Landforms and Life

This page covers fees103.pdf, Chapter 3 of NCERT's new Class 6 textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond (first edition 2024, written under the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023). It closes Theme A, India and the World: Land and the People. The PDF has 18 pages, book pp. 41–58, and matches the catalogue and the contents page. The book's pattern: a quotation and ‘The Big Questions’ open the chapter; ‘Let's explore’ and ‘Think about it’ boxes set activities; ‘Don't miss out’ boxes add facts; it ends with ‘Before we move on…’ and ‘Questions, activities and projects’. Every box and figure is read below. It is a short chapter, so we use six concept sections rather than padding. Numbers are checked with asserts. No maps: the book's world map becomes a table; our drawings are side views, bar charts and schematics with no coastlines or borders. Facts beyond the book are marked Beyond NCERT (†). Ways of classifying land, the names and meanings of sacred mountains and mountain tourism are set out as attributed positions side by side, with no verdict.

• How this relates to UPSC, honestly: this is the ground floor of Indian and world physical geography (GS1). Prelims has asked the oldest mountains (1979), the Tibetan Plateau's height (1994), the Ganga plain's population (2000), what grows on bare rock (2021) and which waterfalls lie on which rivers (2024); Mains has asked about restoring mountain ecosystems hurt by tourism (2019).
• Before this: fees101 (Locating Places on the Earth) and fees102 (Oceans and Continents).
• Senior chapters: kegy102 (Structure and Physiography — the Himalayas, the Peninsular Plateau, the Northern Plains, Anamudi, the Aravallis); kegy103 (Drainage — the Ganga and its tributaries, waterfalls); kegy105 (Natural Vegetation — montane forests); kegy106 (Natural Hazards — landslides, cloudbursts); kegy204 and kegy206 (how mountains rise and how rivers build plains); gess203 (Our Changing Earth) and gess207 (Life in the Deserts); jess101 (soils, terrace farming) and jess105 (minerals).
• UPSC from this chapter: five Prelims and two Mains questions (1979–2024). List at the end, with key notes.

• Landform = a physical feature of the Earth's surface, formed over millions of years; three main types — mountains, plateaus, plains (deserts often added).
• Mountains: broad base, steep slopes, narrow summit; mostly in ranges. Hills: lower, gentler, rounded. Young (Himalayas, still rising) v old (Aravalli, rounded by erosion).
• Mountain life: montane conifer forests (pine, fir, spruce, deodar) → grasses, mosses, lichen; terrace farming, herding, tourism, pilgrimage; hazards — landslides, avalanches, cloudbursts, flash floods.
• Everest 8,848 m (book) — Chomolungma, Sagarmatha; Kanchenjunga (Nepal–Sikkim); Aconcagua (Andes); Kilimanjaro (isolated); Mont Blanc (Alps); Anamudi highest in south India.
• Plateaus: flat top, steep sides; Tibetan (avg 4,500 m, ‘Roof of the World’), Deccan; ‘storehouses of minerals’ (Chhota Nagpur: iron, coal, manganese); lava plateaus → black soil; waterfalls.
• Plains: flat, generally ≤ 300 m; floodplains built of river sediment → fertile; Ganga plain ≈ 40 crore people; irrigation → groundwater depletion; five Sangam tiṇais.

Humans, like most mammals, live on land, and land looks very different from region to region. The book imagines a road trip from the Chhota Nagpur region of Jharkhand to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh and on to Almora in Uttarakhand: on the way you meet three major landforms. A landform is a physical feature on the surface of the Earth; landforms take shape over millions of years and are closely tied to the environment and to life. They fall broadly into mountains, plateaus and plains (Fig. 3.1). Each has its own climate, plants and animals; humans have adapted to all of them, but how many people live on each kind varies across the world. Late in the chapter the book adds that the surface is complex and experts often define more landforms — such as deserts.

