T2-NCERT-VIII-Resource and development

“Anything that can be used to satisfy a need is a resource”, 

Its use or utility gives it a value. All resources have some value.” 

Technology: It is the application of latest knowledge and skill in doing or making things. 

Resources that are found everywhere like the air we breathe, are ubiquitous. But those which are found only in certain places are localised, like copper and iron ore. 

Human Resource 

refer to the number (quantity) and abilities (mental and physical) 

of the people. Though, there are differing views regarding treatment of humans as
a resource, one cannot deny the fact that it is
the abilities of human that help
in transfering the physical material into valuable resource. 

Education and health help in making people a valuable resource. Improving the quality of people’s skills so that they are able to create more resources is known as human resource development. 

Using resources carefully and giving them time to get renewed is called resource conservation. Balancing the need to use resources and also conserve them for the future is called sustainable development. There are many ways of conserving resources. Each person can contribute by reducing consumption, recycling and reusing thing. Ultimately it makes a difference because all our lives are linked. 

Some Principles of Sustainable Development 

Respect and care for all forms of life 

Improve the quality of human life 

Conserve the earth’s vitality and diversity 

Minimise the depletion of natural resources Change personal attitude and practices toward the environment Enable communities 

to care for their own environment 

Chapter 2

The use of land is 

determined by physical factors such as topography, soil, climate, minerals and availability of water. Human factors such as population and technology are also important determinants of land use pattern. 

the present rate of degradation of land resources must be checked. Afforestation, land reclamation, regulated use of chemical pesticide and fertilisers and checks on overgrazing are some of the common methods used to conserve land. 

Soil is made up of organic matter, minerals and weathered rocks found on the earth. This happens through the process of weathering. The right mix of minerals and organic matter make the soil fertile. 

Weathering 

The breaking
up and decay of exposed rocks,
by temperature changes, frost action, plants, animals and man.

FACTORS OF SOIL FORMATION 

The major factors of soil formation are the nature of the parent rock and climatic factors. Other factors are the topography, role of organic material and time taken for the composition of soil formation. All these differ from place to place. 

In India soils could be alluvial, black, red, laterite, desertic and mountain soil. 

Factors which lead to soil degradation are deforestation, overgrazing, overuse of chemical feritilisers or pesticides, rain wash, landslides and floods. 

Some methods of soil conservation are 

Mulching: The bare ground between plants is covered with a layer of organic matter like straw. It helps to retain soil moisture. 

Contour barriers: Stones, grass, soil are used to build barriers along contours. Trenches are made in front of the barriers to collect water.
Rock dam: Rocks are piled up to slow down the flow of water. This prevents gullies and further soil loss. 

Terrace farming: These are made on the steep slopes so that flat surfaces are available to grow crops. They can reduce surface run-off and soil erosion (Fig. 2.5). 

Intercropping: Different crops are grown in alternate rows and are sown at different times to protect the soil from rain wash.
Contour ploughing: Ploughing parallel to the contours of a hill slope to form a natural barrier for water to flow down the slope (Fig. 2.6). 

Shelter belts: In the coastal and dry regions, rows of trees are planted to check the wind movement to protect soil cover 

There is scarcity of water in many regions of the world. Most of Africa, West Asia, South Asia, parts of western USA, north-west Mexico, parts of South America and entire Australia are facing shortages in fresh water supply. Countries located in climatic zones most susceptible to droughts face great problems of water scarcity. Thus, water shortage may be a consequence of variation in seasonal or annual precipitation or the scarcity is caused by over- exploitation and contamination of water sources. 

Discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage, agricultural chemicals and industrial effluents in water bodies are major contaminants. They pollute water with nitrates, metals and pesticides 

Most of these chemicals being non-biodegradable reach human bodies through water. Water pollution can be controlled by treating these effluents suitably before releasing them in water bodies. 

