Geography Of India & World

Answer : IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. An Extended Service Area lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from Latitude 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East.

IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorized users. The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.

Some applications of IRNSS are:

1. Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
2. Disaster Management
3. Vehicle tracking and fleet management
4. Integration with mobile phones
5. Precise Timing
6. Mapping and Geodetic data capture
7. Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
8. Visual and voice navigation for drivers

Besides the above applications, it has implications for India’s security. It will help India become self-reliant to keep a close watch on its boundaries and remove its dependence on US-based GPS. Hence, its military applications remain important. It is also playing an important role in increasing India’s soft diplomacy by providing services to our neighboring countries.

Answer : The Arctic is the region around the North Pole, usually understood as the area within the Arctic Circle. It includes parts of Russia, Scandinavia, Greenland, Canada, Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. Himadri Station is India’s first Arctic research station located at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. It is located at the International Arctic Research base, Ny-Ålesund. It was inaugurated on the 1st of July, 2008. Arctic Region is not considered as a global common and its discourse remains dominated by the Arctic Five countries and the Arctic Council.

India’s Interest in Arctic Region

1. Oil and Gas Reserves: United States Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic contains approximately 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil resources and about 30 per cent of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources.
2. Economic Viability of Arctic Sea Routes: New and shorter strategic sea routes that will change the pattern of energy flow on sea lanes of communications (SLOCs).
3. Climate Change Impact Research: Global Warming leading to the melting of ice can lead to the release of more methane and CO₂ accelerating Global Warming. This can further lead to a rise in sea levels across the globe impacting India as it remains surrounded by water on 3 sides.

Hence, it’s in India’s interest to make Arctic talks more accessible. With world other regional powers such as Russia, China already laying their claims on various parts of the region, India should try to push its agenda in the Arctic Council. India should try to ensure that developing countries have a say in the matters of Arctic Region. This will not only ensure India’s economic, security and environmental interests protected but also make India play a leadership role in promoting South-South solidarity.

Answer : A mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth’s mantle. As the heads of mantle plumes can partly melt when they reach shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcanic centers known as hotspots and probably also to have caused flood basalts. It is a secondary way that Earth loses heat much less important in this regard than is heat loss at plate margins. Two of the most well-known locations that fit the mantle plume theory are Hawaii and Iceland as both have volcanic activity.

Arthur Holmes postulated thermal convection current theory which helped to explain the mantle plume formation. These Thermal convective currents help in movement of tectonic plates. The Earth’s crust and upper mantle is broken into many plates called tectonic plates that are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. There are seven major plates that make up 94% of the Earth’s surface and many smaller plates making up the other 6%. Major tectonic plates-Pacific Plate, North American Plate, Eurasian Plate, African Plate, Antarctic Plate, Indo-Australian Plate, Australian Plate, Indian Plate, South American Plate.

How Plates Move

1. Major Hot mantle from the two adjacent cells rises at the ridge axis, creating new ocean crust.
2. The top limb of the convection cell moves horizontally away from the ridge crest, as does the new seafloor.
3. The outer limbs of the convection cells plunge down into the deeper mantle, dragging oceanic crust as well. This takes place at the deep-sea trenches.
4. The material sinks to the core and moves horizontally.
5. The material heats up and reaches the zone where it rises again.

Answer : Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world’s oceans and large lakes, caused by “excessive nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water” according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Historically, many of these sites were naturally occurring. However, in the 1970s, oceanographers began noting increased instances and expanses of dead zones. These occur near inhabited coastlines, where aquatic life is most concentrated.

Consequences of Spreading Dead Zone

• Ocean dead zone is an invisible trap that, there is no escaping from for marine life. Fish can’t detect dead zones before entering the areas. Unfortunately, once fish wander into a dead zone, it’s hard to escape and survive.
• The oxygen shortage causes the fish to lose consciousness and die shortly after. Other sea dwellers, such as lobsters and clams, are also unable to get away because they naturally move slowly.
• Fish suffer greatly from dead zones because the extreme changes in the oxygen level changes their entire biology. Their organs become smaller, meaning they can’t reproduce or function in the necessary ways that allow them to flourish. The females are unable to produce as many eggs and the males can’t properly impregnate the females to keep the species alive.
• The less biodiversity that exist underwater, the more the balance of the entire ocean is disrupted. This also leads to economic instability for local fisherman. Local fishermen do not cause as much devastation to the population of fish by catching them in small quantities instead of overfishing. They often sell the fish locally or simply prepare fish as part of healthy meals for their family.
• We should also consider the fact that many of us choose to eat seafood instead of meat for health purposes. Generally, eating seafood causes less of a strain on the natural resources that are used to produce and distribute meat.
• If sea animals are poisoned in their natural habitat, then they will become unsafe for consumption and will no longer be a viable option for food. As result, our economy would be forced to place a strain on other food sources.

Solutions to Ocean Dead Zones

• Better practices and accountability must be put in place to protect the ocean. A major step would be to stop letting so many chemicals find their way into the ocean.
• Controlling direct discharge of sewage to ocean and seas. One of the main causes of the cyanobacteria that accumulates and contributes to dead zones is our use of fertilizers that include harmful chemicals.
• Do not treat ocean like a large trash, it negatively affects us all because it creates toxicity. As previously mentioned, many of the underwater inhabitants that die due to dead zones and pollution also provide us with fresh and healthy food sources. Similarly, more pollution goes out into air and changes its quality for the worst.
• Raise awareness by explaining to others the importance of keeping the ocean clean can help to encourage positive habits. Humans must adhere to a sustainable lifestyle then only it will reduce the dead zones.

Answer : An industrial corridor is a package of infrastructure spending allocated to a specific geographical area, with the intent to stimulate industrial development. An industrial corridor aims to create an area with a cluster of manufacturing or other industry. Such corridors are often created in areas that have pre-existing infrastructure, such as ports, highways and railroads.

Significance of Industrial Corridors in India

• The establishment of growth focii (small industrial hub) in a scattered manner along the industrial corridor across the length of the state would prevent distress migration and provide people with job opportunities close to their dwelling place.
• It will prevent concentration of industries in one particular location which exploited the environment beyond its carrying capacity and caused environmental degradation.
• As efficiency of India’s industrial production structure will increase due to improved transportation system and health labour force, the production costs would come down. The lower costs would make Indian goods competitive in the global market and thus open avenues of export.

Economic Corridors of India or Industrial Corridors of India

1. Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project: It is a planned industrial development project between India’s capital, Delhi and its financial hub, Mumbai. It is one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects with an estimated investment of US$90 billion and is planned as a high-tech industrial zone spread across six states, Delhi being a Union Territory, across the 1,500 km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor which serves as its backbone.
2. Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor: It is a mega infrastructure project. The corridor plans to come up along Chennai, Sriperumbudur, Ponnapanthangal, Ranipet, Chittoor, Bangarupalem, Palamaner, Bangarpet, Hoskote and Bangalore. It is expected to boost commerce between South India and East Asia by enabling quicker movement of goods from these places to the Chennai and Ennore (Kamraj Port) ports.
3. Mumbai-Bangalore Economic Corridor: It is a proposed economic corridor in India between Mumbai and Bangalore. The corridor spreads across the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra and passes through major cities such as Davangere, Chitradurga, Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, Solapur, Satara and Pune. The overall length of the corridor is around 1,000 km.
4. Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor: It is an ambitious project aimed at developing an Industrial Zone spanning across seven states in India with benefits for 20 cities under these states. The project is intended to bring about major expansion of infrastructure and industry in the states along the route of the corridor.

Answer : Blue Revolution, the Neel Kranti Mission has the vision to achieve economic prosperity of the country and the fishers and fish farmers as well as contribute towards food and nutritional security through full potential utilization of water resources for fisheries development in a sustainable manner, keeping in view the bio-security and environmental concerns. Main focus is creating an enabling environment for integrated development of the full potential of fisheries of the country, along with substantially improvement in the income status of fishers and fish farmers keeping in view the sustainability, bio-security and environmental concerns.

Main Objectives of Blue Revolution

• To fully tap the total fish potential of the country both in the inland and the marine sector and triple the production by 2020.
• To transform the fisheries sector as a modern industry with special focus on new technologies and processes.
• To double the income of the fishers and fish farmers with special focus on increasing productivity and better marketing postharvest infrastructure including e-commerce and other technologies and global best innovations.
• To ensure inclusive participation of the fishers and fish farmers in the income enhancement.
• To triple the export earnings by 2020 with focus on benefits flow to the fishers and fish farmers including through institutional mechanisms in the cooperative, producer companies and other structures.
• To enhance food and nutritional security of the country.

Main Problems of Pisciculture

• Major zoological degradation owing to increased abstraction of water by industrial and human settlements and wash off of agricultural pesticides i.e. eutrophication.
• Many reservoirs are underutilized and unexploited.
• Sometimes outbreak of major disease like which spot viral disease may damage the growth and present production.
• Presence of Alien fish’s in various lakes and rivers. For example, a joint research team which carried out a rapid assessment of the impact of the Kerala floods on waterbodies has documented the presence of 11 alien species, including the alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula), arapaima (Arapaima gigas), arowana, giant gourami, grass carp, etc.
• Absence of proper extension network with field and laboratory facilities. Shortage of good quality fish feed.
• Shortage of quality and healthy fish seeds and other critical inputs.
• Lack of resource-specific fishing vessels and reliable resource and updated data.
• Inadequate awareness about nutritional and economic benefits of fish.
• Inadequate extension staff for fisheries and training for fishers and fisheries personnel.
• Absence of standardization and branding of fish products.

Strategies for Pisciculture Development in India

• Technology transfer and linkage development: Strong linkages between research organizations and development agencies are essential not only to transfer the technologies from laboratory to the field, but also to obtain feedbacks on the prevalent problems and technology adoption levels.
• Infrastructure for quality seed and feed: Seed and feed being two key inputs in aquaculture, appropriate policy measures need to be taken to provide the infrastructure for production of quality fish and shellfish seed across the country as also encourage private entrepreneurship in the sector.
• Mobile laboratories: With aquaculture management increasingly becoming scientific and farms located in far flung areas, the concept of mobile laboratories for soil and water testing, fertilizer recommendations, fish health checks and advisory services for pond management, is to be put into practice.
• Financing: Freshwater aquaculture technologies provide for a wide array of culture systems. Aquaculture financing needs to consider wide possible varieties in inputs and scales of investment.
• Human resource development: Trained manpower at different levels of management and application has become a necessity in the wake of increasing entrepreneurial interest in freshwater aquaculture sector.
• Use of Modern Technology: Biotechnology has opened new avenues towards improvement of fish production and aquatic animal health management. Several genetic and non-genetic manipulations are being attempted to enhance fish production levels. Genetic improvement through hybridization, ploidy induction and selection or direct approaches of transgenesis and genetic engineering with regard to selected parameters.

Answer : Groundwater is the most preferred source of water in various user sectors in India on account of its near universal availability, dependability and low capital cost. As per the latest assessment, the annual replenishable ground water resource of country has been estimated at 433 billion cubic meter (bcm), out of which 399 bcm is considered to be available for development for various uses. The irrigation sector remains the major consumer of groundwater, accounting for 92% of its annual withdrawal. The development of groundwater in the country is highly uneven and shows considerable variations from place to place.

Though the overall stage of ground water development is about 58%, the average stage of ground water development in North Western Plain States is much higher (98%) when compared to the Eastern Plain States (43%) and Central Plain States (42%).

A rainwater harvesting system comprises components of various stages - transporting rainwater through pipes or drains, filtration, and storage in tanks for reuse or recharge. Rainwater harvesting, and artificial recharge have now been accepted worldwide as cost-effective methods for augmenting ground water resources and for arresting/reversing the declining trends of ground water levels. Artificial recharge techniques are highly site-specific. The need, suitability of area in terms of availability of sub-surface storage space and availability of surplus monsoon run-off is important considerations for successful implementation of artificial recharge schemes.

Water harvesting system benefits especially for urban areas to reduce pressure from groundwater.

• Rainwater can be used for irrigation use, indoor non-potable water use, and/or potable water supply.
• Rainwater harvesting can provide an independent water source in areas where other water sources are unavailable, or the water quality is unacceptable, or they are too expensive to develop, or they are too difficult to obtain.
• If used as a potable water source, the zero hardness of rainwater provides many advantages. It eliminates the scale build-up in household appliances that could occur with the use of other water sources. This will extend the life of the appliances.
• In addition, it reduces the amount of detergent or soaps needed in laundry and dishwashing appliances, reducing money spent on these detergents and soaps.
• Rainwater from a potable rainwater harvesting system that has been properly filtered and disinfected is some of the best tasting water available. It doesn’t have the many chemicals that municipally treated water has such as fluoride or chloramines (chlorine).

Answer : Ever since India attained independence, it has always faced pressure to create new administrative units from within. This has led to a lot of changes happening and in recent times several new states have been created with varying effects on the economy.

Benefits of new states to the economy include:

• Creation of smaller and deeper administrative units. Splitting of NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) states into the 7 sisters of the North-east over the course of 3 decades led to governance and economic growth reaching many untouched areas.
• Development indicators especially human capital and economic infrastructure is accelerated due to creation of new states. The formation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has led to increased economic and social growth parameters for both the new states.
• Leads to increased competitive federalism. States across the country are now in a race with each other vying for both central and for foreign funds for economic growth. Summits like Vibrant Gujarat are examples of such efforts.

All of these factors lead us to believe that the formation of new states has been economically beneficial for India. But there are several challenges as well in this venture:

• The formation of new states on political demand has led to huge economic imbalance. Chhattisgarh truncated from Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand from Bihar are both home to some of the most backward, conflict ridden and economically underdeveloped districts in the country.
• Formation of states without adequate infrastructure facilities leads to further hampering economic growth. Hyderabad which became the capital of Telangana was the nerve center of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh leading to acute infra-shortage in the newly bifurcated Andhra state.
• Economic growth of both prosperous and aspiring states can be hindered by continuous agitation for formation of new states. The Telangana movement had brought the entire undivided Andhra to a standstill for many months and the Gorkhaland movement threatens to do the same to West Bengal.

The formation of states is therefore, fraught with challenge and ripe with opportunities and as recent events show examples of both these qualities, any future demands for new states creation should be taken on a case by case basis and after studying the merits and demerits of the measure and its impact on the economy in a sustained and fair manner.

Answer : In general parlance, the word ‘flood’ is attached with destruction and devastation.

• Kosi and Damodar rivers have been the best example to support this idea.
• However, sustainable management of floods could turn out to be a boon for the irrigation of agricultural areas.
• In India two-third of the agriculture is rain fed
• Rain fed areas offer immense opportunity for irrigation facilities of which flood irrigation is one important part.
• Since flood water in our country goes unutilised, there is a need for sustainable utilisation of flood water.

The sustainable ways through which the potential of floods can be utilised in the irrigation are as follows:

• Dams and Reservoirs: Example: Hirakud and Bhakra Nangal Dam. These examples could be followed elsewhere.
• Drainage and Channel Improvement like proper diversion of water that could help in bringing unirrigated regions of the country within the ambit of irrigation.
• Interlinking of Rivers – Excess water of one river can flow to the water deficient river like linking of northern rivers with peninsular rivers.
• Floods can also be utilised to recharge the ground water which will further raise the water table and this could also be used for irrigation through ground water.

Inland Waterways

At present Inland Waterway Transport forms a very small part of total transport system owing to various challenges like—

• Reduced flow of water due to irrigation and other uses. For instance, in the Ganga, which makes it difficult even for steamers to ply.
• Reduced navigability due to siltation, as in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly and in the Buckingham Canal.
• During floods if the water is sustainably diverted to deficit areas, it will promote inland drainage to these areas
• It will also increase the speed of flow phenomenally.

