Test: Geography - 4 - UPSC MCQ

• Basic Needs Approach: This approach was initially proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Six basic needs i.e.: health, education, food, water supply, sanitation, and housing were identified. The question of human choices is ignored and the emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• Capability Approach: This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen. Building human capabilities in the areas of health, education, and access to resources is the key to increasing human development. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• Income Approach: This is one of the oldest approaches to human development. Human development is seen as being linked to income. The idea is that the level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys. The higher the level of income, the higher is the level of human development. Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• Welfare Approach: This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities. The approach argues for higher government expenditure on education, health, social secondary, and amenities. People are not participants in development but only passive recipients. The government is responsible for increasing levels of human development by maximizing expenditure on welfare.

• General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler Stellantis North America are often referred to as the "Big Three", being the largest automakers in the United States of America. All three have their headquarters in the Detroit area.

• Chennai is nicknamed "The Detroit of India", with more than one-third of India's automobile industry being based in the city. Chennai is also referred to as the ‘Detroit of India’ with the Indian operations of Ford, Hyundai, Renault, and Nissan headquartered in the city and BMW having an assembly plant on the outskirts. Chennai accounts for 35% of the country’s automobile component industry and 60 percent of the country’s automotive exports.

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• Industrial towns: Industries constitute the prime motive force of these cities such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.

• Commercial towns: Towns and cities specializing in trade and commerce are kept in this class. Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna, etc. are some examples.

• Garrison Cantonment towns: These towns emerged as garrison towns such as Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina, Udhampur, etc.

  • Ambala: It is a city and a municipal corporation in the Ambala district in Haryana. It has a large Indian Army and Indian Air Force presence within its cantonment area. Ambala separates the Ganges River network from the Indus River network and is surrounded by two rivers – Ghaggar and Tangri – to the north and to the south.

  • Mhow: Mhow, officially Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, is a cantonment in the Indore district in the Madhya Pradesh state of India.

  • Babina: Babina is a cantonment town in Jhansi district in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

  • Udhampur: Udhampur is a city and a municipal committee in the Udhampur district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Named after Raja Udham Singh, it serves as the district capital and the Northern Command headquarters of the Indian Army. Hence option (c) is the correct answer

• Administrative towns and cities: Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur Chennai, etc.

• The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was an indication of the poverty of a community in a country, developed by the United Nations to complement the Human Development Index (HDI) and was first reported as part of the Human Deprivation Report in 1997. In 2010, it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index.

• The Human Poverty Index measures shortfalls in Human Development. It is a non-income measure. Hence option 1 is not correct.

• Parameters that are taken into account while calculating HPI are:

  • The probability of not surviving till the age of 40

  • The adult illiteracy rate

  • The number of people who do not have access to clean water

  • The number of small children who are underweight. Hence option 2 and option 3 are correct.

• Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been publishing the Human Development Report every year. This report provides a rank-wise list of all member countries according to the level of human development. The Human Development Index and the Human Poverty index are two important indices to measure human development used by the UNDP.

• There are three components of population change – births, deaths, and migration.

• Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is expressed as number of "live" births in a year per thousand of mid-year population. It is calculated as:

  • CBR = (Live births during the year / Mid-year population of the area) * 1000

• Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• Crude Death Rate (CDR) is expressed as the number of deaths in a year per thousand of mid-year population. It is calculated as:

  • CDR = (Number of Deaths / Mid-year population of the area) * 1000

• Natural Growth of Population is the population increased by the difference between births and deaths in a particular region between two points of time. It does not include change due to migration. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• The actual growth of population = Birth - Death + In migration - Out Migration

• The location of urban centres is examined with reference to their function. For example, the sitting requirements of a holiday resort are quite\ different from that of an industrial town, a military centre or a seaport. Strategic towns require sites offering natural defence; mining towns require the presence of economically valuable minerals; industrial towns generally need local energy supplies or raw materials. Hence statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct.

• Locations of the earliest urban settlements were based on the availability of water, building materials and fertile land.

• Some of these functional factors do not necessarily require the urban centre to have any fundamental relationship with its neighbouring rural areas.

