Resources And Development Flashcards
Define Resource
Everything available in our environment
which can be used to satisfy our needs,
provided, it is technologically accessible,
economically feasible and culturally
acceptable can be termed as ‘Resource’.
Classification of resources
These resources can be classified in the
following ways –
(a) On the basis of origin – biotic and abiotic
(b) On the basis of exhaustibility – renewable and non-renewable
(c) On the basis of ownership – individual,
community, national and international
(d) On the basis of status of development –
potential, developed stock and reserves.
resources can be classified in the
following ways -
1. Natural - renewable and non-renewable
2. human - structures and instituions, quantity and quality
- Renewable - continous or flow e.g, wind, water and biological
- biological - natural vegetation(forests) and wildlife
- Non-renewable - recylable and non recyclable
indiscriminate use of resource has led to
human beings used them
indiscriminately and this has led to the
following major problems.
* Depletion of resources for satisfying the
greed of a few individuals.
* Accumulation of resources in few hands, which, in turn, divided the society into two segments
i.e. haves and have nots or rich and poor.
* Indiscriminate exploitation of resources has led to global ecological crises such as, global warming, ozone layer depletion, environmental pollution and land degradation.
Define Sustainable development
Sustainable economic development means
‘development should take place without
damaging the environment, and development in the present should not compromise with the needs of the future generations.’
The Brundtland Commission Report, 1987 introduced the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ and advocated it as a means for resource conservation,
which was subsequently published in a book
entitled Our Common Future.
Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992
In June 1992, more than 100 heads of states
met in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, for the first
International Earth Summit.
=>The Summit was convened for addressing urgent problems of environmental protection and socioeconomic development at the global level.
=> The assembled leaders signed the
Declaration on Global Climatic Change and
Biological Diversity.
=> The Rio Convention endorsed the global Forest Principles and adopted Agenda 21 for achieving Sustainable Development in the 21st century.
Agenda 21
It is the declaration signed by world leaders
in 1992 at the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (UNCED),
which took place at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It
aims at achieving global sustainable
development. It is an agenda to combat
environmental damage, poverty, disease
through global co-operation on common
interests, mutual needs and shared
responsibilities. One major objective of the
Agenda 21 is that every local government
should draw its own local Agenda 21.
RESOURCE PLANNING
Planning is the widely accepted strategy for
judicious use of resources.
There are regions which are rich in certain types of resources but are deficient in some other resources.
There are some regions which can be considered self sufficient in terms of the availability of resources and there are some regions which have acute shortage of some vital resources.
For example, the states of
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya
Pradesh are rich in minerals and coal deposits.
Arunachal Pradesh has abundance of water
resources but lacks in infrastructural
development.
The state of Rajasthan is very well
endowed with solar and wind energy but lacks in water resources.
The cold desert of Ladakh is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. It has very rich cultural heritage but it is deficient in water, infrastructure and some vital minerals.
This calls for balanced resource planning at the national, state, regional and local levels.
Resource Planning in India
Resource planning is a complex process
which involves :
(i) identification and inventory of resources across the regions of the country.
This involves surveying, mapping and qualitative and quantitative estimation and measurement of the resources.
(ii) Evolving a planning structure
endowed with appropriate technology, skill
and institutional set up for implementing
resource development plans.
(iii) Matching the resource development plans with overall national development plans.
India has made concerted efforts for
achieving the goals of resource planning right from the First Five Year Plan launched after Independence.
The availability of resources is a necessary
condition for the development of any region, but mere availability of resources in the absence of corresponding changes in technology and institutions may hinder
development.
There are many regions in our
country that are rich in resources but these
are included in economically backward
regions.
On the contrary there are some regions
which have a poor resource base but they are economically developed.
The history of colonisation reveals that
rich resources in colonies were the main
attractions for the foreign invaders. It was
primarily the higher level of technological
development of the colonising countries that helped them to exploit resources of other regions and establish their supremacy over the colonies. Therefore, resources can
contribute to development only when they are accompanied by appropriate technological development and institutional changes. India has experienced all this in different phases of colonisation.
Therefore, in India, development,
in general, and resource development in
particular does not only involve the
availability of resources, but also the
technology, quality of human resources and
the historical experiences of the people.
Conservation of Resources
Resources are vital for any developmental activity. But irrational consumption and over-utilisation of resources may lead to socio-economic and environmental problems.
Conservation is judicious and planned use of natural resources for sustainable benefit to the present generation. It also maintains a potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations.