Natural vegetation and wildlife exist only in the narrow zone of contact between the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere that we call biosphere. In the biosphere living beings are inter-related and interdependent on each other for survival. This life supporting system is known as the ecosystem. Vegetation and wildlife are valuable resources. Plants provide us with timber, give shelter to animals, produce oxygen we breathe, protects soils so essential for growing crops, act as shelter belts 

help in storage of underground water, give us fruits, nuts, latex, turpentine oil, gum, medicinal plants and also the paper that is so essential for your studies. There are innumerable uses of plants and you can add some more. 

Vultures in
the Indian subcontinent were dying of kidney failure shortly after scavenging livestock treated with diclofenac, a painkiller that is similar to aspirin or ibuprofen. Efforts are on to ban the drug for livestock use and breed vultures in captivity. 

The growth of vegetation depends primarily on temperature and moisture. The major vegetation types of the world are grouped as forests, grasslands, scrubs and tundra.

In areas of heavy rainfall, huge trees 

may thrive. The forests are thus associated with areas having abundant water supply. As the amount of moisture decreases the size of trees and their density reduces. In the regions of moderate rainfall short stunted trees and grasses grow forming the grasslands of the world. In dry areas of low rainfall, thorny shrubs and scrubs grow. In such areas plants have deep roots and leaves have thorny and waxy surface to reduce loss of moisture by transpiration. Tundra vegetation of cold Polar Regions comprise of mosses and lichens. 

Deciduous forests shed their leaves in a particular season to conserve loss of moisture through transpiration. 

One of the major concerns is the increasing incidents of poaching that result in a sharp decline in the number of particular species. The animals are poached for collection and illegal trade of hides(the skin of an animal), skins, nails, teeth, horns as well as feathers. 

National parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves are made to protect our natural vegetation and wildlife. Conservation of creeks, lakes, and wetlands is necessary to save the precious resource from depletion 

Awareness programmes like social forestry and Vanamohatasava should be encouraged at the regional and community level. School children should
be encouraged for bird watching and visiting 

nature camps so that they appreciate the habitat of varied species. 

National Park 

A natural area designated to protect the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations.

An international convention CITES has been established that lists several species of animals and birds in which trade is prohibited. Conservation of plants and animals is an ethical duty of every citizen.

CITES The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. It aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Roughly 5,000 species of animals and 28,000 species of plants are protected. Bears, dolphins, cacti, corals, orchids and aloes are some examples. 

Chapter 3

A naturally occurring substance that has a definite chemical composition is a mineral. Minerals are not evenly distributed over space. They are concentrated in a particular area or rock formations. Some minerals are found in areas which are not easily accessible such as the Arctic ocean bed and Antarctica. 

TYPES OF MINERALS 

There are over three thousand different minerals. On the basis of composition, minerals are classified mainly as metallic and non-metallic minerals 

Metallic minerals contain metal in raw form. Metals are hard substances that conduct heat and electricity and have a characteristic lustre or shine. Iron ore, bauxite, manganese ore are some examples. Metallic minerals may be fer rous or non-ferrous. Ferrous minerals like iron ore, manganese and chromites contain iron. A non-ferrous mineral does not contain iron but may contain some other metal such as gold, silver, copper or lead. 

Non-metallic minerals do not contain metals. Limestone, mica and gypsum are examples of such minerals. The mineral fuels like coal and petroleum are also non-metallic minerals. 

Minerals can be extracted by mining, drilling or quarrying 

The process of taking out minerals from rocks buried under the earth’s surface is called mining. Minerals that lie at shallow depths are taken out by removing the surface layer; this is known as open-cast mining. Deep bores, called shafts, have to be made to reach mineral deposits that lie at great depths. This is called shaft mining. Petroleum and natural gas occur far below the earth’s surface. Deep wells are bored to take them out, this is called drilling (Fig 3.4). Minerals that lie near the surface are simply dug out, by the process known as quarrying. 