• Apart from the site of an urban settlement, the situation plays an important role in the expansion of towns. The urban centres which are located close to an important trade route have experienced rapid development. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India. These include:

  • physical features: nature of terrain, altitude, climate, and availability of water;

  • cultural and ethnic factors: social structure, caste, and religion;

  • security factors: defence against thefts and robberies.

• Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types: Clustered; Semi-clustered or fragmented; Hamleted, and Dispersed.

  • Semi-Clustered Settlements: These may result from the tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement. Generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupy the central part of the main village, whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks of the village. Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan. Hence statement 1 is correct.

  • Hamleted Settlements: Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name. These units are locally called Panna, para, Palli, nagla, Dhani, etc. in various parts of the country. This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors. Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh, and lower valleys of the Himalayas. Hence statement 2 is correct.

  • Dispersed Settlements: Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by the extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas. Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, and Kerala have this type of settlement. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• The definition of urban areas varies from one country to another. Some of the common basis of classification is the size of the population, occupational structure, and administrative structure.

• For the Census of India 2011, the definition of the urban area is as follows;

  • All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc.

  • All other places which satisfied the following criteria:

    • A minimum population of 5,000;

    • At least 75 percent of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and

    • A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.

  • Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• The first category of urban units is known as Statutory Towns. These towns are notified under the law by the concerned State/UT Government and have local bodies like municipal corporations, municipalities, municipal committees, etc., irrespective of their demographic characteristics.

• The ratio between the numbers of people to the size of the land is the density of population. It is usually measured in persons per sq km.

  • Density of Population = Population / Area

• For example, area of Region X is 100 sq km and the population is 1,50,000 persons. The density of population is calculated as:

  • Density = 1,50,000 / 100 = 1,500 person/sq km

• The densely populated parts of the world with more than 200 persons on every sq km are the North- Eastern part of U.S.A., North-Western part of Europe, South, South-East and East Asia. For example, England- 432, China - 153 persons per sq km.

• Other areas like those near the North and South Poles, the hot and the cold deserts and high rainfall zones near the Equator have a very low density of population. These are the sparsely populated regions of the world with less than 01 person per sq km. For example, Canada- 4 persons per square km.

• In between these two types are the areas of medium density. There are 11 to 50 persons per sq km in these areas. Norway, Sweden in Europe, South Africa (48 persons per sq km) are some examples.

Hence option (a) is the correct answer.

• Crude oil may be referred to as sweet crude if it contains relatively little sulfur (0.5%) or sour crude if it contains substantial amounts of sulfur.

• Iraq is one of the leading producers of sweet crude.

• Major locations where sweet crude is found include the Appalachian Basin in Eastern North America, Western Texas, the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Saskatchewan, the North Sea of Europe, North Africa, Australia, and the Far East including Indonesia.

• Sour crude, on the other hand, has a high level of impurities in it, namely sulfur, which must first be removed before being processed into gas and other petroleum-based products.

• Venezuela is a leading producer of sour crude oil. Sour crude is more common in the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, South America, and Canada.

• Crude produced by OPEC Member Nations also tends to be relatively sour, with an average sulfur content of 1.77%.

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• From the 1950s to the 1970s, a series of land reform laws were passed – at the national level as well as in the states – that were intended to bring reform in the agrarian structure, especially in the landholding system and the distribution of land.

• The first important legislation was the abolition of the zamindari system, which removed the layer of intermediaries who stood between the cultivators and the state. Of all the land reform laws that were passed, this was probably the most effective, for in most areas it succeeded in taking away the superior rights of the zamindars over the land and weakening their economic and political power. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• Among the other major land reform laws that were introduced were the tenancy abolition and regulation acts. They attempted either to outlaw tenancy altogether or to regulate rents to give some security to the tenants. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• The third major category of land reform laws was the Land Ceiling Acts. These laws imposed an upper limit on the amount of land that can be owned by a particular family. The ceiling varies from region to region, depending on the kind of land, its productivity, and other such factors. Very productive land has a low ceiling while unproductive dry land has a higher ceiling limit. According to these acts, the state is supposed to identify and take possession of surplus land (above the ceiling limit) held by each household and redistribute it to landless families and households in other specified categories, such as SCs and STs.

