NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 1 Theme: India and the World: Land and the People — The Big Questions
Book page 1 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
How do we categorise natural resources?
Answer
By choosing a criterion — a shared characteristic — and grouping resources by it. The chapter uses two criteria, so it gives two different sets of categories.
1. By the use we put them to (page 4):
Category
Why it is a separate group
The chapter's examples
Resources essential for life
Life could not exist on Earth without them, and we cannot manufacture them ourselves
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that gives us food
Resources for materials
We turn them into physical objects — for utility, and for beauty
Wood (a chair, a statuette), marble, coal, gold
Resources for energy
They run buildings, transport and every kind of production process
Nature restores and regenerates it within a human timescale
Solar energy, wind energy, energy from flowing water, timber from forests
Non-renewable
Created over long periods; cannot be replenished at the rate we use it
Coal, petroleum, iron, copper, gold
Two criteria, two sets of categories. Coal appears in both schemes; so does flowing water.
Why we categorise at all: the chapter explains it before it gives the categories. We pick out shared characteristics, name the group, and then a single word does the work of a whole description. Saying ‘non-renewable’ tells your listener at once that the stock is limited, that using it faster does not make more of it, and that a substitute will one day be needed — you do not have to explain any of that again.
Tip: a category is only as good as its criterion. Ask yourself what question the categorisation is meant to answer. ‘Can I keep using this for ever?’ gives you renewable/non-renewable. ‘What do I need this for?’ gives you the three use-based groups.
Q2.
What is the connection between the distribution of natural resources and different aspects of life?
Answer
Resources are not evenly distributed across the planet or even within a country, and almost every part of human life bends around that fact.
Aspect of life
How distribution shapes it
The chapter's evidence
Where people live
Industries come up near the resource, townships grow around the industries, and people move to them
Page 9 — industries near natural resources create employment; townships grow and expand economic opportunities for others too
Quality of life
Modern facilities follow the township
Page 9 — ‘more modern facilities that improve the quality of life become accessible'
Displacement and conflict
The same development uproots people living on the resource; sacred places may be threatened
Pages 9–10 — people in resource-rich areas displaced from their homes; in some cases sacred places under threat, leading to conflicts
Trade
National and international trade depend on where resources happen to lie; skill added to a raw material creates a unique product
Page 10 — Wootz steel; trade fuelled the development of large empires in India
Relations between States and countries
Nature ignores political boundaries, so a shared resource has to be shared by agreement
Page 10 — sharing Kaveri water among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry needed negotiation and deft management
War
Control of resources has been, and still is, a cause of war
Page 8 — ‘many wars have been fought, and continue to be fought, to gain control over natural resources'
Fairness within a society
Even where a resource exists, access to it is often unequal
Page 18 — many city areas get no adequate, regular drinking water; air pollution hits hardest those least able to protect themselves
Why the link is not automatic: the chapter is careful here. Having plenty does not guarantee prosperity — that is the ‘paradox of plenty' (page 11). What converts a deposit into a lasting benefit is human knowledge, good governance and strategic planning; without them, a rich deposit can be a temporary windfall and little else.
Q3.
What are the implications of unsustainable use / over exploitation of natural resources?
Answer
Over-exploitation breaks the rhythm of restoration and regeneration on which a renewable resource depends — so a resource that could have lasted indefinitely stops renewing, and everything that depended on it begins to fail.
What is over-used
What follows
Where the chapter shows it
Forests
Harvest timber faster than trees grow and the forest is eventually depleted
Page 6
Fossil fuels + forest cover
Rising temperatures; Himalayan glaciers melting faster than precipitation can replace them; water insecurity for the plains that depend on this ‘water tower'
Page 6
Fish stocks
Commercial over-fishing collapsed tuna numbers; tuna keep the ocean ecosystem in balance by eating smaller fish and shrimp, so the imbalance spreads
Page 6 — DON'T MISS OUT
Rivers as waste sinks
Industrial wastes that cannot decay into food for any lifeform disturb the cycle; the river becomes poisonous and cannot support life
Page 7
Groundwater
Extraction beyond recharge builds up a deficit — extraction becomes costlier, then impossible. In Punjab the water is out of reach till depths of about 30 metres, and almost 80% of the State is classified ‘over-exploited'
Pages 12–14
Soil
Improper use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides degrades the soil; in Punjab those chemicals also dissolved into the groundwater, causing health hazards
Pages 12–13
Non-renewables
They simply run out. India's coal is estimated to last about another 50 years while demand keeps rising
Page 8
Scientists studying this, the chapter says on page 12, warn that irresponsible treatment of natural resources has led to pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change — and that this has been happening at an increased pace in recent years.
Why the damage outlasts the gain: Punjab is the chapter's clearest case. The Green Revolution genuinely worked — it fed a large part of the country and made India self-sufficient in food. But food security was ensured for the short term, while the long-term consequences ‘will take time and effort to heal'. A gain measured in seasons was paid for with a loss measured in decades.