NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 3 Chapter opening — The Big Questions
Book page 41 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
What are the major types of landforms and their significance to life and culture?
Answer
A landform is a physical feature on the surface of our planet. The chapter divides them into three major types — mountains, plateaus and plains (Fig. 3.1). Experts add a few more, such as the desert.
The three landforms drawn as side views on one sea-level line. The drawing is not to scale — a real mountain peak would be thirty times taller than the plain is thick.
Landform
How you recognise it
Indian examples
What life is like there
Mountain
Much higher than the land around; broad base, steep slopes, narrow summit; often snow-capped
The Himalayas, the Aravalli Range, the Western Ghats (Anamudi, 2,695 m)
Rugged terrain, so farming only in valleys and on terraces; herding, tourism, pilgrimage; montane forest of pine, fir, spruce and deodar
Plateau
Rises above the surrounding land with a more or less flat top and often steep sides
The Deccan Plateau, the Chhota Nagpur Plateau, the Cherrapunji (Meghalaya) Plateau
Mining — plateaus are called ‘storehouses of minerals’; rocky soil, so less farming, except on fertile black-soil lava plateaus; waterfalls
Plain
Extensive, flat or gently undulating; no large hills or deep valleys; generally under 300 m above sea level
The Ganga plain (‘Gangetic plain’), the Indus and Brahmaputra plains
Very fertile soil from river sediments; farming and fishing; easy travel by road and boat; most of the population lives here
Desert (a fourth type experts add)
Large, dry expanse with very little precipitation and unique flora and fauna
The Thar Desert in the north-west
Harsh conditions, yet rich cultural traditions — folk songs and legends of the desert
Why they matter to life:
They decide the climate. The same country can have permanent snow on a Himalayan peak and burning sand in the Thar.
They decide the water. Snow melting in the mountains feeds rivers; those rivers carry sediments down and build the fertile plains.
They decide the work people do — herding and tourism in the mountains, mining on the plateaus, farming and fishing in the plains.
They decide where people live. Humans have adapted to every landform, but the numbers are very uneven: about 40 crore people live in the Ganga plain alone.
Why they matter to culture:
The Bhūmi Sūkta of the Atharva Veda, quoted at the start of the chapter, praises the Earth “with many heights, slopes and great plains”.
Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhava opens with Himālaya as “the Lord of mountains … who measures the Earth”.
Mountains are worshipped: Everest is Chomolungma, ‘Mother Goddess of the World’, to Tibetans and Sagarmatha, ‘Goddess of the Sky’, to Nepalis; Mount Kailash is sacred to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon.
River sources and confluences are held sacred, and festivals and rituals are held there.
The five tiṇais of ancient Tamil Sangam poetry tie five landscapes to five moods and occupations — kuriñji (mountains), mullai (forest and grassland), marudam (fertile plains), neydal (coast) and pālai (arid land).
Q2.
What are the challenges and opportunities of life associated with each landform?
Answer
No landform is only kind or only cruel. Each one hands people a problem and a gift at the same time, and people answer with clever adaptations.
Landform
Challenges
Opportunities
Mountains
Rugged terrain and steep slopes, so very little flat land to farm; landslides, avalanches, flash floods and cloudbursts; heavy snowfall and cold weather; roads blocked for days; a fragile environment strained by uncontrolled tourism
Crisp air and scenic beauty, so tourism is a major income; sports — skiing, hiking, mountaineering, paragliding; centuries-old pilgrimage routes; timber and montane forest produce; herding; snow-fed rivers that water the whole country below
Plateaus
Often rocky soil, less fertile than plains and less favourable to farming; water can be scarce because the surface is raised and hard; mining damages land and forest
Minerals — ‘storehouses of minerals’; the Chhota Nagpur Plateau has iron, coal and manganese, the East African Plateau gold and diamond; lava plateaus have rich black soil; waterfalls that bring tourists and can generate electricity
Plains
High population and pollution; floods when rivers overflow; groundwater depletion caused by heavy pump irrigation — a real challenge for the future of farming
The most fertile soil, built up from river sediments — rice, wheat, maize, barley, millets, cotton, jute, hemp; river fishing; a gentle slope, so navigation and road building are easy; the birthplace of the first civilisations
Deserts
Very little precipitation, extreme heat or extreme cold, scarce water and few plants
Unique flora and fauna; hardy livestock such as camels; a rich culture of folk songs and legends; today also solar energy and desert tourism
One adaptation worth looking at closely — terrace farming. Since mountain slopes are too steep to plough, people cut the slope into flat steps (Fig. 3.5):
Terrace farming. The dashed line is the bare slope; the green staircase is the same slope after steps have been cut into it.
Why the steps work: on a bare slope, rain runs straight down and carries the topsoil away — that is erosion. A flat step has nowhere to run to, so the water sinks in and the soil stays. One simple change of shape turns unusable land into a paddy field.
Did you know?Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest in 1984 (Padma Shri that year, Padma Bhushan in 2019). Arunima Sinha, who lost a leg in an accident at 22, climbed Everest in 2013 with Bachendri Pal's training and went on to climb the highest peak of every continent, including Mount Vinson in Antarctica (Padma Shri, 2015). Mountains challenge people — and people answer back.