What is a Resource?

● Technologically accessible;
● Economically feasible;
● Culturally acceptable

Are resources free gifts of nature?

● No, resources are a function of human activities.

● Human beings themselves are essential components of resources.
● They transform materials available in the environment into resources and use
them.
Did you know?
India has got the right to mine manganese nodules from the bed of the Indian Ocean from
that area that lies beyond the exclusive economic zone.
 Development of resources

Indiscriminate use of resources led to the following problems:

Extra ques:- Human being used resources indiscriminately and this has let to the
following major problems?
● Depletion of resources for satisfying the greed of a few individuals.

● 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.

● Indiscriminate exploitation of resources has led to global ecological crises such as global
warming, ozone layer depletion, environmental pollution, and land degradation.

Reasons for Resource Depletion

● Industrial development
● Over-population
● Burning of Fossil-Fuels
● Mining
● Deforestation

Important:-
Rio De Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992

● First International Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, in June 1992, where
more than 100 heads of state met.
● The summit addressed the urgent problems of environmental protection and socio-economic
development at the global level.
● The assembled leaders signed the Declaration on Global Climatic Change and Biological
Diversity.
● The Rio Convention endorsed the global Forest Principles and adopted Agenda 21 for
achieving Sustainable Development in the 21st century.

AGENDA 21

Declaration signed by world leaders in 1992 at United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro.
Aim- Achieving global sustainable development.
Objective- Combat environmental damage, poverty, and disease through global cooperation on
common interests, mutual needs, and shared responsibilities.
Major objective- Every local government should draw its own local Agenda 21.

Resources Planning
1. Planning is a widely accepted strategy for judicious use of resources.
2. It has scope in a country like India, which has enormous diversity in the availability of
resources.
3. There are regions that are rich in certain types of resources but are deficient in some other
resources.

● Does India need Resource Planning? If yes, then why?

India has diversity in the availability of resources.
There are some regions that are self-sufficient
in terms of availability and there are some regions
that have an acute shortage of some vital
Resources.
 Steps of Resource Planning
Ques:- explain the process of the stages of resource planning in
India?

Identification & inventory of resources by surveying,

mapping, estimation of resources.

Evolving a plan with appropriate technology, skill, and

institutional setup for implementing the plan.

Matching the resource development plans with overall

National development plans.
COLONISATION & RESOURCES

● Main attraction for foreign invaders- Colonies with

rich resources.
● Higher level of technological development of the
colonizing countries helped them to exploit resources
of other regions & establish their supremacy over the
colonies.
● Thus, resources can contribute to development only
when they are accompanied by appropriate
technological development and institutional changes.
● India has noticed that development in general &
resource development in particular doesn’t only
involve the availability of resources, but also the
technology, quality of human resources & the
historical experiences of the people.

LAND RESOURCES

INDIA HAS A VARIETY OF RELIEF FEATURES

● 43%- Plain, which provides facilities for

agriculture and industry.
● 30%- Mountains which provide perennial river
water and sites for tourism and ecological
aspects.
● 27%- Plateaus which is the source of minerals, fossil
fuels, and forests.

Land Utilization Pattern

● Forests
● Barren & Wasteland
● Permanent pastures and grazing land
● Culturable waste land (left uncultivated for more than 5
agricultural years).
● Current fallow- (left without cultivation for one or less than one
agricultural year)
● Other than current fallow-(left uncultivated for the past 1 to 5
agricultural years)
● Net Sown Area (sown more than once in an agricultural year)
Problems faced by land Use Patterns in India
● Total area 3.28 million sq. km.
● Land under permanent pastures has
decreased.
● Net sown area varies from state to state.
Forest area 23.3% lower than-desired 33%.
● Assam is the only North-Eastern state to be
fully surveyed for its land use.

WASTE LAND
Includes rocky, arid, and desert areas.

Used for non-agricultural purposes that

includes settlements, roads, railways,
industry etc.

What is Land Conservation?

Land conservation refers to various

methods of preserving land, and
ensuring it is protected forever from
development.
There are a variety of ways to land
conservation.
MEASURES TO CONTROL LAND DEGRADATION

● Afforestation and proper management of grazing.

● Planting of shelterbelts of plants.
● Stabilization of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes
● Proper management of wastelands
● Control of mining activities
● Proper discharge & disposal of industrial effluents & waste

CLASSIFICATION OF SOIL

ALLUVIAL SOIL
- Most widely spread & important soil. In fact, the entire
northern plains are made of alluvial soil.
- Deposited by three important Himalayan river systems–
the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.
 - These soils also extend in Rajasthan and Gujarat through a
narrow corridor.
- Alluvial soil is also found in the eastern coastal plains
particularly in the deltas of the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna, and the
Kaveri rivers.

● The alluvial soil consists of various

proportions oÿ:
-Sand;
- Silt; and
- Clay.
● In the lands towards the river valleys,
soil particles appear somewhat bigger in
size.
● In the upper reaches of the river valley i.e.
near the place oÿ the break oF slope, the
soils are coarse.
● Such soils are more common in piedmont
plains such as Duars, Chos and Terai
(types of piedmont zones in India).

An area at the base of a mountain range or a mountain

is known as Piedmont Plane.

Black Soil:
→ Black in colour and are also known as regur soils.
→ Ideal for growing cotton and is also known as black cotton soil.
→ Found in the plateaus of Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Malwa, Madhya Pradesh,
and Chhattisgarh also along the Godavari and the Krishna valleys.
→ Made up of extremely fine i.e. clayey material.
→ Well-known for their capacity to hold moisture.
→ Rich in calcium carbonate, magnesium, potash, and lime.

Red and Yellow Soils:

→ Found in the areas of low rainfall in the eastern and southern parts of the
Deccan plateau.
→ Also found in parts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, southern parts of the middle
Ganga plain and along the piedmont zone of the Western Ghats.

→ Develop a reddish colour due to diffusion of iron in crystalline and

metamorphic rocks.

Arid Soils:
→ Found in the western parts of Rajasthan.
→ After proper irrigation these soils become cultivable.
→ Lacks humus and moisture because dry climate, high temperature make the
evaporation faster.
→ Salt content is very high and common salt is obtained by evaporating the
water.

Laterite Soils:
→ Develops in areas with high temperature and heavy rainfall.
→ Found in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and the hilly areas
of Odisha and Assam.
→ Suitable for cultivation with adequate doses of manures and fertilizers.
→ Low Humus content because decomposers, like bacteria, get destroyed due
to high temperature.

Forest Soils:
→ Found in the hilly and mountainous areas where sufficient rain forests are
available.
→ Feature differs based on location.
→ Loamy and silty on valley sides and coarse-grained in the upper slopes.
→ Silt in the lower parts of the valleys particularly on the river terraces and
alluvial fans is fertile.

CAUSES OF SOIL EROSION

HUMAN FACTORS
Deforestation, overgrazing, construction, and mining, etc., cause
soil erosion.
NATURAL FACTORS
Natural forces like wind, glaciers, and water lead to soil erosion.

Measures to control Soil erosion:

→ Strip cropping
→ Planting shelter belts
→ In the hilly areas, using contour ploughing and terrace farming.