2.  It occupies nearly 20 percent of the earth
surface.
 It covers around 13000 million hectares of the
area.
 The houses, roads and factories occupy nearly
one third of the land.
 The forests occupy another one third of the
land.
 The rest of land is used for ploughing and for
meadows and pastures.

3.  The soil forms the surface layer of land which
covers more than the 80 percent of land.
 The soil is defined as a natural body which
keeps on changing and allows the plants to
grow.
 The soil is defined as a natural body which
keeps on changing and allows the plants to
grow.
 The branch of science which deals with the
formation and distribution of soil in the
different parts of the world is referred as a
pedology.

6.  Land is used for different purposes like
agriculture, forestry, mining, building
houses, roads and setting up of industries.
 Land use is the human use of land.
 Land use involves the management and
modification of natural
environment or wilderness into built
environment such as fields, pastures, and
settlements

7.  Land use practices vary considerably across the
world.
 It has also been defined as the arrangements,
activities and inputs people undertake in a
certain land cover type to produce, change or
maintain it.
 This is known as land use.

10.  By educating, informing and sensitizing all
landholders about various aspects of this
precious resources and their sustainable use.
 Contour ploughing is another measure to
conserve our land. By this method, the fields
are ploughed, harrowed and sown along the
natural contour of the hills.
 By terracing method: A series of wide steps are
made along the slop following the contours.
This method is very common in rice growing
regions.

11.  Under the afforestation and reforestation
programmes, planting of trees, bushes and
grass help to check the soil erosion.
 Strict actions are taken to check reckless felling
of trees and overgrazing.
 Shelter belts (rows of trees) are planted on the
margins of desert areas to check the fury of
wind.
 Construction of dams and gully-trap inculcate
the water-harvesting.

14.  Soil is a natural body consisting of layers (soil
horizons) of
primarily mineral constituents, which differ
from their parent materials in their
texture, structure, consistency, color, chemical,
biological and other physical characteristics.
 Soil is composed of particles of
broken rock that have been altered by chemical
and mechanical processes that
include weathering, erosion and precipitation.

15.  Soil forms a structure that is filled with pore
spaces, and can be thought of as a mixture of
solids, water and air (gas).
 On a volume basis a good quality soil is one
that is 45% minerals (sand, silt, clay), 25%
water, 25% air, and 5% organic material, both
live and dead.
 Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than
the Tertiary and most no older than
the Pleistocene.

17.  Factors responsible for soil formation are :-
1. Parent material
2. Climate
3. Living organisms
4. Topography
5. Time

18.  The relative influence of each factor varies from
place to place, but the combination of all five
factors normally determines the kind of soil
developing in any given place.
 We used a model of soil organic matter (SOM)
quantity and composition to simulate steady-
state organic matter levels for 24 grassland
locations in the Great Plains.

21.  Soil degradation is when soil deteriorates
because of human activity and loses its quality
and productivity.
 Soil degradation is when soil deteriorates
because of human activity and loses its quality
and productivity.
 It also happens when the soil structure breaks
down, or if the soil becomes toxic from
pollution.

22.  The primary cause of soil degradation is
erosion, but compaction, salinization, and
depletion by nutrient demanding crops may
also cause degradation.
 Soil degradation is which the movement of soil
particles from one place to another by wind or
water, is considered to be a major
environmental problem.


24.  Certain conservation measures can reduce soil
erosion.
1. Agronomic: such as plant / soil cover, conservation
farming methods, contour farming.
2. Vegetative: such as planting barriers (vegetative
strips), live fences, windbreaks.
3. Structural: such as Fanya Juus, terraces, banks
, bunds, cut off drains, barriers.
4. Overall management: such as area closures, selective
clearing.

25.  Soil management practices such as tillage and
cropping practices, directly affect the overall
soil erosion problem and solutions on a farm.
 When crop rotations or changing tillage
practices are not enough to control erosion on a
field, a combination of measures might be
necessary.

26.  Mulching:- The bare ground between plants is
covered with a layer of organic matter like
straw.
 Contour barriers:- Stone, grass, soil are used to
build barriers to collect water along contours.
Trenches are made in front of the barriers to
collect water.
 Rock clam:- Rocks are piled up to slow down
the flow of water. This prevents gullies and
further soil loss.

27.  Terrace farming:- Board flat steps or terraces
are made on the steep slopes so that flat
surfaces are available to grow crops.
 Intercropping:- Different crops are grown in
alternate rows and are sown at different times
to protect the soil from rain wash.