To overcome these problems, resource conservation at various levels is important.
This had been the main concern of the leaders and thinkers in the past.
- Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992 was
convened for addressing urgent problems of
environmental protection and socioeconomic development at the global level. - the Brundtland Commission Report, 1987. introduced the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ and advocated it as a means for resource conservation
Mahatma Gandhi
“There is enough for everybody’s need and not for any body’s greed.”
“There is enough for everybody’s need and not for any body’s greed.”
He placed the greedy and selfish
individuals and exploitative nature of modern technology as the root cause for resource depletion at the global level. He was against mass production and wanted to replace it with the production by the masses.
LAND DEGRADATION IN STATES
Mining sites are abandoned after excavation work is complete leaving deep scars and traces of over-burdening. In states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha deforestation due to mining have caused severe land degradation.
In states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra overgrazing is one
of the main reasons for land degradation.
In the states of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar
Pradesh, over irrigation is responsible for land
degradation due to water logging leading to
increase in salinity and alkalinity in the soil.
The mineral processing like grinding of
limestone for cement industry and calcite and
soapstone for ceramic industry generate huge
quantity of dust in the atmosphere. It retards
the process of infiltration of water into the soil
after it settles down on the land. In recent
years, industrial effluents as waste have
become a major source of land and water
pollution in many parts of the country.
Explain four types of resources based on ownership and give one example of each type. (2014)
On the basis of ownership, there are four types of resources:
- Individual Resources. Resources, which are owned privately by individuals, e.g., farmers own
pieces of land or houses. Plantation, pasture lands, water in wells are some resources owned by individuals. - Community Owned Resources. These resources are accessible to all the members of the community, e.g., village ponds, public parks, playgrounds in urban areas are accessible to all the residents of that area
- National Resources. All the resources within the political boundary of a nation including the territorial water (oceanic area upto 12 nautical miles from the coast) extending into the ocean and resources therein belong to the nation, e.g., all minerals, forests, wildlife, water resources, land etc.
- International Resources. There are international institutions which own and regulate some resources, e.g., The oceanic resources beyond 200 km of the Exclusive Economic Zone belong to the open ocean and no individual country can utilise these without the concurrence of international institutions.
three major relief features of India and their respective share in the total area. write the importance of each.
Three major relief features:
1. Plains — 43%
(i) provide facilities for agriculture.
(ii) provide facilities for industrial development.
(iii) because of their level, nature and ease of construction, plains support huge population of the country.
- Mountains — 30%
i) ensure perennial flow of some rivers and many rivers rise from them.
(ii) provide facilities for tourism.
(iii) are important from ecological point of view, e.g. have lot of forest wealth and wildlife. - Plateaus — 27%
(i) possess rich reserves of minerals.
(ii) contain lot of fossil fuels, especially coal.
(iii) possess rich forest cover.
explain the land-use pattern in India. Why has land under forest not increased much since 1960-61?
Land resources are used for the following
purposes:
1. Forests
2. Land not available for cultivation
(a) Barren and waste land
(b) Land put to non-agricultural uses, e.g.
buildings, roads, factories, etc.
3. Other uncultivated land (excluding
fallow land)
(a) Permanent pastures and grazing land,
(b) Land under miscellaneous tree crops
groves (not included in net sown area),
(c) Cultruable waste land (left uncultivated
for more than 5 agricultural years).
4. Fallow lands
(a) Current fallow-(left without cultivation
for one or less than one agricultural year),
(b) Other than current fallow-(left
uncultivated for the past 1 to 5
agricultural years).
5. Net sown area the physical extent of land
on which crops are sown harvested is
known as net sown area.
Area sown more than once in an
agricultural year plus net sown area is
known as gross cropped area.
The land under forests has increased marginally. From 18.11% in 1960-61, it is still only 23.3% which is far lower than the desired 33% as outlined by the National Forest Policy (1952).
Reasons for marginal increase in forest area:
increasing population
technological developments
expansion of agriculture
development of transport and communication facilities
overgrazing
felling of trees
What do you understand by ‘reported area’? What is the reported area of India and why? Give two major reasons.
The percentage of total area for which land-use statistics (data) are available, is termed as ‘reported area’.
Total geographical area of India is 3.28
million sq km. Land use data, however, is
available only for 93 per cent of the total
geographical area because the
land use reporting for most of the north-east states except Assam has not been done fully.
Moreover, some areas of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by Pakistan and China have also not been surveyed.
