1

Geography - Notes
Topic –1 Resources and Development

Subtopics:
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Types of Resources
1.2 Development of Resources
1.3 Resource Planning in India
1.4 Land Resources
1.5 Land Use Pattern in India
1.6 Land Degradation and Conservation Measures
1.7 Soil as a Resource
1.8 Classification of Soils
1.9 Soil Erosion
1.10 Soil Conservation

1. Meaning
Everything available in our environment which can be used to satisfy our needs, provided, it is
technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable can be termed as ‘Resource’

2. Resources are not free gifts of nature:

Resources are not free gifts of nature as human beings interact with nature through technology and
create institutions to accelerate their economic development in the process of transformation of things
available in our environment to use them.

3. Classification of resources
(a) On the basis of origin – biotic and abiotic
(b) On the basis of exhaustibility – renewable and non-renewable
(c) On the basis of ownership – individual, community, national and international
(d) On the basis of status of development – potential, developed stock and reserves.

3. Problems due to indiscriminate use of resources:

i. Depletion of resources for satisfying the greed of a few individuals
ii. Accumulation of resources in few hands, which, in turn, divided the society into two segments i.e.
haves and have nots or rich and poor.
iii. Global ecological crises: Indiscriminate exploitation of resources has led to global ecological crises
such as, global warming, ozone layer depletion, environmental pollution and land degradation.

4. Sustainable development:

Meaning: ‘development should take place without damaging the environment and development in the
present should not compromise with the needs of the future generations.’
 2

5. Efforts made for the Sustainable development at the international level:

i. The Club of Rome advocated resource conservation for the first time in a more systematic way in
1968.
ii. 1974, Gandhian philosophy (“There is enough for everybody’s need and not for any body’s greed.”)
was once again presented by Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful.
iii. The Brundtland Commission Report of 1987: The seminal contribution with respect to resource
conservation at the global level was made by the Brundtland Commission Report, 1987. This
report introduced the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ and advocated it as a means for
resource conservation, which was subsequently published in a book, entitled Our Common
Future.
iv. Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992:
a. The Summit was convened for addressing urgent problems of environmental protection
and socioeconomic development at the global level.
b. the Declaration of the summit: Global Climatic Change and Biological Diversity.
c. The Rio Convention endorsed the global Forest Principles and adopted Agenda 21 for
achieving Sustainable Development in the 21st century.
d. Agenda 21: It is the declaration signed by world leaders in 1992 at the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
i. It aims at achieving global sustainable development.
ii. It is an agenda to combat environmental damage, poverty, disease through global co-
operation on common interests, mutual needs and shared responsibilities.
iii. Every local government should draw its own local Agenda 21.

6. RESOURCE PLANNING: Meaning

It is the widely accepted strategy for judicious use of resources.

RESOURCE PLANNING is important because

a. Enormous diversity in the availability of resources/unequal distribution of resources:
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.
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.
The cold desert of Ladakh has very rich cultural heritage but it is deficient in water,
infrastructure and some vital minerals. We need to balance this diversity through planning
b. For judicious use of resources we need resource planning.
c. To meet the future generation needs
7. Resource planning in India:
It involves three steps
(i) identification and inventory of resources across the regions of the country. This involves
surveying, mapping and qualitative and quantitative estimation and measurement of the
resources.
(ii) Evolving a planning structure endowed with appropriate technology, skill and institutional
set up for implementing resource development plans.
(iii) Matching the resource development plans with overall national development plans.
 3

8. Mere availability of resources in the absence of corresponding changes in technology and institutions
may hinder development. How? Explain with example.

a. The higher level of technological development of the colonising countries that helped them to
exploit resources of other regions and establish their supremacy over the colonies
b. Therefore, resources can contribute to development only when they are accompanied by
appropriate technological development and institutional changes.
c. India has experienced all this in different phases of colonisation. Therefore, in India,
development, in general, and resource development in particular does not only involve the
availability of resources, but also the technology, quality of human resources and the historical
experiences of the people.

