Resources and Development
Resource: Anything satisfy the human needs,
If technically accessible
Economically feasible,
Culturally acceptable
Relationship between nature, technology and
institution
Human (itself resource) → interact
with nature through technology → create
Institutions (building, bridges etc.)
Types of Resources:
Resources can be classified on different bases;
into following types:
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
Classification of Resources: On
the basis of Origin
a. Biotic Resources: All living organisms in our
environment are called biotic resources. For example, trees, animals, insects,
etc.
b. Abiotic Resources: All non-living things
present in our environment are termed as abiotic resources. For example –
earth, air, water, metals, rocks, etc.
Classification of Resources: On
the basis of Exhaustibility:
a. Renewable or Replenshible
Resources: Resources
that can be replenished after a short period of time are called Renewable
Resources. For example – agricultural crops, water, forest, wildlife, etc.
b. Non-renewable or non Replenshible
Resources: Resources
which takes million years of time to replenish are called non-renewable
resources. For example – fossil fuel.
Classification of Resources: On
the Basis of ownership:
a. Individual: Resources owned by
individuals are called Individual Resources. For example – land owned by
farmers, house, etc.
b. Community: Resources owned by
community or society are called Community Owned Resources. For example –
Graveyard, grazing land, ponds, burial grounds, park, etc.
c. National Resources: Technically all resources
within political boundary and oceanic
area up to 12 nautical miles ( 22.2 km ) For example – Government land, Roads,
canals, railway, etc. Country has legal right to acquire private property.
d. International Resources: Resources regulate by
International bodies are called International Resources. For example – Ocean
and sea beyond 200 nautical miles of the Exclusive Economic Zone and is called
open sea or ocean.
e. EEZ: Acc. To UN Convention, under the law of sea ( 1982
) EEZ is a sea Zone over which a country
has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources
Classification of Resources: On the basis of Status
of Development:
a. Potential Resources: Resources which are found in a particular region,
but not yet used properly due to the lack of capital or other resources. For
example – Rajasthan and Gujarat receive plenty of solar energy and have plenty
of wind energy, but use of these resources so far has not been developed
properly.
b. Developed Resources: Resources which are developed and surveyed for
utilization and are being used in present time are known as Developed
Resources.
c. Stock: Resources that are available, but we do not have
proper technology to used them are called Stock. For example – water is made of
oxygen and hydrogen, which can be used as fuel, but because of lack of proper
technology these are not being used.
d. Reserves: Resources which are available and the knowhow to
use them is also present but there uses have been postponed keeping in mind,
the need of future generations. For example – river water which is not used to
generate electricity
Development of resources
Resources are vital but human
used it indiscriminately
Result:
→Ecological crisis
→Many problems around the world, such as global
warming, ecological crisis, disturbance in ozone layer, land degradation etc.
Reasons:
Accumulation of resources in only few hands leaves others unsatisfied.
Indiscriminate use of resources, thus, equal distribution of resources
becomes necessary for sustainable development.
Sustainable Development: Development which
takes place without damaging the environment and compromising with needs of
future is called sustainable development.Keeping the view of justified use of resources and sustainable development, the Earth Summit was organized in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro in which more than 100 state heads agreed with Agenda 21 for the sustainable development and proper use of resources.
Agenda 21 is an agenda to combat environmental damage, poverty, disease, etc. through global co-operation on common interests, mutual needs and shared
responsibilities.
Concept of sustainable development was introduced by ‘Bruntland Commission Report’ 1987
Resource Planning:
Resource planning is the judicious use of
resources. Resource planning becomes more important in a country like India,
where resources are not distributed properly. For example; many states are rich
in mineral and deficient in other resources, such as Jharkhand is rich in
minerals, but there is problem of drinking water and other facilities.
Arunachal
Pradesh has plenty of water but lack of other development because of lack of
resources.
These types of discriminations can be reduced or completely
vanished with proper planning of judicious use of resources.
Resource Planning in India:
Resources can contribute in proper development only
with a good planning keeping the technology, skills and institution in mind.
Resource Planning in India is one of the most
important goals right from its first Five Years Plan. Following are the main
points of Resource planning.
a. Identification: survey, qualitative and
quantitative assessment.
b. Planning structure: appropriate technology, skill
and institutions.
c.
Matching resource planning with overall national development plan.
Conservation of Resources:
→Gandhiji told “There is enough for
everybody’s need and not for any body’s greed.” He believed in the production
by masses and not in the mass production.→Gandhian philosophy of resource conservation is also advocated in the Schumacher book ‘Small is beautiful’.
