Part 2 Geography of India

Means of irrigation and its importance   India is an agricultural country. About seventy per cent of its people depend on agriculture. Watering is essential for the crops. Agriculture is not possible without water. We have to depend on rains for water for our fields, but we do not get rains throughout the year. India gets almost all of its rainfall during the rainy season from June to September. The rainfall is not uniform. Some parts get heavy rainfall. The rivers get flooded and damage the life, property and crops. Some parts get moderate rainfall and some parts are left ... Read more

lndia’s threatened,endangered and endemic species India, a megadiverse country with only 2.4% of the world’s land area, accounts for 7-8% of all recorded species, including over 45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals. The country’s diverse physical features and climatic conditions have resulted in a variety of ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, grasslands, desert, coastal and marine ecosystems which harbour and sustain high biodiversity and contribute to human well-being.  Four of 34 globally identified biodiversity hotspots: The Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the North-East, and the Nicobar Islands, can be found in India. Threatened species Threatened species are any ... Read more

Modernization of agriculture Modernisation of agriculture results from a whole galaxy of factors, that include physical input, economic, organisational, cultural, motivational and knowledge factors. While all these factors cannot be provided in one go, they trickle in slowly over a long time before they get established and stabilised. Physical Input Factors: Land climate, seeds, water, Fertilises, pesticides, institutional arrangements, work animals, other animals, Tools and machinery, fuel and power other than animal power, Manual labour and skilled labour. Economic Factors Transport, storage, processing and marketing facilities. Facilities for the supply and distribution of inputs, including credit. Input prices including interest ... Read more

Indian forest policy Historically our communities have always lived in harmony with nature, and participation of community in protection and management of common property resources has been a tradition. The British introduced scientific management of forests through a centralised approach to forest management and development. The first formal government approach to forestry can be traced to the enactment of the National Forest Policy of 1894 which stressed on conserving forests for maintaining environmental stability and meeting basic needs of fringe forest user groups. The policy was revised in 1952 and the new policy emphasised on extension of forests beyond the ... Read more

Climate of India Climate is total of weather conditions and variations over a large area for a very long period of time of more than thirty years. But how is weather different from climate? Weather refers to the state of the atmosphere over an area at any given period of time. Weather can change throughout the day whereas the climate of a country is the same for many years. The climate of India is described as monsoon type. This type of climate is found in south and southeast Asia. However, there are variations in climatic conditions in the country itself. ... Read more

  Iron-Ore: India possesses high quality iron-ore in abundance. The total reserves of iron-ore in the country are about 14.630 million tonnes of haematite and 10,619 million tonnes of magnetite. Haematite iron is mainly found in Chbattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Goa and Karnataka. The major deposit of magnetite iron is available at western coast of Karnataka. Some deposits of iron ore arc also found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Coal reserves : India has the fifth largest coal reserves in the world. As on 31 March 2015, India had 306.6 billion metric tons (338.0 billion short tons) of the ... Read more

  The Department of Agriculture has been created mainly to provide Agricultural Extension services to farmers and to transfer the latest technical knowledge to the farming community, introduction of high yielding varieties, laying demonstrations, imparting training to farmers to improve skills & knowledge to boost up the agricultural Production and productivity. The other objectives of the Department are to assess requirements of agriculture inputs well in advance and to regulate their production and monitor timely supply of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, implements, credit etc., to farmers. The Department also performs the statutory functions under various acts and regulations (i.e., quality ... Read more

  India grows almost each and every crop. If we consider the varieties of crop grown from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and western coast of Gujarat to extreme north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, then there would be hundreds of crops.   CROPS FOOD GRAINS COMMERCIAL/PLANTATION CROPS HORTICULTURE CEREALS PULSES OILSEEDS OTHERS VEGETABLES FRUITS Rice, Wheat Coarse Cereals/ Millets Tur, Gram, Moong, Urad, Lentil Groundnut, Caster seed, Niger seed, Sesamum, Rapeseed, Mustard, Linseed, Safflower, Sunflower, Soybean Sugarcane, Cotton, Jute, Mesta, Coconut, Tapioca, Tobacco, Rubber, Coffee, Tea, Arecanut, Spices Potato, Sweet potato, Onion, Chillies, Tomato, Cauliflower, Brinjal Banana, Mango, Apple, Apricot, Grapes, ... Read more

Agriculture in India plays a pivotal role in providing livelihood, ensuring food security, reducing poverty and sustaining growth. Main Characteristics of Indian Agriculture are:- Subsistent in Character Heavy Pressure of Population Predominance of Food Grains Mixed Cropping High Percentage of the Reporting Area under Cultivation Small Size of Holdings and Fragmentation of Fields Limited Intensive Agriculture Primitive Technology Indian Agriculture is Labour Intensive Rain-fed Agriculture Less Area under Leguminous and Fodder Crops Tradition Bound Low Productivity Government Policy Lack of Definite Agricultural Land Use Policy Lack of Marketing and Storage Facilities Low Status of Agriculture in the Society Land Tenancy ... Read more

Census of India : Economic and Social features Rural and urban population Altogether, 833.5 million persons live in rural area as per Census 2011, which was more than two-third of the total population, while 377.1 million persons live in urban areas. Urban proportion has gone up from 17.3 per cent in 1951 to 31.2 per cent in 2011. Empowered Action Group (EAG) states have lower urban proportion (21.1 per cent) in comparison to non-EAG states (39.7 per cent). Highest proportion of urban population is in NCT Delhi (97.5 per cent). Top five states in share of urban population are Goa ... Read more