9. Conservation of Resources:
Why do we need to conserve resources?
a. Resources are vital for any developmental activity.
b. Irrational consumption and over-utilisation of resources may lead to socio-economic and
environmental problems. . For example, Gandhiji was very apt in voicing his concern about
resource conservation in these words: “There is enough for everybody’s need and not for any
body’s greed.” He placed the greedy and selfish individuals and exploitative nature of modern
technology as the root cause for resource depletion at the global level.
10. LAND RESOURCES:
a. Land is a natural resource of utmost importance:
i. Land is an asset of a finite magnitude, therefore, it is important to use the available land for
various purposes with careful planning.
ii. We live on land, we perform our economic activities on land and we use it in different ways.
iii. It supports natural vegetation, wild life, human life, economic activities, transport and
communication systems.

b. India has land under a variety of relief features:

i. Plains: About 43 per cent of the land area is plain, which provides facilities for agriculture
and industry.
ii. Mountains account for 30 per cent of the total surface area of the country and
 ensure perennial flow of some rivers,
 provide facilities for tourism and ecological aspects.
iii. Plateau, about 27 per cent of the area of the country is the plateau region. It possesses rich
reserves of minerals, fossil fuels and forests.

11. LAND UTILISATION

Land resources are used for the following purposes:
1. Forests
2. Land not available for cultivation
(a) Barren and waste land
(b) Land put to non-agricultural uses, e.g. buildings, roads, factories, etc.
3. Other uncultivated land (excluding fallow land)
(a) Permanent pastures and grazing land,
(b) Land under miscellaneous tree crops groves (not included in net sown area),
(c) Culturable waste land (left uncultivated for more than 5 agricultural years).
4. Fallow lands
(a) Current fallow-(left without cultivation for one or less than one agricultural year),
(b) Other than current fallow-(left uncultivated for the past 1 to 5 agricultural years).
 4

5. Net sown area– the physical extent of land on which crops are sown harvested is known as net
sown area. Area sown more than once in an agricultural year plus net sown area is known as gross
cropped area.

12. LAND USE PATTERN IN INDIA: Refer the textbook page No. 05

13. LAND DEGRADATION AND CONSERVATION MEASURES

a. LAND DEGRADATION Meaning: The decline in the quality and productivity of land due to
human activities or natural causes.
b. CAUSES for the LAND DEGRADATION
i. natural forces
ii. human activities
eg. Deforestation: In states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and
Odisha deforestation due to mining have caused severe land degradation.
over grazing: In states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
overgrazing is one of the main reasons for land degradation.
Over irrigation: In the states of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, over
irrigation is responsible for land degradation due to water logging leading to increase
in salinity and alkalinity in the soil.
Mining and quarrying :
 Mining sites are abandoned after excavation work is complete leaving
deep scars and traces of over-burdening.
 The mineral processing like grinding of limestone for cement industry
and calcite and soapstone for ceramic industry generate huge quantity
of dust in the atmosphere.
 It retards the process of infiltration of water into the soil after it
settles down on the land.
 In recent years, industrial effluents as waste have become a major
source of land and water pollution in many parts of the country.

14. CONSERVATION MEASURES :

a. Afforestation
b. Proper management of grazing
c. Planting of shelter belts of plants
d. control on over grazing
e. stabilisation of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes in arid areas
f. Proper management of waste lands
g. control of mining activities
h. proper discharge and disposal of industrial effluents and wastes after treatment can reduce land
and water degradation in industrial and suburban areas.

15. SOIL AS A RESOURCE

a. The soil is a living system:
i. Soil is the important renewable natural resource. It takes millions of years to form soil upto a
few cm in depth.
ii. It is the medium of plant growth and supports different types of living organisms on the earth.
 5

b. Factors affecting the formation of soil:

a. Parent rock : It influences the colour and texture of the soil. The mineral content of the soil
also depends on the parent rock from which it is formed.
b. Climate : change in temperature. It influences the rate and types of weathering and erosion of
the rocks. Weathering of the parent rocks due to climatic factors and natural forces leads to
disintegration of rocks. Subsequently, this leads to the formation of soil.
c. Time : It determines the maturity of the soil. Soil is a living system. It takes millions of years
to form soil upto a few centimetres in depth.
d. Relief: This refers to the landscape position and the slopes. Steep and long slopes mean water
will run down faster and potentially erode the surfaces of the slopes. The effect will be poor soils
on the slopes, and richer deposits at the foot of the slopes.
[Link] and organic changes which take place in the soil are equally important. Soil also
consists of organic (humus) and inorganic material.

