Resources and Development · Class 10 Geography: 225 MCQs with answers

Q1. Define a resource and state the three conditions in the definition.

Q2. Describe the relief features of India and the share each occupies.

Q3. Which set correctly states the three conditions in the definition of a resource?

Q4. Which three things are described as being in an interactive relationship in the transformation of resources?

Q5. A government sets up a board to survey, licence and manage the use of a mineral belt. In the chapter's triangle, what is such a body an example of?

Q6. A pond used by everyone in a village, a forest declared the property of the country, and a fishing ground shared by several nations are examples of resources classified by:

Q7. Which set correctly names the categories on the basis of status of development?

Q8. In the classification tree, wind and water are given as examples of which kind of resource?

Q9. Which examples does the tree give for recyclable and non-recyclable resources respectively?

Q10. 'Resources are not free gifts of nature.' Explain.

Q11. Describe the relationship between nature, technology and institutions.

Q12. Name the four bases on which resources are classified, with their categories.

Q13. What is a resource? Explain the conditions something must satisfy to be called one, and why resources are said to be a function of human activities.

Q14. Explain how resources are classified, giving the categories under each basis.

Q15. 'Nothing in the environment is a resource on its own.' Discuss this statement with examples.

Q16. Which problem of indiscriminate resource use divided society into haves and have nots?

Q17. Which set correctly names global ecological crises caused by indiscriminate exploitation?

Q18. When and where was the first International Earth Summit held?

Q19. What does Agenda 21 aim to combat?

Q20. Which state is described as very well endowed with solar and wind energy but lacking in water resources?

Q21. Which region is described as relatively isolated, with very rich cultural heritage but deficient in water, infrastructure and some vital minerals?

Q22. Since when has India made concerted efforts to achieve the goals of resource planning?

Q23. What problems followed from believing that resources are free gifts of nature?

Q24. Define sustainable development and explain why resource planning is essential.

Q25. Write a short note on the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992.

Q26. Explain the three stages of resource planning in India.

Q27. Explain the need for resource planning in India, and describe the stages it involves.

Q28. 'The availability of resources is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for development.' Examine this statement.

Q29. Trace the growth of concern for resource conservation, from Gandhiji to the Earth Summit.

Q30. Rich reserves of minerals, fossil fuels and forests are held by which relief feature?

Q31. Which set correctly names the physical factors that determine land use?

Q32. What forest cover did the National Forest Policy of 1952 consider desirable, and why?

Q33. Whose livelihood does the chapter say depends on the forests?

Q34. Which factors together determine the use of land?

Q35. Distinguish between net sown area and gross cropped area.

Q36. What factors determine the use of land in India?

Q37. Explain the land use pattern in India, and why the land under forest has not increased much since 1960-61.

Q38. Describe the categories under which land use is recorded in India, paying attention to how the fallow and waste categories are defined.

Q39. 'A national average can conceal more than it reveals.' Discuss with reference to net sown area in India.

Q40. Which set correctly names human activities that have contributed significantly to land degradation?

Q41. Which states are named for land degradation due to over irrigation?

Q42. Which minerals are ground for the ceramic industry?

Q43. Sand from neighbouring dunes creeps across a district's fields each summer. Which measure does the chapter give for holding the dunes in place?

Q44. In what two ways have human activities damaged land?

Q45. How does mining cause land degradation, and where?

Q46. What steps can be taken to check land degradation in arid areas?

Q47. Explain the causes of land degradation in India, naming the regions where each dominates.

Q48. What measures can be taken to solve the problem of land degradation? Answer with reference to the different kinds of area.

Q49. 'The remedy for land degradation must match its cause.' Discuss this with examples from India.

Q50. Which set correctly names factors important in the formation of soil?

Q51. Which three river systems deposited the alluvial soil of the northern plains?

Q52. Which set correctly names regions covered by black soil?

Q53. Which crop is red laterite in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala described as more suitable for?

Q54. A mineral lies under a district in large quantity, but no machinery in existence can reach it at that depth. Is it a resource?

Q55. A deposit can be reached with existing machinery, but mining it would cost far more than the metal would sell for. Which condition fails?

Q56. A plant growing widely in a region is edible and easy to gather, but the community will not eat it. On the chapter's definition, what follows?

Q57. A guidebook tells readers that a country is fortunate because nature has handed it great wealth in its soil and rocks. How would the chapter correct that way of putting it?

Q58. A district holds a mineral no one has ever used. Fifty years later the same mineral is mined, processed and sold, with no change in the deposit itself. What does the chapter say has happened?

Q59. A new drilling technology makes a previously unreachable deposit usable, and it is cheap enough to work. What has changed?

Q60. An examiner asks for the classification of resources on the basis of ownership. Which answer would earn the mark?

Q61. A question asks for the classification of resources on the basis of origin. Which answer is correct?

Q62. Consider the following bases of classification and their categories. I. Origin — biotic and abiotic II. Exhaustibility — renewable and non-renewable III. Ownership — individual, community, national and international IV. Status of development — recyclable and non-recyclable Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q63. A student draws the classification tree but begins it with renewable and non-renewable at the very top. What has been left out?

Q64. Under which heading do natural vegetation and wildlife appear in the tree?

Q65. A student argues that metals are renewable because they can be recycled. What is the error?

Q66. Why does the classification tree include a branch for human beings at all?

Q67. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): The same substance may be a resource in one country and not in another. Reason (R): A resource must be technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable, and these conditions differ from place to place.