For the all-weather inland drainage following initiatives would be useful like:

• Interlinking of Rivers
• Proper Channel management and water diversion
• De-siltation of Rivers
• Some of the important sources of waterways, rivers, canals in India are – River Ganga, River Brahmaputra, Backwaters of Kerala, Goa waterways, Mumbai waterways, River Tapi, etc. They hold a huge promise.
• Recently under Sagarmala initiative, the Government has sanctioned the Capital Dredging Project of Ro Pax Ferry Services between Gogha & Dahej to reduce the motorable distance.

Answer : Juno orbits the planet Jupiter.

• It is the the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter.
• It was preceded by the nuclear-powered Galileo orbiter, which orbited from 1995 to 2003.

What it will do

• It will improve our understanding of the solar System’s beginnings.
• It will reveal the origin and evolution of Jupiter.
• It will discover how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
• It will map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure
• Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter.
• Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation.
• As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

Conclusion

Juno will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.

Answer : Despite being an important energy reserve, coal is attached with certain social, environmental and economic costs. These include:

• Coal mines forced many people off their land.
• Their land is used for mines, coal fires.
• Water is overused and contaminated.
• Problems persist even after the coal mine is gone.
• Problems they leave behind include acid mine drainage.

Despite this, coal is considered to be a necessary evil, which cannot be eliminated completely for these reasons:

• It is the cheapest source of energy; cheaper than nuclear, natural gas, oil.
• Hydro is relatively cheaper but hydro projects get stalled because of public outcry when river valleys are dammed.
• Rivers also tend to run dry in the summer when peak air conditioning is needed.
• Coal also provides a stable source of energy.
• The biggest advantage coal has over other energy sources is the fact that it creates more jobs.
• Developing countries like India can’t afford to spend lots of money on R&D needed for other sources of energy like Nuclear, Shale gas, etc.

Conclusion

From the above reasons it is more feasible to look for better efficient management of coal and should gradually shift to other sources conditioned on the help and capability attained as developing countries also have the challenge of fast socioeconomic development.

• In northern states, rice-wheat crop rotation is prevalent.
• This cropping system has led to degradation of soil and depletion of water resources at an alarming rate.
• This is a sustainable method of agriculture.
• India needs to move beyond this system and focus on pulse.
• By increasing production of pulses, India could save lots of forex money, because it will not have to import pulses from Canada and Australia.
• Price fluctuation is common in the largely unorganised pulses market of the country, and often exacerbated by the lack of assured procurement. For these reasons year 2016 was declared as the International Year of Pulses by United Nations.
• In developing countries, demand of people shift from inferior goods like cereals to superior goods like protein rich food of which pulses are an important part.
• Pulses can fix hefty quantities of nitrogen in the soil, boosting fertility.
• Pulses help farmers shift from conventional tillage to conservation tillage.
• Conservation tillage minimizes soil disturbance and maintains greater organic soil cover.
• Cultivation of pulses reduces dependency on fertilizers.
• This lower fertilizer requirement will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Answer : Planet’s frozen areas are collectively known as the ‘cryosphere’.

• The cryosphere comprises of the Earth’s ice – notably the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the world’s glaciers.
• Crysphere are some of the most sensitive areas to climate change.
• The 2007 IPCC report concluded that the Antarctic ice sheet was most likely losing ice overall – with the Antarctic Peninsula (in the west of the continent) warming and the eastern continental interior cooling slightly.
• Around the world, mountain glaciers are also losing ice mass.

The impacts of melting

• Water from the current cryo-sphere melt is contributing to global sea level rise.
• As ice loss from both the polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers accelerates, global sea level rise is also set to increase.
• Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are likely to be the dominant contributor to sea level rise in the 21st century.
• Melting ice also has impli-cations for water supply, with many millions of people around the globe dependent on rivers fed by mountain glaciers. For example, in the Indus and Brahmaputra basins alone around 60 million people rely on glacial melt water for their water supply.
• Permafrost contains large amounts of carbon, stored as frozen methane or organic material unable to decay in its frozen state.
• If permafrost melt continues, huge amount of carbon could be released into the atmosphere by 2200, further warming the planet.
• Snow and ice help keep the earth cool by reflecting between 60% and 90% of the solar energy that shines on them back into space.
• Reduction of snow cover and sea ice may lead to increased warming, as more solar energy is absorbed.

Conclusion

The human endeavour should be towards finding out the faults and inefficiencies that are affecting the survivability of cryosphere and should try to find out the ways to eradicate and limit them because they have the possibility of rectification unlike natural causes which are beyond the human reach.

• Salinity is the term used to define the total content of dissolved salts in sea water.
• The term salinity describes the level of different salts e.g. sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulphates, etc dissolved in water.
• It is calculated as the amount of salt (in gm) dissolved in 1,000 gm (1 kg) of seawater.
• It is usually expressed as parts per thousand or ppt.

Factors affecting the ocean salinity:

• The salinity of water in the surface layer of oceans depend mainly on evaporation and precipitation.
• Surface salinity is greatly influenced in coastal regions by the fresh water flow from rivers, and in polar regions by the processes of freezing and thawing of ice.
• Wind, also influences salinity of an area by transferring water to other areas.
• The ocean currents contribute to the salinity variations.
• Salinity, temperature and density of water are interrelated. Hence, any change in the temperature or density influences the salinity of an area.

Variations in Salinity

High salinity regions

• In the land locked Red Sea (don’t confuse this to Dead Sea which has much greater salinity), it is as high as 41.
• In hot and dry regions, where evaporation is high, the salinity sometimes reaches to 70.

Comparatively Low salinity regions

• In the estuaries (enclosed mouth of a river where fresh and saline water get mixed) and the Arctic, the salinity fluctuates from 0 – 35, seasonally (fresh water coming from ice caps).

Vertical Distribution of Salinity

• Salinity changes with depth, but the way it changes depends upon the location of the sea.
• Salinity at the surface increases by the loss of water to ice or evaporation, or decreased by the input of fresh waters, such as from the rivers.
• Salinity at depth is very much fixed, because there is no way that water is ‘lost’, or the salt is ‘added.’ There is a marked difference in the salinity between the surface zones and the deep zones of the oceans.
• The lower salinity water rests above the higher salinity dense water.
• Salinity, generally, increases with depth and there is a distinct zone called the halocline (compare this with thermocline), where salinity increases sharply.
• Other factors being constant, increasing salinity of seawater causes its density to increase. High salinity seawater, generally, sinks below the lower salinity water. This leads to stratification by salinity.

Effects of Ocean Salinity

• Salinity affects seawater density, which in turn governs ocean circulation and climate.
• These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the sea water density. As sea water density is controlled by temperature and salinity, these factors make the oceans very dynamic in nature.
• The term thermohaline circulation (THC) (thermo– temperature and haline – salt content) refers to a part of the large-scale ocean current circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and salinity of the sea water.
• The thermos halinecirculation is also known as the Ocean Conveyor Belt.
• The Ocean Conveyor Belt is the principal mechanism by which the oceans store and transport heat. Since salinity is a key ingredient in the global thermohaline circulation, its measured value will help to discover how its variation induces change in global ocean circulation.
• Salinity is a major factor in ocean and atmospheric science because it affects the ocean currents that further control the climate of the planet.
• Increasing challenges of global warming and thereby heating of Oceans is causing ocean salinity to reach at alarming levels and many challenges like coral bleaching, unconventional climatic patterns like El-NiNo and migration of water species to polar areas have also caused challenges of sustenance in the human community who should earnestly rethink their development strategy and promote sustainable growth.

• Petroleum refining involves two stages: (a) production (drilling), (b) refining
• Developing countries like India and also the major oil producing countries primarily do not setup oil refineries near the source of raw materials.The reasons could be summarised as follws:

Positive Implications

Oil rich countries

• Middle-east/West Asia is a large producer of crude oil but there is little domestic demand because region is not industrially developed. Therefore, many petrochemical complexes are located on the coast to facilitate export like Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia and Mina-El-Ahmedi in Kuwait.
• These countries also do not have enough knowledge and expertise in oil refineries that make them dependent on the countries like India for refined crude products and also it is not much economical for them due to the presence of low industrialisation.
• The development of large tankers and pipelines for bulk-transportation of petroleum is possible.

Oil deficient developing countries

• Oil deficient developing countries lack financial resources and also the exploration cost is not economical that makes it better for them to import.
• Developing countries face the problem of resources like the resources for the exploration and extraction due to backward economic condition and contradictory developing challenges like poverty and other development issues.

On India

• We also do not have economical sources of oil reserves unlike Middle East countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc.
• The imports of oil become more economical for India and for these reasons India has set up Oil refineries near coastal areas.

Negative Implications

• Refined products have higher rate of evaporation
• High cost of transportation
• Oil tankers carrying refined products are also becoming the targets of piracy like Somalian pirates.

Answer : The word monsoon has been derived from an Arabic word ‘mausim’ which means season. It denotes a season in which the winds are completely reversed. In short, reversal of winds is called monsoon.

Following are the salient characteristics of the Monsoon Climate:

Reversal of winds – The Indian climate is characterized by the complete reversal of wind system with the change of season in a year. During the winter season winds generally blow from north-east to south-west in the direction of trade winds.

• These winds are dry, devoid of moisture and are characterized by low temperature and high-pressure conditions over the country. During summer season complete reversal in the direction of the winds is observed and these blows primarily from south-west to north-east.

Formation of Alternatively High and Low-pressure areas over the land – There is a change in the atmosphere pressure conditions with the change of season. During winter season due to low temperature conditions high pressure areas is formed over the northern part of the country.

• On the other hand the intense heating of the land during summer season leads to the formation of a thermally induced low pressure cell over the north-western part of the country. These pressure areas control the direction and intensity of wind.

Seasonal and variable rainfall – In India over 80 per cent of annual rainfall is obtained in the latter part of the summer whose duration ranges from 1-5 months in different parts of the country. Since the rainfall is in the form of heavy downpour, it creates problems of floods and soil erosion. Sometimes there is continuous rain for many days and sometimes there is a long spell of dry period.

• Similarly, there is a spatial variation in the general distribution of rainfall. Cherrapunji has received in a single day an amount equal to 10 years of rainfall at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. In fact, Indian climate is so varied and complex that it denotes climatic extremes and climatic varieties.
• While it provides enough heat to grow crops and carry on agricultural activities all over the country it also helps in the cultivation of a number of crops belonging to tropical, temperate as well as frigid areas.

Plurality of seasons – The Indian climate is characterized by constantly changing weather conditions. There are three main seasons but on broader consideration their number goes to six a year (winter, fall of winter, spring, summer, rainy and autumn).

Unity of Indian Climate – The Himalayas and the associated mountain ranges extend to the north of India from east to west. These tall mountain ranges prevent the cold northerly winds of Central Asia from entering into India. Therefore, even the parts of India extending north of the Tropic of Cancer experience a tropical climate.

• These ranges force the monsoon winds to cause rainfall over India and the entire country comes under the influence of the monsoon winds. In this manner the climate in the entire country becomes monsoon type.

Diversity of Indian Climate – In spite of the unity of Indian climate, it is characterized by regional differences and variations. For example, while in the summer the mercury occasionally touches 55°C in the western Rajasthan, it drops down to as low as minus 45°C in winter around Leh.

• These differences are visible in terms of winds, temperature, rainfall, humidity and aridity etc. These are caused by differences in the location, altitude, distance from the sea, distance from mountains and general relief conditions at difference places.

Characterized by natural calamities – Due to its peculiar weather conditions especially rainfall the Indian climate is characterized by natural calamities like floods, droughts, famines and even epidemics.

Monsoon is that axis around which revolves the entire agricultural cycle of India. It is because about 64 per cent people of India depend on agriculture for their livelihood and agriculture itself is based on southwest monsoon.

• Except Himalayas all the parts of the country have temperature above the threshold level to grow the crops or plants throughout the year.
• Regional variations in monsoon climate help in growing various types of crops.
• Agricultural prosperity of India depends very much on timely and adequately distributed rainfall. If it fails, agriculture is adversely affected mainly in areas where irrigation is not developed.
• Sudden monsoon burst creates problem of soil erosion over large areas in India.

Answer : When the air remains over a homogenous area for a sufficiently longer time, it acquires the characteristics of the area. The homogenous regions can be the vast ocean surface or vast plains and plateaus. The air with distinctive characteristics in terms of temperature and humidity is called an air mass. It is a large body of air having little horizontal variation in temperature and moisture. Air masses form an integral part of the global planetary wind system. Therefore, they are associated with one or other wind belt.

The homogenous surfaces, over which air masses form, are called the source regions.The main source regions are the high pressure belts in the sub tropics (giving rise to tropical air masses) and around the poles (the source for polar air masses).Source Region establishes heat and moisture equilibrium with the overlying air mass.When an air mass moves away from a source region, the upper level maintains the physical characteristics for a longer period. This is possible because air masses are stable with stagnant air which do not facilitate convection. Conduction and radiation in such stagnant air is not effective.

There are five major source regions. These are:

1. Warm tropical and subtropical oceans;
2. The subtropical hot deserts;
3. The relatively cold high latitude oceans;
4. The very cold snow covered continents in high latitudes;
5. Permanently ice covered continents in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Accordingly, following types of airmasses are recognised:

1. Maritime tropical (mT);
2. Continental tropical (cT);
3. Maritime polar (mP);
4. Continental polar (cP);
5. Continental arctic (cA).

Tropical air masses are warm and polar air masses are cold.

While the major, readily observable effects of air masses are mostly in the realm of daily weather, the reliability of air-mass incursions in many regions make them important contributors to regional climate conditions. The properties of an air mass which influence the accompanying weather are vertical distribution temperature (indicating its stability and coldness or warmness) and the moisture content.

Answer : A Landslide is defined as the sudden mass movement of rock, debris or earth down a slope under the force of gravity. They can occur in offshore or coastal areas, but due to its topographical features Himalayan region has became most prone to landslides.

Along the way these masses gain size and may often acquire a dangerous momentum achieving very high velocities with catastrophic effects on human life and human property.

CAUSES OF LANDSLIDES

Natural causes:

• Heavy rainfall, snowfall and cloud burst which in turn transforms into floods and reinforces landslide activity
• Tectonic changes like earthquakes and volcanoes along the folded mountains.
• Groundwater pressure acting to destabilize the slope
• Glacier melting especially in areas where snow is excess
• Loose soil cover and sloping terrain

Anthropogenic causes:

• Deforestation and denudation of the top layer of soil
• Heavy construction activities like buildings and roads
• Mining activities like blasting and quarrying
• Faulty agricultural practices like shifting or Jhum cultivation
• Increasing population which creates a lots of pressure on the land
• Rapid urbanization which changes land use patterns
• Increased industrialization leading to rise in global warming and climate fluctuations
• Change in river flow due to construction of dams and barriers

MITIGATION MEASURES

• Locate the areas which are prone to landslides by hazard-mapping and avoid further mining or construction activities
• Afforestation and increase in vegetable cover especially in barren land
• Building of embankments along rivers and construction of retention wall to stop slipping of land along roads and slopes
• Implementing surface drainage control works to control the movement of landslide along with rain water and spring flows
• Extreme use of remote sensing technology
• Response teams like NDRF and supportive military should be in landslide prone areas
• Ensure proper measures to check for seismic or other disturbances while undertaking any infrastructural work
• Proper planning of developmental processes following sustainable methods

Answer : Degradation of natural resources has a direct negative bearing on livelihoods of poor people.The improvements in resource productivity can be equated with poverty reduction.

