Resources and Development

This is Chapter 1 of the Class 10 geography book Contemporary India – II: 12 pages (1–12). Its parts: what a resource is and how resources are classified; development of resources and sustainable development (with boxes on the Rio Earth Summit, 1992 and Agenda 21); resource planning in India; conservation of resources; land resources and the land-use pattern (two pie charts, 1960–61 and 2019–20); land degradation; soil as a resource and the six soil types (with a full-page soil map and four soil photographs); soil erosion and conservation. It ends with 3 MCQs, 5 written questions and a project with a word puzzle. Every share is recomputed from the book's own figures; illustrations we add are marked †.

• Builds on India: Physical Environment (Class 11): kegy102 (plains, plateaus, the Deccan trap that gives black soil) and kegy105 (forests and the one-third forest goal); and Fundamentals of Physical Geography: kegy205 (weathering and soil formation), kegy206 (gullies, ravines, wind action).
• Goes further in India: People and Economy (Class 12): legy203 (land-use categories since 1950–51, cropping intensity), legy206 (planning and sustainable development), legy209 (land degradation and wasteland); and keec107 (Environment and Sustainable Development).
• Pairs with jess201 (Development — sustainability, groundwater and the ‘needs of future generations’). Leads into jess102–jess107 of this book: forests, water, agriculture, minerals, industry, transport.
• UPSC, honestly: Indian geography — soils, resources, agriculture, minerals, industries, transport — is tested in Prelims every year and in GS1 Mains. From this chapter, Prelims has asked where laterite occurs and what grows on it (1979, 2013), state–soil matches (1988), why red soil is red (2010), how black cotton soil formed (2021), land-use shares (2010), salinity in Punjab (1988, 2011), soil-conservation methods (1982, 1991, 2010), gullies and the Chambal ravines (1994, 2001) and Agenda 21 (2016). Mains GS1 has asked about land-use change (2026), desertification (2020) and the Deccan trap's resources (2022). We link 25.

• Resource = technologically accessible + economically feasible + culturally acceptable. Not a free gift: nature + technology + institutions.
• Classified by origin (biotic/abiotic), exhaustibility (renewable/non-renewable), ownership (individual → international), status (potential, developed, stock, reserves).
• Sustainable development: Club of Rome (1968) → Small is Beautiful → Brundtland, 1987 (Our Common Future) → Rio 1992, Agenda 21.
• Relief: 43% plains, 30% mountains, 27% plateaus. Land-use data cover 93% of 3.28 million km².
• 2019–20: net sown 45.64% (≈ 54% with all fallows), forest 23.41% vs 33% goal (1952 policy). NSA > 80% in Punjab, Haryana; < 10% in Arunachal, Mizoram, Manipur, A&N.
• Alluvial (bangar old / khadar new), black = regur (basalt, cotton, cracks), red (iron), laterite (leached, pH < 6; tea, coffee, cashew), arid (kankar). Punjab–Haryana: over-irrigation → salinity.

NCERT's definition: everything in our environment that can be used to satisfy our needs is a resource, provided it is technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable. Turning things into resources is an interactive relationship between nature, technology and institutions: people work on nature through technology and create institutions to speed up economic development. So resources are not free gifts of nature, as many assume — they are a function of human activities, and people themselves are essential components of resources.

The book lists four bases of classification: origin (biotic and abiotic), exhaustibility (renewable and non-renewable), ownership (individual, community, national, international) and status of development (potential, developed stock and reserves). Its Fig. 1.2 also splits resources into natural and human: natural ones are renewable (continuous or flow resources such as wind and water; biological ones such as forests and wildlife) or non-renewable (recyclable, such as metals; non-recyclable, such as fossil fuels); human resources are seen in their quantity and quality and in the structures and institutions people build.

Because resources were long thought to be free gifts of nature, people used them indiscriminately. NCERT names three results: depletion of resources to satisfy the greed of a few; accumulation of resources in few hands, dividing society into haves and have-nots; and global ecological crises — global warming, ozone-layer depletion, environmental pollution and land degradation. An equitable distribution of resources is therefore essential for a sustained quality of life and global peace, and resource planning is essential for the sustainable existence of all life — itself a part of sustainable development: development without damaging the environment, in which the present does not compromise the needs of future generations.

Conservation. Irrational consumption and over-use cause socio-economic and environmental problems, so resources must be conserved at every level. Gandhiji put it as ‘there is enough for everybody's need and not for anybody's greed’; he blamed greedy individuals and the exploitative nature of modern technology for depletion, and wanted production by the masses in place of mass production. Internationally, NCERT traces the idea through the Club of Rome (1968), E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful (1974 in the book), the Brundtland Commission Report (1987), which introduced ‘sustainable development’ and was published as Our Common Future, and the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro (1992).

