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UPPCS Indian Geography Gap Sheet: Lakes of India.
UPPCS has asked 20 of these. 8 have not been asked yet. Lock the first list, then read the second: it holds what UPPCS has not used yet.
First, the concept
Lakes form in many ways: glaciers (Himalayan tarns), river bends (ox-bow lakes), lagoons cut off by sand bars (Chilika, Pulicat), earth movements (Wular), a meteor hit (Lonar), or dams (man-made).
Fresh or salty depends on the outlet. A lake with no outlet in a dry area turns salty: Sambhar, Pangong Tso.
UPPCS asks the 'largest' and 'only' lakes, and lake–state pairs.
✅ Already asked (20)
Record lakes
- Wular · Jammu and Kashmir, on the Jhelum; India's largest freshwater lake
- Chilika · Odisha; India's largest brackish-water lagoon; Irrawaddy dolphins
- Sambhar · Rajasthan; India's largest inland salt lake
- Vembanad · Kerala; India's longest lake; the Nehru Trophy boat race
- Loktak · Manipur; floating islands (phumdis); Keibul Lamjao, the only floating national park
- Lonar · Buldhana, Maharashtra; made by a meteorite impact
- Pulicat · Andhra Pradesh–Tamil Nadu; lagoon; Sriharikota lies by it
- Kolleru · Andhra Pradesh, between the Godavari and Krishna deltas; freshwater
Himalayan lakes
- Dal · Srinagar; houseboats and floating gardens
- Roopkund · Uttarakhand; the 'skeleton lake'
- Nainital, Bhimtal, Sattal · Kumaon lakes, Uttarakhand
- Renuka · Sirmaur; the largest natural lake of Himachal Pradesh
Peninsula and west
- Sasthamcotta · Kerala's largest freshwater lake
- Ashtamudi · Kollam, Kerala; backwater, Ramsar site
- Nakki · Mount Abu, Rajasthan
- Didwana and Pachpadra · Salt lakes of Rajasthan
Uttar Pradesh (UP special)
- Ramgarh Tal · Gorakhpur
- Bakhira · Sant Kabir Nagar; the largest natural flood-plain wetland of UP
- Sur Sarovar (Keetham) · Agra
- Fulhar Jheel · Pilibhit; source of the Gomti
❌ Not asked yet (8)
Items marked 'asked in other exams' have come in UPSC or other state exams, not yet in UPPCS.
🔒 8 items not asked yet
Himalayan lakes: 3 · Peninsula and west: 5
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⚠️ Wular is the largest freshwater lake; Chilika is brackish; Sambhar is salt. Loktak is in Manipur, not Meghalaya.
'Asked' and 'not asked' are checked against every UPPCS question on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.