Despite rapid urbanisation and increased livelihood diversification, more than 60 per cent of India’s population still depend on agriculture for livelihoods. The nexus between poverty and environmental conservation remains strong. Land degradation is a key issue affecting resource productivity. It is estimated that about one third of the soil in India has been affected by erosion. This has a direct impact on agricultural productivity and hence food production, especially for resource poor farmers living off marginal land-holdings.

The area declining under forest cover has now been arrested, but the volume and density of forests have been reduced causing scarcity of valuable forest produce, important for the livelihoods of poor in many regions.

Overexploitation of surface and groundwater threatens the quantity, reliability and quality of water availability. Water is rapidly becoming a scarce resource. Growing scarcity and competition for water poses a major threat to advances in poverty reduction by limiting productive as well as consumptive aspects of livelihoods and well-being. If this trend is not reversed, it is believed that an increasing number of poor people may find more difficulty in securing access to water than securing access to food, primary health care, or education

Access to safe water supply and sanitation means a lot for economic and social well-being in India. Fetching water, a task that is often placed on women and children, can be labour intensive and exhausting. Finding a place for defecation can be especially time-consuming for women. Illness, or even death, caused by water-related diseases can place a heavy strain on a household’s livelihoods by loss of income, cost of medicines and time spent on care. Despite significant improvements in drinking water supply and sanitation during the last decades, environmental factors are still responsible for many diseases caused by inadequate hygiene, water contamination, and unsafe supplies.

There have been many initiatives to combat degradation and increase resource productivity, which the poor have been able to benefit from in various ways.

Answer : The dispute over the control of the South China Sea took a decisive turn when the Permanent Court of Arbitration at Hague declared that China cannot claim any historic rights over islands in the sea. The tribunal also ruled that China has violated Philippines’s sovereign rights. The dispute had been raised by Philippines in 2013. However, China had refused to participate in the tribunal proceedings, questioning jurisdiction among other things.

After the tribunal announced the verdict, China has officially announced it has neither accepted nor recognised the award of the tribunal. This award had been looked forward to by many countries including India and USA, both of which have strategic maritime as well as economic interests in the region.

From India’s perspective, the freedom of navigation and over flight is critical. Two reasons.

Lot of India’s trade passes through SCS. Therefore, India cannot accept the situation where India is dependent on the goodwill of Chinese for transit.

The SCS has same kind of importance as Suez Canal or Malacca straight or Bosphorus strait have.

If China manages to establish its sovereignty over these islands and waters, then it becomes a very important base for its power projection in the Indian Ocean. This is what concerns India. (To assert its power, China wants to rename Indian Ocean!)

Therefore, it is expected that India will not be passive and all the steps taken with USA or Japan and bilaterally, trilaterally with Australia and Vietnam, is intended to create a coalition of forces that hopefully would signal to China to not go beyond a point because if it does, then serious national interests are involved and there will be a counter to that.

In terms of military presence, India had signalled that it has some role in SCS. Although, it has not accepted the joint patrolling with USA. From this viewpoint, it has shown that it has certain role to play with ASEAN countries also and wishes to have a balanced role.

Thus, it can be also said that Indian position on SCS is more definitive and not aggressive as aggression has different connotation whereas, India is becoming more definitive with visit of President Obama, wherein in the joint statement, there was a reference to SCS. India upholds the principle of freedom of navigation, respect for international law and customary practice and

Answer : Many Indian cities, especially the coastal cities in are vulnerable to intense rainfall, tropical cyclones and rising sea level because of global warming. The Indian sub-continent has water on three sides resulting in a huge coastline, making many cities on the coast vulnerable to floods. The recent flooding in Chennai has exposed the unpreparedness of Indian cities to extreme weather conditions. Even non-coastal cities in the vicinity of large rivers and floodplains can experience urban floods of devastating nature.

NATURAL CAUSES:

• Extreme events like cloudburst causing excessive rainfall in city with poor storm drainage sometimes leading to flash floods.
• Direct Inundation results in global warming causing a rise in sea level submerging the low lying areas.
• Storm surge and cyclones cause intense rainfall in coastal areas. Storm surges sometime breach the barrier to cause coastal flooding.
• Submergence of coastland due to tectonic activity.
• Excessive silt carrying from rivers near the deltas can result into change of river path causing floods.

ANTHROPOGENIC CAUSES:

• Lack of efficient water management, proper drainage facilities, infrastructure, technology and finance to prevent and cope up with the damage.
• Flawed urban planning with excessive concretization and improper waste management.
• Illegal construction of dams and reservoirs in river basins and releasing of waters from reservoirs to prevent overflow worsens the problem.
• Irresponsible and excessive dredging activities.
• Excessive mining of sands in the cost line and river deltas can also make coastal regions vulnerable which has also destroyed mangroves vegetation.
• Emission of greenhouse gases by means of fossil fuels in industries and transportation has also resulted in modification of rainfall patterns in the coastal areas.
• Soil degradation and deforestation, which has increased the water logging tendency.

Coastal management plays a key feature in the development of blue economy, hence efficient urban planning and coastal management is the need of the hour.

Answer : Signed in 1960 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistan President Ayub Khan, the treaty allocates 80% of water from the six-river Indus water system to Pakistan.

Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum from the Indus water system that flows from India to Pakistan. The Indus river basin spans parts of 4 countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and China) in an area that is more than 30% arid.

Under the treaty, control over six north Indian rivers was divided between the two countries. India got control over the rivers Beas, Ravi and Sutlej whereas Pakistan got control over Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.

This is a unique treaty involving a third party. It was brokered by the World Bank.

A Permanent Indus Commission was set up as a bilateral commission to implement and manage the Treaty. The Commission solves disputes arising over water sharing.

The Treaty also provides arbitration mechanism to solve disputes.

Ecological implications

• India may face environmental damage if it decides to scrap the treaty. The river flows through earthquake prone region.
• It would take years of work to build huge dams or reservoirs or canals to change the flow of water. This may also lead to floods in the valley.

Political implications

• The decision of not giving water to Pakistan may further enrage the terror elements in the country, making them intensifying their attacks on India. Even the construction works for diverting the flow of water would be on the target of terrorists all the time.
• Not respecting the treaty, may invite global condemnation to India as the treaty is an international agreement.
• India at present enjoys a moral high ground because it respects all its treaties with the neighbouring countries. The decision to abrogate the treaty would make other smaller neighbours uneasy. Not only the neighbours would be distrustful of India, even the country would not be in a position to say anything if China also takes a similar move against it. The country may also earn the ire of China. Indus originates in China and if the country decides to divert the Indus, India would lose over 35% of its river water

Economic implications

• To check terrorist activity, India will have to deploy huge security forces. This would further drain the Indian economy.

Answer : The inland water transport was an important mode earlier, but it declined after the coming of railways.The inland water transport is a cheap, fuel-efficient, environment-friendly mode with a higher employment generation potential and is suitable for heavy and bulky goods. But, the share of inland water transport in total transport in India is only around 1 per cent.

In India, 14,500 km of river channels are navigable, of which 3,700 km are usable by mechanised boats. But actually, only 2000 km are used. Of the total canal length of 4,300 km in India, 900 km is navigable, but only 330 km is used.

There is a proposal to declare River Godavari,River Barak, and Goan Rivers as National Waterways.

The Central Water Commission, in a master plan, proposes to link the northern rivers with peninsular rivers for inland water transport and link Kolkata with Mangalore through a coastal system of waterways using existing canals, waterways, backwaters etc.

Problems of Inland Water Transport:

1. There is a seasonal fall in water level in rivers especially in the Rain-fed Rivers of the peninsula which become nearly dry during summer.
2. Reduced flow due to diversion of water for irrigation, for instance, in the Ganga which makes it difficult even for steamers to ply.
3. There is reduced navigability due to siltation, as in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly and in the Buckingham Canal.
4. There are problems in smooth navigation because of waterfalls and cataracts, as in Narmada and Tapti.
5. Salinity, especially in the coastal stretches, affects navigation.

• National Waterway-4: (Total length-1027 km) in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry
• National Waterway-5: (Total length- 588 km) in the states of West Bengal and Odisha
• National Waterways 6: National Waterways 6 is a proposed waterway between Lakhipur and Bhanga of the Barak River with a length of 121 km. This was announced in Buget 2013-2014
• The Inland Waterways Authority of India will execute the project in two phases. The first will be completed by 2016-17 and the second by 2018-19, integrating the waterways in the northeast and helping cargo transport through Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

Answer : The Watershed approach has conventionally aimed at treating degraded lands with the help of low cost and locally accessed technologies such as in-situ soil and moisture conservation measures, afforestation etc. and through a participatory approach that seeks to secure close involvement of the user-communities.

One of the main objectives of Watershed Development Projects are developing wastelands/degraded lands, drought-prone and desert areas on watershed basis, keeping in view the capability of land, site-conditions and local needs.In pursuit of this objective water conservation happens in drought prone and semi arid regions through micro-watershed development projects.

Water conservation happens through the following ways:

• Through moisture conservation measures like contour and graded bunds fortified by plantation, bench terracing in hilly terrain.
• Drainage line treatment with a combination of vegetative and engineering structures.
• Development of small water harvesting structures such as low-cost farm ponds, nalla bunds, check-dams and percolation tanks & ground water recharge measures.
• Renovation and augmentation of water resources, desiltation of tanks for drinking water/irrigation.
• Repair, restoration and up-gradation of existing common properly assets and structures in the watershed to obtain optimum & sustained benefits from previous public investments.

Answer : Many factors came together in the late 18th century to create the unique conditions in England that culminated in the first-ever Industrial Revolution:

Firstly, the agricultural revolution and population growth resulted in increased food production and increased population in England and provided for low wage workers to the cities respectively. Secondly, the enlightenment and the scientific revolution encouraged scholars and craftspeople to apply new scientific thinking to mechanical and technological challenges. Thirdly, navigable rivers and canals in England quickened the pace and cheapened the cost of transportation of raw materials and finished products.

Fourthly, plenty of coal and iron deposits, proved essential to the development of all new machines made of iron or steel and powered by coal-such as the steam-powered machinery in textile factories, and the locomotive. Fifthly, government policies in England toward property and commerce encouraged innovation and the spread of global trade. And lastly, the cottage industry, served as a transition from a rural to an industrial economy.

The industrial revolution brought about transformation in the quality of life of the peoples of Britain. The large volume of goods raised the standard of living for many people, especially for the middle and the upper class respectively. But the life of the poor and the working class continues to be grim, with meager wages and insecure working conditions. Unskilled workers had little job security and easily replaceable. Moreover, children constitute the labour force and often employed in hazardous tasks. Machine-led industrialization also replaced some craftspeople. Additionally, urban, industrialized areas were unable to keep pace with the flow of arriving workers from the countryside, resulting in inadequate, overcrowded housing and polluted, unsanitary living conditions in which diseases are rampant.

Although, the standard of living in India shows a large disparity. For example rural areas of India exist with very basic medical facilities, while cities boast of world class medical establishments. Similarly, the very latest machinery may be used in some construction projects, but many construction workers work without mechanization in most projects. Child labour is banned in hazardous industries and also right to education is made a fundamental right. Still quality of life in India at present is far better than that of Britain.

Today, labours have their own organization to voice their concerns and to exercise their rights they can seek legal remedies. They are politically organized and socially strong thus better than the Britain workers of that time. Social and political development in India have further accelerated the standard of life enjoyed by Indian people. Furthermore, technological developments in India have also aided to the betterment of life in India. This can be seen in the improved medical facilities, access to drinking water and sanitation, increasing intake of nutritional food, etc. Also, futuristic and development oriented governmental policies aiming at creating a conducive environment for overall development of the people of India has also enhanced standard of life in India. These can be also be seen in the lowering of MMR and IMR etc.

Considering all these progresses, we can conclude that the standard life in India at present is superior to the England of those times.

Answer : The two World Wars are seen as a blot on glorious history of the world. But the main question is who is responsible for the outbreak of war and how? The road that led to the World War began in last quarter of nineteenth century when unification of Germany started and it emerged as a powerful and dynamic country that threatened various great powers of the Europe. He created a lot of tension between him and other Great Powers, such as in the Franco-Prussian War, ‘Weltpolitik’, and imperialisation of Morocco, ‘Schlieffen Plan’ and the Naval Race of 1906-1912. However, other events such as the Bosnian crisis, where Germany was unwillingly slipped into supporting Austria, which other countries such as Russia did not see as well, was a forced event that led Germany into provocation of the First World War. But assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 by a Serbian nationalist persuaded Austria to declare war against Serbia sparking First World War. The prevalent alliances system triggered chain of reaction of war declarations dragging major powers of the world into one of most disastrous war in human history.

After the World War I, peace settlements (Treaty of Warsaw) were not concluded properly. It was biased towards the allied powers and it looked like a paper on how to encroach the sovereignty of Germany. All events resulted from the rise of totalitarian, militaristic regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan, a phenomenon stemming in part from the Depression that swept over the world in the early 1930s. After World War I, defeated Germany, disappointed Italy, and ambitious Japan were anxious to regain or increase their power; all three eventually adopted forms of dictatorship that made the state supreme and called for expansion at the expense of neighboring countries. Finally, the League of Nations was unable to promote disarmament, moreover, the long economic depression sharpened national rivalries, increased fear and distrust, and made the masses susceptible to the promises of demagogues. Germany, without a declaration of war, invaded Poland, and that had fueled the momentum for World War-II.

Although we cannot totally blame the Germany for World War, because the background of World War was prepared in the shadow of World War -1, but Hitler sparked the moment of the event. And the thirst of colonialism and imperialism which was prominent in European country at that time played a role of organiser of events like armament race, building scepticism among nations and attacks on neighbouring country etc.

When world was on the piles of ammunition, other countries of Europe like France, Britain, Russia, USA etc had not done muchmore to control the armament race and for the establishment of peace. They all indulged in their own self interest that led to the conflicts and finally to World Wars.

Answer : Currents are cohesive streams of seawater that circulate through the ocean. There are two distinct current systems in the ocean-surface circulation, which stirs a relatively thin upper layer of the sea, and deep circulation, which sweeps along the deep-sea floor.

Surface currents are generated largely by wind. Their patterns are determined by wind direction, Coriolis forces from the Earth’s rotation, and the position of landforms that interact with the currents. Currents may also be generated by density differences in water masses caused by temperature and salinity variations. These currents move water masses through the deep ocean-taking nutrients, oxygen, and heat with them. Occasional events also trigger serious currents. Huge storms move water masses. Underwater earthquakes may trigger devastating tsunamis. Both move masses of water inland when they reach shallow water and coastlines. Earthquakes may also trigger rapid downslope movement of water-saturated sediments, creating turbidity currents strong enough to snap submarine communication cables.

Ocean currents closely influences the distribution of temperature, pressure, winds and precipitation. The world’s ocean is crucial to heating the planet. While land areas and the atmosphere absorb some sunlight, the majority of the sun’s radiation is absorbed by the ocean. Particularly in the tropical waters around the equator, the ocean acts a as massive, heat-retaining solar panel.