Mountains are much higher than the surrounding land, with a broad base, steep slopes and a narrow summit. High ones carry snow: at lower altitudes it melts every summer and the water feeds rivers; at high altitudes it may never melt, leaving the mountain permanently snow-capped. Lower highlands with gentler slopes and rounded tops are hills. A ‘Think about it’ box explains snow: most of India gets precipitation as rain and hail, but high and cold places get snow; snow and hailstones are water falling in a solid state. Most mountains are grouped in mountain ranges — the Himalayas (Asia), Alps (Europe), Andes (South America) — some thousands of km long. Six mountains are pictured (Fig. 3.2) and compared by height (Fig. 3.3): Mount Everest (between Tibet, China, and Nepal) and Kanchenjunga (between Nepal and Sikkim) are the two highest Himalayan peaks; Aconcagua is the highest in the Andes; Kilimanjaro in eastern Africa is an isolated mountain, part of no range; Mont Blanc is the highest in the Alps; Anamudi (‘Anai Peak’, Kerala) is the highest in south India. Mountains with tall sharp peaks, like the Himalayas, are relatively ‘young’ — formed recently in Earth's history, which still means millions of years ago; shorter, rounded ones like the Aravalli Range are much older, rounded by erosion. In the Himalayas uplift and erosion both continue: they are still growing in height.

Mountain environment: slopes are often covered by montane forest of conifers — pine, fir, spruce, deodar — tall, cone-shaped trees with thin, pointed leaves; higher up the trees give way to grasses, mosses and lichen. Forests, rivers, lakes, grasslands and caves shelter animals such as the golden eagle, peregrine falcon, Canadian lynx, snow leopard, ibex, Himalayan tahr, mountain hare, yak, grey fox and black bear (Fig. 3.4). A ‘Don't miss out’ box: the Ganga is the largest river from the Himalayas, nearly 2,500 km long, with many tributaries — the Yamuna and Ghagara also rise in the Himalayas; the Son (Sone) rises in the Vindhya Range south of the Ganga plain. Life in the mountains: the terrain is rugged and steep, so ordinary farming is possible only in some valleys; on slopes people cut steps — terrace farming (Fig. 3.5). In many mountain regions herding is preferred to farming. Tourism is often a key income — crisp air, scenery, and sports (skiing, hiking, mountaineering, paragliding) — and people have made pilgrimages to mountain shrines for centuries; but too many visitors strain the fragile environment, and the right balance is ‘often difficult to find’. Two climbers are celebrated, and a picture page (Fig. 3.6) shows hazards: landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, flash flood, heavy snowfall, cold weather and uncontrolled tourism. A final box: many communities treat mountains as sacred — Everest is Chomolungma to Tibetans and Sagarmatha to Nepalis; Mount Kailash in Tibet is sacred to followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon.

A plateau rises above the land around it and has a more or less flat surface; some sides are often steep slopes. Like mountains, plateaus can be young or old. Heights range from a few hundred to several thousand metres. Examples: the Tibetan Plateau, the largest and highest in the world, and the Deccan Plateau. A ‘Don't miss out’ box: the Tibetan Plateau averages 4,500 m — hence ‘Roof of the World’ — and is nearly 2,500 km from east to west, about the distance from Chandigarh to Kanyakumari; the Deccan Plateau of central and south India is called one of the oldest plateaus, ‘formed through volcanic activity millions of years ago’. Plateaus, like mountains, are rich in minerals — ‘storehouses of minerals’ — so mining is a major activity and many of the world's largest mines are on them: the East African Plateau for gold and diamonds; the Chhota Nagpur Plateau for iron, coal and manganese. Many plateaus have rocky soil, less fertile than plains and less good for farming — except lava plateaus, which often have rich black soil. Plateaus also have spectacular waterfalls: Victoria Falls on the Zambezi (southern Africa), Hundru Falls on the Subarnarekha (Chhota Nagpur), Jog Falls on the Sharavati (Western Ghats), and the Nohkalikai Falls, which drop 340 m from the Cherrapunji Plateau in Meghalaya (Fig. 3.7).

Plains have an extensive flat or gently undulating surface without large hills or deep valleys, and are generally not more than 300 m above sea level. Floodplains are plains made by rivers that rise in mountain ranges, collect particles of rock, sand and silt — sediments — carry them down and deposit them, making the soil very fertile; so plains suit crops of all kinds, agriculture is the major occupation, and they support varied plants and animals. A world map (Fig. 3.8) colours a few major mountain ranges, plateaus and river plains, and a satellite photograph (Fig. 3.9) shows the Ganga plain. Life in the plains: the first civilisations grew up around rivers in fertile plains thousands of years ago, and a large share of the world's people still live on plains. About 40 crore people — more than one-fourth of India's population — live in the Ganga (‘Gangetic’) plain. Main occupations: river fishing and agriculture; food crops — rice, wheat, maize, barley, millets; fibre crops — cotton, jute, hemp. Farming was traditionally rainfed; in recent decades it has turned to irrigation by canals and by pumping groundwater, which raised production but has helped deplete groundwater — a challenge for the future, alongside high population and pollution. Rivers carry great cultural value: many communities treat a river's source and its confluence with other rivers as sacred, and in India many festivals and rituals are held there. Because plains slope gently, river navigation is easy; people long travelled by river, and on stretches of the Ganga many still prefer boats (Fig. 3.10).

