Civil Services Prelims: Analysis on Geography and Environment Part of General Studies

Sakshi Education

The UPSC has brought a sea change in the preliminary examination pattern by removing optional papers and introducing Aptitude paper from 2011. In the light of these changes, let us see the changes that have taken place in Geography subject.

Subject that provides the examiner more scope
The syllabus for Geography in prelims is simply mentioned as “Physical, Economic and Social Geography of the World and India”. This syllabus, as simple as it looks, provides the examiner more scope to ask questions from both the branches of Geography i.e. firstly, Physical Geography-which studies various attributes of the physical environment such as climate, plants, animals and landforms. Human Geography, the other part studies the Geography of human groups and their activities.

Geography and Environmental Studies:
The Climatic changes that are taking place all over the globe made the examiner to separate the environmental related topics of Geography as an independent discipline due to its heightened relevance. Today, Environmental Studies is having a lion’s share in the preliminary part of UPSC with nearly 22-25 questions out of 100 questions are from this subject.

Geography and Disaster Management:
The Geo Physical phenomenon comprises of phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes and flash floods. While these disasters are altering human life style on one hand and the Anthropogenic factors are creating greet distress for human on the other.

Increasing relevance of these factors is making Disaster Management an essential ingredient in the UPSC syllabus. Such manifestation of geographical topics into separate disciplines made Geography a very important subject for Civil services.

Let us see the Breakup of questions in the previous year Prelims papers for Geography:

Subject / Year

2011

2012

2013

Physical Geography
Human Geography
Environmental Studies

6

5

21

8

3

23

12

2

22

Total

32

34

36

This table shows the increasing importance of Geography subject, which occupies more than 35 percent of marks in paper-I of the preliminary part.

Internal Break up for Geography
Now let us know the areas covered in the previous question papers for the subjects of Geography and Environment.

Topic / Year

2011

2012

2013

World Geography

Physical Geography

Indian Geography

Agriculture

Demography

3

-

5

-

1

3

1

2

6

4

2

-

2013 Prelims General Studies- Geography and Environment Areas
In 2013 Prelims General Studies paper, questions have appeared on following topics –

Sl. No.	Topic Name
1.	Acid Rain
2	Biosphere Reserves
3	National Parks
4	Endangered Species
5	Fresh Water on Earth
6	Biodiversity
7	Atlas Mountains
8	Equatorial Forest
9	Lateritic Soils
10	Dynamic Changes on Earth
11	Mineral Resource in India
12	Earth's Movement
13	Tribes in India
14	Narmada River Flow
15	Smog
16	Grass Lands
17	Kharif Crop
18	African Savannah
19	Decomposers
20	Food Chain
21	Fishing around the World
22	Pollutants in Drinking Water

2012 Prelims General Studies- Geography and Environment Areas
In 2012 Prelims General Studies paper, questions have appeared on following topics –

Sl. No.	Topic Name
1.	Ocean Currents
2	Rain fed Crops
3	Mixed farming
4	Characteristics of Himalayas
5	Latitudes and Longitudes
6	Origin of Life on Earth
7	Green Manure
8	Monsoon
9	Tropical Savanna Region
10	Contour Bundling
11	Universe
12	Ocean Acidification
13	Protected Areas
14	Endangered Species
15	Global Warming
16	Phytoplankton
17	National Biodiversity Authority
18	National Green Tribunal

2011 Prelims General Studies- Geography and Environment Areas
In 2011 Prelims General Studies paper, questions have appeared on following topics –

Sl. No.	Topic Name
1.	World Desert
2	Atmospheric Layers
3	Brahmaputra River System
4	Cropping Pattern
5	Westerlies
6	Salinization
7	La-nina
8	Micro irrigation
9	Tsunami
10	Tropical Rainforest
11	Ionosphere
12	Red Data Book
13	Coal and Pollution
14	Food Crops
15	Deserts
16	Biosphere Conservation
17	Ecosystem
18	Western Ghats