The ocean doesn’t just store solar radiation; it also helps to distribute heat around the globe. When water molecules are heated, they exchange freely with the air in a process called evaporation. Ocean water is constantly evaporating, increasing the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air to form rain and storms that are then carried by trade winds, often vast distances. In fact, almost all rain that falls on land starts off in the ocean. The tropics are particularly rainy because heat absorption, and thus ocean evaporation, is highest in this area. Outside of Earth’s equatorial areas, weather patterns are driven largely by ocean currents. Thus, currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface. Without currents, regional temperatures would be more extreme-super hot at the equator and frigid toward the poles-and much less of Earth’s land would be habitable.

Places where cold and warm currents meet are ideal for the growth of Plankton. These are very small organisms, which are food for fish. These regions thus support a great number of fish. They have developed into major fishing grounds of the world. Newfoundland on the eastern coast of North America is the meeting point of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. It is one of the major fishing centers of the world. However, these places may be dangerous for ships as the meeting of cold and warm currents gives rise to thick fog, which reduces visibility.

Ships sailing with a current gain speed, which helps to save fuel and time. Ships moving against a current lose speed. Warm currents keep the Arctic regions free from icebergs, which can be dangerous for ships.

Answer : Delhi is one of the largest population centres in the world. It is classed as the world’s fifth ‘megacity’; it has a population of 25.8 million which continues to grow. It is a landlocked megacity thus it has limited avenues for flushing polluted air out of the city. Whereas Mumbai and Kolkata are coastal megacities having at least a chance to replace polluted air with relatively unpolluted sea breezes. Delhi does not have this advantage rather sometime the surrounding areas are more polluted, so where to get fresh air from? For example, most of the brick kilns used for making bricks are not located in the city, but in predominantly upwind surrounding industrial areas. These outside pollutants can be attributed to use of low-quality fuels such as raw wood, agricultural and plastic waste in industrial settings, cow dung for cooking stoves and widespread use of diesel generators due to unreliable infrastructure. These sources releases fine particle pollutants, the most dangerous to human health.

Coupled with Delhi’s densely packed architecture, and varying building heights the ‘breathability’ of the city is inhabited by its weather conditions. The city’s decreasing temperature (attributed to the effects of pollution) draws outside polluted air into the city centre, whilst windy dusty conditions during summer exacerbate this problem.

In addition to this, burning of agricultural residues in the states of Punjab and Haryana also also pollutes Delhi’s air. Also, massive construction work along the peripheral area of Delhi contributes to the worsening air pollution level of Delhi.

We can conclude that although the picture of Delhi’s pollution problem is complicated and is aggravated by some factors that are out of human control, compared to other megacities such as Mumbai and Kolkata, however, it is important that the population is protected in whatever ways they can be from health endangering pollutants.

Answer : India’s finite and fragile water resources are stressed and depleting while various sectoral demands (domestic, industry, agriculture) are growing rapidly. Historically relatively plentiful water resources have been primarily for irrigated agriculture, but with the growth of Indian economy and industrial activities water demands share of water is changing rapidly. In addition increase in population and rapid urbanisation also put an additional demand on water resources.

India’s major annual surface run-off is generated by rainfall and snowmelt. However only about one-third of the surface water resources can actually be mobilised. This is because over 90 per cent of the annual flow of the Himalayas rivers occurs over a four month period and potential to capture such resources is complicated by limited suitable storage reservoir sites.

Secondly, India receives large amount of rainfalls but there exists considerable variation in rain both temporarily and spatially. Most rainfalls in the monsoon season (June-September), necessitating the creation of large storages for maximum flood in the same region. Regional variation are also extreme, ranging from a low value of 100 mm in Western Rajasthan to over 11,000 mm in Meghalaya in North-Eastern India.

Thirdly, India also has huge annual groundwater potential. But it is estimated that on an all India basis around thirty percent of the groundwater potential has been tapped for irrigation and domestic use. The regional situation is very much different as well alarming with large parts of India having already exploited almost all of their dynamic recharge. For example, Haryana and Punjab have exploited about 94 per cent of their groundwater resources.

Water availability of both surface and groundwater is further reduced due to water pollution and inappropriate waste disposal practices. There are now few states or river basins in India where water quality issues are not present. Environmental problems include water quality degradation from agro-chemicals, industrial and domestic pollution, groundwater depletion, water-logging, soil salinization, siltation, degradation of wetlands, ecosystem impacts and various health related problems. Though India is facing various serious water constraints to-day, India is not on the whole a water scarce country. The present per capita availability of water in India of approximately 2200 m3 per annum, actually compares quite favourably with a number of other countries.

Answer : The Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are world renowned tourism places. Every year these states drew lakhs of tourists, who either wants to come closer to the nature or seek to discharge religious obligations by pilgrimaging to religiously sacred places such as Amarnath Shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, Chaar Dham Yatra in Uttarakhand etc. Better connectivity and facilities have attracted more and more people to visit these states to rejuvenate themselves alongwith enjoying religious experiences.

The economy of these states is largely tourism dependent and in order to maintain and foster tourist momentum, these states undertook people centric development by disregarding their mountainous character and its delicate ecosystem. All the governments in the respective states started blindly pushing roads, dams, tunnels, bridges and unsafe buildings even in the most fragile regions. In the process, denuded mountains have remained deforested, ill-conceived hydropower projects have destroyed rivers and their ecosystems, and hotels and land developers have encroached river banks. Such a rapid urbanization to accommodate large tourists and associated facilities have directly came in conflict with nature. The people’s in these states have intervened in almost all the natural landscapes and exploited it for commercial purposes. In doing so, they have exceeded the carrying capacity of the ecosystems of these natural landscapes.

Tourism is one of the causes responsible for the deterioration of the ecological carrying capacity, defined in terms of the size of the population that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services of that ecosystem. But point to be noted here is that tourism per se is not bad, it is the irresponsible tourism that have wrecked havoc in these states manifested and magnified through the cloud burst in Uttarakhand. So, the governments of these states need to promote ecotourism along with responsible planning that accounts for ecological sensitivity to avoid any man-nature conflict.

Answer : The Indian monsoon is an annual recurring phenomenon that brings vital rains to India. Life in India depends strongly on the monsoon rains. The influence of humanizing landscapes such as through emissions of greenhouse gases and sulphur dioxide, burning of fossil fuel, urbanization and land cover changes alters the heat budget of the system and therefore the land-sea temperature contrast, could increase the monsoon intensity or variability.

Many researchers are in agreement that the increase in temperature in the Indian ocean has warmed up, however it is debatable whether climate change caused it or not, and 20th century is due to humanizing of landscapes or anthropogenic related. The associated effects are the variability of rainfall and monsoon and cyclonic patterns that are being observed globally. In Southeast Asia in general and India in particular, the link between human induced global warming as a result of intervening in natural landscapes such as emissions of greenhouse gases and sulphur dioxide, and land cover changes etc.

But the impact of warming on the monsoons may have been complicated by the fact that the land is not heating up faster than the ocean. Rather increasing pollution levels across South Asia have slowed the warming of the land surface, lessening the temperature difference between land and the sea to a degree that may in turn weakening the intensity of the monsoons.

So, we can conclude by saying that humanizing of landscapes have really impacted India monsoon and there would be an increase in the number of monsoon break days and a decline in the number of monsoon depression. Secondly floods and draughts are likely to increase in India since there will be decline in seasonal rainfall, coupled with extreme precipitation during rainfall. It is also likely that tropical cyclone related rainfall rates will increase with greenhouse warming.

Answer : With a seemingly insatiable demand for oil and gas, the world constantly needs to find new supplies. With current oil reserves coping with increased pressure from emerging markets in China and India, the Arctic and its seas are seen as being of crucial importance.

The United States Geological Survey estimates that 22 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas could be located beneath the Arctic. It showed that up to 160 billion barrels of oil could lay undiscovered beneath the Arctic - compared to 90 billion barrels previously estimated in the region. Researchers say that deep ocean basins have relatively low petroleum potential, but crucially the Arctic is one of the world’s largest remaining areas where oil and gas are accessible. Most of the reserves are projected to be in less than 500 metres of water - roughly a third of a mile deep. But the environmental impact of any widespread drilling in the region is a key worry for green campaigners.

Another economic significance of oil discovery can be observed over GCC countries which are largely known as oil economies. In order to protect their market share, these countries may increase the output thus igniting global oil price war. In addition to this, the research and development of renewable resources may take a backseat for sometimes. With the discovery and subsequent extraction of oil in such huge quantities, there would hardly be any immediate benefit of pursuing the R&D in the field of renewable energy for development of alternate sources of fuel. This will definitely impact the environment both in the short term as well as in the longer term. Because of the prolonged dependence and consumption of fossil fuels.

The environment aspect of this discovery is that, rising temperatures would laed to snow melting therebyallowing easy accessible to oil firms of these ice caps; there is a bitter irony that the ice melting is being seen as a business opportunity rather than a grave warning. Drilling for oil in some areas of the Arctic could cause toxins such as arsenic, mercury and lead to be released into ocean waters. Further, access to the region in the event of any oil spill would be severely compromised, especially in the winter months where only 20% of the region can be accessed by boat. In fact Greenpeace have launched the Save the Arctic project since the melting Arctic is under threat from oil drilling, industrial fishing and conflict.

Answer : El-Nino is a climatic event which causes unusual rainfall in the southern California, Peru and Chile. The term El-Nino was coined by the fishermen community on the Ecuador, means ‘Christ Child’. El-Nino is a climatic event occurs once in 3-4 years but have great impact on world climatic distribution.

The El-Nino is caused because of unusual Sea temperature rise in eastern Pacific Ocean. Normally Cold Peru Current (also Humboldt Current) flows offshore from South to North and in western Pacific Ocean there is warm East Australian Current. During the period of November or December there is ‘upwelling’ of coastal water from the subsurface which relatively affect the Peru current and making it comparatively warmer and in East Australian Current there is decrease in ocean temperature where there is change in pressure belts affects the weakening of trade winds and produces heavy rainfall in east pacific region of coastal countries Peru and Chile make a fertile region because of heavy downpour.

Climatic impact of El Nino on world regions

• Impact on Rainfall distribution: During the El-Nino event there is drastic impact on rainfall distribution, the dry coastal region of Peru and Chile gets necessary rainfall and correspo-ndingly with the event of upwelling it brings all the essential nutrients from subsurface of ocean making the coastal region as fertile for fishing activity. On the other side it affects normal rainfall in the coastal region of Eastern Australia.
• Impact on Indian Monsoon: Indian Monsoon is a peculiar climatic region where there is seasonal reverse of wind which provides necessary South-west monsoon to flourish the Indian subcontinent region. During the El-Nino event, the region west pacific high pressure zone (relatively cold East Australian current) and east pacific as low pressure (relatively warm Ocean) by this it affect the trade wind. Because of weak trade winds it doesn’t have sufficient energy to take ocean moisture to Indian Sub-continent and this El-Nino have negative impact on Indian Monsoon Climate.
• Impact on tropical Cyclones: During El-Nino there are few tropical cyclones (Hurricanes) over Carribbien sea and Gulf of Mexico. On the other side it brings more number of typhoons to the North and South of equator in central pacific region.
• Impact on Climate Change: El-Nino is not a phenomenon which took place in previous centuries too. But with the frequent occurrence and Change in Ocean temperature on eastern coast has change resulted in adverse Climate Change in the recent decades. El-Nino has significantly influenced on global weather, ocean temperature and marine fisheries. Due to El-Nino effect it has resulted in devastating floods, mudslides and winter storms in Central and South America and also produced drought in Indonesia. It is not only have negative impact Climate Change it also have some positives like reduced hurricane effect in Atlantic region.

In the world the unusual climate happenings is both of natural and anthropogenic activities. In the recent times the unusual climate change is because of global warming with increasing carbon emissions. It is not only anthropogenic, along with lot of natural activities like weak sunspots, volcanic eruption, tectonic activity, ocean current, global wind distribution along with other natural occurrences.

In the modern times experts and Geologist use the El-Nino effect as a tool to describe the unusual Climate Changes and it is getting refined in further Climate researches like La-Nina, El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to better explain the happenings in the world Climate.

So, it can be said that it is not only El-Nino but El-Nino is also one of major contributor in unusual climate happenings along with other natural and anthropogenic activities.

Answer : The distributions of fold mountains around the world are Rockies in North America, Andes in South America, Pyrenees, Alps, Caucasus and Himalayas in Euro-Asian region.

The reason for formation of fold mountains along the continental margin is because of plate tectonic activity. In plate tectonic theory there are different types of plate boundary.

1. Convergent Plate Boundary (Ocean-ocean, continent-continent and Ocean-continent Collision)
2. Divergent Plate Boundary
3. Transform Plate Boundary

The fold mountains are occurred in conti-nental margin by convergent plate boundary. Convergent boundaries are often subduction zones, where heavier plate (ocean plate) slips under the lighter plate (continental plate). In Andes mountain, Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate are being subducted beneath the South American plate. Similarly in Central Africa Cocos Plate is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate.

The formation of trans-Eurasian mountain system is because of convergence of continental plate with another continental plate as Indo-Australian plate collided with European plate to form the mighty young Himalayan fold mountains 200 million years ago.

Association between Fold Mountains and Earthquake and Volcanoes

• Convergent plate boundaries are also called as Destructive plate margins since it is a subduction zone, it is prone to more earthquake and volcanoes.
• The world’s most destructive and highly prone are of earthquake are confined to ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ belt with almost 90% of earthquakes and more than 450 active volcanoes are present in this Ring of Fire belt.
• The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics and the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates. The Ring of Fire that surrounds the Pacific Ocean formed at convergent boundaries. The Cascadia Subduction Zone in the Pacific Northwest is more prone to large earthquakes.
• Continental-oceanic margins are characte-rised by a distinctive set of igneous rocks. These rocks include large intrusive masses (batholiths) of granites and their associated volcanic rocks. The Ring of Fire is the home of most of the active volcanoes on Earth, most of them located on the rings’ eastern edge. Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand is one of the more active volcanoes in the Ring of Fire.
• Krakatoa, an island in Indonesia, erupts less often than Mount Ruapehu, but much more spectacularly. Beneath Krakatoa, the Australian Plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate. Other Active volcano mountains in the fold mountain distribution include Mount St.Helens, Mount Loa, Kilauea in North America and Pacific Ocean, Mont Pelee in Caribbean sea and Vesuvius in Italy.
• Thus, it is because of convergent plate boundary fold mountains are formed and it is also region for frequent earthquakes and volcanoes occurrences because of Subduction zone in convergent plate tectonic activity.

Answer : Plate tectonic theory explains the formation of thousands of Islands in Indonesian and Philippines archipelagos. It is a region of convergent plate boundary resulting in subduction zone causing destruction to human life by earthquakes and volcanoes. These island are formed by convergence of two plates composed of oceanic lithosphere, with the older, ‘colder’, denser plate subducting beneath the younger, ‘warmer’, less dense plate.

Indonesian archipelagos: Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world consists of 17,508 islands. It consists of five major islands and about 30 smaller groups. The archipelago is on a crossroads between two oceans, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, and bridges two continents, Asia and Australia.

• Indonesia is a geologically complex region situated at the southeastern edge of the Eurasian continent. It is bordered by tectonically active zones characterized by intense seismicity and volcanism resulting from subduction. Western Indonesia is largely underlain by continental crust, but in eastern Indonesia there is more arc and ophiolitic crust, and several young ocean basins.
• The Indonesian archipelago formed over the past 300 million years by reassembly of fragments rifted from the Gondwana supercontinent that arrived at the Eurasian subduction margin. The present-day geology of Indonesia is broadly the result of Cenozoic subduction and collision at this margin.