The Earth's surface is complex, and experts often define a few more landforms, such as the desert: a large, dry expanse with very little precipitation and unique plants and animals. Some deserts are hot — the Sahara in Africa, the Thar in the north-west of the Indian subcontinent; others cold — the Gobi in Asia; some experts call Antarctica a desert too. People have adapted to most deserts despite harsh conditions; communities living in or migrating through the Thar hold rich traditions of folk songs and legends. The varied ways humans have made every landform home show our adaptability and resilience. A closing box presents the five tiṇais of ancient Tamil Sangam poetry — five landscapes, each tied to deities, ways of life and moods such as love, longing, separation and quarrel. The book lists each landscape and its main occupation: Kuriñji (mountains — hunting and gathering), Mullai (grassland and forests — cattle rearing), Marudam (fertile plains — farming), Neydal (coasts — fishing and seafaring), Pālai (arid land — journeying and fighting). This is ‘a different classification’, but it shows a keen awareness of regions and of the bond between people and nature; the details need not be memorised, the concept must be understood.

Every ‘Let's explore’, ‘Think about it’ and box question, in page order.

Five questions. Try first, then open.

Numbers

One-liners

• A landform is a physical feature of the Earth's surface formed over millions of years.
• The three main landforms are mountains, plateaus and plains.
• Mountains have a broad base, steep slopes and a narrow summit; hills are lower and rounded.
• Young mountains like the Himalayas are sharp and still rising; old ones like the Aravallis are rounded.
• Snowmelt from mountains feeds rivers.
• Montane forests of conifers give way to grasses, mosses and lichen higher up.
• Terrace farming cuts steps into slopes.
• A plateau has a flat top and steep sides; the Tibetan Plateau is the largest and highest.
• Plateaus are storehouses of minerals; lava plateaus have black soil.
• Floodplains are built of river sediment and are very fertile.
• About 40 crore people live in the Ganga plain.
• The five tiṇais of Sangam poetry sort land by landscape and livelihood.

Traps to avoid

• The Himalayas are young with sharp peaks, not rounded tops.
• Kilimanjaro is an isolated mountain, not part of any range.
• Anamudi is the highest peak in south India, not in all India.
• The Son rises in the Vindhyas; the Yamuna and Ghagara rise in the Himalayas.
• The Yamuna is a tributary of the Ganga, not the other way round.
• Not all deserts are hot — the Gobi is cold.
• Height alone does not separate plateaus from plains; shape does.
• Lava plateaus are the exception to rocky, infertile plateau soils.
• Fig. 3.4 shows a common leopard though the text names the snow leopard.
• Jog (Gersoppa) Falls are on the Sharavati, not the Netravati.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• From this chapter: the oldest mountains — the Aravallis (1979); the Tibetan Plateau's average elevation (1994); the Ganga plain as India's most densely populated region (2000); lichen and moss surviving without soil (2021); waterfalls, regions and rivers — Hundru, Gersoppa, Dhuandhar (2024). Learn each example with its landform, river and region.
• Elsewhere: terrace cultivation (1991) and soil erosion (2014) sit on hess402, jess101 and gess206; the Western Ghats and Anai Mudi (2005), the Aravalli's age (2001) and Himalayan youth (2012) on kegy102; the Ganga's tributaries in order (2024) on kegy103; crops of the lower Gangetic plain (2011) on legy203, hess403 and gess206; lichen as algae plus fungi (1984, 2014) is biology.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• From this chapter: GS1 2019 — restoring the mountain ecosystem from development and tourism: start from the book's balance between tourism income and a fragile environment, add hazards (Fig. 3.6), and build with legy206. GS1 2013 (Sangam literature and social and economic conditions) can use the tiṇais — landscape, occupation and mood — developed with lehs102 and iest105.
• Elsewhere: cloudbursts (GS3 2016, GS3 2022, GS1 2024) and Himalayan landslides (GS1 2013, 2016, 2021) are built on kegy106 and kegy205; groundwater depletion (GS3 2025) on jess103 and legy204 — this chapter supplies only the Ganga-plain example.
• Keep answers neutral and exact: heights and dates as in the book or marked †; give tourism and development trade-offs as positions, not verdicts.

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

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