NCERT
Every NCERT book that matters for UPSC — open a book, then a chapter. Learn each chapter's concepts, then how UPSC tests them — with diagrams, flowcharts and the past questions to attempt.
0% read
← Our Environment — all chaptersLife in the Deserts
Start here: why this chapter matters
In simple wordsImagine living where a whole year's rain could fit in a bucket. Some such places are hot enough to fry an egg on a rock; others are so cold that water freezes even in summer nights. Yet people live in both — by herding animals that can find the little grass, by farming wherever water appears, and by wasting nothing. This chapter visits one of each: the Sahara and Ladakh.
This is Chapter 7, the last chapter of Our Environment (Class 7 Geography): 7 pages (49–55) plus an appendix of internet sources (p. 56). It defines a desert, then studies the hot desert — the Sahara (Figs 7.1–7.3): its size, land, climate, plants and animals, oases, people and the changes oil has brought; and the cold desert — Ladakh (Figs 7.4–7.6): its mountains, climate, plants and animals, people, monasteries, roads and tourism. It has two maps, a glossary, a ‘Word Origin’ box, ten ‘Do you know?’ boxes, five photographs, six exercises and a classroom ‘desert game’.
- Builds on gess205 (Water — the chapter opens by recalling that water means life), gess204 (Air — temperature, rainfall), gess203 (the work of wind: dunes, mushroom rocks) and gess206 (the same human–environment lens for the Amazon and the Ganga–Brahmaputra basin).
- Goes further in: kegy211 (why hot deserts lie at 20°–30° on the western sides of continents), kegy102 (the Himalaya and the Trans-Himalaya; Ladakh's ranges and passes), kegy103 (the Indus system), kegy206 (desert landforms), legy104 (pastoral nomadism) and legy209 (desertification).
- UPSC, honestly: this chapter's own content is asked only in a few places — Zoji La (1990), the chiru versus the oryx (2012), and desert leaf adaptations (2013, 2018). We link these 4. Why hot deserts form on western margins (1989, 1992, 2009, 2011; Mains 2013) is a Class 11 explanation the book does not give; those questions stay on kegy211.
| Word | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Desert | An arid region with extremely high or low temperatures and scarce vegetation (book's glossary) |
| Hot / cold desert | A desert that is hot most of the year (Sahara) / one made cold by height or latitude (Ladakh) |
| Arid | Very dry: more water could evaporate than falls as rain |
| Oasis (plural oases) | A fertile spot in a desert where underground water reaches the surface |
| Erg, reg, hamada † | Sand sea of dunes; gravel plain; bare rocky plateau — the Sahara's three main surfaces |
| Nomads / pastoral nomadism | People who move with their herds in search of pasture and water |
| Rain shadow | The dry side of a mountain range, where winds arrive after dropping their rain on the other side |
| Glacier | A slow river of ice — such as Ladakh's Gangri glacier (gess203) |
| Pass (‘La’) | A low gap through a mountain range used as a route — Zoji La, Rohtang La |
| Gompa | A Buddhist monastery of the Himalaya — Hemis, Thiksey |
| Shahtoosh | Very fine, warm wool of the chiru (Tibetan antelope); its trade is banned † |
Reading the chapter opening, the glossary and Fig. 7.1 (page 49)
- Header art: the cartoon sun over a lilac band with the number 7 and ‘Life in the Deserts’; a QR code marked 0762CH09 (the old chapter number).
- Glossary — desert: an arid region with extremely high or low temperatures and scarce vegetation.
- Fig. 7.1, ‘The Sahara Desert’: a photograph of flat, cracked pale ground with thin drifts of orange sand, a few dry shrubs, and red sandstone rock towers on the horizon under a clear blue sky. The point: the Sahara is rock and hard ground as well as sand.
At a glance — the six ideas to carry away
- Desert = low rainfall, scanty vegetation, extreme temperatures. Two kinds: hot (Sahara) and cold (Ladakh). People live wherever a little water allows farming.
- Sahara: North Africa; about 8.54 million sq km (book) — about 2.6 times India; touches 11 countries; sand, gravel plains and rocky plateaus (over 2,500 m). Days up to 50°C, nights near 0°C.
- Sahara life: date palms, acacia; camels, hyenas, jackals, foxes, scorpions, snakes, lizards. Oasis = wind-scoured hollow reaching groundwater (Tafilalet, about 13,000 sq km). Once a green land (cave paintings, fish skeletons).
- Sahara people: Bedouin and Tuareg herders; heavy robes against dust storms and hot winds; settled farming in oases and the Nile valley (dates, rice, wheat, barley, beans, Egyptian cotton); oil in Algeria, Libya, Egypt; trucks replace camels.
- Ladakh: cold desert between the Karakoram (north) and Zanskar (south); the Indus; Gangri glacier; 3,000 m (Kargil) to over 8,000 m; summer nights below –30°C, winters below –40°C; rain shadow, rain as low as 10 cm; Drass among the coldest inhabited places.
- Ladakh life: willows, poplars, apricots, apples, walnuts; yaks, wild goats and sheep; chiru (shahtoosh). Buddhist and Muslim communities; gompas Hemis, Thiksey, Shey, Lamayuru; barley, potatoes, peas; NH 1 over Zoji La; Manali–Leh road over four passes; tourism.