Philippines archipelagos: The Philippine Islands are an archipelago of nearly 7100 islands off the East margin of the Eurasian continent, one segment of a festoon of tectonically active islands and volcanic island arcs that border the West edge of the Pacific Ocean basin from the Kamchatka Peninsula on the North to New Zealand on the South.

• The Philippines islands are the result of a convergent boundary. The Philippine Sea plate is tectonically unusual in that almost all the boundaries are convergent. The pacific plate is subducting beneath the Philippine Sea plate to the east while the west/north western part of the Philippine Sea plate is subducting beneath the continental Eurasian plate resulting in thousands of Island archipelago in Philippine region.

Answer : Tropical cyclones have high wind speed with average around 120kmph have different names depending upon where they origin.

• Hurricanes in US and Caribbean (Gulf of Mexico)
• Tropical Cyclone in India (Bay of Bengal)
• Typhoons in Pacific (South China Sea region)

These tropical cyclones are more confined to the region of South China Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mexico because of its characteristics and causes involved in formation of tropical cyclones.

Characteristics of Tropical cyclones

• It is most violent and disastrous atmospheric disturbances.
• Average speed is 120kmph (vary from as low as 32kmph to 400kmph).
• They have closed isobars with very sharp pressure gradient. More closely spaced iso-bars represents greater velocity of the storm.
• They develop over oceans and seas only.
• The movement is affected by prevailing wind system, move from east to west under the influence of trade winds.

Causes of tropical cyclones

• The main source of energy for tropical is the warm ocean waters (South China Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mexico) in the tropical regions.
• Sea surface temp of ocean needs to be more than 27 degree Celsius (tropical belt of the world).
• Tropical cyclones relies on broad scale wind (provided by trade wind belt).
• Tropical cyclones do not form near equatorial region (0-5 degree) because of weak coriolis force, it forms only beyond 5 degree from equator.

Answer : The glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, a large number of them may disappear by 2035 because of climate change and other climatic events.

Himalayan glacier is the world’s largest glacier outside the polar caps it holds the largest reserve of fresh water and it acts as a source for seven major rivers in the Indian sub continent. With the shrinking of glaciers its gives the symptoms of future climatic events going to occur in Indian subcontinent.

According to a study Himalayan glacier would continue to melt even if there is steady temperature exists. It is not only increasing temperature that affects the glacier melting also other climatic factors like wind, humidity, precipitation and evaporation has a role in melting of Himalayan glacier.

In order to compensate the shrinking glacier there should be double the snowfall rate when compared to the present rate but this is not going to happen, argued by experts. With the increasing temperature and glacier melting there occur heavy rainfall in the region causing devastating floods and landslides in the Himalayan region.

Such devastating natural calamities will affect millions of people in the Indian subcontinent region in many ways like due to flood and other calamities may cause loss of many human lives and loss to economy, it affect the agriculture pattern in the Himalayan river flowing region. With high rate of glacier melting the region would become dry and raise the issue of water scarcity in the near future.

The above mentioned are only future predictions with the present happenings (symptoms) of unusual rainfall in the Uttarakhand in June 2013, frequent flood occurrence in Himalayan belt, expansion of flood plains in the Himalayan river flowing region and finally affecting the socio-cultural aspect of people living in the Himalayan Ecosystem.

Thus from the above discussion it is clear that melting of Himalaya glacier is acting as a potential symptoms for future happenings of climate change in the Indian Subcontinent and other Asian regions associated with the Himalayan Glaciers.

Answer : Climate and Geography are the key factors in determining where the tea can be grown and these factors also define the tea’s taste too. In India tea plantation is confined to Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Darjeeling and Nilgiri hills in South India.

Conditions for growing tea plants

• Tea plants are grown in highland or hill slopes, it didn’t need any stagnant water
• It is best grown at an elevation of 2400 meters
• Seasonality of precipitation is important in influencing the quality of tea, like simple wet-dry climate (Indian mansoon Climate)
• Tea plant can handle light frost and snow but not heavy freezes and Long winters (only tropical and sub-tropical climate)

These are the basic condition required for growing tea plants, as we move beyond Darjeeling, the region is not suitable for tea plantation. Because that region of Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal are highland with elevation greater than 2400 meters with freezing temperature and prolong winter which is not suitable for tea plant growing.

The region of Himachal and Lesser Himalayas provide ideal condition for growing tea plants which provides necessary geographical and climatic condition as prescribed above for growing tea. So, Britishers never moved beyond the Darjeeling region for growing tea plants since it didn’t support for tea plantation.

Answer : The Green revolution in India started with the introduction of dwarf Mexican Wheat in order to increase the food grain production to make nation from food deficit to food surplus in order to ensure food security of India.

The green revolution was introduced in the early 1970’s in the so called ‘Wheat belt’ of India comprising states of Punjab, Haryana, and western UP followed by Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The important components of Green Revolution in India are as follows:

• High Yield Variety (HYV) seeds were used in Green revolution to increase the food production in shorter period of harvesting
• Irrigation is the next most important component of Green revolution since HYV seeds required uninterrupted and regular water supply not only to address to production but also for stability of crop, for this in the Green revolution belt surface and ground water were used.
• The other major components included are fertilizer, insecticide and pesticide to protect the crop from pest attack and provide essential nutrient to crops via NPK fertilizers.
• Other components included in Green Revo-lution are rural electrification for pumping water, rural road connectivity and marketing facility with government policies to ensure successful implantation of Green revolution in India.

The introduction of Green revolution in the northern India than the fertile eastern region is because of both geographical and socio-economic conditions of this Green revolution belt region. Already the Northern region is the region producing India’s most of wheat production than rest of India, Government decided to introduce the dwarf variety wheat in the Northern region than fertile eastern rice growing region.

The newly introduced dwarf variety crop needed low temperature for good germination. This is one of the major reasons to introduce Green revolution in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP region than eastern part because by post mid November the winter season best suited for this HYV seeds.

Along with this the ‘Wheat belt’ region produced less than one-third of rice crop than the eastern region. Hence, the government had decided to undertake the initiative in Punjab, Hayana and Western UP region to utilise the period before mid November for rice cropping with already existing HYV rice variety to increase Rice-Wheat cropping system in India.

Green revolution was introduced in Northern region since it is region where land holdings were hold by rich peasants with large swathe of land under them whereas in eastern region it was small land holding by farmers. The rich peasants could afford to experiment with the crops and had the financial potential to buy costly HYV seeds. At the same time they had the capability to implement the needy irrigation facility on their own without depending on government.

Thus, Green revolution in India made nation with surplus food production and made India more secured in food grains. But the same green revolution had also produced environmental degradation and affected the land fertility with high use of fertilizers. Now nation is moving towards sustainable green revolution in the eastern and rest of India.

Answer : The location of iron and steel industry is driven by many factors,

• availability of raw material (iron ore) nearer to steel industry to reduce transportation cost of heavy ore
• for power generation there is need of coal mines nearer to industry
• labour is also major factor in determining iron and steel industry
• transportation of finished product (railways and shipping)
• easy accessible to the required market

But with the technological advancement it is no more confined to the above mentioned so called Weber’s Least Cost theory on industrial location determined by natural resources and other factors. Due to technology advancement relying on coal based energy was decreased and the industry was based on iron ore region as in the case of Jurassic ore fields of East Midlands in Britain.

The location of industry was further deter-mined by government policies and programmes, and growing competition across the world with cheaper steel products. Along with this strategic reason also determines location factor to protect strategic industries from any attack to secure nation’s economic growth. In China, based on strategic reasons iron and steel industries changed its location from North eastern region to Central region in 1970’s (Baotou, Taiyuan, Wuhan and Panzhihua).

The spatial pattern of industry is also determined by social factors like equitable and balanced distribution of economic development. Since big industries provide better employment opportunities, if such industry is confined to only particular part of country it affect the socio-economic balance of the nation.

With the further advancement technology, use of new furnaces scrap iron and bulk carrier transport network development made location factor less dependent on iron ore and coal for Iron and steel industries.

In the recent times, the location of steel industry is more confined to coastal region for easier import of raw materials and export of finished products. Along with this it provides better access to market than industrial location in country’s inland. Some examples of Iron and steel industries on coastal region across the world like Steel Industry in Osaka-Kobe (Japan), Cleveland Detroit and Chicago (these cities in USA use imported ore from Canada).

Thus it is very clear that the iron and steel industry is no more determined by the age old location factors, the spatial pattern of industry is determined by various other factors ranging from strategic reasons to boost economy of the country.

Answer : The ocean is one of Earth’s most valuable natural resources. It provides food in the form of fish and shellfish about 200 billion pounds are caught each year. It’s used for transportation both travel and shipping. It provides a treasured source of recreation for humans. It is mined for minerals (salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper, nickel, iron, and cobalt can be found in the deep sea) and drilled for crude oil.

The ocean plays a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing oxygen. It regulates Earth’s climate. The ocean is an increasingly important source of biomedical organisms with enormous potential for fighting disease.

Food Resources: The oceans have been fished for thousands of years and are an integral part of human society. Fish have been important to the world economy for all of these years, starting with the viking trade of cod and then continuing with fisheries like those found in Lofoten, Europe, Italy, Portugal, Spain and India. Fisheries of today provide about 16% of the total world’s protein with higher percentages occurring in developing nations. Fisheries are still enormously important to the economy and wellbeing of communities.

Mineral Resources: Earth’s ocean has enormous Mineral resources ranging from nickel, copper and cobalt to diamonds, gold and silver. Along with these minerals, ocean also provides metal compounds, gravels, sands and gas hydrates which can be mined.

Energy Resources: World ocean provides the most required energy fuel of crude oil and natural gas, of the total production of oil 37 per cent is derived from the ocean. The most productive areas are currently the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil and West Africa, the Arabian Gulf and the seas of South East Asia.

Transportation: Ocean plays a significant role in nation’s and world economy where most of the transportation of essential raw material for industries and crude oil are shipped in sea route. Thus ocean acts as crucial transportation source in global economic activity.

Climate Buffer: The ocean is an integral component of the world’s climate due to its capacity to collect, drive and mix water, heat, and carbon dioxide. The ocean can hold and circulate more water, heat and carbon dioxide than the atmosphere although the components of the Earth’s climate are constantly exchanged. Because the ocean can store so much heat, seasons occur later than they would and air above the ocean is warmed. The main forms of climate buffering by the ocean are by the transport of heat through ocean currents traveling across huge basins.

Oxygen production: Gases in the atmosphere like carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen are dissolved through the water cycle. The gases that are now crucial to all ecosystems and biological processes originally came from the inside layers of the earth during the period when the earth was first formed. The rate of flow for oxygen as well as other gases is controlled by biological processes, especially metabolism of organisms like prok-aryotes and bacteria. Phytoplankton account for possibly 90% of the world’s oxygen production because water covers about 70% of the Earth and phytoplankton are abundant in the photic zone of the surface layers. Some of the oxygen produced by phytoplankton is absorbed by the ocean, but most flows into the atmosphere where it becomes available for oxygen dependent life forms.

Thus, ocean has enormous potential, it not only act as an agent for economic growth by providing crucialfood, energy and mineral resources but at the same time it act as climate buffer by transfer of heat and provide necessary oxygen to biodiversity.

Answer : India and Africa have lot of similarity like rich natural resources, similar demography and large domestic markets provide natural synergy between India and African nations. Africa continent has 12% of the world’s oil reserves, 40% of its gold, 80-90% of its chromium and platinum. Africa is a home of 60% of world’s underutilized arable land and has vast timber resources.

African nations has a great potential to become an industrialized country with such abundant natural resources but it is failing because of both neo-colonialism and internal factionalism. Besides it is also the mindset of private players which need to be changed to make African continent industrialized.

In the recent times India’s relation with Africa is beyond trade relation where its investment includes technology transfer, knowledge sharing and skill development. With 0.4% of world’s oil reserves, India would be the third largest consumer by 2050. So, it sees Africa as major source for oil reserves where state owned ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.) recent years managed to secure exploration contracts in African continent (Nigeria and Sudan).

India not only focusing on oil reserves of Africa, it also shows interest in non-oil sources like copper mining in Zambia, iron ore mining project in Liberia and Nigeria and private player Tata group has vast presence in African continent on exploringnatural resources.

India not only sees resources of Africa, on the other hand it provides welfare development work in African countries by providing necessary medical aid and other welfare measures.

Answer : The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its nadir, some 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed.

The steps taken to combat it were:

New Deal was proposed by USA: The New Deal was a series of domestic programmes enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They involved laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The progra-mmes were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the “3 Rs”: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.

The “Second New Deal” in 1935-38 included the Wagner Act to promote labour unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief programme (which made the federal government by far the largest single employer in the nation), the Social Security Act, and new programmes to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers.

Implementation of Keysian theory: Keynes’ basic idea was simple- to keep people fully employed, governments have to run deficits when the economy is slowing, as the private sector would not invest enough to keep production at the normal level and bring the economy out of recession. Keynesian economists called on governments during times of economic crisis to pick up the slack by increasing government spending and/or cutting taxes.

As the depression wore on, Franklin D. Roosevelt tried public works, farm subsidies, and other devices to restart the US economy, but never completely gave up trying to balance the budget.

Answer : In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory of continental drift, which states that parts of the Earth’s crust slowly drift atop a liquid core. Wegener hypothesized that there was a gigantic supercontinent 200 million years ago, which he named Pangea, meaning “All-earth”.Pangea started to break up into two smaller super-continents, called Laurasia and Gondwanaland, during the Jurassic period. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the continents were separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents.

Evidences supporting the Theory of Continental Drift are as follow

A. The Fit of Continental Coastlines - Wegener used the jigsaw puzzle fit between the South American and African coastlines as his first piece of evidence to support continental drift. He didn’t believe that these “pieces” would be so well matched-that is, not unless they had actually once been connected.

B. Similar Mountain Ranges and Rock Sequences - Explorers quickly discovered that distant continents contained rock of similar ages and features. These findings seemed to show that the continents may not have always been separated as they are now. For example, this is what they found when they looked at the Appal-achian Mountain Range of North America:

• This range stretches northwards from the eastern United States up into the Atlantic provinces of eastern Canada. There, it seems to suddenly stop at the island of Newfoundland.
• Very similar mountain ranges of the same age and rock-type also appear in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. When these landmasses are placed together, the mountains form a single long range.

C. Fossil Evidence - A fossil is any evidence of ancient life. In the beginning of the 20th Century, fossil evidence was also found to support continental drift. Identical fossilized plant and animal species have been found in many different places, on different continents. It seems hard to believe that such similar organisms would exist so far away from each other, or that they could have swam from one continent to another. It is more likely that these life forms once lived all together on a single continent.

Answer : Tropical cyclones are named to provide ease of communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches, and warnings. There is a strict procedure to determine a list of tropical cyclone names in an ocean basin(s) by the Tropical Cyclone Regional Body responsible for that basin(s) at its annual/biennial meeting. There are five tropical cyclone regional bodies, i.e. ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee, WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones, RA-I Tropical Cyclone Committee, RA-IV Hurricane Committee, and RA-V Tropical Cyclone Committee. For instance, Hurricane Committee determines a pre-designated list of hurricane names for six years separately at its annual session. The pre-designated lists of hurricane names are proposed by its members that include National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the North/Central America and the Caribbean. Naming procedures in other regions are almost the same as in the Caribbean. In general, tropical cyclones are named according to the rules at a regional level. It is important to note that tropical cyclones/hurricanes are named neither after any particular person, nor with any preference in alphabetical sequence. The tropical cyclone/hurricane names selected are those that are familiar to the people in each region. Obviously, the main purpose of naming a tropical cyclone/hurricane is basically for people easily to understand and remember the tropical cyclone/hurricane in a region, thus to facilitate tropical cyclone/hurricane disaster risk awareness, preparedness, management and reduction.

