Write a note on 'Soil as a Resource'.
Soil as a Resource in India:
(i)Soil is the most important renewable natural resource. It is the medium of plant growth and supports different types of living organisms on the earth.
(ii)The soil is a living system. It takes millions of years to form soil upto a few centimeters in depth. Relief, parent rock or bedrock, climate, vegetation and other forms of life and time are the important factors in the formation of soil.
(iii)Various forces of nature such as change in temperature, actions of running water, wind and glaciers, activities of the decomposers, etc. contribute to the formation of soil.
(iv)Chemical and organic changes which take place in the soil are equally important.
(v)Soil also consists of organic (humus) and inorganic materials.
Fill the crosswords given below:
Across:
1. The other name of black soil. (1)
3. Develops on crystalline igneous rocks. (3)
5. Erosion of top soil as water flows over large areas. (5)
7. The club advocated resource conservation for the first time at international level. (4)
9. Deccan plateau is made up of. (4)
Down:
2. Soil that develops in areas with high temperature and heavy rain fall. (8)
4. Subset of the stock (8)
6. Obtained from biosphere and have life. (6)
8. An example of ravine. (7)
10. Denudation of soil cover. (7)
Across: 1. Regur, 3. Red soil, 5. Sheet erosion, 7. Club of Rome, 9. Lava.
Down: 2. Laterite, 4. Reserves, 6. Biotic, 8. Chambal, 10. Soil erosion.
There are many ways to solve the problems of land degradation.
(i)Afforestation and proper management of grazing can help to some extent.
(ii)Planting of shelter belts of plants, control on over grazing, stabilisation of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes are some of the methods to check land degradation.
(iii)Proper management of waste lands, control of mining activities, proper discharge and disposal of industrial effluents and wastes after treatment can reduce land and water degradation in industrial and suburban areas.
Describe the characteristics of laterite soils and places where they are found.
Write a note on importance of resource planning in India.
Resource planning:
(i)Planning is the widely accepted strategy for judicious use of resources. It has importance in a country like India, which has enormous diversity in the availability of resources.
(ii)There are regions which are rich in certain types of resources but are deficient in some other resources.
(iii)There are some regions which can be considered self sufficient in terms of the availability of resources and there are some regions which have acute shortage of some vital resources. For example, the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are rich in minerals and coal deposits.
(iv)Arunachal Pradesh has abundance of water resources but lacks in infrastructural development. The state of Rajasthan is very well endowed with solar and wind energy but lacks in water resources.
(v)The cold desert of Ladakh is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. It has very rich cultural heritage but it is deficient in water, infrastructure and some vital minerals. This calls for balanced resource planning at the national, state, regional and local levels.
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