Planning is the widely accepted strategy for the judicious use of resources, and it matters especially in India, where resources are unevenly spread: some regions are rich in some resources and poor in others, some are self-sufficient, some have acute shortages. This calls for balanced resource planning at the national, state, regional and local levels.

Resources alone are not enough. Availability is a necessary condition for development, but without matching changes in technology and institutions it can hinder development: many resource-rich regions in India are economically backward, while some resource-poor ones are developed. History shows why: rich resources drew colonisers, and it was their superior technology that let them exploit the colonies' resources and dominate them. So in India, development — and resource development in particular — depends not only on resources but on technology, the quality of human resources and people's historical experience.

Land supports natural vegetation, wildlife, human life, economic activity, transport and communication — but it is an asset of finite size, so it must be used with careful planning. India's land is under mountains, plateaus, plains and islands: about 43% is plain (agriculture and industry), 30% mountains (perennial rivers, tourism, ecological balance) and about 27% plateau (rich reserves of minerals, fossil fuels and forests).

Land utilisation. Land use is decided by physical factors (topography, climate, soil) and human factors (population density, technology, culture and traditions). NCERT's categories:

The pattern. India's geographical area is 3.28 million km², but land-use data exist for only about 93% of it, because land-use reporting is incomplete in most north-eastern states except Assam, and some areas in the far north have not been surveyed (NCERT names them). Fig. 1.4 compares 1960–61 with 2019–20: net sown area hardly moved, from 45.26% to 45.64% of the reporting area. Most older fallow land is of poor quality or costly to cultivate, so it is cropped only once or twice in two or three years; counting such land with the net sown area takes it to about 54%. The share varies greatly between states: over 80% in Punjab and Haryana, under 10% in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Permanent pasture has fallen (4.71% → 3.42%), raising the question of how India feeds its huge cattle population. Forest land (23.41%) is far below the 33% of geographical area set out in the National Forest Policy (1952) as essential for ecological balance — and millions living on forest fringes depend on it.

About 95% of our basic needs for food, shelter and clothing come from land. Using land for a long time without measures to conserve and manage it has caused land degradation, with serious effects on society and the environment. Human activities have degraded land directly and have also sped up natural forces that damage it. NCERT ties each cause to the states where it bites hardest:

Soil is the most important natural resource: the medium of plant growth and home to many living organisms. It is a living system, and it takes millions of years to form soil up to a few centimetres deep. The factors in soil formation are relief, parent rock (bed rock), climate, vegetation and other forms of life, and time. Forces of nature — changes in temperature, running water, wind, glaciers, the work of decomposers — break rock down, and chemical and organic changes in the soil matter as much. Soil holds both organic matter (humus) and inorganic material. India's soils are classified by the factors that formed them and by colour, thickness, texture, age and chemical and physical properties.

Alluvial soil is the most widespread and important. The whole northern plains are made of it, laid down by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra systems; it extends through a narrow corridor into Rajasthan and Gujarat and covers the eastern coastal plains, especially the deltas of the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri. It mixes sand, silt and clay; particles are coarse near the break of slope in the upper valleys — piedmont plains such as the Duars, Chos and Terai. By age it is bangar (old alluvium, more kankar nodules) or khadar (new alluvium, more fine particles, more fertile). Alluvial soils are very fertile, mostly with adequate potash, phosphoric acid and lime, ideal for sugarcane, paddy, wheat and other cereals and pulses; alluvial regions are intensively cultivated and densely populated. In drier areas they are more alkaline and need treatment and irrigation.

Black soil — also regur or black cotton soil — is ideal for cotton. Climate together with parent rock forms it; it is typical of the Deccan trap (basalt) region of the north-west Deccan plateau, made of lava flows. It covers the plateaus of Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Malwa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and extends south-east along the Godavari and Krishna valleys. It is extremely fine and clayey, famous for holding moisture, rich in calcium carbonate, magnesium, potash and lime but generally poor in phosphorus. It develops deep cracks in hot weather, which aerate it; it is sticky when wet and hard to work unless tilled just after the first shower or in the pre-monsoon period.

Red and yellow soils develop on crystalline igneous rocks in areas of low rainfall in the eastern and southern Deccan, and also in parts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, the southern middle Ganga plain and the piedmont of the Western Ghats. The red colour comes from diffusion of iron in crystalline and metamorphic rocks; the soil looks yellow when hydrated.

Laterite soil (Latin later, brick) forms in tropical and subtropical climates with alternate wet and dry seasons, from intense leaching by heavy rain. It is mostly deep to very deep, acidic (pH below 6.0) and generally deficient in plant nutrients; it occurs mostly in the southern states, the Western Ghats region of Maharashtra, Odisha, parts of West Bengal and the north-east. Under deciduous and evergreen forests it is humus-rich; under sparse vegetation in semi-arid conditions, humus-poor. Its position on the landscape makes it prone to erosion. With soil conservation, especially in the hills of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, it grows tea and coffee; red laterite soils in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala suit cashew.

