The slides mainly includes natural resources, land resources, deforestation

1. NATURAL RESOURCES

2. NATURAL RESOURCES:
➢ Natural resources are resources that exist without any actions of humankind.
➢ Includes all valued characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational, electrical properties
and forces, etc.
➢ On Earth, it includes sunlight, atmosphere, water, land (includes all minerals) along with
all vegetation, crops, and animal life.
CLASSIFICATION:
On the basis of origin, natural resources may be divided into two types:
1. Biotic
2. Abiotic

3. On the basis of recovery rate, natural resources can be categorized as follows:
1. Renewable resources — Renewable resources can be replenished naturally.
➢ These are continuously available and their quantities are not noticeably affected by
human consumption.

4. 2. Non-renewable resources – Non-renewable resources either form slowly or do not
naturally form in the environment.
➢ From the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of
consumption exceeds the rate of replenishment/recovery

5. LAND RESOURCES:
➢ Land is a finite and valuable resource upon which we depend for our food, fibre and
fuel wood, the basic amenities of life.
➢ Soil, especially the top soil, is classified as a renewable resource.
➢ About 200-1000 years are needed for the formation of one inch or 2.5 cm soil, depending
upon the climate and the soil type.
➢ When rate of erosion is faster than rate of renewal, then the soil becomes a
nonrenewable resource.

6. Land use:
Refers specifically the purposes for which land is occupied or managed for human ends.
1. Direct: The direct cause of land use refers to a specific piece of land and how it is being
used at a specific moment in time.
2. Indirect: when a product that has required the use of land in order to produce it, is
consumed or used by some other process.

7. Land use change
➢ Land use change simply refers to the conversion of a piece of land's use by humans,
from one purpose to another.
➢ For example, land may be converted from cropland to grassland, or from wild land
(e.g. tropical forests) to human-specific land uses (e.g. palm oil plantations).
1. Direct land use change
➢ Refers to a specific piece of land, whose use has been converted by humans from one
purpose to another.
➢ For example, a piece of land used for forestry might be deforested and then replaced
by new cropland.

8. 2. Indirect land use change
➢ When a direct change in land use in one location, is causally connected to a
corresponding change in land use in another location.
➢ The causal mechanism behind this shift in land use from one location to another is the
influence of agricultural markets on regional or global land use.

9. Land degradation:
➢ A process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination
of human-induced processes acting upon the land.
➢ It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious or
undesirable.
➢ This is considered to be an important topic of the 21st century due to the implications
land degradation has upon agricultural productivity, the environment, and its effects
on food security.
➢ It is estimated that up to 40% of the world’s
agricultural land is seriously degraded.

10. Cause of land degradation:
1. SOIL EROSION
➢ The literal meaning of ‘soil erosion’is wearing away of soil.
➢ The movement of soil components, especially surface litter and top soil from one place
to another.
➢ Results in the loss of fertility because it is the top soil layer which is fertile.
➢ Two thirds of the seriously degraded lands lie in Asia and Africa.
Two types based upon the cause of erosion:
(i) Normal erosion or geologic erosion:
▪ Caused by the gradual removal of top soil by natural processes
▪ Equilibrium between physical, biological and hydrological activities and maintain a
natural balance between erosion and renewal.

11. (ii) Accelerated erosion:
▪ By anthropogenic activities
▪ The rate of erosion is much faster than the rate of formation of soil.
▪ Overgrazing, deforestation and mining
Agents which cause soil erosion:
a) Climatic agents:
▪ Water and wind
▪ Water affects soil erosion in the form of torrential rains, rapid flow of water along
slopes, run-off, wave action and melting and movement of snow

12. Types of water induced soil erosion:
l. Sheet erosion:
• When there is uniform removal of a
thin layer of soil from a large surface area.
• This is usually due to run-off water.
• Deposition of eroded soil occurs at the bottom of the slope or in low areas.
Il. Rill erosion:
• When there is rainfall and rapidly running water produces
finger-shaped grooves or rills over the area.
• When the process of soil erosion and deposition through
interrill is prolonged, the interrill are widened leading to
the formation of small channels called rills.

13. lII. Gully erosion:
It is a more prominent type of soil erosion.
When the rainfall is very heavy, deeper cavities or
gullies are formed, which may be U or V shaped.
lV Slip erosion:
This occurs due to heavy rainfall on slopes of hills
and mountains.
V. Stream bank erosion:
During the rainy season, when fast running streams
take a turn in some other direction,
they cut the soil and make caves in the banks.

14. Wind erosion
Three types of soil movements:
l Saltation: This occurs under the influence of direct pressure of stormy wind and the soil
particles of 1-1.5 mm diameter move up in vertical direction.