1. What makes a desert: hot and cold
In simple wordsA desert is not about heat; it is about water. A freezer and an oven are both dry inside. Wherever very little rain falls, plants are few, the ground cannot hold heat at night, and every living thing must save water. Whether it is hot or cold depends on where the desert sits — near the tropics, or high in the mountains.
The chapter begins by recalling Chapter 5: water means life to plants, animals and people. Deserts are places where people have learned to cope with extreme temperatures — ‘as hot as fire and some as cold as ice’. They share low rainfall, scanty vegetation and extreme temperatures. Depending on temperature there are hot deserts and cold deserts. People live in them wherever a little water is available to practise agriculture.
| Hot desert — Sahara | Cold desert — Ladakh | |
|---|---|---|
| Why dry | far from moist winds; sinking dry air of the subtropics † (kegy211) | rain shadow of the Himalaya (book) |
| Why hot / cold | near the Tropic of Cancer: strong sun, clear skies | great height: thin air holds little heat |
| Temperatures (book) | days up to 50°C; nights near 0°C | summer days just above 0°C, nights below –30°C; winters below –40°C |
| Rain (book) | ‘a short rainy season’ | as low as 10 cm a year |
| Surface | sand, gravel plains, rocky plateaus | high mountains, deep valleys and gorges, glaciers |
NCERT details to read carefully — deserts
- A desert is defined by dryness, not heat. By that standard the largest desert on earth is Antarctica †; the Sahara is the largest hot desert. The book's ‘world's largest desert’ should be read as ‘largest hot desert’.
- Exercise 2(iv): deserts are characterised by (a) scanty vegetation — not heavy rain, and not low evaporation (evaporation is high; the book itself says moisture ‘evaporates faster than it accumulates’).
- Exercise 1(a): the two types are hot and cold deserts.
2. The Sahara: size, land and climate
In simple wordsPut India on the Sahara and you could fit it in more than twice and still have desert to spare. Now picture not just golden dunes but endless gravel, and bare rock plateaus higher than most hill stations — baked by day under a cloudless sky, chilly by night because nothing holds the heat.
The Sahara covers a large part of North Africa. The book calls it the world's largest desert, with an area of around 8.54 million sq km — compare India's 3.28 million sq km. It touches eleven countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara. Besides vast stretches of sand, it has gravel plains and elevated plateaus with bare rocky surfaces, more than 2,500 m high in places. The climate is scorching hot and parched dry, with a short rainy season and a clear, cloudless sky; moisture evaporates faster than it accumulates. Days may reach 50°C, heating sand and rock, which radiate heat; nights may be freezing cold, near zero.
| Fig. 7.2 in words (no map drawn) | What the book's map shows |
|---|---|
| Where | the Sahara shaded across the north of Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, mostly north of the Tropic of Cancer's latitude and south of the Mediterranean Sea |
| Countries labelled | Western Sahara, Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan (and Eritrea and Somalia at the edge of the shading) |
| Size check | 8.54 million sq km (book) ÷ India's 3.28 million sq km ≈ 2.6 times (asserted) |
| Answering Exercise 2(i) | the Sahara lies in (b) northern Africa |
| Western Sahara — how it is described (attributed; no verdict) † | Who | Position |
|---|---|---|
| The book | NCERT | lists Western Sahara among the eleven ‘countries’ the Sahara touches |
| The United Nations | UN General Assembly list | a Non-Self-Governing Territory whose status is unresolved |
| The parties | Morocco; the Polisario Front | Morocco administers most of it and claims it; the Polisario Front seeks independence for it |
Reading Fig. 7.2, ‘Sahara in Africa’, and the temperature box (page 50)
- Fig. 7.2: a political map of Africa with latitude lines, the Tropics, a scale bar and a legend; the Sahara is shaded pale orange across the north of the continent, with country names on it. The point: the Sahara spreads across many countries of North Africa. Converted into the table above; we draw no map.
- Do you know? — Al Azizia: in the Sahara, south of Tripoli, Libya, recorded 57.7°C in 1922. See the correction below and our temperature chart.
NCERT details to read carefully — the Sahara
- Area: the book's 8.54 million sq km differs from the figure most reference works give — about 9 million sq km † (Britannica) — because the desert's edge can be drawn in different places. Quote the book's figure for this chapter, and ‘about 9 million sq km’ elsewhere.
- Record heat: in 2012 the World Meteorological Organization rejected the Al Azizia reading of 1922 (it is usually quoted as 58°C; the book has 57.7°C) as a measuring error. The official world record is 56.7°C at Death Valley, California, on 10 July 1913 †.
- ‘Parch dry’ means parched; ‘oasis’ in the plural is oases.
- Fig. 7.2's shading also reaches Eritrea and Somalia; these lands are not usually counted as part of the Sahara †.
Beyond NCERT — why the Sahara is there
- Hot deserts lie mostly between about 20° and 30° latitude on the western sides of continents (kegy211): air sinks in the subtropical high-pressure belt and warms as it descends, so clouds rarely form; the trade winds blow offshore; and cold ocean currents (the Canary current off north-west Africa) cool the air above them, which then holds back rain. UPSC asked this in 1989, 1992, 2009 and 2011 and in Mains GS1 2013 — linked on kegy211.