Generally, metallic minerals are found in igneous and metamorphic rock formations that form large plateaus. Iron-ore in north Sweden, copper and nickel deposits in Ontario, Canada, iron, nickel, chromites and platinum in South Africa are examples of minerals found in igneous and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rock formations of plains and young fold mountains contain non-metallic minerals like limestone. Limestone deposits of Caucasus region of France, manganese deposits of Georgia and Ukraine and phosphate beds of Algeria are some examples. Mineral fuels such as coal and petroleum are also found in the sedimentary strata. 

China and India have large iron ore deposits. The continent produces more than half of the world’s tin. 

China, Malaysia and Indonesia are among the world’s leading tin producers. China also leads in production of lead, antimony and tungsten. Asia also has deposits of manganese, bauxite, nickel, zinc and copper. 

Let’s do 

Identify the Canadian Shield, the Appalachians, Western Cordilleras and Lake Superior with the help of an atlas. 

SOUTH AMERICA 

Brazil is the largest producer of high grade iron-ore in the world. Chile and Peru are leading producers of copper. Brazil and Bolivia are among the world’s largest producers of tin. South America also has large deposits of gold, silver, zinc, chromium, manganese, bauxite, mica, platinum, asbestos and diamond. Mineral oil is found in Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Columbia. 

AFRICA 

Africa is rich in mineral resources. It is the world’s largest producer of diamonds, gold and platinum. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zaire produce a large portion of the world’s gold. The other minerals found in Africa are copper, iron ore, chromium, uranium, cobalt and bauxite. Oil is found in Nigeria, Libya and Angola. 

AUSTRALIA 

Australia is the largest producer of bauxite in the world. It is a leading producer of gold, diamond, iron ore, tin and nickel. It is also rich in copper, lead, zinc and manganese. Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie areas of western Australia have the largest deposits of gold. 

ANTARCTICA 

The geology of Antarctica is sufficiently well known to predict the existence of a variety of mineral deposits, some probably large. Significant size of deposits of coal in the Transantarctic Mountains and iron near the Prince Charles Mountains of East Antarctica is forecasted. Iron ore, gold, silver and oil are also present in commercial quantities. 

DISTRIBUTION IN INDIA 

Iron: India has deposits of high grade iron ore. The mineral is found mainly in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka. 

Bauxite: Major bauxite producing areas are Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 

Mica: Mica deposits mainly occur in Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. India is the largest producer and exporter of mica in the world. 

Copper: It is mainly produced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Manganese: India’s manganese deposits lie in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. 

Limestone: Major limestone producing states in India are Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. 

Gold: Kolar in Karnataka has deposits of gold in India. These mines are among the deepest in the world which makes mining of this ore a very expensive process. 

Silicon, used in the computer industry is obtained from quartz. Aluminum obtained from its ore bauxite is used in automobiles and airplanes, bottling industry, buildings and even in kitchen cookware. 

Recycling of metals is another way in which the mineral resources can be conserved. 

Power resources may be broadly categorised as conventional and non-conventional resources. 

Conventional Sources 

Conventional sources of energy are those which have been in common use for a long time. Firewood and fossil fuels are 

the two main conventional energy sources. 

Firewood 

It is widely used 

for cooking and heating. In our country more than fifty per cent of the energy used by villagers comes from fire wood. 

Remains of plants and animals which were buried under the earth for millions of years got converted by the heat and pressure into fossil fuels. Fossil fuel such as coal, petroleum and natural gas are the main sources of conventional energy. The reserves of these minerals are limited. The rate at which the growing world population is consuming them is far greater than the rate of their formation. So, these are likely to be exhausted soon. 

Electricity from coal is called thermal power. The coal which we are using today was formed millions of years ago when giant ferns and swamps got buried under 

the layers of earth. Coal is therefore referred to as Buried Sunshine. 

The leading coal producers of the world are China, USA, Germany, Russia, South Africa and France. The coal producing areas of India are Raniganj, Jharia, Dhanbad and Bokaro in Jharkhand. 

