CLASS 7 OUR ENVIRONMENT

The place, people, things and nature that surround any living organism is called
environment. It is a combination of natural and human made phenomena. While the
natural environment refers to both biotic and abiotic conditions existing on the earth,
human environment reveals the activities, creations and interactions among human beings.
Lithosphere is the solid crust or the hard top layer of the earth. It is made up of rocks and
minerals and covered by a thin layer of soil. It is an irregular surface with various landforms
such as mountains, plateaus, plains, valleys, etc. Landforms are found over the continents
and also on the ocean floors.
The domain of water is referred to as hydrosphere. It comprises various sources of water
and different types of water bodies like rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, etc. It is essential for all
living organisms.
The atmosphere is the thin layer of air that surrounds the earth. The gravitational force of
the earth holds the atmosphere around it.
It consists of a number of gases, dust and water vapour. The changes in the atmosphere
produce changes in the weather and climate.
Plant and animal kingdom together make biosphere or the living world. It is a narrow zone
of the earth where land, water and air interact with each other to support life.

Five landlocked states which do not have an international boundary are Chhattisgarh,
Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana.
'Ecuador', 'Colombia' and 'Brazil' are the countries of "Amazon basin" through which the
'Equator' passes.
The Equator passes through 13 countries: Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Sao Tome & Principe,
Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia,
Maldives, Indonesia and Kiribati. At least half of these countries rank among the poorest in
the world.
Which city is closest to equator?
Quito, Ecuador: Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is located just 1 kilometer (0.6 miles)
south of the equator. It has a population of over 2 million people. Pontianak, Indonesia:
Pontianak is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and is located just
0.8 degrees south of the equator.
There are two types of countries on the equator – those that lie entirely on the equator line
and those that just have a small portion of their territory passing through the line. The
former are Ecuador, Kenya and Somalia while the latter include Colombia, Brazil, Congo,
Indonesia, Kiribati

The Amazon basin, the largest in the world, covers about 40% of South America, an area of
approximately 7,050,000 km2 (2,720,000 sq mi). It drains from west to east, from Iquitos in
Peru, across Brazil to the Atlantic. It gathers its waters from 5 degrees north latitude to 20
degrees south latitude. Its most remote sources are found on the inter-Andean plateau,
just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean.[65]

The Amazon River and its tributaries are characterised by extensive forested areas that
become flooded every rainy season. Every year, the river rises more than 9 m (30 ft),
flooding the surrounding forests, known as várzea ("flooded forests"). The Amazon's
flooded forests are the most extensive example of this habitat type in the world

The Amazon is responsible for about 20% of the Earth's fresh water entering the ocean
The headwaters of the Apurímac River on Nevado Mismi had been considered for nearly a
century the Amazon basin's most distant source until a 2014 study found it to be the
headwaters of the Mantaro River on the Cordillera Rumi Cruz in Peru.
[21]
The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form the Ucayali River,
which in turn meets the Marañón River upstream of Iquitos, Peru, forming what countries
other than Brazil consider to be the main stem of the Amazon.
Class 8
CLASS 9 CONTEMPORARY INDIA -1
dams are now referred to as multi-purpose projects where the many uses of the
impounded water are integrated with one another. For example, in the Sutluj-Beas river
basin, the Bhakra – Nangal project water is being used both for hydel power production
and irrigation. Similarly, the Hirakud project in the Mahanadi basin integrates conservation
of water with flood control
In recent years, multi-purpose projects and large dams have come under great scrutiny and
opposition for a variety of reasons. Regulating and damming of rivers affect their natural
flow causing poor sediment flow and excessive sedimentation at the bottom of the
reservoir, resulting in rockier stream Rationalised-2023-24 WATER RESOURCES 23 beds and
poorer habitats for the rivers’ aquatic life. Dams also fragment rivers making it difficult for
aquatic fauna to migrate, especially for spawning. The reservoirs that are created on the
floodplains also submerge the existing vegetation and soil leading to its decomposition over
a period of time.
Multi-purpose projects and large dams have also been the cause of many new
environmental movements like the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ and the ‘Tehri Dam
Andolan’ etc. Resistance to these projects has primarily been due to the large-scale
displacement of local communities. Local people often had to give up their land, livelihood
and their meagre access and control over resources for the greater good of the nation.
In the semi-arid and arid regions of Rajasthan, particularly in Bikaner, Phalodi and Barmer,
almost all the houses traditionally had underground tanks or tankas for storing drinking
water. The tanks could be as large as a big room; one household in Phalodi had a tank that
was 6.1 metres deep, 4.27 metres long and 2.44 metres wide. The tankas were part of the
well-developed rooftop rainwater harvesting system and were built inside the main house
or the courtyard. They were connected to the sloping roofs of the houses through a pipe.
Rain falling on the rooftops would travel down the pipe and was stored in these
underground ‘tankas’. The first spell of rain was usually not collected as this would clean
the roofs and the pipes. The rainwater from the subsequent showers was then collected.
The rainwater can be stored in the tankas till the next rainfall making it an extremely r
eliable source of drinking water when all other sources are dried up, particularly in the
summers. Rainwater, or palar pani, as commonly referred to in these parts, is considered
the purest form of natural water. Many houses constructed underground rooms adjoining
the ‘tanka’ to beat the summer heat as it would keep the room cool.
TRANSPORT
Roadways India has second largest road networks in the world, aggregating to about 62.16
lakh km (2020–21). In India, roadways have preceded railways. They still have an edge over
railways in view of the ease with which they can be built Rationalised-2023-24 72
CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II and maintained. The growing importance of road transport vis-
à-vis rail transport is rooted in the following reasons; (a) construction cost of roads is much
lower than that of railway lines, (b) roads can traverse comparatively more dissected and
undulating topography, (c) roads can negotiate higher gradients of slopes and as such can
traverse mountains such as the Himalayas, (d) road transport is economical in
transportation of few persons and relatively smaller amount of goods over short distances,
(e) it also provides door - to-door service, thus the cost of loading and unloading is much
lower, (f) road transport is also used as a feeder to other modes of transport such as they
provide a link between railway stations, air and sea ports.