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The Northern Plains: doab, bhangar and khadar sheet
3-mark answer frame

Describe the main features of the Northern Plains of India.

How to lay out the answer. Follow the frame, then write it in your own words.

  1. 1 · Locate them. The Northern Plains lie between the Himalayas in the north and the Peninsular Plateau in the south.
  2. 2 · Say how they formed. They were built by silt laid down by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra systems, so their soil is fertile alluvium.
  3. 3 · Give the size. They are about 2,400 km long from Punjab to Assam, about 300 km wide in the west and 150 km in the east.
  4. 4 · Name the parts and terms. The western plain of the Satluj, Beas and Ravi has doabs; the Ganga-Brahmaputra plain lies to the east. Khadar land floods every year; bhangar land does not.
  5. 5 · Show their use. Wheat, rice, sugarcane, pulses, oilseeds and jute grow here, so the plains feed much of India.
  6. 6 · Close in one line. So the Northern Plains rank among the world's largest and most fertile plains.

Scoring tip: Name the three river systems that built the plains. That one line usually earns a mark by itself.