Resources and Development

Types of Resources

On the Basis of Origin

• Biotic Resources: These resources have life and are obtained from biosphere.
• Abiotic Resources: These resources are composed of non-living things.

On the Basis of Exhaustibility

• Renewable Resources
• Non-Renewable Resources

On the Basis of Ownership

• Individual Resources
• Community Owned Resources
• National Resources
• International Resources

On the Basis of the Status of Development

• Potential Resources
• Developed Resources
• Stock

Development of Resources

• Resource planning is essential for sustainable existence of all life forms, which in turn is a component of sustainable development.

Resource Planning

• Certain resources are available in some regions that can thus be considered self-sufficient, while other regions have acute shortage of some vital resources.
• Thus, balanced resource planning at the national, state, regional and local levels is required.

Resource Planning in India

• Identification and inventory of resources across the regions of the country
• Evolving a planning structure endowed with appropriate technology, skill and institutional set up for implementing resource development plans
• Matching the resource development plans with overall national development plans

Conservation of Resources

• The first international step was taken by the Club of Rome who advocated resource conservation in 1968.
• The Brundtland Commission Report, 1987 made the seminal contribution with respect to resource conservation at the global level.
• At the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, another significant contribution was made.

Land Resources

• Plain land constitutes about 43 per cent of the land area and provides facilities for agriculture and industry.
• 30 per cent of the total surface area of the country is covered with mountains that ensure perennial flow of some rivers, provide facilities for tourism and ecological aspects.
• Plateau constitutes about 27 per cent of the area of the country and possesses rich reserves of minerals, fossil fuels and forests.

Land Utilisation

• Land resources are used for the following purposes:
• Forests
• Land not available for cultivation
• Other uncultivated land (excluding fallow land)
• Fallow lands
• Net sown area

Land Use Pattern in India

• Out of the India’s total geographical area of 3.28 million sq km., land use data is available only for 93% of it.
• Some areas of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by Pakistan and China have not been surveyed.
• Most of the land excluding the current fallow lands are either of poor quality or have very high cost of cultivation.
• National Forest Policy of 1952 outlined that 33 per cent of geographical area should be forest area, but is much lower in reality.

Land Degradation and Conservation Measures

• Human activities like deforestation, over grazing, mining and quarrying are causes of in land degradation.
• To solve the problems of land degradation various steps can be taken:
  • Afforestation and proper management of grazing.
  • In arid areas, land degradation can be checked by planting of shelter belts of plants, control on over grazing, and stabilisation of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes.
  • In industrial and suburban areas, land and water degradation can be reduced by proper management of waste lands, control of mining activities, proper discharge and disposal of industrial effluents and wastes after treatment.

Soil as a Resource

• Soils of India are classified on the basis of the factors responsible for soil formation, colour, thickness, texture, age, chemical and physical properties

Classification of Soils

Alluvial Soils

• It is the most commonly found and important soil that makes up the entire northern plains and Rajasthan and Gujarat, passing through a narrow corridor.
• These have formed by deposits of three important Himalayan river systems– the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.

Black Soil

• These soils are known as regur soils and are black in colour and are ideal for growing cotton.
• These soils are made up of extremely fine i.e. clayey material and have high capacity to hold moisture.

Red and Yellow Soils

• Red soil is common in areas of low rainfall in the eastern and southern parts of the Deccan plateau because of crystalline igneous rocks.
• These soils are also found in parts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, southern parts of the middle Ganga plain and along the piedmont zone of the Western Ghats.

Laterite Soil

• Laterite soil occurs mostly in southern states, Western Ghats region of Maharashtra, Odisha, some parts of West Bengal and North-east regions.
• It is rich in humus in places where the soils support deciduous and evergreen forests, lacks humus in areas of sparse vegetation and in semi-arid environment.

Arid Soils

• Arid soils are generally sandy in texture and saline in nature and range from red to brown in colour.

Forest Soils

• These soils are found in the hilly and mountainous areas where sufficient rain forests are available.
• These soils experience denudation and are acidic with low humus content in the snow clad Himalayas.

Soil Erosion and Soil Conservation

• Soil formation and erosion take place at the same time the processes are generally balanced unless disturbed due to human activities like deforestation, over-grazing, construction and mining etc.
• Soil erosion, on the other hand is caused by natural forces like wind, glacier and water.
• Gullies are formed when the running water cuts through the clayey soils and makes deep channels and makes the land unfit for cultivation, known as bad land.
• Wind erosion occurs when wind blows loose soil off flat or sloping land.
• Defective methods of farming, ploughing in a wrong way i.e. up and down the slope form channels for the quick flow of water lead to soil erosion.