15. II. Suspension: Here fine soil particles (less than 1 mm dia) which are suspended in the air
are kicked up and taken away to distant places.
III. Surface creep: Here larger particles (5-10 mm diameter) creep over the soil surface
along with wind.
b) Biotic agents:
➢ Excessive grazing ------- 35%,
➢ Mining ------ 28% and
➢ Deforestation ------- 28%
➢ Due to these processes the top soil is disturbed or rendered devoid of vegetation cover.

16. Desertification:
➢ Biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or
➢ induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly more arid.
➢ Some 10 to 20% of dry lands are already degraded, and ongoing desertification
threatens the world’s poorest populations and the prospects of poverty reduction.
➢ One of the greatest environmental challenges today and a major barrier to meeting
basic human needs in dry lands.

17. Soil Conservation Practices:
In order to prevent soil erosion and conserve the soil the following conservation practices
are employed:
(i) Conservational till farming:
▪ Popularly known as no-till-farming causes minimum disturbance to the top soil.
▪ Here special tillers break up and loosen the subsurface soil without turning over the
topsoil.
▪ The tilling machines make slits in the unploughed
soil and inject seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and a
little water in the slit, so that the seed germinates
and the crop grows successfully without
competition with weeds.

18. (ii) Contour farming:
▪ On gentle slopes, crops are grown in rows across, rather than
up and down, a practice known as contour farming.
▪ Each row planted horizontally along the slope of the land acts
as a small dam to help hold soil and slow down loss of soil through run-off water.
(iii) Terracing:
▪ It is used on still steeper slopes, are converted into
a series of broad terraces which run across the contour.
▪ Terracing retains water for crops at all levels and cuts down
soil erosion by controlling run off.
▪ In high rainfall areas, ditches are also provided behind the terrace to permit adequate
drainage.

19. (iv) Strip cropping:
▪ Here strips of crops are alternated with strips of soil
saving cover crops like grasses or grass-legume mixture.
▪ Whatever run-off comes from the cropped soil is retained
by the strip of cover crop and this reduces soil erosion.
▪ Nitrogen fixing legumes also help in restoring soil fertility.
(vi) Alley cropping:
• It is a form of inter-cropping in which crops
are planted between rows of trees or shrubs.
• Also called Agro forestry.
• Even when the crop is harvested, the soil is not fallow
because trees and shrubs still remain on the soil holding the soil particles and

20. DEFORESTATION:
➢ The permanent removal of trees to make
room for something besides forest.
➢ This can include clearing the land for
agriculture or grazing, or using the timber for fuel, construction or manufacturing.
➢ According to the World Wildlife Fund, Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's
land surface,
➢ The total forest area of the world in 1900 = 7,000 million hectares
1975 = 2890 million hectares
2000 = 2,300 million ha
Between 2000 and 2012 = 2.3 million square kilometers cut down

21. ➢ According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, the global rate of net forest
loss in 2010–2020 was 7 million ha per year
➢ The world has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, which is an area about the size of
Libya
➢ Deforestation rate is relatively less in temperate countries,
➢ In tropical countries = 40-50 % and
➢ In the next 60 years we would lose > 90 % of our tropical forests.

22. Major Causes of Deforestation:
(i) Shifting cultivation:
➢ There are an estimated 300 million people living as shifting cultivators who practice
slash and burn agriculture.
➢ More than 5 lakh ha of forests for shifting cultivation annually cleared.
➢ In India, we have this practice in North East and
▪ Andhra Pradesh,
▪ Bihar and
▪ Madhya Pradesh which
contribute to nearly half of the
forest clearing annually.

23. ii) Agriculture:
➢ According to the FAO, agriculture causes around 80% of deforestation.
➢ Commercial or industrial agriculture (field crops and livestock) cause around 40% of
forest loss – in the search for space to grow food, fibers or biofuel (such as soybeans,
palm oil, beef, rice, maize, cotton and sugar cane).
➢ It is also particularly interesting to note livestock is believed to be responsible for about
14% of global deforestation.

24. iii) Mining
➢ Oil and mining of coal require a large amount of forest land.
➢ Construction of roads leads to deforestation as they provide the way to remote land.
➢ The waste that comes out from mining pollutes the environment and affects the nearby
species.

25. iv) Urbanization
➢ As the population grows, the needs of people increases which further leads to
deforestation. Forests shrink to a great extent to meet the requirements like
➢ for construction of roads,
▪ development of houses,
▪ mineral exploitation and
▪ expansion of industries.

