Which of the following is the largest saline water lake in India?

Sambhar is the correct answer. It is India's largest inland saline lake, in Jaipur and Nagaur districts of Rajasthan, fed mainly by streams such as the Mendha and Rampur. Its salinity comes from evaporation of inflowing water in an endorheic basin, and the salt works here are among the largest in the country.

Why the others fail:

• Chilika: Odisha's lagoon is India's largest brackish water lagoon and Asia's largest coastal lagoon, but it is brackish, not a saline inland lake. It is a Ramsar site (1981).
• Lonar: a meteorite impact crater in Buldhana district, Maharashtra. Its water is saline-alkaline, but the lake is small.
• Wullar: in Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir, it is India's largest freshwater lake, fed by the Jhelum.

Concept: classification of lakes as freshwater, brackish or saline, and how endorheic basins produce salt lakes. For Mains, Sambhar connects to wetland conservation under the Ramsar framework and to the livelihood and environmental issues of the salt industry.

Trap: candidates pick Chilika because it is the largest lake-like water body in India. Read the word saline carefully, because Chilika is brackish.