→A book “Our common future” also tells about sustainable development
Land Resources:
Land is
one of the most important natural resources. Land supports our life system.
Thus, careful planning of use of land resource is necessary. India comprises of
many types of land. These are mountains, plateau, plains and islands.
A. Mountains: About 30% of land area in India is in the form of
mountain. Mountain supports the perennial flow of rivers, which carry fertile
soils, facilitate irrigation and provide drinking water.
B. Plain: About 43% of land area in India is in the form of
plains. Plains provide facilities for agriculture, building of industries and
houses, etc.
C. Plateau: About 27% of land in India is in the form of
plateau which provides many types of minerals, fossil fuels and forest.
Land Utilization: Patterns of use
of Land Resources
1. Forests
2. Land not available for cultivation: There
are two types of land which are not used for agriculture purpose. These are:
a. Barren and waste land: Rocky, arid and desert area
b. Lands used for buildings, roads, factories, etc. i.e for non-agriculture
purpose.
3. Other uncultivated land (excluding fallow land): buildings, roads etc.
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).
5. Net sown area: Area which
is sown at least once in a year is called net sown area. In this case an area
sown more than once is counted once only
6. Gross cropped area: Area
sown more than once in an agricultural year plus net sown area is known as
gross cropped area.
Example: If you have 1
acre field it means you have net sown area of 1 acre.
If it is sown 3 times in a year than you have gross
cropped area of 3 acres
Land Use Pattern in India:
Pattern
of use of land depends upon physical and human factors both. 1. Climate
2. topography,
3. type of soil,
4. Human factors: technology, skill, population density, tradition, capability, etc.
India has total 3.28 million square kilometer land used data.
Land use data available 93% of land.
Reason:
This is because land used data has not been collected for the north eastern states except Assam and the land occupied by Pakistan and China has not been surveyed because of many unavoidable reasons.
Main features of Land use
1. The land under permanent pasture is decreased: 4.71% (1960-61) to 3.38% (2008-9). Result: this will create the problem for grazing for large cattle population in India.
2. The total net sown (NSA) increased from 45.26 %( 1960-61) to 46.24% (2008-9).
3. Culturable waste land decreased from 12.01 %( 1960-61) to 8.61% (2008-9).
4. Forest area increased from 18.11% ( 1960-61) to 22.78 % (2008-9). According to National Forest Policy (1952), the forest should be 33% of total geographical area, which is essential to maintain ecological balance. But the forest area in India is far less than desired measures.
5. The pattern of net sown area varies widely from state to state. Where net sown area is 80% in state like Punjab, it is only 10% in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Andaman and Nicobar Island. Such difference is creating lot of discrimination.
6.Land other than fallow land is either of poor quality or too costly to cultivate, these lands are cultivated only once or twice in two or three consecutive years.
Land Degradation
Presently,
about 130 million hectare of land is reported under degraded land in India.1. 28% of land forest degraded
2. 56 % is water eroded area.
3. 6% degraded land is because of salinity and alkalinity.
4. 10% wind eroded
Reason for land degradation
1. Mining, forest
fire, overgrazing etc. Because
of mining in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh;
lands are left abandoned without proper treatment after the completion of
mining works. This has resulted in the form of deep scars and traces. Along
with mining, deforestation in these states has degraded the land very fast.
2. Division
of lands in small area because of inheritance laws is one of the major causes
of degradation of land.
3. In the states of Uttar
Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, over irrigation causes water shortage and increase in
salinity and alkalinity due to water logging.
4. In Bihar, Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh, land is degraded because of flood.
5. States, in which minerals
processing, such as grinding of lime stone, manufacturing of cement, etc.
produce huge quantity of dust. These dusts prevent the percolation of water because
of deposition on the ground and it is responsible for degradation of land.
The degradation of land creates
many problems, such as flood, decrease in yield, etc. which leads to decrease
in GDP and country has to face economic problems.
Measures to Conserve the Land
Resources:
Degradation of land can be
prevented by taking following measures:
a. Afforestation
b. Proper management of grazing.
c.
Stabilisation
of sand dunes by plantation of thorny bushes.
d. Proper management of waste lands.
e. By proper irrigation.
f.
By proper
harvesting.
g. Control over mining activities.
h. Proper management of land after
completion of mining work.
i.
Discharge
of industrial waste and effluents only after proper treatment.
j.
Plantation
of trees along the road sides.
k. By preventing deforestation.