• The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (also Land Acquisition Act, 2013) was passed to regulate the land acquisition process and lay down the procedure and rules for granting compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement to the affected persons in India. The Act has provisions to provide fair compensation to those whose land is taken away, brings transparency to the process of acquisition of land to set up factories or buildings, infrastructural projects, and assures rehabilitation of those affected. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• India has done reasonably well in some of the health indicators like the decline in the death rate from 25.1 per thousand in 1951 to 6.5 per thousand in 2015 and infant mortality from 148 per thousand to 37 during the same period. Similarly, it also succeeded in increasing life expectancy at birth from 37.1 years to 66.9 years for males and 36.2 to 70 years for females from 1951 to 2015. Though these are great achievements, a lot needs to be done. Similarly, it has also done reasonably well in bringing down the birth rate from 40.8 to 20.8 during the same years, but it still is much higher than many developed countries. Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• The situation is more alarming when seen in the context of gender-specific and rural and urban health indicators. India has recorded a declining female sex ratio. The findings of the 2011 Census of India are very disturbing particularly in the case of the child sex ratio (919) in the age group of 0-6 years. The other significant features of the report are, with the exception of Kerala, the child sex ratio has declined in all the states and it is the most alarming in the developed state of Haryana (834) and Punjab (846) where it is below 850 female children per thousand male children. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India.

  • Physical features: nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water

  • Cultural and ethnic factors: social structure, caste and religion

  • Security factors: defence against thefts and robberies.

• Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types:

  • Clustered Settlements:

    • The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses.

    • The general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures.

    • The closely built-up area and its intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc.

    • Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states.

      • Sometimes, people live in the compact village for security or defence reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagaland.

      • In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resources.

  • Semi-Clustered Settlements:

    • Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from the tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement.

    • More often such a pattern may also result from segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village. In this case, one or more sections of the village society choose or is forced to live a little away from the main cluster or village. In such cases, generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the main village, whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks of the village.

    • Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan.

  • Hamleted Settlements:

    • Sometimes a settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name.

    • These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc. in various parts of the country.

    • This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors.

    • Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas.

    • Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

  • Dispersed Settlements:

    • The dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes.

    • Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by the extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.

    • Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.

• The Rhine Waterways: The Rhine flows through Germany and the Netherlands. It is navigable for 700 km from Rotterdam, at its mouth in the Netherlands to Basel in Switzerland. Ocean-going vessels can reach up to Cologne. The Ruhr river joins the Rhine from the east. It flows through a rich coalfield and the whole basin has become a prosperous manufacturing area. Dusseldorf is the Rhine port for this region. Huge tonnage moves along the stretch south of the Ruhr. This waterway is the world’s most heavily used. Each year more than 20,000 ocean-going ships and 2,00,000 inland vessels exchange their cargoes. It connects the industrial areas of Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands with the North Atlantic Sea Route.

• The Danube Waterway: This important inland waterway serves Eastern Europe. River Danube rises in the Black Forest and flows eastwards through many countries. It is navigable up to Taurna Severin. The chief export items are wheat, maize, timber, and machinery. The Danube (Latin name Hister) is the second-longest river in Europe (the Volga is the longest). It is the longest river in the European Union. The Danube flows through or makes part of the border of 10 countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine. The river ends in the Black Sea through the Danube Delta. Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• The Volga Waterway: Russia has a large number of developed waterways, of which the Volga is one of the most important. It provides a navigable waterway of 11,200 km and drains into the Caspian Sea. The Volga-Moscow Canal connects it with the Moscow region and the Volga-Don Canal with the Black Sea.

• Thames: The River Thames, known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn.

• Both growth and development refer to changes over a period of time. The difference is that growth is quantitative and value-neutral. It may have a positive or a negative sign. This means that the change may be either positive (showing an increase) or negative (indicating a decrease). Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• Development means a qualitative change that is always value positive. This means that development cannot take place unless there is an increment or addition to the existing conditions. Development occurs when positive growth takes place. Yet, positive growth does not always lead to development. Development occurs when there is a positive change in quality. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• Bauxite is an ore that is used in the production of aluminium. Hence statement 1 is correct. India is poorly endowed with non-ferrous metallic minerals except bauxite.