Answer : An urban heat island, or UHI, is a metropolitan area that’s a lot warmer than the rural areas surrounding it. Heat is created by energy from all the people, cars, buses, and trains in big cities like New York, Paris, and London and now the concept has become a common phenomenon of developing nations too. Urban heat islands are created in places that have lots of activity and lots of people. There are many reasons for UHIs. When houses, shops, and industrial buildings are constructed close together, it can create a UHI. Building materials are usually very good at insulating, or holding in heat. This insulation makes the areas around buildings warmer.”Waste heat” also contributes to a UHI. The energy that people burn off usually escapes in the form of heat.

Urban areas are densely populated and are densely constructed; meaning buildings are constructed very close together. When there is no more room for an urban area to expand, engineers build upward, creating skyscrapers. All this construction means waste heat—and heat that escapes insulation has nowhere to go. It lingers in and between buildings in the UHI and in that case night temperatures in UHIs remain high. This is because buildings, sidewalks, and parking lots block heat coming from the ground from rising into the cold night sky. Because the heat is trapped on lower levels, the temperature is warmer.

Answer : A temperature inversion is a thin layer of the atmosphere where the normal decrease in temperature with height switches to the temperature increasing with height. This can cause several weather-related effects. One is the trapping of pollutants below the inversion, allowing them to build up. If the sky is very hazy, or is sunsets are very red, there is likely an inversion somewhere in the lower atmosphere. This happens more frequently in high pressure zones, where the gradual sinking of air in the high pressure dome typically causes an inversion to form at the base of a sinking layer of air. Another effect of temperature inversion is that the extreme weather conditions they can sometimes create. One example of these is freezing rain. Intense thunderstorms and tornadoes are also associated with inversions because of the intense energy that is released after an inversion blocks an area’s normal convection patterns. As air quality suffers in an inversion situation due to pollutants like dust, smoke and vehicle emissions are trapped close to the ground by the warm layer of air above. The warm air layer acts like a lid and prevents pollutants from rising and dispersing. This can cause medical problems for people with respiratory ailments and irritate the eyes, noses and throats of others.

Answer : Major hot deserts are found between 20 – 30 degree N and on the western side of the continent in northern hemisphere major desert include Californian desert, Mohave Desert, Sahara Desert, and Arabian Desert.

Reasons

• They lie in the horse latitudes where constant high pressure and low temperature caused cold current. At the same time in these particular latitudes is primarily due to complex air circulation patterns caused by the rotation of earth that is Carioles’ Effect.
• Distance from the oceans - Areas lying deep within a continent may become desert, simply because, air current reaching them already lost the required moisture for rainfall.“
• Most of the deserts are hot within 20 -30 deg latitude because of in these zone sun appears directly overhead at the noon.
• Lack of Cyclonic Rainfall: The 20-30 N regions comes under Sub Tropical High Pressure (STHP) zone, so they experience anti-cyclonic effects on ground. This deters rising of air, cloud formation and cyclonic rains.
• Lack of Orographic rainfall: The eastern region of 20-30N receive rain due to moisture laden trade winds, but by the time they reach western side, they become dry. Hence scanty rain in western region.
• Lack of Convectional rainfall: precondition is moisture laden warm air. But due to Cold currents, the air near coastal areas is cool and dry. This prevents formation of convectional rainfall. And thus lead to desertification effect on western coast of continents. For example: Californian cold current vs. Mohave Desert; Canaries cold current vs. Sahara desert and Arabian Desert.
• Low level of Relative humidity: When air becomes saturated with the water vapour at given temperature and pressure, it results into cloud formation. But Relative humidity is very low in the desert, every droplets of moisture is evaporated before the air becomes saturated with water. Hence lack of cloud formation.

Hence, we can see that all these climatic deserts are producing due to cold ocean currents distance from oceanic moisture sources, mountain produced rain shadow are the main factors for desert in these latitudes.

Answer : Landslides are simply defined as the mass movement of rock, debris or earth down a slope and have come to include a broad range of motions whereby falling, sliding and flowing under the influence of gravity dislodges earth material. The Himalayas mountain belt comprise of tectonically unstable younger geological formations subjected to severe seismic activity. The Western Ghats and Nilgiris are geologically stable but have uplifted plateau margins influenced by neo-tectonic activity.

Compared to Western Ghats region, the slides in the Himalayas region are huge and massive and in most cases the overburden along with the underlying lithology is displaced during sliding particularly due to the seismic factor. Many of man’s activities are also directly and indirectly responsible for landslides. Construction of roads is a process directly responsible for landslides, as it involves blasting large chunks of mountainside away to make the road. This disturbs the rock structure in the mountains and may cause it to become unstable. Forest degradation and overgrazing are some indirect causes of landslides.

Answer : The west flowing rivers do not make delta, but estuaries. Many west flowing rivers like Narmada, Tapti, Periar, etc. passes through rift valleys. This river contains very few amounts of silt and due to its fast speed it cannot make delta. When these fast flowing rivers reach to its mouth it become unable to deposit its silts, due to this reason silts falls into the sea. There are many small rivers which originate from the Western Ghats mountains and fall into the Arabian Sea. Due to the high gradient of Western Ghats these rivers flow with a very high speed and unable to deposits silts. They pass through the hard rocks, these rivers contain very little amount of silts. The estuaries made by these rivers are full of bio-diversity.

Answer : Sugar is an important agro-based industry. The leading sugarcane producers are also the leading sugar producers. Sugar industry has expanded in the peninsular region in recent years. The reasons for this are:

• Yields are higher in South India
• The southern sugarcane, being of the tropical variety, has more sucrose content.
• The crushing season is longer in the south, where it lasts from October to May-June. In the north, it lasts from November to February.

The important regions are: Karnataka- Munirabad, Shimoga and Mandya are the main centres; Tamil Nadu-In this state Nalikupuram, Pugulur, Coimbatore and Pandyarajpuram are famous for producing sugar.; Andhra Pradesh Nizamabad, Medak, west and east Godavari, Visakhapatnam and Chittoor produce sugar.

Answer : Cotton is a soft, staple fibre that grows in a form known as a ball around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fibre most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely used natural-fibre cloth in clothing today.

Two important factors that are responsible for decentralization of cotton textile mills in India are:

• Availability of raw material
• High demand of cotton textile throughout India.

Further large numbers of workers are found in the textile industry because:

• It is spread all over the country.
• It is labour intensive.
• Demand is found all over India.

Answer : Raw material required for atomic energy includes uranium and thorium.

Uranium: The main ores are Uraninite and pitchblende. A Geiger counter, which measures radioactivity, is used to locate deposits. Occurrences of uranium ores are rare and localised. Concentrations are generally low, so that extraction is both difficult and costly.

Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium production. Other important uranium producing countries in excess of 1000 tonnes per year are Namibia, Russia, Niger, Uzbekistan, and the United States.

In India, uranium occurs at Pichli near Abrakipahar in Gaya district (Bihar), near Sunrgai and Dalbhum area of Singhbhum district (Jharkhand). Jaduguda is the only mine worked at present. In Rajasthan, it is found in Bisundi area of Ajmer district and Umra near Udaipur. In Andhra Pradesh it occurs in Nellore district in Sankara mine. In Karnataka it is found at Yedyur near Bangalore. Uranium has also been found at Domiasat.

Thorium: Thorium minerals consists of thorianite (38-8) per cent of thorium), allanite (3 per cent of thorium) and monazite (up to 18 per cent of thorium).

In India thorium minerals are found mostly in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Orissa and Kerala. India possesses the greatest reserves of monazite known in the world. The monazite reserves of Kerala have been estimated at 2.5 million tonnes from which 1.5 lakh tonnes of thorium are available.

Answer : The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has identified six basins as potentially shale gas bearing. These are Cambay, Assam-Arakan, Gondwana, Krishna-Godavari, Kaveri, and the Indo-Gangetic plain. A number of issues need to be examined in the context of shale gas development. One of the key associated environmental concerns is that the process involved in extraction of shale gas is highly water-intensive. Beside, high demand for freshwater, the production of large amounts of waste water, induced seismicity, greenhouse gas emissions, and groundwater contamination have all been linked to hydraulic fracturing technology that is used in shale gas extraction. Dense well-spacing, noise from operations and increased truck traffic are further concerns for the environment and the public. Economic risks apply to shale gas operators.

Shale rock is sometimes found 3,000 metres below the surface. Therefore, after deep vertical drilling, there are techniques to drill horizontally for considerable distances in various directions to extract the gas-rich shale. A mixture of water, chemicals, and sand is then injected into the well at very high pressures (8,000 psi) to create a number of fissures in the rock to release the gas. The process of using water for breaking up the rock is known as ‘hydro-fracturing’ or ‘fracking’. The chemicals help in water and gas flow and tiny particles of sand enter the fissures to keep them open and allow the gas to flow to the surface. This injection has to be done several times over the life of the well. This may require large volume of water 3-4 million gallons per well (11,000 to 15,000 cubic metres of water required for drilling/hydro fracturing depending upon the well type and shale characteristics).

The water after hydraulic fracturing is flowed back to the surface and may have high content of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and other contaminants (typically contains proppant (sand), chemical residue occur in many geologic formation, mainly in shale). The possibility of contamination of aquifier (both surface and subsurface) from hydro-fracturing and fracturing fluid disposal and the need for safeguarding the aquifer is the need of the hour.

The number of wells to be drilled for shale gas also far exceeds the number of wells required in the case of conventional gas and the land area required is a minimum of 80 to 160 acres.

The process of extracting shale gas has many possible environmental and geophysical fallouts, which has led to several protests against exploitation of this resource. Unless, there is some revolutionary technological breakthrough, which does not need the use of fresh water and chemicals, it is vital that we seriously ask ourselves this question: Should we further endanger a rapidly depleting resource on which all life depends?

Answer : Degradation of fertile land into a desert is referred to as desertification. In a country like India with the second largest population desertification has major consequences for food security, poverty and general quality of life. Desertification in India is being caused by both natural factors as well as human factors. The main causes of desertification are:

• Unsustainable agricultural practices such as extensive and frequent cropping of agricultural areas, excessive use of fertilizers, shifting cultivation without allowing adequate period of recovery etc.
• Unsustainable water management like poor and inefficient irrigation practices, over extraction of ground water, particularly in the coastal regions resulting in saline intrusion into aquifers.
• Conversion of land for other uses such as prime forest into agricultural land, encroachment of cities and towns into agricultural land.
• Deforestation, unsustainable forest management practices, overgrazing, excessive fuel wood collection, uncontrolled logging, forest fires.
• Industrial, mining and other activities without satisfactory measures for prevention of land degradation and land rehabilitation etc.
• Frequent droughts/failure of monsoon and their link with global climate change phenomena is also causing desertification in India.

The extent of desertification in India is large and increasing. As per the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, 2007, the percentage of country under drylands is 69.6%. The total area undergoing the process of land degradation in India is 105.48 million hectares, which constitutes 32 percentage of India's total land area.

• There are a number of steps that must be taken to halt the process of desertification such as:
• Protecting our forest cover and increasing it further. Government programs such as National Afforestation Programme (NAP) are working in this regard
• Sustainable water management practices must be encouraged. For example, government has started Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), Command Area Development and Water Management (CADWM) programme etc
• Soil conservation is an important aspect of preventing desertification especially in flood prone areas.
• Sustainable agricultural practices such as drip irrigation, crop rotation, bunding etc must be encouraged. Organic farming and decreased use of fertilizers are other such practices.

Finally, the government must develop a comprehensive policy to tackle the problem of desertification as ignoring this aspect can have major social and economic consequences.

Answer : Water is essential for the existence of the biotic world including human beings. Because it is required nearly for all activities of human kinds and its requirement has increased phenomenally. The supply of usable water is limited and is depleting continuously due to excessive utilisation, pollution and careless management. Further water is not available in the same quality everywhere. Under such conditions climatic change is likely to impact significantly upon water resources availability. In India demand for water has already increased manifold over the years due to urbanisation, agriculture expansion, increasing population, rapid industrialisation and economic development. “At present changes in cropping pattern and land use pattern, over exploitation of water storage and changes in irrigation and drainage are modifying the hydrological cycle in many climate regions and river basins of India.

An assessment of water resources in the context of future national requirements and expected impact of climate change and its variability is critical for relevant national and regional long term development strategies and sustainable development. The potential for sustainable development of surface water and ground water resources are under constraints imposed by climate change. Under the influence of climate change there have been observed changes in surface temperature, rainfall, evaporation and extreme events since the beginning of the 20th century. The frequency of severe floods in large river basins has increased during the 20th century. In India studies by several experts shows that there is increasing trend in surface temperature, decreasing/increasing trends in rainfall.

However, overall a warmer climate will accelerate the hydrological cycle; alter rainfall, magnitude and timing of rainfall. The warm air will increase evaporation of surface moisture with more moisture in atmosphere, rainfall tend to be more intense increasing the potential for floods. However, if there is little or no moisture in the soil to evaporate, the incident solar radiation will go into raising the temperature which would contribute to longer and more severe droughts. Therefore change in climate will affect the soil moisture, ground water recharge and frequency of flood or drought and finally ground water level in different areas.

Answer : (a) Transhumance in India

• Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock over relatively short distances, typically to higher pastures in summers and to lower valleys in winters.
• In India it is still practiced in areas of Siwalik range, Nilgiris and also Ladakh. It enables the pastoralists to supplement their incomes, for example in case of Bhotiyas of Sikkim it enabled them to gather rare mountain herbs in winters which were traded across to Tibet and also cultivate agricultural land in summers.
• However off late, transhumance is declining due to subtle changes in livelihood patterns among the nomadic communities resulting from severance of trade with Tibet and secondly the lure of govt. jobs in form of reservation an outcome of the scheduled tribe status granted to them.

(b) Frontogenesis and Frontolysis

• Frontogenesis refers to the formation or strengthening of a weather front. During frontogenesis the temperature gradient tightens and as a result the thermal wind becomes imbalanced. To maintain balance, the geostrophic wind above and below adjust, so that regions of divergence/convergence are formed. Thus a vertical transport of air along the cold front where the lower pressure is present, takes place.
• Frontolysis: It is the opposite of frontogenesis and refers to the weakening of the weather front or weakening of the temperature gradient i.e. low pressure is released and dissipation of air takes place.

(c) Sea-Floor spreading

• Sea floor spreading occurs where oceanic plates are diverging from one another. Magma rises along a rift zone and spreads out at the surface building new sea floor. The mid-oceanic ridge is the primary site for sea floor spreading. It occurs primarily during earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

Answer : India was about 7516 km long coastline, including two island groups. Nine states have sea-coast including two island territories. The coastal zone inhabits about 25% population of India in its first 50 km of area.

It is the coastal region that provides India with a number of sea-ports, minor as well as major, and harbours to take on large scale sea-trade activities which are cheapest means of transport and helped India flourish its international trade. About 90% of our foreign trade by volume and nearly 70% of value is carried out through sea route. Apart from this, coasts are the reservoir of petroleum and sea-food items. It also provides economic activities like fishing, salt farming, and handicrafts based on coastal materials. Oil exploration facility from seabed installed at Bombay High accounts for more than 15% of nation's petroleum output.