29.  Water is a chemical substance with the chemical
formula H2O.
 A water molecule contains one oxygen and
two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds.
 Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often
co-exists on Earth with
its solid state, ice, and gaseous state.

30.  Water covers 70.9% of the Earth's surface, and is vital
for all known forms of life.
 On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in
oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the
ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction
in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in
the air as vapor, clouds and precipitation.
 Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater, and 98.8%
of that water is in ice and groundwater.
 Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and
the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the
Earth's freshwater (0.003%) is contained within
biological bodies and manufactured products

33.  There is a scarcity of water in many regions of the
world.
 Most of Africa, West Asia, South Asia, parts of
Western USA, north-west Mexico, parts of South
America and entire Australia are facing shortages in
fresh water supply.
 Countries located in climatic zones most susceptible
to droughts face great problems of water scarcity.

35.  Water conservation refers to reducing the
usage of water and recycling of waste water for
different purposes such as
cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural
irrigation.
 Water should be conserved to meet our daily
needs and future use.

36.  Methods for conserving water resources :-
1. By using water properly and giving it time to get
renewed.
2. By using sprinkler system.
3. By using drip irrigation system.
4. By creating awareness.

38. CONSERVATION OF
WATER RESOURCES-4

39.  Natural vegetation and animal life depend on
climate, relief and soil.
 The diversity of India’s climate and relief have
made natural vegetation and animal life
interdependent on each other and they form a
single ecosystem.
 This ecosystem has evolved through thousands of
years.

40.  India has a wide variety of natural vegetation ranging
from tropical evergreen forests to desert vegetation.
The natural vegetation of India can be divided into six
main types. They are : -
1. Tropical evergreen forests.
2. Tropical deciduous forests or Monsoon forests.
3. Tropical thorn and shrub forests.
4. Desert vegetation.
5. Mangrove forests.
6. Himalayan vegetation.

41. TROPICAL EVERGREEN
FORESTS
 This type of vegetation is found in areas where
rainfall is above 250 cms and temperature ranges
between 250C and 270C.
 Since the trees are always green they are called
evergreen forests.
 The heavy rainfall, high temperature and humidity
are responsible for the growth of these dense
forests.
 The trees grow about 60 mts.
 Ebony, mahogany, rose-wood and rubber are the
important trees. Bamboo bushes are also found.

43.  These forests are also called monsoon forests.
 They cover a greater part of India.
 They are found in regions where the rainfall is between
75cms and 250 cms.
 These forests are found on the eastern slopes of the Western
Ghats, Jammu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar and
Jharkhand.
 In these forests, the trees are fewer and shorter.
 The important trees of these forests are teak, sal and sandal-
wood.
 The deciduous forests of Karnataka have sandal-wood trees.
Wherever these forests are cut down or burnt, bushes and
grass have taken their place.

45.  These forests are found in the central parts of
the Deccan Plateau, southern parts of
Maharashtra, Bellary of Karnataka, Cuddapha
and Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh, where the
annual rainfall is between 60 and 75 cms.
 These forests have short stemmed trees like
Babul and Kasavi trees and coarse grass.
Palms and kikar trees are also found here.

47.  This type of vegetation is found in regions where
the annual rainfall is less than 50 cms.
 Rajasthan's Thar desert, the borders of
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat have this type of
vegetation.
 The trees, which grow here have deep roots, thick
leaves and thorns.
 Date palms are common near oasis.
 Babul, palms, wild dates and cactus are the
important trees.
 Babul tree yields gum and its bark yields tanning
material.

49.  These forests are formed due to tides.
 They are found along the deltas and estuaries of
rivers that are subjected to tides.
 Pendent roots (like those of Banyan tree) are the
characteristics of mangrove forests.
 The deltas of rivers Ganges, Godavari,
Mahanadi and Krishna have these forests.
 In the Ganges delta, there are plenty of Sundari
trees and the forests are known as ‘Sunderbans’.
 These trees are used for making furniture and
boats.
 Canes, palms and "Kendale" trees are also found
here.

51.  Different types of vegetation are found in the
Himalayan mountains.
 The vegetation changes with altitude and rainfall.
 The lower regions of the Himalayas have tropical
evergreen forests up to 1,500 mts.
 Teak, sal and rose-wood are the important trees.
 They are also called coniferous forests.