NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 3 The chapter in three points — Before we move on …

Book page 57 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Landforms are classified into three main types — mountains, plateaus and plains. They have very different physical characteristics and environments.

Answer

What this recap means, expanded:

	Mountain	Plateau	Plain
Shape	Broad base, steep slopes, narrow summit	Raised, with a more or less flat top and often one steep side	Extensive, flat or gently undulating; no large hills or deep valleys
Height	Much higher than the land around; can be over 8,000 m	A few hundred to several thousand metres	Generally not more than 300 m above sea level
Soil	Thin, stony	Often rocky and less fertile — except lava plateaus, which have rich black soil	Deep and very fertile, built from river sediments
Vegetation	Montane forest — pine, fir, spruce, deodar; higher up, grasses, mosses and lichen	Varies greatly across the world; often scrub and dry forest	Crops and grassland; a wide variety of flora and fauna
Indian example	The Himalayas; the Aravalli Range; the Western Ghats	The Deccan Plateau; the Chhota Nagpur Plateau	The Ganga plain

Two further points the chapter adds to this classification:

Age matters as much as shape. Young mountains such as the Himalayas have tall, sharp peaks and are still growing; old ones such as the Aravalli have been worn round by erosion. Plateaus, too, can be young or old — the Deccan is one of the oldest in the world.
Three is not the whole list. The Earth's surface is very complex, and experts define more landforms — the desert being one, hot like the Thar and the Sahara or cold like the Gobi.

Q2.

Throughout history, people's lives and activities have been much impacted by the type of landform they have lived in. These landforms are an integral part of culture across the world. Indian culture, in particular, has celebrated them in diverse ways.

Answer

Part one — landforms shape what people do:

Landform	Main occupations, as the chapter describes them
Mountains	Terrace farming in the valleys, herding, tourism, mountaineering and pilgrimage services
Plateaus	Mining — many of the world's largest mines are on plateaus
Plains	Agriculture and river fishing; trade and travel along the rivers
Deserts	Herding, trading along desert routes, and a strong tradition of folk songs and legends

Part two — landforms are part of culture everywhere. Many traditional communities across the world consider mountains sacred and worship them. Everest is ‘Chomolungma’, ‘Mother Goddess of the World’, to Tibetans and ‘Sagarmatha’, ‘Goddess of the Sky’, to Nepalis; Mount Kailash in Tibet is held sacred by followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon.

Part three — how Indian culture in particular has celebrated them:

The Bhūmi Sūkta of the Atharva Veda, at the head of the chapter, greets the Earth of “many heights, slopes and great plains” and calls her mother.
Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhava begins by praising Himālaya as the Lord of mountains, stretching from the western to the eastern oceans.
River sources and confluences are treated as sacred, and numerous festivals, ceremonies and rituals are held there.
The five tiṇais of ancient Tamil Sangam poetry give each landscape its own deities, moods and occupations — kuriñji, mullai, marudam, neydal and pālai. They are a completely different way of classifying land, built on human feeling rather than physical shape.
Communities of the Thar Desert keep rich traditions of folk song and legend that grew out of desert life.

Why the tiṇais are put in this chapter: to show that a landform is never only rock and soil. The Tamil poets tied mountains to longing and deserts to separation, which means people had been reading the land as a mirror of human life for two thousand years before geography became a school subject.

Q3.

Each landform offers different challenges as well as opportunities.

Answer

This is the sentence that ties the whole chapter together. In one line each:

Landform	Challenge	Opportunity
Mountains	Steep, rugged terrain; landslides, avalanches, flash floods, cloudbursts, heavy snowfall and cold; a fragile environment	Tourism, sports, pilgrimage, terrace farming, herding, and the snow-melt that feeds the rivers
Plateaus	Rocky soil, less fertile and less favourable to farming	‘Storehouses of minerals’, waterfalls, and rich black soil on lava plateaus
Plains	High population, pollution, and groundwater depletion from heavy irrigation	The most fertile soil, easy navigation and travel, and space for large settlements
Deserts	Very little precipitation and harsh living conditions	Unique flora and fauna, and rich cultural traditions

Why the chapter ends here: because the same fact can be read two ways. Steep slopes stop the plough — and bring the tourists. Sediment-laden rivers flood — and lay down the soil that feeds 40 crore people. The diverse ways in which humans have made all landforms their home is, in the book's own words, “a testimony to our adaptability and resilience”.

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