About This Section
This section collects previous-year Board examination questions (CBSE and State Boards) from Chapter 1, with model answers. These show the pattern and depth expected in the exam. Attempt each yourself before reading the answer.
Board PYQ — Very Short Answer
Q1. (1 mark) Name the soil that is also called 'regur'. Ans. Black soil.
Q2. (1 mark) Which agency advocated resource conservation for the first time in 1968? Ans. The Club of Rome.
Q3. (1 mark) Define 'net sown area'. Ans. The physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested.
Board PYQ — Short Answer (3 marks)
Q4. Explain any three problems caused by the indiscriminate use of resources. Ans. (i) Depletion of resources for the greed of a few; (ii) Accumulation of resources in a few hands, dividing society into haves and have-nots; (iii) Global ecological crises such as global warming, ozone-layer depletion, pollution and land degradation.
Q5. "Resources are a function of human activities." Justify with an example. Ans. Natural materials become resources only when human beings use technology and institutions to make them useful. For example, fast-flowing river water becomes a hydel-power resource only when people build a dam and turbines. Thus resources are created by human activity, not merely found in nature.
Board PYQ — Short Answer (3 marks)
Q6. Distinguish between renewable and non-renewable resources. Ans. Renewable resources can be renewed or reproduced by natural processes (e.g. solar energy, water, forests), while non-renewable resources take millions of years to form and get exhausted once used (e.g. coal, petroleum). Some non-renewables like metals are recyclable; fossil fuels are not.
Q7. Why is soil considered a renewable resource, yet needs conservation? Ans. Soil renews itself naturally, but only extremely slowly — it takes millions of years to form a few centimetres. Human activities can erode it far faster than it forms, so it needs active conservation such as contour ploughing, terracing and strip cropping.
Board PYQ — Long Answer (5 marks)
Q8. Describe any five measures to conserve land / check land degradation. Ans. (i) Afforestation; (ii) proper management of grazing; (iii) planting shelter belts of trees and controlling overgrazing; (iv) stabilisation of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes in arid areas; (v) proper management of waste lands, control of mining activities, and treatment and safe disposal of industrial effluents before discharge.
Q9. Explain the methods of soil conservation. Ans. Contour ploughing (ploughing across the slope to slow water); terrace farming (steps cut into slopes, as in the Himalayas); strip cropping (grass strips between crops to break the wind); and shelter belts (rows of trees that break the wind and stabilise sand dunes).