• Bauxite is primarily comprised of aluminum oxide compounds (alumina), silica, iron oxides and titanium dioxide. Approximately 70 percent of the world’s bauxite production is refined through the Bayer chemical process into alumina. Alumina is then refined into pure aluminum metal through the Hall–Héroult electrolytic process.

• Bauxite is found mainly in tertiary deposits and is associated with laterite rocks occurring extensively either on the plateau or hill ranges of peninsular India and also in the coastal tracts of the country. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• Odisha is the largest producer of bauxite. Kalahandi and Sambalpur are the leading producers. Bolangir and Koraput have also increased their production in the recent years.

• The patlands of Lohardaga in Jharkhand have rich deposits. Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are other major producers.

• Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa are minor producers of bauxite.

• The continent of Asia produces more than half of the world’s tin. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• China, Malaysia, and Indonesia are among the world’s leading tin producers. China also leads in the production of lead, antimony, and tungsten. Asia also has deposits of manganese, bauxite, nickel, zinc, and copper.

• Australia is the largest producer of bauxite in the world. It is a leading producer of gold, diamond, iron ore, tin, and nickel. It is also rich in copper, lead, zinc, and manganese. Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie areas of western Australia have the largest deposits of gold. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• The Orang Asli:

  • Orang Asli is a collective term (which means original or first peoples in Malay) for some 18 ethnic groups of less than 150,000 in total who are widely regarded as comprising peninsular Malaysia’s original inhabitants (in the sense that they pre-date the arrival of Malays).

  • They are generally divided into three distinct groupings: the Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay.

  • In spite of differences in languages and physical appearances, all Orang Asli tribes share one thing in common, which is that they are the descendants of the earliest known inhabitants who occupied the Malay Peninsula.

  • They lived in West Malaysia long before the arrival of the other races, that is, the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians.

  • They are not a desert inhabitant.

• The Bushmen:

  • They are nomadic hunters and food gatherers, growing no crops and domesticating no animals.

  • They roam the Kalahari desert with their bows and poisoned arrows, spears, traps and snares.

  • They either wear a loin cloth or go virtually naked.

  • They travel in small family groups, and live together in open sherms.

  • They gather dew from leaves early in the morning and store in ostrich shells.

• The Bindibu:

  • The Bindibu or Aborigines of Australia are desert inhabitants and live in very much same way the Bushman.

  • They are lean and dark but healthy.

  • They are nomadic hunters and food gatherers, growing no crops and domesticating no animals except dingo, a wild dog that assists them in tracking down kangaroos, rabbits and birds.

  • They always stay close to a water supply as they still have not devised a means of tapping and storing water.

  • They live in wurlies, simple shelters made of branches and tufts and grass.

• The Kikuyu:

  • The Kikuyu (also known as Agikuyu) are a central Bantu community.

  • They share common ancestry with the Embu, Kamba, Tharaka, Meru and Mbeere.

  • Traditionally they inhabited the area around Mount Kenya and they are not a desert inhabitant.

  • They are among the Kenyan communities that championed the struggle for Kenya’s independence through the Mau Mau movement and the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA).

  • Originally hunters and gatherers, the Agikuyu later adopted agriculture as their main source of livelihood. Women did the farming and gathering of wild fruits using traditional tools (such as hoes, digging knives, etc) for domestic consumption, while men did the hunting.

  • Today, their main economic activities are trade, agriculture and livestock keeping. They grow many crops including potatoes, bananas, millet, maize, beans and vegetables. Other common cash crops grown include tea, coffee and rice.

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• The process of migration from plain areas to pastures on mountains during summers and again from mountain pastures to plain areas during winters is known as transhumance.

  • In mountain regions, such as the Himalayas, Gujjars, Bakarwals, Gaddis, and Bhotiyas migrate from plains to the mountains in summers and to the plains from the high altitude pastures in winters. Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

  • Similarly, in the tundra regions, the nomadic herders move from south to north in summers and from north to south in winters.

• Movement in search of pastures is undertaken either over vast horizontal distances or vertically from one elevation to another in the mountainous regions.