- The Sahara's highest point is Emi Koussi (3,415 m) in the Tibesti mountains of Chad; the Ahaggar (Hoggar) mountains of Algeria are another high massif.
3. Plants, animals and oases — and a green Sahara long ago
In simple wordsDesert plants behave like careful savers: tiny or no leaves, thorns, waxy skins, deep roots — anything to keep a drop of water. And where the desert floor dips low enough to touch the hidden water underground, it suddenly turns green, like a park in the middle of a car park: an oasis.
Vegetation in the Sahara includes cactus (as the book says), date palms and acacia. In some places there are oases — green islands with date palms. Camels, hyenas, jackals, foxes, scorpions, many kinds of snakes and lizards are the main animals. A box explains oases: when the wind blows sand away it forms depressions; where underground water reaches the surface in a depression, an oasis forms. These areas are fertile, and people settle around them to grow date palms and other crops. Some oases are very large — Tafilalet Oasis in Morocco covers about 13,000 sq km. Two more boxes say that the Sahara was once a lush green plain: cave paintings show rivers with crocodiles, and elephants, lions, giraffes, ostriches, sheep, cattle and goats; scientists have even found fish skeletons. A change in climate made it hot and dry.
⤵ How an oasis forms (box, p. 51)
Wind blowsloose sand is lifted and carried away
A depression formsthe ground is scooped lower and lower
Water appearsthe hollow reaches underground water, which comes to the surface
Fertile groundplants grow in the moist soil; date palms thrive
People settlethey grow dates and other crops — a settled community in the desert
⤵ From green plain to desert (the two boxes, pp. 50–51)
A wetter Sahararivers and lakes; crocodiles and fish
Grassland animalselephants, lions, giraffes, ostriches; herds of sheep, cattle, goats
People paint themcave paintings record that landscape
Climate changesrain fails; rivers and lakes dry up
Today's desertfish skeletons left in the sand answer the box's question
| Desert plant trick | How it saves water | Book's or familiar example |
|---|---|---|
| Thorns instead of leaves | almost no leaf surface to lose water; the green stem makes food | cactus (in American deserts †); many acacias have thorns |
| Tiny or no leaves | less surface for water to escape | acacia's small leaflets |
| Hard, waxy leaves | a waterproof coat slows evaporation | date palm's tough fronds |
| Deep or spreading roots | reach groundwater or catch brief rain | date palms in oases; acacia |
Reading Fig. 7.3 and the three ‘Do you know?’ boxes (pages 50–51)
- Do you know? — a green Sahara (p. 50): cave paintings show rivers with crocodiles and animals of grassland; climate change made the Sahara hot and dry.
- Fig. 7.3, ‘Oasis in the Sahara Desert’: a photograph of a cluster of tall date palms and low green bushes in a hollow among smooth golden dunes. The point: green life clusters wherever water reaches the surface.
- Do you know? — fish skeletons: ‘What could have happened?’ — outline in the activities section.
- Do you know? — oases: drawn as our cross-section and flow above.
NCERT details to read carefully — plants and the past
- Cacti are native to the Americas †; the Sahara has no native cacti (prickly pear was brought to North Africa by people). Typical Saharan plants are acacias, date palms (in oases), tamarisk and tough grasses.
- UPSC 2013 and 2018 asked which leaf changes cut water loss in deserts: hard and waxy leaves, tiny or no leaves, and thorns — all three.
- The green Sahara lasted until roughly 5,000 years ago † — rock art at Tassili n'Ajjer in Algeria (a World Heritage Site) shows it. Desert and sown land can shift with climate.
- Exercise 3(i): oasis — (d) depressions with water.
4. People of the Sahara, and a changing desert
In simple wordsIf grass grows only after rare rains, and in a different place each time, the best way to feed animals is to keep moving with them. That is herding on the move — a skilled way of living with a hard land. Where water stays put, people stay put too and farm. And where oil was found under the sand, cities and highways appeared within a lifetime.
Despite its harsh climate, the Sahara has long been home to various groups. Among them are the Bedouin and the Tuareg, whom the book describes as nomadic herders of goats, sheep, camels and horses. The animals give milk; hides for leather belts, slippers and water bottles; and hair for mats, carpets, clothes and blankets. They wear heavy robes against dust storms and hot winds. The oases and the Nile valley in Egypt support settled people, who grow date palms, rice, wheat, barley and beans; Egyptian cotton is famous worldwide. The discovery of oil in Algeria, Libya and Egypt is transforming the desert; other minerals include iron, phosphorus, manganese and uranium. The cultural landscape is changing: glass office towers rise over mosques, superhighways cross old camel routes, trucks are replacing camels in the salt trade, Tuareg guides lead foreign tourists, and more herders are taking jobs in oil and gas in the cities.
