Resources and their types
Think of a village well, a bullock cart, a tractor and a mobile tower. Each one exists because people turned something found in nature into something useful. A rock in a field is just a rock until someone shapes it into a grinding stone.
A resource is anything in our surroundings that can meet a human need, provided people have the technology to reach it, it is affordable to use, and the society accepts its use. Resources are not free gifts; people, technology and institutions together make them.
Key idea 1: Four ways to group resources — By origin: biotic (from living things, such as forests, animals, fish) and abiotic (non-living, such as rocks, metals, water). By exhaustibility: renewable (can be refilled, such as wind, sunlight) and non-renewable (take millions of years, such as coal, petroleum). By ownership: individual, community, national, international. By stage of development: potential, developed, stock, reserves.
- Easy: A fishing boat catches fish (biotic) and uses wind or diesel (renewable or non-renewable).
- Medium: A village pond used by all families is a community resource; a private garden is an individual resource.
- Exam-type: Ocean waters beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast belong to no single country; they are an international resource.
Key idea 2: Stages of a resource — Potential resources exist but are not yet used (wind energy in a windy desert). Developed resources are already surveyed and in use. Stock is material that could meet needs but we lack the technology (water has hydrogen, a good fuel, but we cannot yet use it widely). Reserves are the part of a stock that we can use with present technology but are saving for the future (water in a dam).
- Easy: Sunlight on a rooftop is a potential resource until a solar panel is fitted.
- Medium: A coal seam that is being mined today is a developed resource.
- Exam-type: A dam holds 10 million litres. The water being supplied now is developed; the extra kept for dry months is a reserve.
Technology, institutions and human effort turn material into a resource.
Calling every renewable resource "unlimited". Forests and groundwater are renewable only if we use them more slowly than they refill.
Ask four questions: Where from? Will it refill? Who owns it? How far developed? Memory clue: O-E-O-D (Origin, Exhaustibility, Ownership, Development).
Spot the difference
| Type | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Renewable | refills naturally in useful time | wind, sunlight |
| Non-renewable | takes millions of years to form | coal, petroleum |
| Stock | cannot be used with today's technology | hydrogen in water |
| Reserve | usable but kept for future | water in a dam |
Practice questions
- 1Name one biotic and one abiotic resource.
- 2Is solar energy renewable or non-renewable?
- 3Who owns a community pond?
- 4Why are resources called "a function of human activities"?
- 5How is a stock different from a reserve?
- 6Why is coal called non-renewable even though it forms naturally?
- 7A windy desert has no wind turbines yet. Which stage is its wind energy in? What would change this?
- 8Give one example each of a resource owned by an individual, a community and the nation.
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Biotic: forest or fish. Abiotic: iron ore or water.
- 2Renewable.
- 3All members of the village community.
- 4Material becomes a resource only when people have the skill, tools and need to use it.
- 5A stock cannot be used with present technology; a reserve can, but is being saved.
- 6It takes millions of years to form, far longer than we use it.
- 7Potential resource. Building turbines (technology) and a power grid (institutions) would develop it.
- 8Individual: a private well. Community: village grazing land. National: minerals under the land.
Sustainable development and resource planning
A family that spends the whole month's salary in the first week has nothing left for the rest of the month. Using nature's resources carelessly is the same: the present generation enjoys, the future generations pay.
Sustainable development means growing and improving life today without damaging the environment and without spoiling the chances of future generations. Resource planning is the careful, step-by-step method of using resources wisely.
Key idea 1: Why careless use is dangerous — A few people or countries using too much leaves others with too little, creating rich and poor groups. Over-use also causes global warming, ozone-layer damage, pollution and land degradation. This is why the world met at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where Agenda 21 was adopted so that every local government makes its own plan for sustainable living.
- Easy: Switching off unused lights saves a resource.
- Medium: If a few factories use most of a region's water, farmers nearby face shortages.
- Exam-type: Agenda 21 asks each local body to prepare a local plan. A panchayat that bans plastic bags and plants trees is following this idea.
Key idea 2: Resource planning in India — India's resources are unevenly spread: Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have minerals and coal; Arunachal Pradesh has water but weak infrastructure; Rajasthan has sun and wind but little water; Ladakh is isolated and short of water. Planning has three steps: (i) survey, map and measure resources; (ii) build a planning structure with technology, skill and institutions; (iii) match plans with national development plans.
- Easy: Rajasthan is good for solar power plants.
- Medium: Ladakh has cultural wealth but needs water and roads, so planning must balance its needs.
- Exam-type: A state rich in coal but without railway lines cannot gain from its coal. Both resource and infrastructure planning are needed.
Sustainable development = progress today without stealing from tomorrow.
Thinking resource-rich regions are always developed. Without technology and institutions, they may stay backward.
Planning has three steps: Count, Build, Match. Memory clue: C-B-M, "Count it, Build for it, Match it".
