Landforms and Life NCERT Class 6th SST Chapter 3 Question Answer
Landforms and Life Class 6 Questions and Answers
The Big Questions (Page 41)
Question 1.
What are the major types of landforms and their significance to life and culture?
Answer:
The major types of landforms are the mountains, the plateaus and the plains.
- Mountains: Mountains are the land- forms that are much higher than the surrounding landscape. Depending on their height, some mountains are covered with snow. At lower altitudes, the snow melts eveiy summer and turns into water that feeds rivers. At high altitudes, the snow may never melt, leaving the mountain permanently snow-capped.
- Plateaus: A plateau is a land form that rises up from the surrounding land and has a more or less flat surface; some of its slides are often steep slopes. Tibetan Plateau is the largest and highest plateau in the world. Plateaus are the ‘store house of minerals’. Mining is the major activity on plateaus where many of the world’s largest mines are found.
- Plains: Plains are the landforms that have an extensive flat or gently undulating surface. They donot have any large hills. They are generally not more than 300 metres above the sea level. Significance of mountains, plateaus and plains in human life and culture.
Mountains:
- Mountain regions has rich flora and fauna.
- Most of the mountain regions has almost very low pollution.
- Regular farming is practised on the slopes by cutting steps into the slope called terrace farming.
- Tourism is often an important source of income for the people living in the mountains.
- The crisp mountain air and scenic beauty attracts many tourists.
Plateaus:
- Plateaus have rich mineral deposits.
- Many of the mining areas in the world are located in the plateau regions.
- For e.g. the African plateau is famous for gold and diamond mining.
- The Chhota Nagpur plateau in India has huge reserves of Iron, Coal etc.
- The Plateau environment is very diverse across the world. Many Plateaus have a rocky soil, which makes them less favourable for farming.
-
Plateaus are the home to many spectacular water falls.
Plains: Thousands of years ago, the first civilisations developed around rivers in fertile plains. In our times too, a large part of the worlds population lives in plains. Most of the big cities around the world are based near the river bed. - Plains in many areas are important for doing agriculture work on a large scale.
- Plains have a gentle slope, river navigation is easy and supports a lot of economic activities.
- Even today these are stretches along Ganga where people prefer to use boats to move around.
Question 2.
What are the challenges and opportunities of life associated with each landform?
Answer:
The challenges and opportunities of life associated with each landform are:
-
Mountains: Mountain areas are more susceptible to natural hazards and disasters such as avalanches, landslides, cloudburst and flash floods. Mountains are very steep and negged, which can impact daily life agriculture also.
Opportunities: Mountains are the store house of natural beauty with fertile soil. -
Plateaus: One of the main challenges of plateau is the outgoing erosion of their surface.
This erosion can lead to a patchy landscape which can hinder the development of agriculture and the construction of infrastructure like roads. - Plains: The plains are ideal for growing crops of all kinds. Agriculture is a major economic occupation in the landforms. Plains also support a variety of flora and fauna.
Let’s Explore
Question 1.
These images (Fig. 3.6, Page 50) depict a few challenges that people living in the mountains may face. Discuss them in groups in the class and write one paragraph on each. Also discuss, why, despite many such challenges, people still choose to live in the mountains. (Page 49)
Figure: Life in the mountains has definite positives, from pure air to the beautiful scenery. It also involves potential challenges, both natural and human-made, some of which are depicted in these pictures.
Answer:
At higher altitudes air becomes thinner and the pressure of oxygen decreases. Thus, breathing becomes difficult on mountains. On the mountains, weather is very harsh like colds are a bit more colder and there are more chances of wildfire. In many places, people depend on mountains for water, either coming from melting snow or ice or from mountain springs which feed the rivers.
But surviving in harsh climate of mountain can be tough and it can be hard to grow enough food there. Still people live there, as it is their habitat and they are used to live in such weather from generations.
Question 2.
Use the colour code in Fig. 3.8 to add a landform to each name. For instance, ‘Tibetan plateau’, ‘Rocky range’, ‘Nile plain’. (You do not have to remember the names in this map.) (Pages 53-54)
Figure: This world map shows a few major mountain ranges, plateaus and plains.
Answer:
- For Tibetan Plateau we will use a brown colour.
- For the Rockey range use a light brown colour.
- For the Nile Plain use a mild brown colour.
Question 3.
The picture in Fig. 3.9 has been taken from a satellite. It captures a portion of north India from a high altitude. Observe and discuss the image as a class activity. (Page 54)
(i) Which colour is the Ganga plain?
Answer:
Ganga plain is blue in colour.
(ii) What does the white expanse represent?
Answer:
The white expanse represent the snow or ice sleets in the mountains (Himalayan range).
(iii) What does the brown expanse at the bottom left of the image represent?
Answer:
Plains.
Question 4.
