Unit 3, Natural Resources Lec 1

Unit 3
Natural Resources
Contents of Syllabus
• Land resources: Minerals, soil, agricultural crops, natural forest products, medicinal plants, and
forest-based industries and livelihoods; Land cover, land use change, land degradation, soil
erosion, and desertification; Causes of deforestation; Impacts of mining and dam building on
environment, forests, biodiversity, and tribal communities
• Water resources: Natural and man-made sources; Uses of water; Over exploitation of surface and
ground water resources; Floods, droughts, and international &interstate conflicts over water.
• Energy resources: Renewable and non-renewable energy sources; Use of alternate energy
sources; Growing energy needs; Energy contents of coal, petroleum, natural gas and bio gas; Agro-
residues as a biomass energy source.
• Case studies: Contemporary Indian issues related to mining, dams, forests, energy, etc (e.g.,
National Solar Mission, Cauvery river water conflict, Sardar Sarovar dam, Chipko movement,
Appiko movement, Tarun Bharat Sangh, etc).
Natural Resources
• Resources: Anything from which we can derive various benefits.
Resources
• Resources:
Abiotic : eg, Land, Air, Water, minerals etc
Biotic : Forests, animal, their products Abiotic Biotic

Natural Resources : Resources that are
directly derived from nature
• Can be classified into two , Based on rate of Replishment
Natural Resources
Renewable Non Renewable

• Renewable : Can be replenished naturally, The rate of replinshment is
usually faster than the rate of consumption.
Eg: Sunlight, Air, Land , Water, Forests.
Note : But due to continusous human overuse , Water,Land and Forests
are depleted at an alarming rate.
Non Renewable : Limited Resources, Rate of replineshment is very less

than the rate of consumption. They cant be recycled. Imp to save them
Eg : Coal, Gas, oil
Land Resources
• Land resources: Land available for exploitation, All resources which
are available from Land ,
Eg ; Agricultural land, Non agricultural Land for builings and towns
Underground Water, Various minerals.
Land resources comprises of 20% of earth surface area.
• Land Use Change : conversion of Terrestrial Land into other types of
land for Specific reasons.
• Causes of Land Use Change : Human Actions , Industrilization,
Urbanization, Agriculture etc
• Impacts of Land use Change
- Biodiversity loss
- Pollution of Air, Water and Soil
- Climate Change
- Land Degradation
Land Degradation
• Deterioration in the productivity, capacity and quality of vegetation,
soil, water resources associated with land .
• Causes of Land Degradation
- Clearance of vegetation cover
- Soil erosion
- Pollution
- Drought
- Desertification
Desertification
• Type of Land degradation , Land degradation in arid, semiarid and sub
humid areas resulting from various factors mainly human activities.
• Desertification is an extreme case of land degradation
Causes
• Drought and poor practices of farming
• Increased livestock population and its pressure
• Deforestation
Soil erosion
• Soil erosion is the loss or removal of the top layer of soil due to
natural physical agents like wind, water, and even gravity. As the
topmost layer of soil is the most fertile layer, being extremely rich in
organic matter and nutrients, erosion leads to reduced productivity of
the soil, which in turn results in the soil being unable to support
vegetation
• Soil formation is a very slow process with 1 cm of soil taking 200-300
years to form from the bedrock. Hence frequent soil erosion takes
years to restore naturally. When soil erosion is intense, the natural
soil profile is destroyed and may never attain its original capacity.
The various natural and anthropogenic (human originated) reasons for soil erosion
are
• a) Slope of surface
• b) Soil content: Soil with higher content of sand is more prone to erosion as
compared to soil with higher clay amount.
• c) Weather and climatic conditions: natural factors like high intensity rainfall,
floods and
• droughts also increases soil erosion in affected areas.
• d) Deforestation:
• e) Overgrazing
• f) Extensive agriculture and cultivation: Modern day chemical intensive farming
practices
lowers soil organic matter levels, soil biodiversity, and also reduces the soil water
Ways to control Soil Erosin
• a) Erosion control technologies in farming such as no
tillage or low tillage, crop rotation, use mulch cover can
greatly reduce erosion of soil by water
• b) Adoption of terrace farming, contour farming and
setting up structures like windbreaks, live fences, sand
fences etc reduce the soil erosion in areas that are
naturally prone to erosion.
• c) Reforestation in areas where large scale vegetation has
been removed is an extremely important step as trees are
natural binding agents of soil.

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Unit 3

Biotic : Forests, animal, their products Abiotic Biotic

Renewable Non Renewable

Non Renewable : Limited Resources, Rate of replineshment is very less

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