The first thing the map settles is that the four minerals in its legend — coal, oil, iron ore and bauxite — are not spread evenly at all. Each one sits in a few districts and is missing from most of the country.
Reading Fig. 1.11 mineral by mineral:
| Mineral (legend symbol) | Places marked on the map | The pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Coal (black circle) | Raniganj, Jharia, Bokaro, Korba, Talcher, Singhareni, Neyveli; Makum and Janji in Assam | A belt across the north-east peninsula — Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh — plus outliers at Neyveli in the far south and in upper Assam |
| Oil (yellow triangle) | Digboi, Naharkatia, Moran, Hugrijan (Assam); Kalol and Ankleshwar (Gujarat); Bassein and Mumbai High, both offshore | Two clusters only — upper Assam in the north-east and Gujarat with the sea off Mumbai in the west |
| Iron ore (pink square) | Gua, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Durg, Bailadila, Chandrapur; Ratnagiri, Goa, Ballari, Chitradurga, Chikkamagaluru, Kudremukh, Tumkur | Two arcs — one in the east (Jharkhand–Odisha–Chhattisgarh) and one down the west and south (Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka) |
| Bauxite (orange diamond) | Katni, Amarkantak, Bilaspur, Koraput | The fewest sites of all, strung along the central-eastern plateau |
What the pattern means. Notice how often coal and iron ore lie close together in the Jharkhand–Odisha–Chhattisgarh belt. That is why India's big steel towns — Bokaro, Durgapur, Rourkela, Bhilai — grew exactly there: iron ore and the coal needed to smelt it were both within reach. This is the chapter's point on page 9 in visible form — industries locate near natural resources, and townships grow around the industries.
Notice equally what the map does not show. There is no symbol across most of the Northern Plains, Rajasthan or the far south. Those regions are not poor — their wealth is soil, water, sunshine and people rather than these four minerals. A resource map always shows only what its legend measures.
Sample answer (for your own region): ‘Our district lies in the plains and carries no symbol on Fig. 1.11. Our resources are alluvial soil, canal and groundwater, strong sunshine for about eight months, and brick clay from the riverbank. They are distributed by the river — the finest soil and the highest water table lie in a broad band on either side of it, brick kilns line the bank itself, and the older land away from the river needs more irrigation. The nearest mapped mineral is the coal at Singrauli, about 200 km to our south, which is where our electricity comes from.'