16. Classification of Soils:

varied relief features, landforms, climatic realms and vegetation types have contributed in the
development of various types of soils.

a. Alluvial Soils:
i. the entire northern plains are made of alluvial soil.
ii. These have been deposited by three important Himalayan river systems – the Indus, the
Ganga and the Brahmaputra.
iii. Distribution: These soils also extend in Rajasthan and Gujarat through a narrow corridor
and also found in the eastern coastal plains particularly in the deltas of the Mahanadi, the
Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri rivers.
iv. Types of alluvial soil:
on the basis of their age.
According to their age alluvial soils can be classified as
old alluvial (Bangar) and new alluvial (Khadar).
The bangar soil has higher It has more fine particles and is more
concentration of kanker fertile than the bangar.
v. Features:
 Nutrients: Alluvial soils is very fertile. These soils contain adequate proportion
of potash, phosphoric acid and lime
 Crops grown: sugarcane, paddy, wheat and other cereal and pulse crops.
 Due to its high fertility, regions of alluvial soils are intensively cultivated and
densely populated.
 The alluvial soil consists of various proportions of sand, silt and clay. As we
move inlands towards the river valleys, soil particles appear some what bigger in
size. In the upper reaches of the river valley i.e. near the place of the break of
slope, the soils are coarse. Such soils are more common in piedmont plains such
as Duars, Chos and Terai.

b. Black Soil: Features:

i. These soils are black in colour and are also known as regur soils.
ii. Black soil is ideal for growing cotton and is also known as black cotton soil.
[Link]:
 Climatic condition along with the parent rock material are the important
factors for the formation of black soil.
 6

 This type of soil is typical of the Deccan trap (Basalt) region spread over
northwest Deccan plateau and is made up of lava flows.
iv: Distribution: They cover the plateaus of Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Malwa, Madhya
Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and extend in the south east direction along the Godavari and the
Krishna valleys.
v. Nutrients: such as calcium carbonate, magnesium, potash and lime. These soils are generally
poor in phosphoric contents.
vi: The black soils are made up of extremely fine i.e. clayey material. They are well-known for
their capacity to hold moisture.
vii. They develop deep cracks during hot weather, which helps in the proper aeration of the soil.

c. Red and Yellow Soils: Features

i. Red soil develops on crystalline igneous rocks in areas of low rainfall in the eastern and
southern parts of the Deccan plateau.
ii. Yellow and red soils are also found in parts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, southern parts of the
middle Ganga plain and along the piedmont zone of the Western Ghats.
iii. These soils develop a reddish colour due to diffusion of iron in crystalline and metamorphic
rocks. It looks yellow when it occurs in a hydrated form.
c. Laterite Soil: Features
i. Laterite has been derived from the Latin word ‘later’ which means brick.
ii. The laterite soil develops under tropical and subtropical climate with alternate wet and dry
season.
iii. Nutrients: This soil is the result of intense leaching due to heavy rain. Lateritic soils are
mostly deep to very deep, acidic (pH vegetation and in semi-arid environment, it is generally
humus poor. They are prone to erosion and degradation due to their position on the landscape.
iv. Distribution After adopting appropriate soil conservation techniques particularly in the hilly
areas of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, this soil is very useful for growing tea and coffee.
Red laterite soils in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are more suitable for crops like
cashew nut.
d. Arid Soils
i. Arid soils range from red to brown in colour.
ii. They are generally sandy in texture and saline in nature. In some areas the salt content is very
high and common salt is obtained by evaporating the water.
iii. Due to the dry climate, high temperature, evaporation is faster and the soil lacks humus and
moisture.
iv. The lower horizons of the soil are occupied by Kankar because of the increasing calcium
content downwards. The Kankar layer formations in the bottom horizons restrict the infiltration
of water.

e. Forest Soils:
i. These soils are found in the hilly and mountainous areas where sufficient rain forests are
available.
ii. The soils texture varies according to the mountain environment where they are formed. They
are loamy and silty in valley sides and coarse grained in the upper slopes. In the snow covered
areas of Himalayas, these soils experience denudation and are acidic with low humus content. Iii.
[Link] soils found in the lower parts of the valleys particularly on the river terraces and alluvial
fans are fertile.
 7

