Resources and Development Test - 2

Non-Renewable Resources: A nonrenewable resource is a resource of economic value that cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equal to its consumption. It take thousands of years to form naturally and cannot be replaced as fast as they are being consumed.  Some of the resources like metals are recyclable and some like fossil fuels cannot be recycled and get exhausted with their use. Coal, iron ore, petroleum, diesel are of the same kind.

The arable land that is not taken up for cultivation is called culturable wastleland. The land once used for cultivation but was unploughed for five years also fell in this same classification. Such land may either follow or overturned with shrubs and weeds.

Alluvial Soils: This is the most widely spread and important soil. Alluvial soils is are formed by the deposits of the sediments brought by rivers. Most of the rivers originate from the Himalayas and bring along high amount of sediments with them. It is found in the northern plains beginning from Punjab to West Bengal and Assam. It is also found in deltas of different rivers such as Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri and Mahanadi in peninsular India. Alluvial soil is highly fertile and is light grey in colour. Crops mainly cultivated include wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, pulses, oilseed etc.

The alluvial soil consists of various proportions of sand, silt and clay. As we move inlands towards the river valleys, soil particles appear somewhat bigger in size. In the upper reaches of the river valley i.e. near the place of the break of slope, the soils are coarse. Such soils are more common in piedmont plains such as Duars, Chos and Terai. Duars are the floodplains and foothills of the eastern Himalayas in North-East India around Bhutan. Terai is a belt of marshy land at the foot of mountains at the foot of the Himalayas in North India. The ‘chos’ have laid waste large area of the fertile plain. 

The chemical composition of the alluvial soils makes this group of soils as one of the most fertile in the world. The proportion of nitrogen is generally low, but potash, phosphoric acid and alkalies are adequate, while iron oxide and lime vary within a wide range. The porosity and texture provide good drainage and other conditions favourable for bumper crops like sugarcane, paddy, wheat and other cereal and pulse crops.

According to their age alluvial soils can be classified as old alluvial (Bangar) and new alluvial (Khadar). The bangar soil has higher concentration of kanker nodules than the Khadar. Kanker nodules are calcium carbonate concentrates that occurs asnodules/pebbles in the Indo Gangetic plain. These are generally contained in the Bangar soil and hinder its fertility.Kanker nodules are generally found in the older alluvium deposits.

A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply into soil, typically on a hillside. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to tens of metres in depth and width.

A ravine is a landform narrower than a canyon and is often the product of stream cutting erosion.The Chambal river badlands is a late Pleistocene-Holocene degradational landscape. In the Chambal basin such lands are called ravines.

It is the farming practice of plowing and/or planting across a slope following its elevation contour lines. These contour lines create a water break which reduces the formation of rills and gullies during times of heavy water run-off; which is a major cause of soil erosion. The water break also allows more time for the water to settle into the soil.

Shelter belt is a wide range of trees, shrubs and grasses planted in rows which go right across the land at right angles to the direction or the prevailing to defect in movement to reduce wind. These shelter belts have contributed significantly to the stabilisation of sand dunes and in stabilising the desert in western India.