RAS question
How many major soil types are recognized in Rajasthan?
Correct answer: (A) 8.
Under the old classification cited in Rajasthan Forest Department material, Rajasthan has eight major soil groups.
Explanation
Rajasthan Forest Department material, in its section on soils in Rajasthan, cites the old classification and says that the state's soils are grouped into eight soil groups. These are desert or sandy soils, dunes and associated soils, brown soils, sierozem soils, red loams, hill soils, saline-sodic soils, and alluvial soils and black soils. This is why the answer is 8: the question is asking for the recognised major groups in that older state-level classification, not for a modern soil-taxonomy breakdown into orders, suborders, great groups, or families.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) 12 overstates the count because the cited old classification lists eight Rajasthan soil groups, not twelve.
- (C) 3 is too few because the classification separates Rajasthan soils into eight named groups, including sandy, dune-associated, brown, sierozem, red loam, hill, saline-sodic, and alluvial or black soils.
- (D) 5 misses three of the groups in the cited classification, which explicitly totals eight major soil groups.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan physical geography, especially the state-level classification of soils. It recurs in RAS because soil groups link directly to Rajasthan's terrain, dryland conditions, and agriculture-oriented geography questions.