RAS question
The Indira Gandhi Canal provides water to which state?
Correct answer: (B) Rajasthan.
The Indira Gandhi Canal provides irrigation water to northwestern Rajasthan.
Explanation
Rajasthan is the state served here because the Indira Gandhi Canal carries water from the Sutlej-Beas system at Harike Barrage in Punjab towards the Thar Desert region of Rajasthan. It is India's longest canal, 649 km long, and helped transform arid land into farmland. The Rajasthan State Biodiversity Board describes northwestern Rajasthan as sandy and dry, much of it covered by the Thar Desert, and states that the Indira Gandhi Canal irrigates northwestern Rajasthan. The canal is therefore linked with desert irrigation and agricultural change in Rajasthan, not with Gujarat, Punjab, or Madhya Pradesh as destination states.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Gujarat is not served by the Indira Gandhi Canal; Gujarat's major canal association is with the Narmada Canal.
- (C) Punjab is associated with the canal's Harike Barrage origin point, but the water is carried onward to Rajasthan, so Punjab is not the destination state for the canal's irrigation.
- (D) Madhya Pradesh has its own irrigation projects, but the Indira Gandhi Canal is connected with northwestern Rajasthan.
Concept
Indian geography links irrigation with desert-region transformation. RAS emphasizes Rajasthan's arid northwest, Thar Desert and canal irrigation as core state-geography themes.