FACULTY OF SCIENCE
M. Sc. (Geography)
The objective (Multiple Choice) as well as short answer type questions will be asked
covering the following courses taught at Graduation level.
1. Geomorphology : Theories of the origin of the earth – Laplace, Chemberlin &
Mouition, Big Bang; the constitution of the earth’s interior; Isostasy; Wagener’s
theory and Plate Tectonics; earthquakes and volcanoes; Kober and Holmes
theories of mountain building; the work of running water, glacier and wind; karst
topography; concept of cycle of erosion 0 Davis and Penck.
2. Climatology and Oceanography : Composition and structure of the
atmosphere; insolution and heat budget; horizontal and vertical distribution of
temperature, pressure and wind; forms of precipitation and types of rainfall;
classification and properties of air masses and fronts; tropical and temperate
cyclones; Koppen’s climatic classification; relief features of the ocean floor;
vertical and horizontal distribution of salinity and temperature; tides and ocean
currents; ocean deposits.
3. Geography of Resources and its Utilization : Soil formation and soil types;
types of forest and forest products; production and distribution of iron ore,
copper, coal, petroleum and hydro-power; solar energy; water conservation and
future prospects; distribution, density and growth of world population; concept of
optimum, over and under population; population resource regions of the world;
production and distribution of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane and tea; industries –
iron and steel, cotton textile and sugar, distribution and characteristics of primary;
secondary and tertiary activities.
4. Evolution of Geographical Thought : Contribution of Strabo, Ptolemy, Al-
biruni, Ibn-Khaldum, Humboldt, Ritter, Ratzel and Vidal-de-la-Blache;
environmental determinism, possibilism and stop and go determinism;
quantitative revolution, behavioural geography, radical geography and welfare
geography.
5. Major World Environment : Physical and human environment in equatorial,
monsoon, hot desert, tropical and temperature grasslands, Mediterranean,
tundra and taiga regions; air, water and soil pollution.
6. Geography of India : Structure and relief; evolution of extra peninsular drainage
and its major river system; characteristics of peninsular drainage and its major
river system; origin and development of monsoon and its mechanism; El-Nino
and its effect on Indian weather; identificatioin of flood prone areas and draught
prone areas; types of forests and its distribution, characteristics and economic
importance, deforestation and its consequences, social forestry and its
significance, distribution and characteristics of soils in India; soil erosion and
conservation; distribution and growth of population; agro – climate regions; the
Green Revolution; distribution and production of rice, wheat, cotton and tea;
production and distribution of coal, petroleum, hydro-electricity and nuclear
energy; localization factors and spatial pattern of major industries – iron and steel
industry and cotton textile industry.
7. Practical Aspects in Geography : Nature and sources of geographic data;
classification and significance of maps; definition, significance and types of scale;
methods of showing relief; representation of population, agricultural and transport
data by various Cartographic techniques including choropleth and isopleth;
classification, identification, transformation and choice of map projections;
measures of central tendency and dispersion – arithmetic mean, median, mode,
standard deviation, co-efficient of variation; types and utility of aerial
photographs, chief elements of aerial photo interpretation; application of remote
sensing in geographical studies; remote sensing platform and sensors – active,
passive and micro wave remote sensing.