Soil as a natural resource:
Soil is one of the most important
natural resources. Soil supports the growth of plants. Soil is the natural home
of many living organism, such as ants, rats, snakes, and many insects.
Formation of Soil: It takes thousands of years
to form even 1 cm of soil. Soil is formed by the weathering process of the
rocks. Various natural forces, such as temperature, running water, wind, etc.
along with many physical and chemical changes are equally important in the
formation of soil formation.
Classification of Soil:
Soil is categorized in many types
on the basis of texture, colour, age, chemical properties, etc. India is a vast
country which comprises of many types of land. Thus, many types of soils are
found in different regions in India.
Alluvial Soil
Availability: Alluvial soil is found near
the river or plains formed by rivers.. Entire northern plain is made of
alluvial soil. Alluvial soil is also found in eastern coastal plains near the
Mahanadi, the Krishna, the Godavari and the Kaveri rivers.
Characterstics:
1.
Alluvial soil is the mixture of various proportions of silt, sand and
clay. Alluvial soils differ in the size of their particles at the area of break
of slope. Conglomerate (rounded fragments of soil) deposits found in
“Bhabhar”
2. In upper valley i.e Piedmont
plains – “Duars” “Chos” & “Terai”,
soil is coarse.
3. Apart from the size of particles of grains,
soils are also classified on the basis of their age. The older alluvial soil is
known as Bangar and new alluvial soil or Khadar. The bangar soil has higher concentration of kanker nodules than the Khadar. Khadar has
more fine particles and is more fertile than the bangar.
4. In drier part soil is more
alkaline.
Note:
(1). Duars: These are
foothills of eastern Himalayas in North east
(2). Terai: Belt of marshy land at the
foothills of Himalayas in North India
(3). Chos: Foothills of Shivaliks in
Punjab. :
(4). Piedmont plains: An area found on the foot of mountain
Black Soil/ Regur soil/ Cotton soil
Availability: Black soil is
found in the north west deccan plateau( Basalt region). It is found in the
plateau of Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Malwa, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh and
extent along with the valley of Krishna and Godavari Rivers.Characterstics:
1.Black soil has high concentration of fine particles and thus can hold moisture for long time.
2.It contains calcium, potassium, magnesium and lime but lacks in phosphoric content.
4. Black soil is suitable for the growth of cotton, but many other crop are grown in the area of black soil.
5. They
develop deep cracks during hot weather, which helps in the proper aeration of
the soil.
Red and Yellow Soil
Availability: Red soil is also
found in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, on the southern part of the Gangetic plains and
along the piedomont zone of the Western Ghats.Characterstics:
The soil looks red due to presence of iron in metamorphic rocks.
When the soil look yellow when it occurs in dehydrated form.
Laterite Soil
Availability: This soil is mainly found in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and in hilly areas of Orissa and Assam.
Characterstics:
1. Formed by leaching process
2. Soil does not contain humus or contains very low amount of humus.
Reason:
Most
of the micro organisms, particularly the decomposers, like bacteria, get
destroyed due to high temperature.
Note:
What is Leaching?
A process of extracting minerals from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid in nature.
Arid Soil
Availability: Arid soil is
found in those areas which receive scanty rainfall. Due to high temperature,
evaporation is faster in these regions. The soil has a high content of salt.
Arid soil can be made cultivable with proper treatment. Arid soil is present in
Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Forest Soil
Availability: The forest soil
is found in hilly areas where rain forest found.Characterstics:
1. The soil in upper parts which is snow covered is highly acidic because of denudation.
2. Coarse grained in upper slopes.
3. The soil in the lower valleys is highly fertile particularly on river’s alluvial fans.
Note:
Alluvial fan: Cone shape deposits of sediments by river when it enters into plains
from mountain.
Soil Erosion and Soil Conservation
Removal
of top soil is called soil erosion.Causes:
1. Overgrazing, construction activities and other human activities; along with deforestation have led to soil erosion.
Result:
2.
Formation of “gullies”( soil is cut by water making
deep channels). Land become unfit for cultivation and known as bad land. Such
land are also called “Ravines”. Eg. Chambal Ravines.
3.Soil erosion; if not checked in time; can even lead to desertification.
Conservation of soil
Soil conservation is important to prevent soil erosion. Soil conservation can be done by many methods.
1. Afforestation is the main method because trees hold the topsoil in place.
2. Terrace farming
4. Strip cropping
5. Contour ploughing
4. Shelter belt planting
