish underground
• Terai: a marshy, moist, once densely forested belt where the streams re-emerge; its reclamation for farming
• The Ganga plain: bhangar (older alluvium, higher, with kankar) and khadar (newer alluvium, low-lying flood plains)
• Doabs and interfluves: the Ganga-Yamuna doab, the Ganga-Ramganga and Ganga-Ghaghara areas
• Features of the plain: levees, ox-bow lakes (tal and jheel), ravines, usar tracts, sand ridges (bhur)
• The southern plateau: Bundelkhand gneiss and granite, the Vindhyan sandstone ranges, the Kaimur hills and the Sonbhadra region
• Height: the general slope from north-west to south-east, shown by the direction of river flow

Climate

• Tropical monsoon climate with continental features: hot summers, cold winters
• Seasons: summer (March to mid-June), rainy season (mid-June to September), retreating monsoon (October to November), winter (December to February)
• Summer: high temperatures, especially in Bundelkhand and the south-west; the hot dry wind called loo; dust storms
• Rainy season: the Bay of Bengal branch of the south-west monsoon; rainfall decreasing from east to west and higher near the foothills
• Winter: cold waves, fog and light rain from western disturbances, important for the rabi crop
• Variability of rainfall and its link to floods in the east and droughts in Bundelkhand
• Climatic regions of UP based on rainfall and temperature
• Extreme events: heat waves, cold waves, lightning, hailstorms

Overlaps

Physical geography and world and Indian geography are in General Studies I; climate change on Climate Change and Weather Forecasting.