India and UPSC

Chapter 5: Natural Vegetation

Ques 1. what is Natural Vegetation? Under what climatic conditions are tropical evergreen forests develop?

Ans 1. Natural Vegetation refers to the plant community that has been left undisturbed over a long time, so as to allow its individual species to adjust themselves to climate and soil conditions. Tropical Evergreen forests are found in warm and humid areas with an annual precipitation of over 200 cm and mean annual temperature above 22°C.

Ques 2. What do you understand by social forestry?

Ans 2. Social forestry means management and protection of forests and afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in environment, social and rural development. The National Commission on Agriculture has classified social forestry into three groups, Urban, Rural and Farm forestry.

Ques 3. Define Biosphere reserve.

Ques 4. What is the difference between forest area and forest reserve?

Ans 4. The forest area is the area notified and recorded as the forest land, irrespective of the existence of trees. While the Forest cover is the actual area occupied by forests with canopy. In India, ten Forest area is 23.28% whereas the actual forest cover is 20.55%.

Ques 5. What steps have been taken to conserve forests? (150 words)

Ans 5. Forests have an intricate interrelationship with the life and environment. Hence conservation of forests is of vital importance to the survival and prosperity of human kind. accordingly, the government of India proposed to have nation wide forests conservation policy in 1952, which was modified in 1988. According to the new forest policy, the government will emphasize sustainable forest management in order to conserve and expand forest reserve on one hand and to meet the needs of the people on the other.

The forest policy aimed at: (1) Bringing 33% geographical areas under forest cover. (2) Maintaining environment stability and to restore forests where ecological balance was disturbed. (3) Conserving the natural heritage of the country, its biological diversity and genetic pool. (4) Check soil erosion, extension of desert lands and reduction of floods and droughts. (5) Increasing the forest cover through social forestry and afforestation on degraded land. (6) Increasing productivity of forests to make timber, fuel, fodder and food available to rural population dependent on forests and encourage the substitution of food. (7) Creating of a massive people’s movement involving women to encourage plantation of trees, stop falling of trees and thus reduce pressure on existing forests.

Ques 6. How people’s participation be effective in conserving forests and wild life?

Ans 6. Social forestry is one step in which people participate in conserving forests. It is classified in three categories, Urban forestry, Rural forestry and Farm forestry. Urban forestry pertains to the raising and management of trees on public and privately owned lands in and around urban centers. Rural forestry lays emphasis on promotion of Agro-forestry and Community forestry. farm forestry is the term applied to the process under which farmers grow trees for commercial and non-commercial purpose on their farm lands.

For Wildlife conservation, In 1972 a comprehensive wildlife act was enacted, which provides main legal framework for conservation and protection of wildlife in India. The act was further amended in 1991, making punishments more stringent and has also made provisions for the protection of specified plant species and conservation of endangered species of wild animals. Wildlife conservation can be achieved only when every individual understands his significance and contributes his bit. There are several projects passed after that to conserve wildlife, like the Project Tiger (1973), Project Elephant (1992), Crocodile breeding project, project Hangul and conservation of Himalayan Musk deer. These projects have been successfull in conserving wildlife in our country only through people’s participation in them

Chapter 4: Climate

Ques 1. What are three important factors which influence the mechanism of Indian weather?

Ans 1. The following factors influence Indian weather: Latitude, Himalayan mountains, Distribution of Land and Water, distance from the Sea, Altitude and Relief.

Ques 2. What is meant by Inter-Tropical Convergence zone? (ITCZ)

Ans 2. The ITCZ is a low pressure zone located at the equator where trade winds converge, and so. It is zone where air tends to ascend. In July ITCZ is located around 20°N-25°N latitudes and in winter months, it shifts to the southern hemisphere.

Ques 3. What is meant by Bursting of monsoon? Name the place of India which gets highest rainfall?

Ans 3. It is the sudden violent lot of rain falling in an area. In India it occurs in the first week of June. The highest rainfall occurs along the west coast, on the western ghats as well as in the sub-Himalayan areas in the Northeast and hills of Meghalaya.

Ques 4. Define ‘Climatic region’? What are the basis of Koeppen’s classification?

Ans 4. A ‘Climatic region’ has a homogeneous climatic condition which is the result of combination of factors like temperature and rainfall. Koeppen based his scheme of climate classification on monthly values of Temperature and Precipitation.

Ques 5. Which type of cyclone cause rainfall in North-Western India during winter? Where do they originate? (30 words)

Ans 5. The cyclonic depressions originating on the east Mediterranean sea and travelling eastwards over West Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan before reaching the northwestern part of India. On their way, they take moisture from the Caspian sea in the north and the Persian gulf in the south.

Ques 6. Notwithstanding the broad climatic unity the climate of India has many regional variations. Elaborate this statement giving suitable examples. (125 words)

Ans 6. The whole of India has a monsoon type of climate. The monsoon regime emphasizes the unity of India with the rest of Southeast Asia. This view of broad unity of monsoon type of climate should not, however, lead one to ignore its regional variations which differentiate the weather and climate of different regions of India which reveal many regional variations. These variations represent the sub-type of monsoon climate.

Foe example, While in the summers the mercury occasionally touches 55°C in the western Rajasthan, it drops down to as low as -45°C in the winters around Leh. Churu in Rajasthan  may record a temperature of 50°C or more on a June day while mercury hardly touches 19°C in Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) on the same day. Even on a single place and on the same time, the variations are no less striking. In Kerala, the difference between day and night temperature may be hardly 7°C or 8°C. But in Thar desert, the day temperature is around 50°C and at night it may drop to 15°C 20°C.