Spot the difference
| Region | Rich in | Short of |
|---|---|---|
| Madhya Pradesh | minerals, coal | not stated |
| Rajasthan | sun, wind | water |
| Arunachal Pradesh | water | infrastructure |
| Ladakh | culture | water, minerals, roads |
Practice questions
- 1What does sustainable development mean?
- 2In which year was the Rio Earth Summit held?
- 3Name a state rich in minerals.
- 4State two problems caused by careless use of resources.
- 5Why does India need resource planning?
- 6What is Agenda 21?
- 7Explain why a region can be rich in resources and yet economically backward.
- 8Write the three steps of resource planning in India with one line on each.
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Development that does not harm the environment or the needs of future generations.
- 21992.
- 3Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh.
- 4Resource depletion and global ecological crises such as pollution or land degradation.
- 5Resources are spread unevenly, so balanced planning is needed at every level.
- 6A plan signed at the 1992 summit for sustainable development, asking local governments to make local plans.
- 7Without technology, skills and institutions the resources cannot be used well.
- 8Survey and map resources; build a planning structure with technology and skills; match plans with national plans.
Land resources, land use and land degradation
Look at the land around your school: a playground, a road, a few trees, maybe a farm beyond. One piece of land cannot be used for everything, so people must choose.
Land use means how land is divided among forests, farming, buildings, roads, pasture and waste land. Net sown area is the land on which crops are actually sown. Gross cropped area is net sown area plus the area sown more than once in a year.
Key idea 1: Land use pattern — India's land includes plains (about 43 per cent), mountains (about 30 per cent) and plateaus (about 27 per cent). Land use depends on physical factors (relief, climate, soil) and human factors (population, technology, culture). Net sown area is very high in Punjab and Haryana (over 80 per cent) and very low in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Andaman and Nicobar. Forest cover is below the 33 per cent aim of the National Forest Policy.
- Easy: Plains are best for farming and industry.
- Medium: A hilly state has a low net sown area because steep slopes are hard to plough.
- Exam-type: A field gives wheat in winter and rice in the monsoon. Its net sown area counts once; its gross cropped area counts twice.
Key idea 2: Land degradation and its remedies — Causes: deforestation, over-grazing (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra), mining (Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha), over-irrigation causing waterlogging and salty soil (Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh), and industrial dust and waste. Remedies: planting trees, controlling grazing, shelter belts and thorny bushes to hold dunes, careful mining, and treating factory waste before release.
- Easy: Planting trees helps to protect land.
- Medium: Too much canal water in the field raises salt in the soil and harms crops.
- Exam-type: A cement factory's dust settles on fields and blocks water from soaking in. A dust-control filter is a remedy.
Net sown area is counted once; gross cropped area counts every sowing.
Thinking over-irrigation helps crops always. In low-lying areas it brings salts to the surface.
For each cause, match the state group. Memory clue: Mining = Eastern plateau, Grazing = West, Over-irrigation = North-west.
Spot the difference
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Net sown area | land sown once |
| Gross cropped area | net sown area plus repeated sowing |
| Fallow land | left uncultivated for a time to regain fertility |
| Waste land | rocky, arid or desert land |
Practice questions
- 1What is net sown area?
- 2Name two states with a very high net sown area.
- 3Name one cause of land degradation in Jharkhand.
- 4How is gross cropped area different from net sown area?
- 5Why has over-irrigation harmed land in Punjab?
- 6Why is the forest area in India below the desired level?
- 7A farmer sows two crops on 4 hectares and one crop on 6 hectares. Find the net sown and gross cropped area.
- 8Suggest three ways to reduce land degradation in an arid area.
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1The area where crops are actually sown.
- 2Punjab and Haryana.
- 3Mining.
- 4Gross cropped area adds the area sown more than once to the net sown area.
- 5Waterlogging raised the salt and alkali content of the soil.
- 6Pressure of population, farming, settlements and industry on land.
- 7Net sown area = 10 hectares; gross cropped area = 4 x 2 + 6 = 14 hectares.
- 8Shelter belts, controlled grazing, and growing thorny bushes to fix sand dunes.
Soils of India
A potter, a farmer and a tea-estate worker all work with soil, but each picks a different kind. Sticky clay suits pots; loose, wet-holding soil suits other crops.
Soil is the thin living layer on land that grows plants. Its type depends on relief, parent rock, climate, vegetation and time. It takes millions of years to form a few centimetres of soil.
Key idea 1: Alluvial and black soils — Alluvial soil is carried by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra and by east-coast rivers; it is the most widespread, very fertile, and suits sugarcane, rice, wheat and pulses. Old alluvium is Bangar; new alluvium is Khadar, and Khadar is finer and more fertile. Black soil (regur) forms on lava rock in the Deccan; its clay holds moisture, cracks in summer, is sticky when wet, and is best for cotton.
- Easy: Cotton grows well in black soil.
- Medium: The Northern Plains are made of alluvial soil, so they are densely populated.