Arid soils are red to brown, generally sandy and saline; in some areas salt is so high that common salt is obtained by evaporating the water. Dry heat speeds evaporation, so they lack humus and moisture. Their lower horizons hold kankar, because calcium increases with depth, and this layer restricts infiltration. With irrigation they become cultivable, as in western Rajasthan. Forest soils occur in hilly and mountain areas with enough rain forests; texture varies with the mountain setting — loamy and silty on valley sides, coarse-grained on upper slopes. In the snow-covered Himalaya they are denuded, acidic and low in humus; in the lower valleys, on river terraces and alluvial fans, they are fertile.

Soil erosion is the denudation of the soil cover and its washing down. Soil formation and erosion go on together and are usually in balance; human activities — deforestation, overgrazing, construction, mining — upset it, while wind, glaciers and water erode naturally. Running water cuts clayey soils into deep channels called gullies; land unfit for cultivation as a result is bad land, called ravines in the Chambal basin. When water flows as a sheet down a slope and strips the top soil, it is sheet erosion. Wind erosion blows loose soil off flat or sloping land. Defective farming also erodes: ploughing up and down a slope makes channels for fast runoff.

Two activity boxes, two ‘Find out’ boxes, an opening question and three questions in the text. Outlines below; numbers recomputed.

Three MCQs, three 30-word and two 120-word questions, and a four-part project. Try first, then open.

Numbers

One-liners

• A resource needs technology, economics and culture, not just nature.
• Resources are a function of human activity, not free gifts of nature.
• Sustainable development: the present must not compromise the future's needs.
• Agenda 21 came out of Rio 1992; its aim is a local Agenda 21 everywhere.
• Resources without technology and institutions can leave a region backward.
• Net sown area has been stuck near 45% of the reporting area since 1960–61.
• Forest land is about 23% of the reporting area, against a 33% goal.
• Over-irrigation salts the soils of Punjab, Haryana and western UP.
• Black soil comes from Deccan basalt and holds moisture — cotton's soil.
• Laterite is leached, acidic and poor, yet grows tea, coffee and cashew with care.
• Contour ploughing and terraces fight water erosion; shelter belts and strips fight wind.

Traps to avoid

• UPSC 2002 (‘which statement is correct’): the stored key is (c), alluvial soil in the northern plains — but (d) ‘mountains about 30% of area’ is NCERT’s own figure and (b) ‘wells’ is arguable (wells and tube wells supply most irrigation), so treat the key as disputed.
• Forest land rose 5.30 points from 1960–61 to 2019–20 — not ‘very marginally’.
• NSA reaches about 54% only if both kinds of fallow are added; the older fallow alone gives 49.31%.
• Khadar (new alluvium) is more fertile than bangar (old, kankar-rich).
• Black soil is poor in phosphorus.
• Red colour is from iron; yellow is the hydrated form.
• Laterite is acidic and nutrient-deficient, and absent from Rajasthan and UP.
• Fig. 1.4 shows the reporting area (≈ 93%), and ‘forest’ is classified land, not satellite forest cover.
• Agenda 21 is from Rio 1992, not Johannesburg 2002; the Club of Rome did not propose the SDGs.
• Small is Beautiful was first published in 1973, not 1974.
• Stock cannot yet be used; reserves are the usable subset of stock.
• Terrace farming checks erosion; Uttarakhand, not Punjab, is the terrace state.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• Soils are this chapter's Prelims core: laterite location and crops (1979, 2013), state–soil matching (1988), calcium in western Rajasthan's soils (1993), laterite's iron (1994), alluvium in the northern plains (2002), Andhra's soils (2006), red colour from iron (2010), black cotton soil from fissure basalt (2021), salinisation (2011, 2018).
• Land and conservation: land-use shares (2010), Punjab's salinity (1988), contour bunding and terraces (1982, 1991), conservation methods (2010), gully and ravine erosion (1994, 2001), soil erosion's causes (2014). Sustainability: UNFCCC at Rio (2010), Agenda 21 (2016), Club of Rome and SDGs (2016).
• Learn soils as a grid — formed from, where, character, crops — and the fallow ladder by years. Locate in words; never rely on a remembered map shape.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• GS1: human-induced land-use change (2026), desertification without climate boundaries (2020), natural-resource potential of the Deccan trap (2022). Use Fig. 1.4's numbers with their year (2019–20), NCERT's state lists for mining, overgrazing and over-irrigation, and the soil table.
• Set debates out as attributed positions — limits to growth vs ingenuity; small-scale vs heavy industry; mining-led development vs the land and forest rights of local communities (give the laws and judgments as dated facts). No present-day political commentary.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

Open any question to attempt it in the Question bank — your attempt is saved to your progress.