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Jharkhand with a geographical area of 79,714 km2 constitutes 2.42% of the country’s area. The total recorded forest area of the state is 23,605 km2 which is 29.61% of the geographical area of the state. Of the total recorded forest area, Reserved Forests constitute 18.58%, Protected Forests 81.28%, and Unclassed Forests 0.14%. As per State … Read more Jharkhand’s Geography: Forests
Soil is one of the most important non-renewable basic resources on the earth surface. Therefore greater attention has been paid through out the world to study the soils, their distribution and extent, behavior, potentials and problems and their suitability for sustained use for different purposes. Jharkhand state lies between 21o 58’2” to 25o … Read more Soil types
The state falls under the Tropical Monsoon climatic region. The Tropic of Cancer cuts across the state passing through the middle of the Ranchi City. The average temperature of the state is 25° C, which varies greatly because of varying heights of different plateaus mentioned above. The average temperature of the Pat region is … Read more Climate
The radial centrifugal drainage system of Jharkhand state has number of rivers. Most of these rivers remain relatively dry during summer months (February-May) but exhibit torrential flow during the months of monsoons (June-September). Jharkhand has a vast potential for generating hydel power as is exemplified by the location of the famous Damodar Valley Corporation … Read more Drainage System
Jharkhand is located in the eastern part of India bordering the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, and Chattisgarh. Tropic of Cancer passes through Kanke, few kilometers away from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, making it the only state in India touched by Tropic of Cancer. Most of the Jharkhand region is … Read more Landforms
The spatial extent of Jharkhand State is approximately 21° 55’ to 25° 35’ North Latitude and 83° 20’ to 88° 02’ East Longitude. The state is land locked and it shares its boundary with Orissa on the southeast, Chattisgarh on the southwest, Bihar on the north, West Bengal on the east and Uttar Pradesh … Read more Geological history
Based on the value addition and tangibility broadly we can have three types of industries – primary industries,secondary industries and tertiary industries. Primary industries are usually very simple industries involving processing of raw materials to give input goods for secondary industries. Here value addition is usually minimal and they are usually material oriented.Scale of … Read more Development of Industries : Types of Industries;factors of industrial location, distribution and changing pattern of selected industries [iron and steel, cotton textile, sugar and petro- chemicals); Weber’s theory of industrial location-lts relevance in the modern world.
Petroleum, natural gas, coal, nitrogen, uranium and water power are examples of conventional sources of energy. They’re also called non-renewable sources of energy and are mainly fossil fuels, except water power. Rising growth of population has created a tremendous pressure on the conventional resources of energy and thus the concept of sustainable development get prominent … Read more Non- metallic and conventional minerals [coal,petroleum and natural gas), (c) hydro electricity and non conventional sources of energy (Solar, Wind, bio-gas),(d) energy sources Their distribution and conservation.
Mineral is a naturally occurring, homogeneous inorganic solid substance having a definite chemical composition and characteristic crystalline structure, color, and hardness Minerals are valuable natural resources that are finite and non-renewable. The history of mineral extraction in India dates back to the days of the Harappan civilization. The wide availability of minerals in the … Read more Minerals and Energy Resources : Distribution and utility of [a] metallic minerals (ion ore, copper, bauxite, manganese)
Scarcity of water Water scarcity is possibly to pose the greatest challenge on account of its increased demand coupled with shrinking supplies due to over utilisation and pollution. Water is a cyclic resource with abundant supplies on the globe. Approximately, 71 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered with it but fresh … Read more Scarcity of water, methods of conservation-rain water harvesting and watershed management, ground water management
Industrial Uses The share of industrial sector is limited to 2 per cent of the surface water utilisation and 5 per cent of the ground-water. Rough estimates indicate that the present water use in the industrial sector is of the order of 15 km3 . The water use by thermal and nuclear power … Read more Utilization for industrial and other purposes, irrigation
Water is a prime natural resource, a basic human need and a precious national asset. Planning, development and management of water resources need to be governed by national perspectives. India accounts for about 2.45 per cent of world’s surface area, 4 per cent of the world’s water resources and about 16 per cent of … Read more Water Resources : Availability
Rice The rice is cultivated on the largest areas in India. Historians believe that while the indica variety of rice was first domesticated in the area covering the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas (i.e. north-eastern India).Rice is a nutritional staple food which provides instant energy as its most important component is carbohydrate (starch). Rice … Read more Geographical condition and distribution of major crops, like,Rice, Wheat,Cotton, Jute, Sugarcane, Rubber, Tea and Coffee
Land is a finite resource. Land availability is only about 20% of the earth’s surface. Land is crucial for all developmental activities, for natural resources, ecosystem services and for agriculture. Growing population, growing needs and demands for economic development, clean water, food and other products from natural resources, as well as degradation of land … Read more Development and Utilization Land Resources ie General land use, agricultural land use
What are natural resources ? Natural resources are useful raw materials that we get from the Earth. They occur naturally, which means that humans cannot make natural resources. Instead, we use and modify natural resources in ways that are beneficial to us. The materials used in human-made objects are natural resources. Some examples of natural … Read more Natural Resources of India