India's Exclusive Economic Zone area constitutes about 2 million sq. km. This area gives economical benefits in term of marine resources like minerals, vegetation and aqua-life. Major industrial activities like metallurgy, ship-building, manufacturing etc. are also concentrated around the coastal cities and urban centres around the coasts. The sea-coasts also help India on security front. India's three sides are covered by sea. India's strategic location in sea is helpful. India is one mid-journey destination for ships travelling in the Indian Ocean. India gets earning from such visiting ships. So, we can say that the coastline is the life-line of the economic development of India but it is under constant threat of Global warming and rising Sea-level.

Answer : A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. These account for 18.4% of India's total geographical area.

Wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems, comparable to tropical evergreen forests in the biosphere and play a significant role in the ecological sustainability of a region. The wetlands can play a crucial role in the conservation of biodiversity as it inhabits a large number of rare, endangered and unexplored species. Also, these act as carbon-sinks and thus climate stabilizers which are vital in the present context to combat mass extinction. India is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention which is an intergovernmental treaty providing for the national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Also wetlands are the essential part of human civilisation meeting many crucial needs for life on earth such as drinking water, water purification, energy, fodder, and flood conta-inment.

Answer : Indian Meteorological department established in 1875 is the principal Government organization in matters relating to meteorology, seismology and allied subjects. Its main objective is to provide meteorological information for weather sensitive activities like Aviation, shipping, Agriculture, off shore fishing and oil exploration and Industries. It also issues warning against severe weather phenomenon like, cyclone, Dust Storms, Heavy rainfall, cold and heat waves and region specific developments through its regional centres. Besides it also provides climatological information, records earth quakes and promotes research in Meteorology.

The high power radars and weather satellite connectivity provides immense benefits for economy of which monsoon forecasting plays a vital role in agriculture. For dissemination of cyclone warning to various states 252 analogue and 100 digital cyclone warning dissemination system receivers have been installed on west coastal and east coastal regions that provides timely warning and prevents natural disaster like floods, cyclone, landslides and tsunamis.

The seismological observatory systems under national network monitor seismic zones or activities in and around the country for quick determination of earthquake parameters and dissemination to specific agencies. The Oceansat provides data regarding shoals of fishes which is being utilized by IMD to inform to fisher folk. The sea temperature and weather temperature information is used to create cyclone modeling. IMD also participates in various international research which studies monsoon mechanism.

Thus Indian meteorological Organization through its various activities certainly plays a significant role in India.

Answer : During winters high pressure prevails in the landmass especially in North Western part of India due to its continentiality. Due to high pressure in the landmass low pressure situation prevails above the landmass which is occupied by Sub-Tropical Easterly Jet Stream (Jet Streams are three dimensional movement of air mass from West to East at a high speed above the surface of the earth).

During winters Mediterranean region experiences turbulent weather conditions and hence receives heavy rainfall. Sub Tropical Easterly Jet Stream carries the turbulent weather conditions from Mediterranean region to the Indian Sub Continent. Because of the modification created by the Jet stream North India receives rainfall in winters. The disturbances caused by the Mediterranean region are called western disturbances in the Northern part of India. These are short term disturbances caused on the weather conditions of North India due to the Sub Tropical Easterly Jet. This jet stream shifts North wards during summer season and hence doesn’t affect the summer rainfall.

Answer : There are approximately 33 lakh km. long roads in India. Roads are considered as the "Life-line" of the transportation system in India. Indian roads are increasing in length due to their rising importance and use. The demand for quality roads have increased in recent years due to the development of technology, of the 33 lakhs km. of roads, only 2% of National Highways carries nearly 40% of transportation.

As a result of the modern technology like global positioning and satellite related information process, the control and direction of the road transportation have become quite easier. Improving quality of all weather metallic roads, Golden quadrilateral and East-West, North-South national corridor, Express highways etc. have sustained importance of roads. Road transportation has become even faster and popular because of the flyovers and sub-ways made in the cities.

The vehicles made with the help of modern technology prevents accidents and number of fatalities; passengers and goods carriages have also become faster and easier. There is a shift in road use as transport corridors due to demand of good quality road that is hurdle free and fuel saving.

Answer : The west flowing rivers do not make delta, but estuaries. Many west flowing rivers like Narmada, Tapti, Periar etc passes through rift vallies. These rivers contain very few amounts of Silts and due to its fast speed it cannot make delta. When these fast flowing rivers reach to its mouth it become unable to deposit its silts, due to this reason silts falls in to the sea.

There are many small rivers which originate from the Western Ghats mountains and fall in to the Arabian Sea. Due to the high gradient of Western Ghats these rivers flow with a very high speed and unable to deposit silts. They pass through the hard rocks, these rivers contain very little amount of silts. The estuaries made by these rivers are full of bio-diversity.

Answer : For irrigational work-it is primarily in those pockets of India which remain prone to draught by erratic and irregular precipitation. Rain water should be stored in ponds and tanks.

• For potable purpose it is mainly in dry land area. Dry region is a region of torrential rain where annual total is low but sudden flash rain bring water level upwards. It should be managed to ward off drinking water problem.
• Water harvesting in urban areas is essentially with drinking purpose. It should be managed keeping in view daily requirement without any pollutants.
• Again, groundwater is saturated and stable water and develops tendency of movement. It should be checked.

Answer : The resource base available for the economic development of the Jharkhand are its rich mineral resources, industrial sector, agriculture and tourism besides other sectors like cottage, handloom, IT etc

Mineral resources: The State has a rich storehouse of minerals almost 40 percent of the mineral reserves found in India. The various kinds of minerals found in Jharkhand are iron ore, granite, coal, copper, mica, bauxite, and chromites.

Industrial sector: The State has industrialized cities such as Bokaro, Jamshedpur, and Dhanbad. In Jharkhand there are companies like Tata Iron and Steel Company, Indian Tube Company, Sriram Bearing, Usha Martin, and Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company.

Agricultural sector: Around 75% of the people of the State are dependent on agri sector. The various kinds of crops grown in Jharkhand are rice, oilseeds, wheat, potatoes, maize, and pulses. The State also produces a wide variety of vegetables and fruits like ladies finger, brinjal, tomato, cabbage, mango, lemon, and papaya.

Tourism sector: Tourism’s contribution is comparatively less in economy although the State has places of religious and archaeological significance and also lakes, hills, and wildlife to attract the tourists, the State government has not fully exploited this sector.

The other sectors that contribute to the economy in the State of Jharkhand are cottage industry, IT industry, and silk goods. In order to boost the economy, the State government has started to make some efforts by developing the infrastructure and also by promoting the setting up of new industries.

On the other hand, economic development of Uttarakhand mainly depends on tourism, mineral resources, small scale industries and real estate.

Tourism Sector: Uttarakhand economy mainly relies on tourism industry. Uttarakhand, being situated on the foothills of Himalayas, comprises of numerous hill stations which attract tourists from all across the globe thereby bringing money to the state. Apart from the hill stations, the wildlife has also been a major attraction for tourism as tourists come to visit the wildlife sanctuaries such as Corbett National Park and the famous Tiger Reserve. The next most important contributor to the economy of Uttarakhand is the agricultural sector. As per the census of 2002-03, around 5671704 hectares of land was cultivated. Cereals, pulses, oil seeds, sugar cane and onion are the major crops grown here. Since majority of the population of Uttarakhand is occupied in agricultural sector, agriculture has to be among the top contributors of revenue in Uttarakhand economy.

Mineral resources: The state consists of large resources of minerals such as limestone rock phosphate, dolomite, magnesite, copper graphite, soap stone, gypsum and many others. Many of these minerals are exported out of India thereby fetching the Uttarakhand economy more revenue.

Small scale industries: Uttarakhand economy also relies upon its small scale industries though they don't offer high revenues. The state has all total 28249 small scale units and 397 Gramodhyog Units. The beautiful state also has 191 heavy industries.

Real Estate: With more and more real estate agents eying on the picturesque locations of Uttarakhand, the day is not far away when real estate would be one of the major forces in determining the net flow of economy of Uttarakhand.

Answer : Political boundaries may expand to less or more than the regional boundaries. Regional boundary is a geographical concept of boundaries which divides areas of landmass.

In political boundary it shows the area of administration under one government, dema-rcated either geographicallys or politically. It is said that while partitioning any country or state cultural gradient of the neighbouring population should also be observed. Unification of cultural integrity is required to maintain political boundary.

The political boundary may cover areas very far from the region under administration also. Small Islands are best examples that show that through regional boundaries end on each separate island; the political boundary does not end, and cannot end if the cultural and traditional integrity is maintained.

On the other hand, Regions may be nodal, defined by the organization of activity about some central place (e.g., a town and its hinterland, or tributary area), or uniform, defined by the homogeneous distribution of some phenomena within it.

Regional boundaries may be defined in terms of single or multiple features or in terms that approach the total content of human occupancy of an area. The most common features in social science are ethnic, cultural, or linguistic, climatic or topographical, industrial or urban, admin-istrative units.

Political boundary and Regional boundary should be co-terminus because political boundary acts as a unifying factor of various diversified regional unit into a single unit of administration. The rise of conflict between regional and political boundary is either because of colonial regime or partition of state. Say for example, the issue of Kashmir, where Pakistan raise issue of kashmiri region belongs to Pakistan on the ground of muslim population. Thus Kashmir region has become a conflict between India and Pakistan because of partition on the communal line. If there would have been a strong political boundary unifying all culturally diversified population, thenthere would have not arise regional issue like Kashmir. Similarly in the international level we can take example of the recent conflict going on between Russia and Crimea. Thus it can be said that Political boundary should act as integrating factor of culturally diversified regional unit for building strong administrative structure.

Answer : Presently, there are twenty-two petroleum refineries in the country, 17 in public sector, two joint ventures and three in private sector. Public sector refineries are located at Guwahati, Barauni, Koyali, Haldia, Mathura, Digboi, Panipat, Chennai, Narimanam, Bon-gaigaon, Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi, Numaligarh and Tatipaka. One refinery in joint sector is at Mangalore. The private sector refinery of Reliance Petroleum Limited is situated at Jamanagar.

Since we import most of our crude petrol, therefore, majority of refineries are located at the coast in the vicinity of major ports. Some other such as Koyali (Gujarat), Bongaigaon, Guwahati, Digboi and Numaligarh (Assam) are located near to the oil fields. Location of Barauni, Panipat and Mathura refineries is influenced by the huge demand of petroleum products in north India. These refineries are supplied crude oil through a network of pipelines. While a Barauni refinery is supplied oil from Assam oil fields, Panipat and Mathura refineries are supplied oil from Gujarat oil fields.

Answer : Mewar and Marwar are two socio-cultural regions which are located on either side of the Aravallis. While Mewar is located to the east of the Aravallis, Marwar is located to the west. The Physical terrain on the either side of the Aravallis is vastly different and this has given rise to the two different regions.

Marwar is largely an arid wasteland suitable only for the raising of goats and camels. The region has very low rainfall, in the range of 0-20cm. The whole region is covered with shifting sand dunes. The Luni is the only river of some importance. In greater part of the area the ground water is impregnated with salt. There are numerous salt lakes of which the Sambhar is the largest. Gypsum and salt are mined, and cotton is grown.

Mewar is mostly an alluvial plain watered by many intermittent streams. Rainfall in this region is in the range of 20-40cm grains, sugarcane and oilseeds are grown. There are also extensive mineral deposits of iron ore, lead and zinc.

The physical, social and cultural difference between the two regions is responsible for citing the Aravallis range as the divide between Mewar and Marwar.

Answer : Numerous rivers traversing the Indian Peninsula are older than the Himalayan rivers and embody the following major characteristics:

1. The sources of the Peninsular rivers lie in plateaus and low hills devoid of snow, therefore, most of the rivers are seasonal.
2. Most of these rivers can be said to have reached a mature state of development, presenting a senile topography.
3. These rivers flow through open and graded shallow valleys with low gradients and little erosion.
4. The Peninsular rivers are either superimposed or at places rejuvenated (represented by small waterfalls), giving birth to radial, trellis or rectangular drainage patterns.
5. These rivers mostly have smaller courses and small basins.
6. These are devoid of meanders because of hard rock and non-alluvial character of the plateau.
7. The impermeable hard rock limits the groundwater recharge in the acquifers of peninsular rivers.
8. These rivers are although suitable for power generation in their upper reaches but have limited use in irrigation and navigation.

Answer : Marine saline water is the pre-dominant source of salt production in the country, accounting for about 75 per cent of the total production. The coastal areas of Saurashtra and South Tamil Nadu present ideal conditions for salt manufacturing and therefore these areas have high concentration of salt extraction industries. The sea water here is collected during high tides in brine ponds. The hot semi-arid condition of these areas favours faster evaporation of saturated brine in the evaporation pans known as crystallisers. Thus the favourable factors for salt manufacturing in the Saurashtra and South Tamil Nadu coast are

1. Fair weather (8-9 months)
2. High temperature (mean May temperature is 35°C in Saurashtra while in Tamil Nadu the average monthly temperature remains above 21°C throughout the year).
3. Low rainfall of 50-75 cm/year
4. Low relative humidity
5. High wind velocity
6. Low soil permeability

Answer : Tea is the most important beverage for Indians. But due to certain geographical conditions its plantation concentrated on the Assam hills and Northern W. Bengal regions. This region forms a triangle between 23°N to 28°N and 88°E to 96°E latitudes. This region account for the 76% of production and 80% of the area under tea production.

Assam is the largest producer of the tea accounting for about 50% of production. Average yield is 16.5 quintals per hectare. In 1990-91, the state produced 388,000 tonnes of tea worth 67 lakhs (in 2011 Assam produces 95.2 m.kg and west Bengal 50.5 m.kg). The main tea providing districts are Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Sibsagar, Darrang, Kamrup etc. Surma valley produces 5% of tea.

West Bengal contributes 20% of the tea production Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Bihar is the important tea producing districts. In 1991, the state produced 151 lakh tonnes.

The Northern West Bengal and Assam’s economy is based on tea plantation. It provides employment and wages in the poor districts. Tea farm and private investment in the region has led to infrastructural development and forex earning through exports.

Answer : In the summer monsoon season, the atmospheric pressure is low all over the Indian peninsula as the Sun is apparently situated at the right angle from the tropic of cancer. The isobar runs more or less parallel to the coast indicating differences in pressure conditions over land and sea. There is marked change in the direction and speed of the winds from the winter conditions. The winds are by and large light and variable. But in May and June high temperature in Northwest region causes steep pressure gradient which is often of the order of 1.0 to 1.5 mb. per degree latitude. It gives rise to hot dust laden wind called loo. In the south thunder storm occur. Aandhis in Rajasthan occur too. But they are only regional variation of the wind system.

Distribution of rainfall is largely determined by the occurrence of cyclones from Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Western ghat has orographic rainfall which is between 200-400 cm for the season. Rajasthan does not have much rainfall due to temperature inversion. Tamil Nadu coast does not have rainfall as the rainbearing wind run parallel to the coast. The North East & East Plateau have rainfall in the range of 150-300 cm. Snowfall occurs in the Himalayas, while the plains have cyclonic rainfall between 100-200 cm which decreases from east to west with maximum in the Tarai region.

Answer : Indian climate is characterised by seasonal metrological circumstances. The regional climate in this part of world is known as the “monsoon system”. It is a system of on-shore and off-shore winds. On shore winds are known as south-west monsoon and are responsible for summer precipitation over vast area of the sub-continent.

The origin of monsoon is related to the shift of the position of the sun. When it is in the Northern Hemisphere then the Indian sub continent becomes the region of low pressure. Equatorial low pressure becomes high pressure for Indian low pressure. But it is still low pressure in comparison to high pressure of Australia. Thus it affects the trade winds which blow in southern hemisphere but nothing like wise in N-hemisphere.