• Nomadic herding or pastoral nomadism is a primitive subsistence activity, in which the herders rely on animals for food, clothing, shelter, tools, and transport.

  • They move from one place to another along with their livestock, depending on the amount and quality of pastures and water.

  • Each nomadic community occupies a well-identified territory as a matter of tradition.

• The Jal Kranti Abhiyan launched by the Government of India in 2015–16 with an aim to ensure water security through per capita availability of water in the country.

• The Jal Kranti Abhiyan aims at involving local bodies, NGOs, and citizens, at large, in creating awareness regarding its objectives.

  The following activities have been proposed under the Jal Kranti Abhiyan:

  • Selection of one water-stressed village in every 672 districts of the country to create a ‘Jal Gram’. Hence option(a) is not correct.

  • Ídentification of the model command area of about 1000 hectares in different parts of the country, for example, UP, Haryana (North), Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu (South), Rajasthan, Gujarat (West), Odisha (East), Meghalaya (North-East).

  • Abatement of pollution:

    • Water conservation and artificial recharge.

    • Reducing groundwater pollution.

    • Construction of Arsenic-free wells in selected areas of the country

  • Creating mass awareness through social media, radio, TV, print media, poster and essay writing competitions in schools.

• Jal Kranti Abhiyan is designed to provide livelihood and food security through water security.

• The human development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education, and access to resources. These rankings are based on a score between 0 to 1 that a country earns from its record in the key areas of human development. Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• The indicator chosen to assess health is life expectancy at birth. A higher life expectancy means that people have a greater chance of living longer and healthier lives. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• The adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge. The number of adults who are able to read and write and the number of children enrolled in schools show how easy or difficult it is to access knowledge in a particular country. Access to resources is measured in terms of purchasing power (in U.S. dollars).

• Each of these dimensions is given a weightage of 1/3. The human development index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions. The closer a score is to one, the greater is the level of human development. Therefore, a score of 0.983 would be considered very high while 0.268 would mean a very low level of human development.

• The human development index measures attainments in human development. It reflects what has been achieved in the key areas of human development. Yet it is not the most reliable measure. This is because it does not say anything about the distribution.

• Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq created HDI in 1990 which was further used to measure the country's development by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Every year UNDP ranks countries based on the HDI report released in their annual report on Human Development. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• To understand why a particular region keeps reporting low or high levels of human development it is important to look at the pattern of government expenditure on the social sector.

• The political environment of the country and the amount of freedom people have is also important. Countries with high levels of human development invest more in the social sectors and are generally free from political turmoil and instability. Distribution of the country’s resources is also far more equitable. Hence statements 3 and 4 are correct.

• Places with low levels of human development tend to spend more on defence rather than social sectors. This shows that these countries tend to be located in areas of political instability and have not been able to initiate accelerated economic development. Hence statement 2 is not correct while statement 1 is correct.

• The Hausa, settled cultivators:

  • The Hausa are a tribe of settled cultivators who inhabit the savanna-lands of the Bauchi Plateau of northern Nigeria.

  • They number almost six million and have been organised in settled agricultural communities for hundreds of years.

  • They are more advanced in their civilisation and ways of life than many of the other African tribes.

  • They live in towns or villages.

  • They do not practise shifting cultivation as many tribes do. Instead, they clear a piece of land and use it for several years, growing a wide range of crops like maize, millet, groundnuts etc. They also cultivate non-food crops like cotton and tobacco.

  • Besides cultivation, the Hausa also make use of domesticated animals, but they are the only subsidiary to crop cultivation.

• Nomadic Herding (pastoral nomadism):

  • Nomadic herding is a primitive subsistence activity.

  • They move from place to place along with their livestock, depending on the availability of pastures & water.

  • A wide variety of animals is kept in different regions.

  • In tropical Africa, cattle are the most important livestock, while in Sahara and Asiatic deserts, sheep, goats and camel are reared.

  • In the mountainous areas of Tibet and Andes, yak and llamas and in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, reindeer are the most important animals.

  • Pastoral nomadism is associated with three important regions:

    • The core region extends from the Atlantic shores of North Africa eastwards across the Arabian Peninsula into Mongolia and Central China.