Petroleum and its derivatives are called Black Gold as they are very valuable. 

The leading producers in India are Digboi in Assam, Bombay High in Mumbai and the deltas of Krishna and Godavari rivers. 

In India Jaisalmer, Krishna Godavari delta, Tripura and some areas off shore in Mumbai have natural gas resources. Very few countries in the world have sufficient natural gas reserves of their own. 

The sharp increase in our consumption of fossil fuels has led to their depletion at an alarming rate. The toxic pollutants released from burning these fuels are also a cause for concern. Unchecked burning of fossil fuel is like an unchecked dripping tap which will eventually run dry. This has led to the tapping of various non- conventional sources of energy that are cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels. 

One fourth of the world’s electricity is produced by hydel power. The leading producers of hydel power in the world are Paraguay, Norway, Brazil, and china. Some important hydel power stations in India are Bhakra Nangal, Gandhi Sagar, Nagarjunsagar and Damodar valley projects. 

The greatest producer of nuclear power are USA and Europe. In India Rajasthan and Jharkhand have large deposits of Uranium. Thorium is found in large quantities in the Monozite sands of Kerala. The nuclear power stations in India are located in Kalpakkam in Tamilnadu, Tarapur in Maharastra, Ranapratap Sagar near Kota in Rajasthan, Narora in Uttar Pradesh and Kaiga in Karnataka. 

Geothermal Energy 

Heat energy obtained from the earth is called geothermal energy. The temperature in the interior of the earth rises steadily as we go deeper. Some times this heat energy may surface itself in the form of hot springs. This heat energy can be used to generate power. Geothermal energy in the form of hot springs has been used for cooking, heating and bathing for several 

years. USA has the world’s largest geothermal power plants followed by New Zealand, Iceland, Philippines and Central America. In India, geothermal plants are located in Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh and Puga Valley in Ladakh. 

Russia, France and the Gulf of Kachchh in India have huge tidal mill farms. 

BIOGAS 

Organic waste such as dead plant and animal material, animal dung and kitchen waste can be converted into a gaseous fuel called biogas. The organic waste is decomposed by bacteria in biogas digesters to emit biogas which is essentially a mixture of methane and carbon 

dioxide. Biogas is an excellent fuel for cooking and lighting and produces huge amount of organic manure each year. 

Chapter 4

Primary activities include all those connected with extraction and production of natural resources. Agriculture, fishing and gathering are good examples. Secondary activities are concerned with the processing of these resources. Manufacturing of steel, baking of bread and weaving of cloth are examples of this activity. Tertiary activities provide support to the primary and secondary sectors through services. Transport, trade, banking, insurance and advertising are examples of tertiary activities. 

Depending upon the geographical conditions, demand of produce, labour and level of technology, farming can be classified into two main types. These are subsistence farming and commercial farming. 

In intensive subsistence agriculture the farmer cultivates a small plot of land using simple tools and more labour. 

Primitive subsistence agriculture includes shifting cultivation and nomadic herding. 

Shifting cultivation is practised in the thickly forested areas of Amazon basin, tropical Africa, parts of southeast Asia and Northeast India. These are the areas of heavy rainfall and quick regeneration of vegetation. A plot of land is cleared by felling the trees and burning them. The ashes are then mixed with the soil and crops like maize, yam, potatoes and cassava are grown. After the soil loses its fertility, the land is abandoned and the cultivator moves to a new plot. Shifting cultivation is also known as ‘slash and burn’ agriculture. 

Nomadic herding is practised in the semi-arid and arid regions of Sahara, Central Asia and some parts of India, like Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. In this type of farming, herdsmen
move from place to place with their animals for
fodder and water, along defined routes. This
type of movement arises in response to climatic constraints and terrain. Sheep, camel, yak and
goats are most commonly reared. They provide
milk, meat, wool, hides and other products to
the herders and their families. 

Commercial Farming 

In commercial farming crops are grown and animals are reared for sale in market. 

