Chapter Summary
This section is a concise recap of all of Chapter 1 — Resources and Development. Use it for last-minute revision before the Board examination.
A resource is anything in our environment that can be used to satisfy human needs, provided it is technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable. Resources are a function of human activity, not free gifts of nature.
Classification of Resources — At a Glance
| Basis | Types |
|---|---|
| Origin | Biotic (living) · Abiotic (non-living) |
| Exhaustibility | Renewable (solar, wind, water, forests) · Non-renewable (coal, petroleum, minerals) |
| Ownership | Individual · Community · National (up to 12 nm) · International (beyond 200 nm EEZ) |
| Status of development | Potential · Developed · Stock (no technology) · Reserve (technology exists, saved for future) |
Development, Planning and Conservation
- Sustainable development = growth without damaging the environment and without compromising the needs of future generations.
- Conservation milestones: Club of Rome (1968) → Small is Beautiful / Schumacher (1974) → Brundtland Report (1987, 'Sustainable Development') → Rio Earth Summit (1992) → Agenda 21.
- Resource planning (3 steps): inventory/survey → planning structure → match with national plans. Began with the First Five Year Plan.
- Gandhiji: "There is enough for everybody's need and not for anybody's greed."
Land and Soil — Quick Facts
- Relief: Plains ~43% · Mountains ~30% · Plateaus ~27%. Total area ~3.28 million sq km; land-use data for ~93%.
- Net sown area: >80% in Punjab & Haryana; <10% in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, A&N. Desired forest cover = 33% (NFP 1952).
- Soil types: Alluvial (Bangar/Khadar; most fertile; wheat, paddy) · Black/regur (Deccan trap; cotton) · Red & Yellow (crystalline rocks; iron) · Laterite (leaching; acidic; tea, coffee, cashew) · Arid (sandy, saline; W. Rajasthan) · Forest (hilly).
- Soil erosion: gully (ravines in Chambal) · sheet · wind. Conservation: contour ploughing, terrace farming, strip cropping, shelter belts.
Quick Revision — Must-Know Definitions
- Resource: anything usable to satisfy needs (technologically accessible, economically feasible, culturally acceptable).
- Stock vs Reserve: stock = technology to use it is lacking; reserve = technology exists but it is saved for the future.
- Net sown area vs Gross cropped area: NSA is counted once; gross cropped area adds the area sown more than once.
- Bangar vs Khadar: Bangar = old alluvium (more kanker); Khadar = new alluvium (finer, more fertile).
Quick Revision — Commonly Confused Points
- Sheet erosion removes a thin top layer; gully erosion cuts deep channels (ravines).
- Regur = black cotton soil of the Deccan trap; laterite is acidic and good for tea/coffee/cashew.
- National resource = up to 12 nautical miles; EEZ = up to 200 nautical miles; beyond that = international.
- Sustainable development was defined by the Brundtland Report (1987); Agenda 21 came from Rio (1992).