    • The second region extends over the tundra region of Eurasia.

    • In the southern hemisphere, there are small areas in South-west Africa and on the island of Madagascar.

  • The Bedouin of Arabian Desert:

    • They are nomadic herdsmen.

    • All round the year, the Bedouin wander with their herds in search of water and green pastures. They follow a regular pattern of routes, along which are scanty patches of pastures, wells or springs.

    • They ride on horses and live in tents.

    • They are the best examples of a desert group who have fared well as nomadic herdsmen.

    • Their wealth is their animals.

    • They are also engaged in trade with the caravan merchants and oases people.

  • The Kirghiz of the Asiatic Steppes:

    • They used to travel long distances, in search of grass and water.

    • From domesticated animals, they obtained meat, milk, wool, hides, bones and horn.

    • The harsh environment, with long droughts and unreliable showers, made the Kirghiz a tough and fearless people, ‘the Tartars’, and they long resisted the subjugation of the Russians.

  • The Chukchi of north-eastern Asia:

    • They are nomadic people.

    • They are ancient Arctic people who chiefly live on the Chukchi peninsula or Chukotka.

      • The territory is mostly tundra (treeless arctic plains), with some taiga areas (plains with scattered trees) in the south.

    • The Chukchi language belongs to the Paleoasiatic language family.

    • They were one of the last Siberian peoples to fall under Russian rule.

Hence option (a) is the correct answer.

• Mixed farming is a type of farming that involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. Equal emphasis is laid on crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Animals like cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry provide the main income along with crops.

• This form of agriculture is found in the highly developed parts of the world, e.g. North-western Europe, Eastern North America, parts of Eurasia, and the temperate latitudes of Southern continents.

• Mixed farms are moderate in size and usually, the crops associated with them are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, fodder, and root crops. Fodder crops are an important component of mixed farming. Crop rotation and intercropping play an important role in maintaining soil fertility. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Mixed farming is characterized by high capital expenditure on Agri inputs such as farm machinery and building, extensive use of chemical fertilizers and green manures, and also the skill and expertise of the farmers. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• Natural rubber was first discovered in the Amazon basin, it has since been transplanted to other parts of the equatorial lands and is grown very profitably on large estates. Malaysia and Indonesia are the leading producers, each accounting for more than a third of the world's production. The home country, Brazil exports practically no natural rubber.

• Cocoa is most extensively cultivated in West Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea. The two most important producers are Ghana and Nigeria. All the cocoa here goes into the American and European chocolate industries.

• Oil palm is another important crop. Large areas of tropical forests and other ecosystems with high conservation values have been cleared to make room for vast monoculture oil palm plantations. Around 90% of the world's oil palm trees are grown on a few islands in Malaysia and Indonesia – islands with the most biodiverse tropical forests found on Earth.

• Other crops that have been found suitable for the hot, wet equatorial climate and are extensively cultivated are coconuts, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, spices, cinchona, bananas, pineapples, and sago.

• Cotton is a tropical crop and it is raised in India as a Kharif crop. Cotton requires uniformly high temperatures between 21 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius. During October, the day temperature should be above 26 degrees Celsius which helps the ripening and bursting of cotton balls under the sunny skies.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• The double village settlements spread on both sides of a river where there is bridge or a ferry.

• It is a group of two settlement unit grown up simultaneously or one after another at a place. In this village pattern nallah, stream, river act as a boundary between the two settlements. These villages occupy similar geographic conditions but their revenue and administration dealt separately.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• Asia: China and India have large iron ore deposits. The continent produces more than half of the world’s tin. China, Malaysia, and Indonesia are among the world’s leading tin producers. China also leads in the production of lead, antimony, and tungsten. Asia also has deposits of manganese, bauxite, nickel, zinc, and copper.

• Europe: Europe is the leading producer of iron-ore in the world. The countries with large deposits of iron ore are Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, and France. Minerals deposits of copper, lead, zinc, manganese, and nickel are found in eastern Europe and European Russia.

• North America: The mineral deposits in North America are located in three zones:

  • the Canadian region north of the Great Lakes,

  • the Appalachian region and

• the mountain ranges of the west.