Major
areas where commercial grain farming is pracised are temperate grasslands of North America, Europe and Asia. These areas are sparsely populated with large farms spreading over hundreds of hectares. Severe winters restrict the growing season and only a single crop can be grown. 

In mixed farming the land is used for growing food and fodder crops and rearing livestock. 

It is practised in Europe, eastern USA, Argentina, southeast Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. 

Plantations are a type of commercial farming where single crop of tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana or cotton are grown. Large amount of labour and capital are required. 

Major plantations are found in the tropical regions of the world. Rubber in Malaysia, coffee in Brazil, tea in India and Sri Lanka are some examples. 

Rice: Rice is the major food crop of the world. It is the staple diet of the tropical and sub-tropical regions. Rice needs high temperature, high humidity and rainfall. It grows best in alluvial 

clayey soil, which can retain water. China leads in the production of rice followed by India, Japan, Sri Lanka and Egypt. In favourable climatic conditions as in West Bengal and Bangladesh two to three crops are grown in a year. 

Wheat: Wheat requires moderate temperature and rainfall during growing season and bright sunshine at the time of harvest. It thrives best in well drained loamy soil. Wheat is grown extensively in USA, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and India. In India it is grown in winter. 

Coffee: Coffee requires warm and wet climate and well- drained loamy soil. Hill slopes are more suitable for growth of this crop. Brazil is the leading producer followed by Columbia and India. 

Tea: Tea is a beverage crop grown on plantations. This requires cool climate and well distributed high rainfall throughout the year for the growth of its tender leaves 

It needs well-drained loamy soils and gentle slopes. Labour in large number is required to pick the leaves. Kenya, India, China, Sri Lanka produce the best quality tea in the world. 

India has several industrial regions like Mumbai- Pune cluster, Bangalore-Tamil Nadu region, Hugli region, Ahmedabad-Baroda region, Chottanagpur industrial belt, Vishakhapatnam-Guntur belt, Gurgaon-Delhi-Meerut region and the Kollam-Thiruvanathapuram industrial cluster. 

The countries in which iron and steel industry is located are Germany, USA, China, Japan and Russia. Textile industry is concentrated in India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The major hubs of Information technology industry are the Silicon valley of Central California and the Bangalore region of India. 

After 1950, iron and steel industry began to be located on large areas of flat land near sea ports. This is because by this time steel works had become very large and iron ore had to be imported from overseas 

market. All the important steel producing centres such as Bhilai, Durgapur, Burnpur, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro are situated in a region that spreads over four states — West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Bhadravati and Vijay Nagar in Karnataka, Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu are other important steel centres utilising local resources. 

jamshedpur 

Before 1947, there was only one iron and steel plant in the country – Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO). It was privately owned. After Independence, the government took the initiative and set up several iron and steel plants. TISCO was started in 1907 at Sakchi, near the confluence of the rivers Subarnarekha and Kharkai in Jharkhand. Later on Sakchi was renamed as Jamshedpur. Geographically, Jamshedpur is the most conveniently situated iron and steel centre in the country

Pittsburgh : It is an important steel city of the United States of America. The steel industry at Pittsburgh enjoys locational advantages. Some of the raw material such as coal is available locally, while the iron ore comes from the iron mines at Minnesota, about 1500 km from Pittsburgh. Between these mines and Pittsburgh is one of the world’s best routes for shipping ore cheaply – the famous Great Lakes waterway. Trains carry the ore from the Great Lakes to the Pittsburgh area. The Ohio, the Monogahela and Allegheny rivers provide adequate water supply. 

Today, very few of the large steel mills are in Pittsburgh itself. They are located in the valleys of the Monogahela and Allegheny rivers above Pittsburgh and along the Ohio River below it. Finished steel is transported to the market by both land and water routes. 

