Majuli, the largest inhabited river island, is located in which state?

Concept

A river (fluvial) island forms where a large river splits into multiple channels around an accumulated mass of alluvial sediment; big braided rivers carrying a heavy sediment load — such as the Brahmaputra — are the classic setting for very large river islands.

Application

Majuli sits in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, enclosed by the main Brahmaputra channel to the south and the Kherkutia Xuti (an anabranch of the Brahmaputra joined by the Subansiri River) to the north. Repeated course changes and heavy sediment deposition by the Brahmaputra built up this landmass over centuries. The Assam government and Guinness World Records recognise Majuli as the world's largest river island; with an inhabited population above 150,000, it is specifically the largest INHABITED river island (Brazil's Ilha do Bananal covers a larger total area but is a sparsely populated protected reserve). Majuli was also declared India's first island district in 2016.

Cross-check

None of the other three offered states matches this setting:

• Sikkim is a landlocked Himalayan state drained mainly by the Teesta river system, not the wide braided Brahmaputra.

• Manipur is centred on the Imphal Valley, drained by the Manipur (Imphal) river system that flows toward the Chindwin, not the Brahmaputra.

• Mizoram is a hill state drained chiefly by the Tlawng (Dhaleswari) and Kolodyne rivers, without a Brahmaputra-scale braided channel.

Only Assam's stretch of the Brahmaputra has the channel width, sediment supply, and course instability needed to sustain a river island of this scale.