Chapter 3: Drainage system

Ques 1. Differentiate between River basin and Watershed?

Ans 1. The catchments of large rivers are called river basins while of small rivulets and rills are often referred to as Watersheds. So watersheds are small in area while the river basins cover large areas. The boundary line separating one drainage basin from the other is also called watershed.

Ques 2. Differentiate between Delta and Estuary?

Ans 2. The triangular deposits made by the rivers at their mouth form Delta. These are fertile lands and are formed in the region of low tides and coastal plains.

While The sharp edged mouth of rivers devoid of any deposit is known as Estuary. They do not have fertile lands and are formed in regions of high tide and rift valleys.

Ques 3. What are social-economic advantages of interlinking of rivers in India? (30 words)

Ans 3. Interlinking of rivers in India will help saving the people living in drought-prone zones from hunger and people living in the flood-prone areas from the destruction caused by floods. It will enable full use of existing irrigation projects and will help in generating more power and flood control.

Ques 4. Write 3 characteristics of Peninsular rivers? (30 words)

Ans 4. The Peninsular rivers are characterized by the following characteristics, which are Fixed course, absence of Meanders and non-perennial flow of water. Also they have broad, largely graded, shallow valleys. Most of the peninsular rivers except Narmada and Tapi flow from west to east.

Ques 5. what are the important characteristic features of north Indian rivers? How are they different from Peninsular rivers? (125 words)

Ans 5. The north Indian rivers are fed by melting of snow and precipitation and so these rivers are perennial in nature. These rivers pass through the giant gorges carved out by the erosion activity carried on simultaneously with the uplift of Himalayas. Besides deep gorges, these rivers also form V shaped valleys, rapids and waterfalls in their mountainous course. While entering the plains they form deposition features like flat valleys, Ox-bow lakes, flood plains, braided channels and deltas near the river mouth.

On the other hand, the peninsular drainage system is older than Himalayas. They have broad, large graded valleys and the rivers and their course are mature. The western ghats running close to the western coast act as the water divide between major peninsular rivers, discharging their water in the bay of Bengal and small rivulets joining Arabian sea. Peninsular rivers are characterized by their fixed course, absence of meanders, and non-perennial flow of water.

Chapter 2: Structure and Physiography

Ques 1. Where in India will you find cold deserts? (30 words)

Ans 1. The cold deserts in India are found in Kashmir or North western Himalayas. especially in the north eastern part of these Kashmir Himalayas between the Greater Himalayas and the Karakorum range. Some important glaciers of India are Siachin and Baltoro glaciers.

Ques 2. Why is western coastal plain devoid of any Delta? (30 words)

Ques 3. Make a comparison of Islands group of the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal? (125 words)

Ans 3. The Islands group of Arabian sea are Lakshadweep islands and Minicoy islands, of which Minicoy island is the largest. Islands in the Bay of Bengal are Andaman and Nicobar islands, which are separated through the Tenth degree channel.

In the Andaman and Nicobar islands, there are 550 islands approx, of which 26 are inhabited. They form the Union territory of India lying in the Arabian sea about 850 miles (1370 km) from Indian subcontinent. Unlike the Lakshadweep islands, these chain of islands is made up of highly volcanic islands. They arose from a submerged mountain chain that follows the southward extension of the continental shelf, which is the continuation of Himalayan ranges to Malaysia and Indonesia.

On the other hand, in the Bay of Bengal we have the Lakshadweep-Chagos and Minicoy island chain. They also form the Union Territory of India but at a relatively closer distance of 220 to 440 km from the Indian mainland coastal city Cochin. There are approx 39 islands of which 11 are inhabited. They consists of 12 coral atolls, 3 coral reefs, 5 banks and numerous islets.

Chapter 1: India-Location

Ques 1. Does India need to have more than one standard time? If yes, then answer in 30 words why do you think so?

Ans 1. Yes India should have more than one standard time because in the Rajasthan and Gujarat where it is sun light at 6 pm everyday, the sun has already set in north east India at 5 pm. India’s longitudinal expanse is of 30 degrees (2,933 km) and this is huge difference between two places in Sun timings, so at any time in a day to get same sunlight at every place India should have more than one standard time.

Ques 2. How is the latitudinal spread of India advantageous to her? (30 words)

Ans 2. The latitudinal spread of India is advantageous to her in many ways. The north to south spread of India is 3,214 km, which is 30 latitudes. The southern part of her lies in tropical zone and northern part in sub-tropical or Warm temperate zone. This vast area gives her many varied climatic conditions, which in turn has helped her to get different land forms, soils, minerals, forests, rivers and other natural vegetation.

Ques 3. What are the implications of India having a long coastline? (30 words)

Ans 3. India has coastline of 7,517 km in total, because of which India is able to carry out its business activities through ocean waters. India’s 75 % import and export happens to be from ocean waters. Also India get many varied natural resources from ocean waters. India has a developed navy which helps her during war times.

Ques 4. Analyze that if some relationship is there between number of districts in states to the area of state? (30 words)

Ans 4. The number of district are more in bigger states as compared to smaller states, like MP gas 50 states, whereas Goa has only 2 states. But this relationship not fully true as UP which is 5th largest state of India today, has maximum 75 districts. So, districts are not truly divided on area but density of population in the state.