The names of Great Lakes are Superior, Huron, Ontario, Michigan and Erie. Lake Superior is the largest of these five lakes. It lies higher upstream than others 

Till the industrial revolution in the 18th century, cotton cloth was made using hand spinning techniques (wheels) and looms. In 18th century power looms facilitated the development of cotton textile industry, first in Britain and later in other parts of the world. Today India, China, Japan and the USA are important producers of cotton textiles. 

The Muslins of Dhaka, Chintzes of Masulipatnam, Calicos of Calicut and Gold-wrought cotton of Burhanpur, Surat and Vadodara were known worldwide for their quality and design. But the production of hand woven cotton textile was expensive and time consuming. Hence, traditional cotton textile industry could not face the competition from the new textile mills of the West, which produced cheap and good quality fabrics through mechanized industrial units. 

But in the recent years, Ahmedabad textile mills have been having some problems. Several textile mills have closed down. This is primarily due to the emergence of new textile centres in the country as well as non- upgradation of machines and technology in the mills of Ahmedabad. 

Bangalore is located on the Deccan Plateau from where it gets the name ‘Silicon Plateau’. The city is known for its mild climate throughout the year. Silicon Valley, is a part of Santa Clara Valley, located next to the Rocky Mountains of North America. The area has temperate climate with the temperatures rarely dropping below 0 degrees centigrade. The locational advantages of the Silicon plateau, Bangalore and Silicon Valley, California are discussed on the next page. You may notice the similarities between the two cities. 

The state government of Karnataka was the first to announce an IT Policy in 1992 

Chapter 6

People are a nation’s greatest resource. Nature’s bounty becomes significant only when people find it useful. It is people with their demands and abilities that turn them into ‘resources’. Hence, human resource is the ultimate resource. Healthy, educated and motivated people develop resources as per their requirements. 

More than 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in about 30 per cent of the land surface. The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven. 

Many more people live north of the Equator than south of the Equator. Almost three-quarters of the world’s people live in two continents Asia and Africa. 

Sixty per cent of the world’s people stay in just 10 countries. All of them have more than a 100 million people. 

The average density of population in the whole world is 51 persons per square km. 

In 1804, the world’s population reached one billion. A hundred and fifty five years later, in 1959, the world’s population reached 3 billion. This is often called population explosion. In 1999, 40 years later, the population doubled to 6 billion. The main reason for this growth was that with better food supplies and medicine, deaths were reducing, while the number of births still remained fairly high. 

Births and deaths are the natural causes of population change. The difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country is called the natural growth rate. 

Emigrants are people who leave a country; Immigrants are those who arrive in a country. 

An interesting way of studying the population composition of a country is by looking at the population pyramid, also called an age-sex pyramid. 

A population pyramid shows 

• The total population divided into various age groups, e.g., 5 to 9 years, 10 to 14 years. 

• The percentage of the total population, subdivided into males and females, in each of those groups. 

The numbers of children (below 15 years) are shown at the bottom and reflect the level of births. The size of the top shows the numbers of aged people (above 65 years) and reflects the number of deaths. 

The population pyramid also tells us how many dependents there are in a country. There are two groups of dependents — young dependents (aged below 15 years) and elderly dependents (aged over 65 years). Those of the working age are the economically active. 

The population pyramid of a country in which birth and death rates bothe are high is broad at the base and rapidly narrows towards the top. This is because although, 

many children are born, a large percentage of them die in their infancy, relatively few become adults and there are very few old people. This situation is typified by the pyramid shown for Kenya (Fig 6.7). 

In countries where death rates (especially amongst the very young) are decreasing, the pyramid is broad in the younger age groups, because more infants survive 

to adulthood. This can be seen in the pyramid for India (Fig 6.8). Such populations contain a relatively large number of young people and which means a strong and expanding labour force. 

In countries like Japan, low birth rates make the pyramid narrow at the base (Fig 6.9). Decreased death rates allow numbers of people to reach old age. 

Skilled, spirited and hopeful young people endowed with a positive outlook are the future of any nation. We in India are fortunate to have such a resource. They must be educated and provided skills and opportunities to become able and productive.