| Group (book) | Who they are † | Livelihood (book) |
|---|---|---|
| Bedouin | Arabic-speaking pastoral peoples of the deserts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula | herding goats, sheep and camels; many are now settled |
| Tuareg | an Amazigh (Berber) people of the central Sahara — Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya — speaking Tamasheq | herding; caravan trade (salt); today also guiding tourists |
| Oasis and Nile-valley farmers | settled communities wherever water is reliable | dates, rice, wheat, barley, beans; Egyptian cotton |
| Oil and city workers | including former herders | jobs in oil and gas operations |
⤵ How oil is changing the Sahara (p. 51)
Oil foundin Algeria, Libya and Egypt — in demand worldwide
Money and buildingglass office towers; superhighways over old camel paths
Transport changestrucks replace camels in the salt trade
Work changesherders take city jobs in oil and gas; Tuareg guide tourists
A new landscapethe desert's ‘cultural landscape’ is being remade
| How to judge the change in herding life? (attributed; no verdict) | Who | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Change as opportunity | the book's account; development planners generally † | wage jobs, roads, schools and health services become reachable; trucks move goods faster |
| Change as loss | anthropologists and pastoralists' own organisations generally † | mobile herding is a skilled adaptation to scarce, shifting grass; its knowledge, routes and independence can be lost |
| Both together | many studies of pastoral societies † | families often mix herding with town work and trade rather than choosing one |
NCERT details to read carefully — people and resources
- Robes (Exercise 4-ii): loose, heavy robes protect against dust storms, hot winds and strong sun by day and keep warmth in on cold nights; they also slow sweating, saving body water.
- ‘Phosphorus’: the mineral mined is phosphate rock †, used for fertiliser; Morocco holds the largest reserves. Uranium: Niger is a major producer †.
- Exercise 2(vi): Egypt is famous for growing (c) cotton (long-staple Egyptian cotton). Exercise 3(ii): Bedouins — (f) Sahara; 3(iii): oil — (a) Libya.
- Words: write ‘herding communities’ or ‘pastoral peoples’, and say what they do; many Bedouin and Tuareg today live in towns.
5. Ladakh: mountains, rivers and a cold, dry climate
In simple wordsClimb a very high mountain and two things happen: it gets colder (the air is thin and holds little heat), and the clouds are left below you. Ladakh is a whole region up there — so high that the sun scorches your face while the shade freezes your toes, and so far behind the big mountains that the rain clouds rarely reach it.
Ladakh is a cold desert in the Himalaya; the book places it in the Great Himalayas, on the eastern side of Jammu and Kashmir (Fig. 7.4). The Karakoram Range in the north and the Zanskar mountains in the south enclose it. Several rivers flow through it, the Indus being the most important; they form deep valleys and gorges. There are several glaciers, such as the Gangri glacier. Height ranges from about 3,000 m at Kargil to more than 8,000 m in the Karakoram. Because of its height the climate is extremely cold and dry; the air is so thin that the sun's heat is felt intensely. Summer days are just above 0°C and nights well below –30°C; in winter temperatures may stay below –40°C for most of the time. Lying in the rain shadow of the Himalaya, it gets little rain — as low as 10 cm a year — with freezing winds and burning sunlight: sit in the sun with your feet in the shade and you may get sunstroke and frostbite at the same time. Drass is one of the coldest inhabited places on earth.
| Fig. 7.4 in words (no map drawn) | What the book's map shows |
|---|---|
| Ranges | the Karakoram in the north, the Ladakh Range through the middle, the Zanskar to the south |
| Rivers | the Indus flowing north-west through Leh; the Shyok joining it; the Siachen Glacier in the north |
| Places | Leh, Kargil, Shyok, Dehra Gompas; Zoji La towards Srinagar; Bara Lacha La and Rohtang Pass to the south |
| Answering Exercise 5(ii) in words | Karakoram to the north, Zanskar to the south, Ladakh between them along the Indus, Zoji La at its western edge towards the Kashmir Valley — mark them on a printed outline map in class |
Reading the ‘Word Origin’, the Drass and ‘Khapa-chan’ boxes and Fig. 7.4 (pages 52–53)
- Word Origin: ‘La’ means mountain pass and ‘Dak’ means country — Ladakh, the land of passes.
- Do you know? — Drass: one of the coldest inhabited places on earth.
- Fig. 7.4, ‘Ladakh’: a map with latitude and longitude, a north arrow and a scale; Ladakh shaded with the Indus and Shyok rivers, the Siachen Glacier, the Ladakh Range, towns and passes; neighbouring areas named. The point: Ladakh is a high land of ranges and river valleys. Converted into the table above; we draw no map.
- Do you know? — Khapa-chan (p. 53): Ladakh is also called Khapa-chan, ‘snow land’.
NCERT details to read carefully — Ladakh's setting
- Which Himalaya? Ladakh lies beyond the Great Himalaya, between it and the Karakoram — standard texts call this belt the Trans-Himalaya † (kegy102: ‘the north-eastern part of the Kashmir Himalaya is a cold desert, which lies between the Greater Himalayas and the Karakoram ranges’). The book's ‘lying in the Great Himalayas’ is loose.
- Status: since 31 October 2019 Ladakh has been a separate Union Territory † (under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019); the book's ‘eastern side of Jammu and Kashmir’ describes the earlier state. Fig. 7.4 already draws Ladakh separately.
- The temperatures lack degree signs in the book (‘–30 C’, ‘–40 C’). They are the book's broad statements; actual values vary a great deal with place and height — do not quote them as averages.
- Exercise 3(iv): Gangri — (c) glacier. Exercise 1(c): very cold and dry; thin air, intense sun; summer days just above freezing, nights below –30°C, winters below –40°C; rain shadow, about 10 cm of rain; freezing winds.
