HistoryMedieval India: Peasants, Zamindars and the State

Which of the following pairs is correctly matched?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → Terai - a forest region on the Indo-Nepal border

Option (1) Kharbandi - the term used for dense forest — Incorrect. Informed conjectures from sources of the time put the average forest cover at about 40 per cent.

Option (2) Jharkhand - an intensively cultivated province with little forest — Incorrect. Jharkhand was one of the regions with huge swathes of forests. It was a forest region.

Option (3) North-western India - huge swathes of dense forest and scrubland — Incorrect. North-western India had intensively cultivated provinces. The dense forests lay in eastern, central and peninsular India.

Option (4) Terai - a forest region on the Indo-Nepal border — Correct. Forests existed all over northern India, including the Terai on the Indo-Nepal border, so the Terai was a forest region.

NCERT (2026-27): “4.1 Beyond settled villages
There was more to rural India than sedentary agriculture. Apart from the intensively cultivated provinces in northern and north-western India, huge swathes of forests – dense forest (jangal) or scrubland (kharbandi) – existed all over eastern India, central India, northern India (including the Terai on the Indo-Nepal border), Jharkhand, and in peninsular India down the Western Ghats and the Deccan plateau. Though it is nearly impossible to set an all-India average of the forest cover for this period, informed conjectures based on contemporary sources suggest an average of 40 per cent.”