Q1.
In 2025, India has 159 airports. Look at some of the international and domestic airports in the map Fig. 7.18. Which airport is closest to your home?
Answer
You must answer this from the map in your own book, using your own location — no single answer fits every reader. Here is how to find it reliably.
Method.
- Find your own state on the map in Fig. 7.18.
- Look for the numbered markers (international airports, 1–11) and lettered markers (national airports, A–N) in and around that state.
- Match each marker with the printed list below the map.
- Of those, pick the one nearest to your town or district — use the map’s scale, or simply the distance you would actually travel by road.
The map’s own lists, to check your answer against:
| International airports (1–11) | National airports (A–N) |
|---|---|
| 1. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, Maharashtra 2. Chennai International Airport, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 3. Dabolim Airport (Goa International Airport), Goa 4. Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi 5. Jaipur International Airport, Jaipur, Rajasthan 6. Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, Karnataka 7. Navi Mumbai International Airport, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 8. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, West Bengal 9. Noida International Airport, Jewar, Uttar Pradesh 10. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, Telangana 11. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, Gujarat |
A. Darbhanga Airport, Darbhanga, Bihar B. Dibrugarh Airport, Dibrugarh, Assam C. Dimapur Airport, Dimapur, Nagaland D. Diu Airport, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu E. Kandla Airport, Anjar, Gujarat F. Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport, Leh G. Ludhiana Airport, Ludhiana, Punjab H. Maharana Pratap Airport, Udaipur, Rajasthan I. Pakyong Airport, Pakyong, Sikkim J. Pantnagar Airport, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand K. Pathankot Airport, Pathankot, Punjab L. Puducherry Airport, Puducherry M. Swami Vivekananda Airport, Raipur, Chhattisgarh N. Tezu Airport, Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh |
Sample answer: “I live in Udaipur, Rajasthan. On the map, marker H falls on my own city — Maharana Pratap Airport, Udaipur. So the airport closest to my home is a national airport, and the nearest international airport is number 5, Jaipur International Airport, about 400 km away by road. If I had to fly abroad, I would first travel to Jaipur or Ahmedabad.”
Why it matters: the map shows that international airports cluster around big cities, while national airports fill in the gaps — Leh in the mountains, Pakyong in Sikkim, Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Diu on the coast. That is the map’s real lesson: air transport is used to reach exactly the “difficult terrains like high mountains, deserts, dense forests, and long oceanic stretches” the text names.