6. Ladakh's plants and animals
In simple wordsIn a land this dry and cold, life gathers where the water is: rows of willow and poplar along the streams, apricot orchards in sheltered valleys, and on the open slopes only thin grass for the herds. The animals wear the warmest coats on earth — and that wool can make them a target.
Because of the high aridity, vegetation is sparse: scanty patches of grasses and shrubs for grazing. Groves of willows and poplars grow in the valleys; in summer, fruit trees — apples, apricots and walnuts — bloom. Many birds are seen: robins, redstarts, Tibetan snowcock, raven and hoopoe are common; some are migratory. The animals of Ladakh are wild goats, wild sheep, yak and special kinds of dogs. Animals are reared for milk, meat and hides; yak's milk makes cheese and butter; the hair of sheep and goats makes woollens. Boxes add that the chiru or Tibetan antelope, an endangered species, is hunted for its wool, shahtoosh — light and extremely warm — and that the finest cricket bats are made from willow wood.
| Group | Ladakh (book) | Note † |
|---|---|---|
| Trees | willows and poplars (valleys); apple, apricot, walnut (summer bloom) | trees grow mainly where streams and channels bring water |
| Ground cover | scanty grasses and shrubs | grazing for herds |
| Birds | robins, redstarts, Tibetan snowcock, raven, hoopoe; some migratory | — |
| Mammals | wild goats, wild sheep, yak, special dogs; chiru | the snow leopard also lives here (not in the book) |
Reading the chiru and willow boxes (page 53)
- Do you know? — chiru: the Tibetan antelope is endangered; it is hunted for shahtoosh wool, light and very warm. The point: a valuable product can push a wild animal towards extinction.
- Do you know? — willow: the finest cricket bats are made from willow wood. The point: a familiar link to a Ladakhi tree.
NCERT details to read carefully — wildlife
- Chiru vs oryx (UPSC 2012): the oryx is adapted to hot, arid lands; the chiru to the steppes and semi-deserts of cold high mountains. The chiru is killed for shahtoosh (its wool cannot be combed off) — not for antlers or musk.
- Status †: the IUCN moved the chiru from Endangered to Near Threatened in 2016 as its numbers recovered; its trade stays banned internationally (CITES Appendix I) and in India (Wildlife (Protection) Act, Schedule I). ‘Endangered’ is the book's word.
- ‘The animals are reared’: wild goats and wild sheep (such as the ibex and the urial †) are not reared; the reared animals are domestic yaks, sheep and goats.
- Exercise 1(f): trees of Ladakh — willows, poplars, apple, apricot, walnut. Exercise 4(i): see the outline — little water, cold or heat, poor soil, high evaporation.
7. People of Ladakh: faith, farming, roads and tourism
In simple wordsWhen summer lasts only a few months, you plant, tend and harvest in a rush. When winter comes and the fields freeze, you gather — for festivals, prayers and family. And when water and fuel are so scarce, you learn to waste nothing. That is the rhythm of life in Ladakh.
The book asks whether you see a resemblance between the people of Ladakh and those of Tibet and Central Asia. The people here are mostly Buddhists or Muslims. Many Buddhist monasteries with traditional gompas dot the land — famous ones are Hemis, Thiksey, Shey and Lamayuru (Fig. 7.5). In summer people cultivate barley, potatoes, peas, beans and turnip; in the harsh winter months they keep busy with festivities and ceremonies. Women work in the house and the fields and also run small businesses and shops. Leh, the capital, is connected by road and air; National Highway 1 links Leh to the Kashmir Valley through the Zoji La pass, and the Manali–Leh highway crosses four passes, open only between July and September. Tourism is a major activity — visits to gompas, treks to meadows and glaciers, and festivals. Life is changing with modernisation, but the people have long lived in balance with nature: scarce water and fuel are used with reverence and care; nothing is discarded or wasted.
⤵ A Ladakhi year (pp. 53–54)
Short summersnow melts; streams and channels water the fields
Farming in a rushbarley, potatoes, peas, beans, turnip; fruit trees bloom
Herds grazeyaks, sheep and goats on thin grass; milk, wool, meat
Roads openthe Manali–Leh road and tourists arrive in the warm months
Long winterfields freeze; time for festivals and ceremonies; stores are used with care
| Feature | What the book says | Note † |
|---|---|---|
| Faith | people are Muslims or Buddhists; many gompas | Census 2011: a Buddhist majority in Leh district and a Muslim majority in Kargil district; smaller communities of other faiths |
| Monasteries | Hemis, Thiksey, Shey, Lamayuru | Hemis is known for its annual festival |
| Links to Tibet and Central Asia | the book's question | shared Tibetan Buddhist traditions; Ladakhi is a Tibetic language; old trade routes ran through Leh to Tibet and Central Asia |
| Women | house, fields, small businesses and shops | describe the roles; avoid sweeping labels |
| Connectivity | Leh by road and air; NH 1 via Zoji La; Manali–Leh road | the Atal Tunnel (2020) now bypasses Rohtang La |
Reading Figs 7.5–7.6 and the Manali–Leh box (pages 53–54)
- Fig. 7.5, ‘Thiksey Monastery’: a photograph of a many-storeyed white-and-red monastery climbing a bare brown hill, with white stupas and a stony foreground. The point: gompas built on hilltops are landmarks of the Ladakhi landscape.