Can you give examples of river sources or confluences from your region that are regarded sacred by any community? (Page 55)
Answer:
Rivers are the main source of fresh water. I am impressed by that region where I am living. River Ganga passes from nearby place. Cool air blows in the morning birds are chirping. The water is flowing with great speed with full enthusiasm. Fisherman catch hold of the fishes. Children are enjoy near the bank of the river. They have their Pet animals also with them.
Question 5.
Visit a nfearby river and observe all activities there, whether economic or cultural. Note them down and discuss with your classmates. (Page 55)
Answer:
Do it yourself.
Question 6.
Name some popular tourist destinations in India and identify the category of landform they are associated with.
Answer:
1. Shimla: Shimla is one of the most popular tourist or we can say hill station in India. Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh.
Shimla, the ‘queen of the hills’, is a beautiful hill town in the lap of nature. Surrounded by Pine (deodar) forests.
Shimla is covered by indifferent ranges of hill and lush greenery. Weather is quite chilled here. It is covered with beautiful mountains, lakes etc.
2. Agra: It is located on the banks of river Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh. Agra is popular tourist destination as it is the home to one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. The landform is plain. Near by the bank of the river Yamuna farmers can do the agriculture work to fulfill their desires and needs.
Think About It
Question 1.
What is Snow? (Page 43)
Answer:
Snow is the precipitation of water in a solid state.
Question 2.
What are the ‘western to the eastern oceans’? Can you locate them as well as the ‘Lord of mountains’ on Fig. 5.2? (Page 46)
Answer:
1. Oceans:
- Western Ocean: The Arabian Sea lies to the west of India.
- Eastern Ocean: The Bay of Bengal is to the east of India.
2. Mountains:
- Western India: The Western Ghats run along the western coast of India.
- Eastern India: The Eastern Ghats run along the eastern coast of India.
- Northern India: The Himalayas are in the northern part of India, forming a natural border with countries like Nepal and China.
Question 3.
Why is Ganga mentioned? Hint: There could be several reasons. (Page 46)
Answer:
Ganga is the sacred river of Hindus and personified as the Goddess Ganga. She is worshipped by,Hindus who believe that bathing in the river causes the remission of sins.
Questions, Activities and Projects (Page 58)
Question 1.
In what type of landform is your town/village/city located? Which features mentioned in this chapter do you see around you?
Answer:
I am living in a town where the landform is quite plain. We can do agriculture work on this land as the soil is quite fertile. Black soil is found on the very large scale. So we can do the cultivation of cotton on a very large scale. Farmers are growing crops on large scale as they have their own lands near by this river.
Question 2.
Let us go back to our initial trip from Chhota Nagpur to Prayagraj and Almora. Describe the three landforms you came across on the way.
Answer:
The Chhota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in eastern India which covers much of Jharkhand state, adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar.
Prayagraj is one of most ancient & sacred town of India based on the river Ganges plains. It is known for confluence of three rivers.
Almora lies is in the beautiful Kumaon mountain range.
Question 3.
List a few famous pilgrimage spots in India along with the land- forms in which they are found.
Answer:
Some of the eminent pilgrimage destination in India include ancient and revered destinations such as Rishikesh, Mathura, Haridwar, Dwarka, Varanasi, Tirupati, Amritsar, Nashik, Kanyakumari, Kolhapur, Rameshwaram, Shirdi, Puri.
Landform of Haridwar: It is covered by Mountains, hills, rivers. Tall trees are the real beauty. Weather is quite chilled. Holy river is flowing their i.e. River Ganga. People use to take holy dip in this river to get rid of their sins.
Rishikesh: It is also covered by mountains, hills. All around the area green is there. It is a place which is always overcrowded by the people. The major Landforms are mountains. They are very tall and weather is quite chilled in winter and moderate in summer.
Question 4.
State whether True or false:
1. The Himalayas are young mountains with rounded tops.
Answer:
False
2. Plateaus usually rise sharply at least on one side.
Answer:
False
3. Mountains and hills belong to the same type of landform.
Answer:
True
4. Mountains, plateaus and rivers in India have the same types of flora and fauna.
Answer:
False
5. Ganga is a tributary to the Yamuna.
Answer:
False
6. Deserts have unique flora and fauna.
Answer:
True
7. Melting snow feeds rivers.
Answer:
True
8. Sediments from rivers deposited in the plains makes the land fertile.
Answer:
True
9. All deserts are hot.
Answer:
False
Question 5.
Match words in pairs:
Answer:
| (a) Mount Everest | climbing |
| (b) rafting | river |
| (c) camels | desert |
| (d) plateau | roof of the world |
| (e) Gangetic plains | Ganga |
| (f) waterway | rice fields |
| (g) Mount Kilimanjaro | Africa |
| (h) Yamuna | Tributary |