NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 12 .1 How Do We Experience and Interpret Our Surroundings? — In-text Questions

Book page 19212 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

What common characteristics do you observe in the two habitats in Activity 12.1?

Answer

Both habitats have living beings as well as non-living things. That is the similarity. But the types of living beings are different, and the non-living things vary too.

	Pond	Forest
Same in both	Biotic components + abiotic components, interacting
Biotic components	Fish, frogs, algae, lotus	Trees, grass, deer, fox, mushroom
Abiotic components	Water is the medium; oxygen dissolved in it	Air is the medium; soil holds the water

Why it happens: every habitat must supply the same four things — food, oxygen, shelter and space to grow. What differs is how it supplies them. A fish takes its oxygen from water, a deer from air. So the same requirement is met in two different ways, and that is why the two habitats hold two different sets of organisms.

Q2.

Have you wondered why some organisms live on land while others live in water?

Answer

Because every organism needs specific conditions to survive, and different habitats offer different living conditions.

An organism can live only where its body actually works. A fish's body is built to take oxygen that is dissolved in water, its shape is built to move through water, and its eggs must be laid in water so they do not dry out. Put it on land and none of these work. A deer's body is built the opposite way — it takes oxygen from air, its legs are built for running on soil, and its skin would lose water very fast if it stayed submerged.

Why it happens: organisms adapt to survive in the surrounding conditions they live in. Adaptation is a fit between a body and a set of conditions. Change the conditions and the fit is lost — which is exactly what happens to elephants when a forest dries out.

Q3.

How do fish survive in a pond?

Answer

The pond supplies everything a fish needs — food, oxygen, shelter, and space to grow.

Biotic needs — food → from small plants and animals in the pond
Abiotic needs — oxygen → from the water (oxygen dissolved in it)
Shelter → weeds, reeds and the lotus leaves
Space → the volume of the pond itself

Notice how the two kinds of need are met by two different kinds of component. That is the whole point of the activity: a fish does not survive because of the water alone, or because of the algae alone, but because the biotic and abiotic components of the pond work together.

Check it yourself: ask what would happen if the pond's plants died. Less oxygen would be produced in the water — and the fish would be in trouble even though the water is still there. You will meet exactly this chain again in Fig. 12.13.

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