- Exam-type: A soil cracks deeply in summer and is sticky in the rains. It is black soil, found in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Key idea 2: Red, laterite, arid and forest soils — Red and yellow soil forms on old crystalline rocks in low-rainfall areas of the Deccan; the red colour comes from iron. Laterite (from the Latin word for brick) forms under heavy rain and heat by leaching; it is acidic and poor in nutrients but, with care, grows tea, coffee and cashew in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Arid soil is sandy, salty and lacks humus, with a kankar layer below; with irrigation it becomes cultivable (western Rajasthan). Forest soils are found on hills with good rain and are rich where river terraces are.
- Easy: Laterite soil is red like a brick.
- Medium: Arid soil in Rajasthan can grow crops if irrigation is provided.
- Exam-type: Heavy monsoon rain washes nutrients down and leaves an acidic soil. This is laterite, good for cashew.
Alluvial = most fertile and widest; black = cotton; laterite = bricks and heavy rain.
Mixing up Bangar and Khadar. Khadar is the new, finer, more fertile soil.
Link soil to crop: Alluvial = rice-wheat, Black = cotton, Laterite = tea-coffee-cashew. Memory clue: "A for Ample, B for Bolls (cotton), L for Leached".
Spot the difference
| Soil | Main region | Key feature | Crop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alluvial | Northern plains | very fertile | rice, wheat |
| Black | Deccan plateau | holds moisture | cotton |
| Laterite | Western Ghats, south | acidic, leached | tea, coffee |
| Arid | Rajasthan | sandy, salty | millet with irrigation |
Practice questions
- 1Which soil is best for cotton?
- 2Name the rivers that formed the northern alluvium.
- 3What does laterite mean?
- 4Differentiate Bangar and Khadar.
- 5Why does black soil crack in summer?
- 6Why is laterite soil poor in nutrients?
- 7Describe the soil and crops of a coastal delta in the east.
- 8How can arid soil be made useful for farming?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Black soil.
- 2Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra.
- 3Brick.
- 4Bangar is old alluvium, coarser; Khadar is new alluvium, finer and more fertile.
- 5It is very clayey and loses moisture, so deep cracks form.
- 6Heavy rain washes the nutrients down in leaching.
- 7Alluvial soil, fertile, with paddy and sugarcane.
- 8With proper irrigation, as in western Rajasthan.
Soils of India
In the app you can move this figure with your finger.
Open in the appSoil erosion and soil conservation
After a heavy shower, muddy brown water runs off a bare slope while the grassy slope next to it stays clear. The bare slope is losing its soil.
Soil erosion is the removal of the top soil cover and its washing or blowing away. Soil formation and erosion go on together, but human activity can tip the balance.
Key idea 1: Kinds of erosion — Running water cuts deep channels called gullies and leaves bad land (ravines in the Chambal basin). Water flowing as a sheet carries off the top layer: sheet erosion. Wind lifts loose soil from flat land: wind erosion. Ploughing up and down the slope speeds water flow and worsens erosion.
- Easy: A gully is a deep channel cut by water.
- Medium: Bare hills with no trees lose soil more quickly in rain.
- Exam-type: A farmer ploughs straight down a slope. Rain forms channels along the furrows and the soil washes away. Ploughing across the slope would reduce this.
Key idea 2: Soil conservation methods — Contour ploughing follows the slope contours to slow water. Terrace farming cuts steps on slopes (common in the Himalaya). Strip cropping leaves strips of grass between crops to break the wind. Shelter belts are rows of trees planted to stop wind and fix sand dunes in western India.
- Easy: Terraces are steps cut on hills.
- Medium: Rows of trees across a desert field act as a shelter belt.
- Exam-type: A farmer on a hill slope in Uttarakhand wants to farm safely. Terrace farming and contour ploughing are suitable choices.
Cover the soil, slow the water, break the wind.
Thinking soil erosion is only natural. Deforestation, grazing and wrong ploughing speed it up.
Match method to problem: slope = contour or terrace; wind = strip crop or shelter belt. Memory clue: "Water goes down, wind goes across".
Spot the difference
| Problem | Method |
|---|---|
| Water on a slope | contour ploughing, terraces |
| Wind on flat land | strip cropping, shelter belts |
| Deep channels | check dams and planting trees |
Practice questions
- 1What is a gully?
- 2Name one soil conservation method for hills.
- 3What are shelter belts?
- 4Differentiate sheet erosion and gully erosion.
- 5Why is ploughing up and down a slope harmful?
- 6How does strip cropping protect soil?
- 7A hilly village loses soil every monsoon. Suggest three measures.
- 8Why do soil formation and soil erosion normally stay in balance, and how do people upset it?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1A deep channel cut by running water.
- 2Terrace farming or contour ploughing.
- 3Rows of trees planted to stop wind and fix dunes.
- 4Sheet erosion removes the top layer over a wide area; gully erosion cuts deep channels.
- 5The furrows become channels and carry water and soil away quickly.
- 6Grass strips between crops break the force of the wind.
- 7Terrace farming, contour ploughing and planting trees on the slope.
- 8Natural processes add and remove soil at a similar pace; deforestation, grazing, mining and wrong ploughing speed up removal.