- Fig. 7.6, ‘Ladakhi Women in Traditional Dress’: a photograph of smiling women seated outdoors in rich red robes with ornaments and distinctive raised headdresses. The point: a living culture — and one of the reasons visitors come.
- Do you know? — Manali–Leh highway, with a small photograph captioned ‘Baralacha la’ of a snowy, rocky pass under a pale sky: the road crosses four passes — Rohtang La, Baralacha La, ‘Lungalacha la’ and Tanglang La — and opens only between July and September. Drawn as our strip diagram.
NCERT details to read carefully — people and roads
- Zoji La links the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh (UPSC 1990), on NH 1 between Sonamarg and Drass †.
- The book's ‘Lungalacha la’ is Lachulung La. Route guides often add Nakee La, making five passes †; with better snow clearance the road now usually stays open longer than July–September †.
- Answer the ‘resemblance’ question through religion, language, trade and history, not physical appearance.
- Exercise 2(iii): (b) Buddhists and Muslims; 2(v): Hemis is a (c) monastery; 3(v): Lamayuru — (b) monastery. Exercise 1(d): tourists come for gompas, treks to meadows and glaciers, and festivals and ceremonies.
8. Two deserts side by side
In simple wordsSame problem — too little water — two settings: one baked by the sun near the tropics, one frozen by height in the mountains. Lay them side by side and the lesson of the whole book appears: people read their environment closely and fit their food, clothing, homes and work to it.
| Feature | Sahara (hot desert) | Ladakh (cold desert) |
|---|---|---|
| Where | North Africa; touches 11 countries (book) | Indian Himalaya, between the Karakoram and Zanskar |
| Size / height (book) | about 8.54 million sq km | about 3,000 m (Kargil) to over 8,000 m (Karakoram) |
| Temperature (book) | days up to 50°C; nights near 0°C | summer days just above 0°C; nights below –30°C; winters below –40°C |
| Rain (book) | a short rainy season | as low as 10 cm a year (rain shadow) |
| Plants | date palm, acacia (cactus, as the book says) | grasses, shrubs; willow, poplar; apple, apricot, walnut |
| Animals | camels, hyenas, jackals, foxes, scorpions, snakes, lizards | yak, wild goats and sheep, chiru; robins, redstarts, snowcock, raven, hoopoe |
| People | Bedouin and Tuareg herders; oasis and Nile-valley farmers | Buddhist and Muslim communities; farmers and herders |
| Crops | dates, rice, wheat, barley, beans; Egyptian cotton | barley, potatoes, peas, beans, turnip |
| Clothing | heavy robes against dust and hot wind | woollens from sheep and goat hair |
| Change | oil, cities, trucks, tourism | roads, air links, tourism, modernisation |
⤵ Why deserts have scanty vegetation (Exercise 4-i)
Little rainthe Sahara's short rainy season; Ladakh's 10 cm
High evaporationmoisture evaporates faster than it accumulates
Extreme temperaturesscorching days, freezing nights, or long frozen winters
Poor, loose soilsand, gravel and bare rock hold little water or humus
Only specialists surviveplants with thorns, tiny or waxy leaves, deep roots; green only near water
⤵ Answer frame for any ‘life in a desert’ question
Where and why drylatitude and sinking air, or height and rain shadow
Climatetemperature range and rainfall, with the source of each figure
Plants and animalsand how they save water or keep warm
Peopleherding, oasis farming, crops, clothing — described by livelihood
Changeoil, roads, tourism — with views attributed
Activities and in-text questions — answer outlines
The in-text questions and the ‘Do you know?’ questions.
Page 49: Look at the map of the world and Africa and locate the Sahara. Do you recall that India has an area of 3.28 million sq km?
The Sahara stretches across North Africa, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, south of the Mediterranean. At 8.54 million sq km (book) it is about 2.6 times India's 3.28 million sq km.
Do you know?, page 51: Scientists have found skeletons of fish in this desert. What could have happened?
The Sahara was once wetter, with rivers and lakes in which fish lived (the cave paintings show crocodiles too). A change in climate dried it out; the water disappeared, the fish died, and their skeletons were buried and preserved in the sand.
Page 53: Do you find any resemblance between the people of Ladakh and the inhabitants of Tibet and Central Asia?
Yes — in culture rather than looks: many Ladakhis follow Tibetan Buddhism, with gompas like those of Tibet; Ladakhi belongs to the Tibetic family of languages; food, dress and festivals share the high-plateau way of life; and trade routes through Leh long linked Ladakh with Tibet and Central Asia. Its Muslim communities are part of the same long history of trade and exchange.
Page 53: Can you name some more passes in the Himalayas?
Khardung La (Ladakh), Banihal (Pir Panjal, Jammu–Kashmir), Shipki La (Himachal Pradesh, on the Sutlej), Lipulekh (Uttarakhand), Nathu La and Jelep La (Sikkim), Bomdi La (Arunachal Pradesh) (kegy102). Plus the chapter's own: Zoji La, Rohtang La, Baralacha La, Lachulung La, Tanglang La.
NCERT exercise — answer outlines
Six short answers, six ticks, a match, two reasons, two map tasks and a desert game. Try first, then open.
1 (a) What are the two types of deserts found in the world?
