NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 1 On the map in Fig. 1.1 (page 8) — Let's Explore
Book page 9 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
On the map in Fig. 1.1 given on page 8 — Mark the hospital.
Answer
The hospital is the pink building right in the middle of the map. Two signs identify it at once:
the word HOSPITAL written on the arch in front of it, and
the red cross on its wall — the sign used for medical care almost everywhere in the world.
Its neighbours help you place it: it is south of the lake, east of the school, west of the Nagar Panchayat and north of the market. Draw a circle around it in your book, or mark it with a red cross of your own.
Tip: when you mark anything on a map, add it to the legend (the little box that explains the signs). A mark nobody can decode is of no use to the next reader.
Q2.
What is the meaning of the blue-coloured areas?
Answer
The blue areas stand for water bodies. On this map they are:
the lake — the large blue patch with wavy lines, in the north-west, and
the stream or river that comes down from the north and feeds it.
Why blue: map makers all over the world follow a colour code so that a map can be understood at a glance — blue for water, green for forests, plains and gardens, brown or yellow for hills and higher land, black or red for roads, railway lines and buildings. That is why you can read an atlas of a country whose language you do not know.
Check it yourself: open your atlas at any physical map of India. The Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and every river will be blue; the Thar Desert will be yellow-brown; the Ganga plain will be green.
Q3.
Which is farther away from the railway station — the school, the Nagar Panchayat or the public garden?
Answer
The public garden is the farthest.
Look at the map from west to east. The railway station is at the extreme west edge. Now compare:
Place
Where it lies from the station
How far
School
Just to the south-east, very close by
Nearest
Nagar Panchayat
To the east, a little past the hospital
In between
Public garden
Far to the north-east, at the opposite corner of the map
Farthest
Check it yourself: put the edge of a ruler on the map and measure the straight-line distance from the station to each of the three places. If the map's scale were 1 cm = 500 m, you could turn each measurement into real metres.
Q4.
As a class activity, form groups of three or four students each. Let each group try to draw a map of your school and some of the streets or roads that lead to it, and a few neighbouring buildings. At the end, compare all the maps and discuss.
Answer
How to do it well — in five steps:
Walk and look first. Note the school gate, the main building, the playground, and what stands on each side of the school.
Fix the directions. Find north (the Sun rises roughly east; a compass or a phone compass is surer). Draw the N arrow in a corner of your sheet before anything else.
Choose a scale. For example, count your paces: if the school gate to the main door is 50 paces (about 35 m), let 1 cm = 10 m. Write the scale on the map.
Draw from above, not as a picture from the front. Rooftops become rectangles, roads become double lines, trees become small circles.
Add a legend explaining every symbol and colour you used — blue for the water tank, green for the garden, and so on.
Sample answer for the discussion: “All five maps showed the same school, but they did not look alike. One group made the playground very large because they play there; another forgot the north arrow, so its map could not be matched with the rest. The two maps that used a scale could be compared cell by cell; the rest could not.” Two lessons come out of the comparison: a map is a choice — the map maker decides what to include — and a map without direction and scale cannot be used by anyone else.