26. V) Construction:
➢ The construction of human infrastructures has also been driving deforestation.
➢ More specifically, 10% of deforestation can be attributed to new infrastructures that
serve the current human lifestyle in four main ways:
▪ transportation,
▪ transformation and
▪ energy generation.
➢ Roads, rails, ports or airports have been built to move all sorts of goods – from cereals
and fruits to spices, minerals or fossil fuels – either directly to trade centers or to
transformation sites.
➢ So while at first there were only fruit trees, roads soon arrived to allow transporting
fruit to other regions.

27. ➢ Coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, but also meat, dairy or spirits, required the construction
of large extraction, transportation and/or transformation infrastructures.
VI) Timber Production:
➢ One of the primary cause of deforestation is the production of timber.

28. VII) Forest fires:
➢ The fire caused, by man or nature, results
in huge loss of forest cover.
➢ This happens due to extreme summers and winters.
(vi) Overgrazing:
➢ The poor in the tropics mainly rely on
wood as a source of fuel leading to loss of
tree cover and the cleared lands are
turned into the grazing lands.
➢ Overgrazing by the cattle leads to further
degradation of these lands.

29. Impacts of deforestation:
1. Due to mining:
➢ Mining operations for extracting minerals and fossil fuels like coal often involves vast
forest areas.
➢ Mining from shallow deposits is done by surface mining while that from deep deposits is
done by sub-surface mining.
➢ More than 80,000 ha of land of the country is presently under the stress of mining
activities.
➢ Mining and its associated activities require
▪ removal of vegetation along with underlying soil mantle and overlying rock masses
results in defacing the topography and destruction of the landscape in the area.

30. ➢ Large scale deforestation has been reported in Mussorie and Dehradun valley (about 40
Km area).
➢ Declination rate = 33% ------- increase in non-forest area
➢ Indiscriminate mining in forests of
▪ Goa since 1961 has destroyed more than 50,000 ha of forest land.
▪ Coal mining in Jharia, Raniganj and Singrauli
▪ Mining of magnesite and soap- stones have destroyed 14 ha of forest in the hill
slopes at Khirakot, Kosi valley, Almora.
▪ Mining of radioactive minerals in Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka are posing
similar threats of deforestation.
▪ The rich forests of Western Ghats are also facing the same threat due to mining
projects for excavation of copper, chromite, bauxite and magnetite

31. Due to dams and river valley projects:
➢ Big dams and river valley projects have multi-purpose uses and referred to as Temples
of modern India.
➢ India has more than 1550 large dams,
▪ maximum being in the state of Maharashtra (more then 600),
▪ Gujarat (more then 250) and
▪ Madhya Pradesh (130).
➢ The highest one is Tehri dam, on river Bhagirathi in Uttaranchal and
➢ Largest in terms of capacity is Bhakra dam on river Satluj in H.P.

32. ➢ Silent Valley hydroelectric project was one of the first such projects situated in the
tropical rain forest area of Western Ghats.
➢ The crusade against the ecological damage and deforestation caused due to Tehri dam
was led by Sh. Sunder lal Bahuguna, the leader of Chipko movement.
➢ The cause of Sardar Sarovar Dam related issues has been taken up by the environmental
activists Medha Patekar, joined by Arundhati Ray and Baba Amte.
➢ Floods, droughts and landslides become more prevalent in such areas.
➢ The plants species present in forest could be having marvelous economic or medicinal
value and deforestation results in loss of this storehouse of species which have evolved
over millions of years in a single stroke.

34. Biodiversity loses:
➢ Many of the plants and animals do not survive.
➢ The entire species can extinct. This is the ‘biodiversity loss’.
➢ Many wonderful species of plants and animals have been lost, and many others remain
endangered.
➢ We lose about 50 to 100 species of animals each day due to the destruction of their
habitats.
➢ Millions of plants and animal species are on the verge of extinction due to deforestation.

35. Greenhouse Gas Emissions
➢ Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere, leading
change in climate.
➢ Trees absorb the carbon dioxide and
release oxygen and water into the atmosphere
and this contributes to global warming.

36. Soil Erosion and Flooding
➢ Trees help the land to retain water and topsoil, which provides the rich nutrients to
sustain additional forest life.
➢ Without forests, the soil erodes and washes away, causing farmers to move on and
perpetuate the cycle.
➢ The barren land which is left behind in the
wake of these unsustainable agricultural
practices is then more susceptible to
flooding, specifically in coastal regions

37. Effect of tribal population:

38. ➢ They are unable to carry out their traditional ways of life and their homeland is often
destroyed.
➢ It can affect their food and water resources
➢ They do not have all the modern technology that we have. So they are not able to
adapt to the lives in urban areas of their countries,
➢ They also would find difficulty for finding the job due to their history of living in
tribes and rainforest.