The definition of function varies across the disciplines. In political science it refers to duties, in mathematics it means the relationship between two variables and in geography it is synonymous to occupation. Geographers have classified towns on the basis of their site, situation, size, rank, location and relative elevation. Functional classification of towns attempts to categorize towns … Read more functional classification of urban settlements Problems of human settlement in India
Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements and the process of their formation and transformation.Morphological studies often deal with development of forms and pattern of the present city or other urban areas through time. Urban morphology is the study of the physical form of a city, which consists of street … Read more Urban morphology
Settlement can be defined as any form of human habitation which ranges from a single dwelling to large city. The word settlement has another connotation as well as this is a process of opening up and settling of a previously uninhabited area by the people. In geography this process is also known as occupancy. … Read more Types of Settlements : rural and urban
The rapid pace of population growth has led to the excessive utilization of natural resources. Huge population also leads to huge production of wastes. The resultant outcomes are loss of biodiversity, pollution of air, water and soil and increased pressure on arable land. All these have been putting great stress on the environment. If … Read more Population, environment and development
Rural-Urban Composition: For the first time since Independence, the absolute increase in population is more in urban areas that in rural areas Rural Population in India: 68.84% Urban Population in India: 31.16% Level of urbanization increased from 27.81% in 2001 Census to 31.16% in 2011 Census The proportion of rural population declined from 72.19% … Read more Age: Sex, ratio, rural-urban composition
India is the second most populous country in the world next only to China. On March 1, 2011 the total population of India was at 1.247 billion. This accounted for 17.5% of the world’s total population. In other words, about every sixth person in the world there is an Indian. China, the most populous country … Read more Population growth, distribution and density
Natural Hazards of India Disaster A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s capacity to cope using its own resources. Vulnerability + Hazard =Disaster Vulnerability- it is defined as the diminished capacity of … Read more Natural Hazards : Floods, Droughts, Cyclones, Landslides
Soil is defined as upper layer of the earth composed of loose surface material. It is a mixture of many substances including endless variety of minerals, remnants of plants and animals, water and air. It is the end product of continuing interaction between the parent material, local climate, plant and animal organisms and elevation … Read more Major types of Soils.(ICAR classification) and their distribution. Soil degradation and conservation
In India, at present forest areas cover about 76.5 million hectares of land, which is about 23 per cent of the total geographical area. It ranges from about 87 per cent in Andaman & Nicobar Islands to only about 4 percent in Haryana making to range difference of 83 percent. According to our National … Read more Natural Vegetation-Forest types and distribution, wild life, conservation, biosphere reserves
According to FAO Food Security is “a situation in which all people at all times have access to adequate quantities of safe and nutritious food to lead a healthy and active life”. This definition requires three basic conditions to be met: 1) adequacy, i.e. supplies from domestic production, stocks and imports are sufficient to meet the … Read more Food scarcity
The Green Revolution was initiated in the 1960’s to address the issue of malnutrition in the developing world. The technology of the Green Revolution involved bio-engineered seeds that worked in conjunction with chemical fertilizers and heavy irrigation to increase crop yields. Green Revolution was largely confined in wheat crop and in northern India such … Read more Green Revolution and its impact on major crops of India
The word “monsoon” comes from the Arabic word mausim, meaning season.Monsoons refer to a system of winds in the tropical regions under which the direction of winds is reversed completely between the summer and the winter seasons. Under this system, the winds blow from land to sea in winter and from sea to land … Read more Indian monsoon, mechanism, onset and retreat
Drainage: Flow of water through well-defined channels. Network of such channels is called a drainage system . Drainage basin: An area drained by a river and its tributaries. Watershed: Boundary line separating one drainage basin from other. River basins are larger watersheds. Drainage pattern of an area depends on the geological time period, nature … Read more Drainage Systems Himalayan and the Peninsular
Three Geological divisions: The peninsular block The Himalayas and other Peninsular Mountains Indo-Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain Peninsualar block is made of gneisses (metamorphic) and granites (igneous). Six physiographic divisions: The Northern and North-eastern Mountains The Northern Plain The Peninsular Plateau The Indian Desert The Coastal Plains The Islands Northern and North-Eastern Mountains Approximate length of … Read more Structure, relief and physiographic divisions
Three Geological divisions: The peninsular block The Himalayas and other Peninsular Mountains Indo-Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain Peninsualar block is made of gneisses (metamorphic) and granites (igneous). Six physiographic divisions: The Northern and North-eastern Mountains The Northern Plain The Peninsular Plateau The Indian Desert The Coastal Plains The Islands Northern and North-Eastern Mountains Approximate length of … Read more Structure, relief and physiographic divisions
It is the long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time Though it has been happening naturally for millions of years, in recent years it has accelerated due to anthropogenic causes and has been causing global warming. UNFCCC defines climate change as – “a change of climate … Read more Climatic changes
