RAS question
Consider the following passes and their locations: 1. Jelep La — Sikkim 2. Bomdila — Arunachal Pradesh 3. Khyber Pass — India-Afghanistan Which of the above are correctly matched?
Correct answer: (A) 1 and 2 only.
Jelep La is correctly matched with Sikkim and Bomdila with Arunachal Pradesh, while Khyber Pass is between Pakistan and Afghanistan, not India and Afghanistan.
Explanation
The correctly matched pairs are 1 and 2 only. Jelep La is a Sikkim pass: the Government of Sikkim lists Jelep-la among the important passes in the eastern part of the state. Bomdila is also correctly tied to Arunachal Pradesh; Arunachal Tourism places Bomdila in West Kameng district and presents it on the Tezpur-Bhalukpong-Bomdila-Tawang circuit, matching the standard RAS geography association with the route to Tawang. The trap is Khyber Pass. Britannica identifies Khyber Pass as a Pakistan-Afghanistan mountain pass, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. Therefore, calling it an India-Afghanistan pass is a present-day political-geography error.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) It excludes Jelep La, which is correctly matched with Sikkim, and includes Khyber Pass as India-Afghanistan even though it is Pakistan-Afghanistan.
- (C) It treats all three pairs as correct, but the Khyber Pass pair is wrong because the pass is on the Pakistan-Afghanistan side, not the India-Afghanistan side.
- (D) It accepts Jelep La with Sikkim but leaves out Bomdila, which is also correctly associated with Arunachal Pradesh and the Tawang route.
Concept
This tests the Indian physical geography habit of linking Himalayan passes with their states and frontier regions. RAS repeats such items because one misplaced border, especially on north-western or north-eastern passes, changes the answer.