Hot deserts (such as the Sahara) and cold deserts (such as Ladakh).
1 (b) In which continent is the Sahara desert located?
Africa — across the north of the continent.
1 (c) What are the climatic conditions of the Ladakh desert?
Extremely cold and dry because of its height and its place in the rain shadow of the Himalaya. The air is thin, so the sun feels intense. Summer days just above 0°C, nights well below –30°C; winters below –40°C for long periods; rain as low as 10 cm a year; freezing winds and burning sunlight together.
1 (d) What mainly attracts tourists to Ladakh?
Gompas (Hemis, Thiksey, Shey, Lamayuru), treks to meadows and glaciers, and festivals and ceremonies — plus the mountain scenery and high passes.
1 (e) What type of clothes do the people of the Sahara desert wear?
Heavy robes, which protect them from dust storms and hot winds (and the strong sun).
1 (f) Name the trees that grow in Ladakh.
Willows and poplars in the valleys, and fruit trees — apple, apricot, walnut.
2. Tick the correct answer: (i) part of Africa; (ii) type of desert; (iii) Ladakh's inhabitants; (iv) deserts are characterised by; (v) Hemis is a; (vi) Egypt is famous for growing.
(i) (b) northern. (ii) (b) hot. (iii) (b) Buddhists and Muslims. (iv) (a) scanty vegetation. (v) (c) monastery. (vi) (c) cotton.
3. Match: (i) Oasis (ii) Bedouins (iii) Oil (iv) Gangri (v) Lamayuru — with (a) Libya (b) monastery (c) glacier (d) depressions with water (e) cold desert (f) Sahara.
(i) Oasis – (d) depressions with water; (ii) Bedouins – (f) Sahara; (iii) Oil – (a) Libya; (iv) Gangri – (c) glacier; (v) Lamayuru – (b) monastery. Left over: (e) cold desert.
4 (i) Give reasons: There is scanty vegetation in the deserts.
Very little rain and high evaporation leave the soil dry; extreme temperatures — scorching days and cold nights, or long freezing winters — stress plants; the soil is sand, gravel or bare rock that holds little water. Only plants adapted to save water (thorns, tiny or waxy leaves, deep roots) survive, and green patches appear only near water — oases and valleys.
4 (ii) Give reasons: People of the Sahara desert wear heavy robes.
To protect themselves from dust storms and hot winds and the fierce sun by day; loose robes also slow the loss of body water and keep them warm during the cold desert nights.
5 (i) Map skills: on an outline map of Africa, mark the Sahara and any four countries around it.
Do this on a printed outline map in class. Shade the north of Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, south of the Mediterranean coastlands. Any four of the book's eleven: Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia (and Western Sahara, a territory of disputed status).
5 (ii) Map skills: on an outline map of India, mark the Karakoram Range, Zanskar Range, Ladakh and Zoji La pass.
Use a printed outline map. Karakoram along the far north; Zanskar to the south of Ladakh, beyond the Great Himalaya; Ladakh between them along the Indus valley; Zoji La at Ladakh's western edge, on the road from the Kashmir Valley (Srinagar) towards Drass and Kargil.
6. For fun: the desert game — write three clues for an assigned desert creature and let groups guess it.
Each card gives: which desert (hot or cold), a major adaptation, and a use to people. Examples: camel — hot desert; double eyelashes and closable nostrils against sand, stores fat in its hump; milk, hides for water bottles. Yak — cold desert; long shaggy hair; milk for cheese and butter, wool, transport. Chiru — cold high plateau; very fine warm underwool; hunted for shahtoosh (now protected). Fox — hot desert; large ears to shed heat; hunts at night. Raven — both deserts; eats almost anything. Ten points per correct guess (book).
Reading the exercise pages, the desert game and the appendix (pages 54–56)
- Exercises 1–5 (pp. 54–55): under the cartoon-globe heading; the map tasks are answered above as descriptions — we draw no map.
- Desert Game (p. 55): a boxed classroom game — one creature per student from mammals (camel, yak, fox, sheep, goat, antelope), birds (raven, eagle, vulture, turkey) and reptiles (snakes); three clues on a 10 cm × 15 cm card; groups guess; ten points a correct answer; the camel example (hot desert, double eyelashes, hide used for water bottles). The point: learning a desert through its animals' adaptations and uses.
- Appendix (p. 56): a list of six websites for further information (Discovery, National Geographic, Incredible India, Greenpeace, Britannica, Animal Planet). The point: where to read more; one address is mistyped ‘http;//’.
Keys and slips to handle with care
- Stored UPSC keys linked here are all standard: 1990 (a Kashmir valley and Ladakh), 2012 (a oryx hot-arid, chiru cold high mountains), 2013 and 2018 (d all three leaf changes).
- The desert game lists ‘turkey’ among desert birds; wild turkeys are North American woodland birds †, not desert birds — swap in the sandgrouse or the houbara bustard. The box also spells ‘birs’ for birds.
- Spellings: ‘characteriesed’ (characterised), ‘parch dry’ (parched), ‘oasis’ for oases, ‘Lungalacha la’ (Lachulung La).