• Iron ore, nickel, gold, uranium, and copper are mined in the Canadian Shield Region, coal in the Appalachian region. Western Cordilleras have vast deposits of copper, lead, zinc, gold, and silver.

• South America: Brazil is the largest producer of high-grade iron ore in the world. Chile and Peru are leading producers of copper. Brazil and Bolivia are among the world’s largest producers of tin. South America also has large deposits of gold, silver, zinc, chromium, manganese, bauxite, mica, platinum, asbestos, and diamond. Mineral oil is found in Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Columbia.

• Africa: Africa is rich in mineral resources. It is the world’s largest producer of diamonds, gold, and platinum. South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zaire produce a large portion of the world’s gold. The other minerals found in Africa are copper, iron ore, chromium, uranium, cobalt, and bauxite. Oil is found in Nigeria, Libya, and Angola. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Australia: Australia is the largest producer of bauxite in the world. It is a leading producer of gold, diamond, iron ore, tin, and nickel. It is also rich in copper, lead, zinc, and manganese. Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie areas of western Australia have the largest deposits of gold. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• Antarctica: The geology of Antarctica is sufficiently well known to predict the existence of a variety of mineral deposits, some probably large. The significant size of deposits of coal in the Transantarctic Mountains and iron near the Prince Charles Mountains of East Antarctica is forecasted. Iron ore, gold, silver, and oil are also present in commercial quantities. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• The current population of the world is nearing 8 billion. It has grown to this size over centuries. In the early periods' population of the world grew very slowly. It is only during the last few hundred years that the world population has increased at an alarming rate.

• After the evolution and introduction of agriculture, the population began to grow slowly but steadily. Around 1750, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the world population was 550 million.

• The world population exploded in the eighteenth century after the Industrial Revolution. Technological advancement achieved so far helped in the reduction of the birth rate and provided a stage for accelerated population growth.

• As a consequence, the world population reached 1 billion in the early 19th century. Thus, it took millions of years for the human population to reach the 1 billion mark. In contrast, it took only 12 years for the world population to reach 7 billion from 6 billion. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• The growth rates of the continents of the world are:

  • Africa - 2.49 %

  • Oceania - 1.31% (Australia, New Zealand, and other island nations)

  • Asia - 0.86%

  • South America - 0.83%

  • North America - 0.77%

  • Europe - 0.06%

• At 2.49 per cent, Africa has the highest growth rate of population among all the continents. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• The importance of foodgrains in the Indian agricultural economy may be gauged from the fact these crops occupy about two-thirds of the total cropped area in the country. Foodgrains are dominant crops in all parts of the country whether they have subsistence or commercial agricultural economy. On the basis of the structure of grain, the foodgrains are classified as cereals and pulses.

• The cereals occupy about 54 percent of the total cropped area in India. India produces a variety of cereals, which are classified as fine grains (rice, wheat) and coarse grains (jowar, bajra, maize, ragi), etc. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• Rice is a staple food for the overwhelming majority of the population in India. About one-fourth of the total cropped area in the country is under rice cultivation. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab are the leading rice-producing states in the country.

• Wheat is the second most important cereal crop in India after rice. About 14 percent of the total cropped area in the country is under wheat cultivation. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan are leading wheat-producing states. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• Manganese is not found as a free element in nature. It is often found in combination with iron. It is an important raw material for smelting iron ore and also used for manufacturing ferroalloys. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• India possesses the second-largest reserves in the world after Zimbabwe and is the fifth-largest producer.

• Manganese deposits are found in almost all geological formations, however, it is mainly associated with Dharwar system. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• Odisha is the leading producer of Manganese. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• Major mines in Odisha are located in the central part of the iron ore belt of India, particularly in Bonai, Kendujhar, Sundergarh, Gangpur, Koraput, Kalahandi, and Bolangir.

• Karnataka is another major producer and here the mines are located in Dharwar, Ballari, Belagavi, North Canara, Chikkmagaluru, Shivamogga, Chitradurg, a and Tumakuru.

• Maharashtra is also an important producer of manganese, which is mined in Nagpur, Bhandara, and Ratnagiri districts.

• Telangana, Goa, and Jharkhand are other minor producers of manganese.