An increase in the average temperature of Earth’s near surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century 4th assessment report of IPCC: global temperature increased 74+0.18 degree C during the 20th century. Caused by greenhouse gases Water vapour, Co2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, CFCs (in order of abundance) Since the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has increased the … Read more Global warming
The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases. It is the process by which radiation from a planet’s atmosphere warms the planet’s surface to a … Read more Greenhouse effect
Climatic Regions of India : Koeppen’s Classification Climate Type Climatic Region Annual Rainfall in the Region Amw (Monsoon type with shorter dry winter season) Western coastal region, south of Mumbai over 300 cm As (Monsoon type with dry season in high sun period) Coromandel coast = Coastal Tamil Nadu and adjoining areas of Andhra Pradesh … Read more Classification of climates, (Koppen and Thornthwaite)
The atmospheric disturbances which involve a closed circulation about a low pressure centre, anticlockwise in the northern atmosphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere are called cyclones. They fall into the following two broad categories: (a) Extra-tropical or Temperate and (b) tropical cyclones. (a) Temperate Cyclones Temperate cyclones are formed along a front … Read more Tropical and temperate cyclones
Airmasses An airmass is a large body of air with relatively uniform thermal and moisture characteristics. Airmasses cover large regions of the earth, typically several hundred thousand square kilometers. Airmasses can be as deep as the depth of the troposphere or as shallow as 1 to 2 km. Airmasses form when air remains … Read more Air masses and fronts
The temperature is the measurement in degrees of how hot (or cold) a thing (or a place) is. The temperature of the atmosphere is not same across the Earth. It varies in spatial and temporal dimensions. The temperature of a place depends largely on the insolation received by that place. The interaction of insolation … Read more Horizontal and vertical distribution of temperature, inversion of temperature
The ultimate source of atmospheric energy is in fact heat and light received through space from the Sun. This energy is known as solar insolation. The Earth receives only a tiny fraction of the total amount of Sun’s radiations. Only two billionths or two units of energy out of 1,00,00,00,000 units of energy … Read more Insolation,heat budget of the earth
An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body, that is held in place by the gravity of that body. Many of the planets in this solar system have atmospheres, but none that we know of have an atmosphere quite like ours – one that can support life. The … Read more Composition, Structure and Stratification of the atmosphere
Table of content Weathering Mass Wasting Erosion and Deposition Soil Formation Landscape (Geological) Cycles Davis Cycle Penck Cycle Weathering Weathering is the general term applied to the combined action of all processes that cause rock to disintegrate physically and decompose chemically because of ex- posure near the Earth’s surface through the elements of … Read more Geomorphic processes; Weathering, mass wasting, erosion and deposition,soil formation,Landscape cycles, ideas of Davis and Penck
Landform Each landform has its unique physical shape, size, materials and is a result of the action of certain geomorphic processes and agent(s). Every landform has a beginning. Landforms once formed may change in their shape, size and nature slowly or fast due to continued action of geomorphic processes and agents. Due to changes … Read more Evolution and characteristics of landforms in the Fluvial, Glacial, Arid and Karst regions
They are aggregates or physical mixture of one or more minerals. Minerals on the other hand are made up of two or more elements in a definite ratio. They have a definite chemical composition. Crust is made up of more than 2000 minerals, but out of these, 6 are the most abundant and … Read more Major types of rocks and their characteristics
A tsunami is a very long-wavelength wave of water that is generated by sudden displacement of the seafloor or disruption of any body of standing water. Tsunami are sometimes called “seismic sea waves”, although they can be generated by mechanisms other than earthquakes. Tsunami have also been called “tidal waves”, but this … Read more Tsunamis
Earthquakes occur when energy stored in elastically strained rocks is suddenly released. This release of energy causes intense ground shaking in the area near the source of the earthquake and sends waves of elastic energy, called seismic waves, throughout the Earth. Earthquakes can be generated by bomb blasts, volcanic eruptions, sudden volume changes in … Read more Earthquakes
Volcano is a place on the earth’s surface (or any other planet) where molten rock and gases are erupted. or hill or mountain built up by the eruption of molten rock.Volcanic eruptions are caused by magma (a mixture of liquid rock, crystals, and dissolved gas) expelled onto the Earth’s surface. Basaltic magmas tend … Read more Volcanoes
The uppermost outer solid and rigid layer of the earth is called crust. Its thickness varies considerably. It is as little as 5 km thick beneath the oceans at some places but under some mountain ranges it extends upto a depth of 700km. Below the crust denser rocks are found, known as mantle crust. … Read more Plate tectonics
Alfred Wegner was a German Meteorologist in the early 1900s who studied ancient climates. Like most people, the jigsaw puzzle appearance of the Atlantic continental margins caught his attention. He put together the evidence of ancient glaciations and the distribution of fossil to formulate a theory that the continents have moved over the … Read more Wegner’s Continental Drift Theory
Most of the knowledge we have about Earth’s deep interior comes from the fact that seismic waves penetrate the Earth and are recorded on the other side. Earthquake ray paths and arrival times are more complex than illustrated in the animations, because velocity in the Earth does not simply increase with depth. Velocities generally … Read more Interior of earth,
Beginning of the Universe started about 13.6 billion years ago,when the Big Bang created the universe from a point source. During this process, light elements, like H, He, Li, B, and Be formed. From this point in time, the universe began to expand and has been expanding ever since. Concentrations of gas and … Read more Origin and evolution of earth
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