What to remember
Numbers
Chapterbook pp. 49–55 + appendix p. 56 (8 PDF pages; QR code 0762CH09 — the old Chapter 9)
Sahara area (book)about 8.54 million sq km ≈ 2.6 × India (3.28 million sq km); often given as about 9 million †
Sahara countries (book)11: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara
Sahara rocky plateausover 2,500 m in places (book); highest point Emi Koussi 3,415 m †
Sahara temperatures (book)days up to 50°C; nights near 0°C
Al Azizia (book)57.7°C, 1922 — rejected by the WMO in 2012; record 56.7°C, Death Valley, 1913 †
Tafilalet Oasis (book)about 13,000 sq km, Morocco (≈ 0.15% of the Sahara)
Sahara herdsgoats, sheep, camels, horses
Oil (book)Algeria, Libya, Egypt; minerals: iron, phosphate, manganese, uranium
Ladakh height (book)about 3,000 m (Kargil) to over 8,000 m (Karakoram)
Ladakh temperatures (book)summer days just above 0°C; nights below –30°C; winters below –40°C
Ladakh rain (book)as low as 10 cm (100 mm) a year — rain shadow
Ladakh enclosed byKarakoram (north), Zanskar (south); river Indus; Gangri glacier
Monasteries (book)Hemis, Thiksey, Shey, Lamayuru
RoadsNH 1: Leh–Kashmir Valley via Zoji La; Manali–Leh: Rohtang, Baralacha, Lachulung, Tanglang La
Ladakh UT †since 31 October 2019
Desert game10 cm × 15 cm cards; 10 points a correct answer
One-liners
- Deserts have low rainfall, scanty vegetation and extreme temperatures; they are hot or cold.
- The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, across North Africa.
- The Sahara has sand, gravel plains and bare rocky plateaus, not only dunes.
- Saharan days may reach 50°C while nights fall near freezing.
- An oasis forms where a wind-scoured hollow reaches underground water.
- Cave paintings and fish skeletons show that the Sahara was once green.
- Bedouin and Tuareg herders keep goats, sheep, camels and horses and wear heavy robes.
- Oases and the Nile valley support settled farming; Egypt is famous for its cotton.
- Oil in Algeria, Libya and Egypt is changing the Sahara's way of life.
- Ladakh is a cold desert between the Karakoram and the Zanskar ranges, drained by the Indus.
- Ladakh is cold because it is high and dry because it lies in the Himalayan rain shadow.
- Ladakh's people are mostly Buddhists or Muslims; Hemis and Thiksey are famous gompas.
- Zoji La links Leh with the Kashmir Valley on NH 1.
Traps to avoid
- The Sahara is the largest HOT desert; Antarctica is the largest desert overall.
- Al Azizia's 1922 reading was rejected by the WMO in 2012; the world record is 56.7°C at Death Valley (1913).
- Cacti are American plants; they are not native to the Sahara.
- Desert evaporation is high, not low.
- The Sahara's mineral is phosphate rock, not 'phosphorus'.
- Ladakh lies beyond the Great Himalaya, in the Trans-Himalaya.
- Ladakh has been a separate Union Territory since 31 October 2019.
- The chiru lives in cold high mountains and is killed for shahtoosh; the oryx is a hot-desert antelope.
- Wild goats and sheep are not reared; domestic yaks, sheep and goats are.
- The book's 'Lungalacha la' is Lachulung La.
How to strategise
Prelims — what UPSC asks
- From this chapter: Zoji La links the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh (1990); the oryx of hot deserts versus the chiru of cold high mountains (2012); and leaf changes that cut water loss in deserts — hard and waxy leaves, tiny or no leaves, thorns (2013, 2018).
- Elsewhere: why hot deserts lie on western margins at 20°–30° (1989, 1992, 2009, 2011) on kegy211; nomadic herders of the steppe (2013) on hess403, kegy211, kehs103; transhumance (1988) on legy104; Siachen and the Nubra valley (2020) on leps103. Also asked, not linked because the book does not teach them: the Changpa and pashmina goats (2014), sea buckthorn (2012), the Alchi temples (2014), the Bactrian camel (2019, on gess206 and jess102).
- Method: learn each desert as a cause chain — why dry, why hot or cold, then plants, animals, people — and pair look-alikes: oryx/chiru, hot/cold desert, oasis/depression, pass/range.
Mains — where it appears and how to answer
- From this chapter: no Mains question is anchored here. The chapter gives the examples — the Sahara as the model hot desert, Ladakh as the model cold desert — for GS1 answers developed elsewhere.
- Elsewhere: why major hot deserts lie at 20°–30°N on western sides (GS1 2013) on kegy211; desertification beyond climate boundaries (GS1 2020) on legy209 and jess101; aeolian processes in desertification (GS1 2026) on kegy206.
- Use the frame where and why dry → climate → plants and animals → people → change, and quote figures with their source (the book's 8.54 million sq km; the WMO record of 56.7°C).
Self-check
Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.
1. What do all deserts share, according to the book?
2. The Sahara's area in the book is 8.54 million sq km; India's is 3.28 million sq km. The Sahara is about:
3. How does an oasis form?
4. Which statement about the highest temperature is correct?
5. Ladakh gets very little rain mainly because:
6. Zoji La is a pass between:
7. The chiru (Tibetan antelope) is hunted for:
8. Which pair matches correctly?
UPSC questions from this chapter
Open any question to attempt it in the Question bank — your attempt is saved to your progress.