One example of Difference between red soil and laterite soil

Red soil Laterite soil
Red soil develops on crystalline igneous rocks in areas of Laterite soil develops in areas with high
low rainfall. temperature and heavy rainfall.
Red soil is found in parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Laterite soil is mainly found in Karnataka,
southern parts of the middle of Ganga plain and along the Kerala and the hilly areas of Odisha and
piedmont zone of the Western ghats Assam.
Red soil develops a reddish colour due to diffusion of iron in In laterite soil, humus content is very low.
crystalline and metamorphic rocks

17. Soil Erosion and Soil Conservation

a. Meaning of Soil Erosion:
The denudation (removal of surface layers) of the soil cover and subsequent washing down is
described as soil erosion.

b. Causes for the Soil Erosion:

human activities and Natural

i. deforestation, natural forces like wind, glacier and water

ii. over-grazing, eg. 1. Gullies: The running water cuts through the clayey
[Link] and mining etc., soils and makes deep channels as gullies. The land
iv. defective methods of farming. becomes unfit for cultivation and is known as bad land.
eg. 2. sheet erosion: Sometimes water flows as a sheet
over large areas down a slope. In such cases the topsoil
is washed away. This is known as sheet erosion.

c. Soil Conservation methods:

i. contour ploughing: Ploughing along the contour lines can decelerate the flow of water down
the slopes. This is called contour ploughing.
ii. Terrace farming: Steps can be cut out on the slopes making terraces. Terrace cultivation
restricts erosion. Western and central Himalayas have well developed terrace farming.
iv. Strip cropping: Large fields can be divided into strips. Strips of grass are left to grow
between the crops. This breaks up the force of the wind. This method is known as strip
cropping.
iv. Shelter belts: Planting lines of trees to create shelter also works in a similar way. Rows of
such trees are called shelter belts. These shelter belts have contributed significantly to the
stabilisation of sand dunes and in stabilising the desert in western India.
 8

Questions
1. Explain main features of Alluvial soil. [2025 - 5 Marks]
2. Explain the various sttages of resource planning and its need in India. [2025 - 5 Marks]
3. What is Agenda 21? List its two principles. [2017]
4. Why is it essential to have resource planning? Explain any three reasons. [2017]
5. Explain resource planning. What are the steps involved in resource planning? [2014]
or
Why is resource planning essential in India? [2015]
or
What is resource planning? Why is resource planning essential? Explain it with three reasons. [2015]
6. In India, some regions are rich in certain types of resources but deficient in some other resources”. Do you
agree with the statement? Support your answer with any three examples. [2017]
7. Why is soil considered as a resource? Explain with five arguments. [2015]
8. Distinguish between red soil and laterite soil stating any three points of distinction.
9. Which is the main cause of land degradation in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh? How can it be
checked? Explain. [2015]
10. Describe any three measures of controlling land degradation. [2015, 2014, 2012]
Or
Explain any three steps taken to solve the problem of land degradation in India. [2011]
11. Mention any three features of arid soils. [2014]
12. Enumerate any three features of ‘regur’ soil. [2011]
13. ‘Land is a natural resource of utmost importance’. Justify the statement with appropriate arguments. [2014]
14. Indiscriminate use of resources had led to numerous problems.’ Justify this statement. [2014, 2012, 2011]
15. Explain any three human activities responsible for land degradation in India. [2013, 2012]
or
How are human activities responsible for the degradation of land? [2012]

16. Suggest any three methods of soil conservation suitable to Indian conditions. [2012]
or
What steps can be taken to control soil erosion in hilly areas? [2012]
17. What is meant by the term “resource”? List the types of resources classified on the basis of its ownership.
[2012]
18. Distinguish between Khadar and Bangar soil. [2012, 2011]
or
How are alluvial soils formed? How is Bangar different from Khadar? [Marking Scheme, 2012]

Extra questions:
19. Where was the Earth Summit held? What were its objectives?
20. What are the different types of resources?
21. Classify the resources based on the ownership. Give examples.
22. Analyse the four main factors which help in the formation of soil.
23. Explain the role of human in resource development.
24. Why does the pattern of net sown areas vary from one state to another?
25. Technical and economic development has led to more consumption of resources. Evaluate the
statement with reasons.