Indian sub continent is also invaded by two sets of jet streams (1) Sub tropical westerly jet (2) Tropical Easterly Jet. When sub tropical jet is blowing there is high pressure situation in the Indian sub continent and this is responsible of NE monsoon.

El-Nino is another important factor which influences the mechanism of Indian monsoon. Sometimes El-Nino effects are extended up to eastern part of Indian Ocean. This creates a situation of drought over the entire sub continent.

Answer : The Himalaya stretches across northern India from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh for about 2400 km. The Himalaya, no doubt is one of the most important geomorphological feature of India. More than that, however, is their contribution they have made towards shaping the destiny, life and culture of the people and most importantly to the economic prospect and prosperity to the entire region.

The question is what would have happened in geographic terms. If the Himalayas had not been there the climate of both India and China would have been drastically different. The Monsoon season in India is very much dependent on the Himalayas and the other ranges of the Pamir Knot. Even the climate of China is dependent on it to a large extent, especially on Tibet. The moisture laden clouds that the low pressure formed during the hot Indian summer brings in, crashes on to the Himalayas and the other mountain ranges to bring rainfall to the Northern plains. If the Himalayas had not been there we would not have had the snow fed rivers of the Northern plains as well. The same is true for China. Most of the northern plains would have been wind swept arid land with extreme weather, very hot summers and harsh cold winters. In fact, most of it would have been desert. If we will look at the world physical map we will find that except for the northern Indian plains and South China, almost all the land within the same latitude is actually desert.

The Himalayas are responsible for making the entire country tropical even though only half of India lies under tropics. They are responsible for splitting the jet stream into two branches and these in turn have the most important influence on the monsoons. Besides, they block the intrusion of cold winds from Central Asia in winter. Thus, Himalaya make winter climate in north India warmer than that of Central Asia.

Answer : Taking the objectives in mind the planning commission (1989) has divided India into 15 major agro-climatic regions delineated on the basis of a commonality of agro-climatic factors like soil type, rainfall, temperature, water resources etc. In this innovative approach, based on agro-climatic zones, an overall development profile of each region is formulated through an optimal mix of land stock management, horticulture, crop production, animal husbandry, agriculture and agro-processing etc.

Following are the agro-climatic Region of India:

1. West Himalaya
2. East Himalaya
3. Lower Ganga Plain
4. Upper Ganga Plain
5. Middle Ganga Plain
6. Trans Gange Plain
7. Eastern Plateau
8. Central Plateau
9. Western Plateau
10. Southern Plateau
11. Eastern Coast
12. West Coast
13. Gujarat
14. Western Dry lands
15. Islands.

The main thrust in Development should be on crop improvement water management, fisheries; improved varieties should be popu-larized so as to enable farmers to take two crops of rise in place of one. These 15 major agro-climatic regions are further Sub-divided into 69 smaller regions.

Answer : According to the National Wasteland Development Board, wasteland mean degraded land which can be brought under vegetative cover, with reasonable effort and which is currently lying unutilized and land which is deteriorating for lack of appropriate water and soil management or on account of natural cause. Wastelands can be classified into following

1. Land not available for cultivation barren and uncultivable waste
2. Other uncultivated land excluding fallow, culturable waste, permanent pasture and land under miscellaneous trees
3. Fallow land
4. Saline and alkaline land and ravines

Integrated Wasteland Development Project (IWDP) Scheme has been launched in 1989-90 with an objective of an integrated wasteland development based on village/micro watershed plans. These plans are prepared after taking into consideration the land capability, site condition and local needs of the people.

The major activities taken up under the schemes are

1. In situ, soil and moisture conservation measures like terracing, bunding, trenching, vegetative barriers and drainage line treatment.
2. Planting and sowing of multipurpose trees, shrubs, grasses, legumes and pasture land development.
3. Encouraging natural regeneration.
4. Promotion of agro forestry and horticulture.
5. Wood substitution and fuel wood conser-vation measures.
6. Awareness raising, training and extension.
7. Encouraging people’s participation through community organization and capacity building.
8. Drainage Line treatment by vegetative and engineering structures.
9. Development of small water harvesting structures.
10. Afforestation of degraded forest and non-forest wasteland.
11. Development and conservation of common property resources.

Answer : Forests are considering one among the most important pillars of ecological balance anywhere in the world.

Himalayas possess a wide range of vegetation from tropical to temperate zones.Deforestation or submergence of forest due to construction of large dams have dangerous effects in the following ways:

1. It increases the rate of floods in the North India plain.
2. Forests are valuable natural resources and we loose them. Existence of many rare species of animals and trees are at danger.
3. Tribal communities and animals lose their habitations and they have to displace themselves.
4. The vegetation cover, reduces soil erosion and enhance soil moisture capacity.
5. Sediments increase in the flow of water and it gets deposited into the catchment areas of dams by reducing their holding capacities. So these dams by reducing their holding capacities. So these dams lose their potential of reducing floods and storing of water.
6. Soil erosion of slopes and base areas cause loss to the fertility of land.

Answer : The farming practice in the region where rainfall is below 120 cm. This area is also called arid or semiarid zones. Such areas lacks sufficient rainfall to produce quality and quantity food grains. In such areas, to raise practice of farming, some water conservation and specific type of irrigation schemes are practised. Such methods are called Dry farming.

Dry farming increases chances of cultivation in these semi-arid areas where crops cannot be expected without such techniques.

It apart from conserving water, increasing soil fertility and adds fodders so that animals are properly fed and animal husbandry could be practised well.

Dry farming increases total culturable areas and utilised manpower. It will also add to productivity rate in semi-arid and arid zone. And thus it will increase India's food production.

Dry farming, in India can:

1. Raise employment opportunities
2. Increase crop production
3. Waste-land can be harvested
4. Irrigation facilities can add to more success
5. Living standard of such areas could be increased through proper economic use of the land.

Answer : Cities having population more than 50 lakh are identified as mega cities. India has six mega-cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, Hyderabad and Bangalore, Ahmedabad.

Problems related to Mega cities-

1. Population Density : Growing population at rapid rate in limited area, gives rise to concentrated population.
2. Slums: Density and poor facilities causes problems of residence and slums are created in such cities where no proper basic facilities of sanitation, water etc. are available.
3. Health problem : Lack of proper sanitary facilities and management create dangers upon the health and often give way to epidemics.
4. Employment : It is tough to provide employment to the increasing population and unemployed youth sometimes diverted to crimes and illegal activities.
5. Law and Order : To maintain Law and Order in such big is a difficult task and so rape, robbery, theft etc. are committed very often.
6. Pollution : Indira Gandhi once in United Nation's environment programme said poverty is the biggest pollution. Slums in these cities create pollution. Apart from these vehicular industrial are other sources of pollution.

Answer : India is situated at the North middle of the Indian Ocean. It makes three boundaries of India and delivers it many benefits in economic, climatic and strategic fields.

Economic and Commercial Advantages

• In the South Sri Lanka is neighbouring the tip of the India.In the South-east, countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. are situated. India has developed sea-route trade along with these countries since historical period.
• The major routes connecting east and west part of the world pass through Indian Ocean and India is a mid-destination for these routes.
• After the opening of Suez-canal, the way to Europe has become more convinent through the Indian Ocean increasing to the benefits of India.
• Trade routes to America, Africa and Europe pass through the Indian Ocean, this makes Indian position significant.

Climatic Advantage- It keeps the climate of the Southern India moderate and gives most of the rain of India through the South-west monsoon.

Long Sea Coast- gives marine resource, conventional fuel like oil and natural gas etc.

Strategic Advantage- prevents confrontation with neighboring countries, which exist with land-boundary connected countries like Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.

Answer : The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are lying in the Bay of Bengal, while the Lakshadweep in Arabian sea.

Following are the difference of geological of evolution:

1. The Andaman and Nicobar base continental origin while the Lakshadweep have coral origin of atol type.
2. The Andaman & Nicobar actually are the continuation of the Arakan Yoma hills which are further part of Eastern Himalayas. While Lakshdweep Islands are made of skewletons of sea animals – called Polypso.

Following are the differences in topographical condtions :

1. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are with hilly topography and have only a small position of level land. And the Lakshadweep Islands are flat terrain without soil, mainly atolls.
2. On the Lakshadweep Island, only palm trees in the Island can grow while the Andaman and Nicobar Supports dense forest and mangroves. Both have similarity in matters of humid tropical conditions and fragile ecosystem. So both are of importance from ecological point of view. They are home of great biodiversity.

Answer : India witnesses two types of Monsoons:

1. Winter monsoon - October to December
2. Summer monsoon - June to August.

Monsoon is associated with the seasonal reversal of winds over the Indian subcontinent. India subcontinent lies in the northern hemisphere. In winter, landmass in north of the tropic of cancer, is characterized by cold season and high pressure, this high pressure winds flow towards the south west direction from the north-east and causes rainfall. In the parts of southern peninsula, the easterly depression causes rainfall in winter.

The summer monsoon is brought by the south-west winds. The movement of the sum over the tropic of cancer heats landmass of the Indian subcontinent causing law pressure condition. Moisturised winds from the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal bring rainfall over different parts of India. The vacuum created over north Indian Plain due to withdrawal of westerly jet help in all acting. Moisturised air from the Indian Ocean. Apart from surface level winds, the upper atmospheric conditions also influence the south-west monsoon in India. Mango-Shawers are specially characterized rainfall over the southern tips especially Tamil Nadu.

Answer : In India, our constitution makes special provisions for the development of tribal areas and casts. The welfare Ministry is responsible for the schemes and implementations, related to tribal areas. Various spheres in tribal areas are being developed by the government, under various schemes related to:

• Education: scholarship is provided school buildings literatures are made available to import education.
• Economic Development: schemes related to establishment of small and collage industries, agricultural development and subsidies are implemented by the government under various names, making special propositions for tribal areas and people.
• Health-related facilities are made available to people and mobile clinics are used to serve in remote areas.
• Shelter: many schemes make provisions to develop shelters and sanitation facilities for them. Indira Awas Yojna was one of then, implemented from 1935-86 Though various other schemes, not especially made for tribal areas, have certainly special provisions to develop them.

Answer : In the border area of Uttar Pradesh eight districts namely-Nainital, Almora, Pithoragarh, Poudigarhwal, Chamoly, Jihri Garhval, Dehradun and Uttar Kashi - Cimbinely demanded a separate state for then, strengthening their demand from 1991.

This demand for new state - 'Uttarakhand' is from those hilly districts. Which have their separate customs and traditions than the rest of the state. They have not been given due consideration by political parties in the state, because of their political ignorance only exploitation is practiced here subsiding their interests and developments. Though rich of natural resources, it has rare possibilities of agricultural development and there four, in the absences of other industries and employment opportunities they have been living in backward conditions, with about one-third of the population below poverty line. With more stronger force a flow was given to them by providing reservation to other backward classes at 27 percent limit, of which only two to three percent population is there. This made the demand more stronger concluding that their political interests can be protected only if they have a separate state.

Answer : The Narmada River project covers mainly Madhaya Pradesh, Jujarat and Maharastra, Damo like the Sardar Sarovar and the Indira Sagar have been in debate. Due to construction of Dams, many families are needed to be relocated. Policies of rehabilitation of displaced people have not been implemented with dedication. The oustees, mainly tribal community are given cash which is not enough to buy them land equivalent to their possession. Even if, they are given land it is rocky and uncultivable. All these factors have led to a grave injustice to these displaced families social activists are bighting for their cause against the government.

Apart from these, the environmental reasons are also getting attention. Due to submergence of forests, logging of water and deposit of salt, the ecological balance is also in danger. However the objectives of developing the region by hydro-electric Power generation and irrigation facilities are there, but the question that attracts Allenton of the common people is whether these benefits are justified at the cost of these human settlement problems and environmental degration.

Answer : India is situated at the North middle of the Indian Ocean. The Indian ocean makes three boundaries of India and delivers it many benefits in economic, climatic and strategic fields.

Economical and commercial advantages

• In the south, Sri Lanka is neighbouring the Indian southern tip. In the south-east countries like Malaysia, Indonesia etc. situated. India has developed sea-route trail along with these countries since historical period.
• The major routes connecting east and west parts of the world pass through Indian ocean and India is a mid-destination for these routes.
• After the opening of Suez Canal, the way to Europe has become more convenient through the Indian Ocean increasing to the benefits of India.
• Trade routes to America, Africa and Europe pass through the Indian Ocean, obviously making Indian position commercially important.

Climate advantages

• It keep the climate of the southern India moderate and gives most of the rain of India through the south-west monsoon.
• Providing a long sea coast, the Indian Ocean delivers, advantage of fishing, coastal vegetation etc.

Strategic advantages

• It covers and protects three boundaries of India, reducing the huge cost of protection.
• It prevents confrontation with neighbouring countries which exist with land-boundaryconnected countries like Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.

Answer : Shifting cultivation is the most primitive form of agriculture. It is mainly practiced in the tropical forests. It is still practiced in some parts of the world. It is known by different names in different regions. In India, the north eastern part mainly practices the shifting cultivation, which is called there “Thuming”.

Its salient characteristics with reference to India are:

1. Tribal people of hilly and forest areas mainly North-East Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, etc. practice this form of agriculture.
2. Before starting of monsoon, forests and trees are burnt and the area thus cleared is used for cultivation.
3. They saw seed in the ashes over of the soil and uses simple tools only.
4. With arrival of monsoon, these seeds give crops.
5. After use of a few years, the soil gets exhausted and then the field is left fellow.
6. They shift to new area and use the same methods.
7. No crop rotation is used but field rotation is practiced. It decreases forest over and fertility of soil. Moreover, it is less productive.

Answer : The mangrove forests occur along the coastal areas and in the deltas of the bigger rivers. They can develop both in fresh and salty waters.

In India, these forests are seen mainly in Northern Andaman and Nicobar, sunderbans, the Delta’s of Godavari, Mahanadi and Krishna rivers, the coastal areas of Goa etc. such forests consist mainly evergreen species of varying density and height and they are always associated with witness. Some species found in mangrove forests are Sundri, Brugwira, Soneratia, Agar, Bhendi, Keora and Nipa.

These are evergreen forests and the wood of such forests are hard very useful. Moreover, they prevent the coastal desert approaching land. They provide very useful and important natural products also.

Due to these benefits, apart from its contribution in the areas of forest cover the government of India has prepared a policy for conservation and management of mangrove trees. The national mangrove vegetation committee has been constitute which prepares policies for the conservation of such forests and makes recommendations to the Government regarding them.

Answer : Ozone is a gas which is composed of three oxygen atoms. It makes a thin layer in the lower strata of the atmosphere, generally at the height of 22 to 25 kms. This layer is called the ‘Ozone Belt’ of the earth. It is important in a way that it filters most of the harmful ultraviolet (U.V) rays of the sun. This absorbed U.V. rays do not harm the life on the earth.

But due to various chemicals in polluted air, especially close-fluorocarbons (CFCs), the atoms of ozone are converted into simple oxygen atoms through chemical reactions. This makes gaps in the ozone belt known as ‘Ozone holes’. the depletion of ozone layer is caused, due to the use to various chemicals. This in the plastic, colour, refrigerator, air conditioners and aerosols industries.

It expose the life on the earth directly to the ultra violate rays of the sun causing harmful effect to the skin. It cause disorder of genes, giving way to skin cancer and other diseases. One percent of reduction in ozone adds three percent to the patients of the skin cancer.