Q68. Which statement about the relationship between nature, technology and institutions is correct?

Q69. A question asks for the classification of resources on the basis of exhaustibility. A student answers 'biotic and abiotic'. What has gone wrong?

Q70. Which of the following is NOT one of the four bases on which resources are classified?

Q71. Scrap steel is melted and rolled into new sheets, reducing the need for fresh ore. Which category does steel belong to?

Q72. Why does the chapter place its definition of a resource before everything else?

Q73. Which statement best explains why responsibility for resource damage belongs to human beings?

Q74. Consider the following about the classification tree. I. Resources divide first into natural and human. II. Renewable resources divide into continuous or flow and biological. III. Non-renewable resources divide into recyclable and non-recyclable. IV. Human resources divide into biotic and abiotic. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q75. Coal burned in a power station cannot be recovered and used again. Which category does it belong to?

Q76. Which of these best describes what technology does in the relationship the chapter draws?

Q77. A river flows past a village whether or not anyone uses it. When does its water become a resource?

Q78. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): Human beings appear in the classification of resources as a branch of their own. Reason (R): Resources are a function of human activities and human beings are essential components of resources.

Q79. Which statement correctly distinguishes origin from exhaustibility?

Q80. A country's forests are described as a resource. Under which two headings would they fall in the tree?

Q81. Why is 'provided' an important word in the definition of a resource?

Q82. Which statement about the human branch of the classification tree is correct?

Q83. Explain how the classification tree divides natural resources.

Q84. Why does the chapter's definition of a resource matter for everything that follows in it?

Q85. A committee reports that a country's minerals were dug out at speed for the profit of a handful of firms, that the wealth ended in very few hands, and that the region now suffers polluted water and ruined land. Which three problems does this describe?

Q86. A student defines sustainable development as development that does not damage the environment. What has been left out?

Q87. A dam scheme raises output now but will leave the next generation with exhausted groundwater. Which half of the definition of sustainable development does it fail?

Q88. A report warns that unless use is planned, not only people but every form of life in a region will be at risk. Which idea of the chapter does this express?

Q89. More than a hundred heads of state gather to discuss two matters at once: protecting the environment, and raising living standards worldwide. Which meeting was this, and what was its stated purpose?

Q90. Consider the following outcomes of the Rio Earth Summit. I. The Declaration on Global Climatic Change and Biological Diversity was signed. II. The Rio Convention endorsed the global Forest Principles. III. Agenda 21 was adopted. IV. The Brundtland Commission was set up. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q91. A declaration signed by world leaders in 1992 sets out how the world should pursue development in the century to come. At which conference was it signed, and what is it called?

Q92. A town council draws up its own plan for waste, water and green cover, saying it is following a global agreement. Which objective is it fulfilling?

Q93. A planner argues that because one Indian state has coal, another water and a third sunshine, no national plan is required. What does the chapter's account of India's resources say against this?

Q94. A state has plentiful river water but almost no roads, power lines or industry to make use of it. Which example from the chapter does it resemble?

Q95. At which levels does the chapter say balanced resource planning is called for?

Q96. A survey team maps a mineral belt and measures the quality and quantity of its deposits before any plan is written. Which stage of resource planning is this?

Q97. A state has finished surveying and measuring its mineral belt and now sets up a technical agency, trains staff and creates a department to carry out development. Which stage of resource planning has it reached?

Q98. A district holds large coal reserves yet remains among the poorest in the country. What does the chapter say about such cases?

Q99. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): A region with a poor resource base can never become economically developed. Reason (R): Resources contribute to development only when accompanied by appropriate technological development and institutional changes.

Q100. A historian notes that the lands seized by European powers were, almost without exception, lands of great natural wealth. What does the chapter draw from this pattern?

Q101. According to the chapter, what let colonising countries exploit the resources of other regions and establish supremacy?

Q102. Besides availability of resources, what else does development in India involve?

Q103. A speaker says the earth can meet what everyone requires, but never what a few may want without limit. Whose view is this, and what did he blame for depletion?

Q104. What did Gandhiji want to replace mass production with?

Q105. Which body made the first organised case for conserving resources, and in which year?

Q106. In which book was Gandhian philosophy once again presented in 1974, and by whom?

Q107. Which report introduced the concept of sustainable development, and in which year?

Q108. A student writes that the Rio Earth Summit introduced the concept of sustainable development. What is the correction?

Q109. Which pairing of a year with its contribution is correct?

Q110. Consider the following about resource planning in India. I. It begins with identification and inventory of resources. II. It requires a planning structure with appropriate technology, skill and institutional set up. III. Resource development plans are matched with overall national development plans. IV. It began only after the Earth Summit of 1992. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q111. Why does the chapter connect the three problems of indiscriminate use to the need for equitable distribution?

Q112. Why does the chapter treat careless use of resources as more than an environmental question?

Q113. A country signs a global declaration but does nothing at the level of its towns and villages. Which objective of Agenda 21 has it failed?

Q114. What is Agenda 21, and what does it aim to achieve?

Q115. Why is the availability of resources not by itself enough for the development of a region?

Q116. A geography teacher asks which relief feature occupies the largest share of India's land area and what it makes possible. Which answer is correct?

Q117. A tourist board promotes a belt of country that feeds several rivers all year round and draws visitors for its scenery. Which relief feature is being described, and what share of India does it cover?

Q118. A plot has been left unsown for the past three agricultural years. Under which category is it recorded?

Q119. A field was left without cultivation for a single season and then sown again. How is it recorded?

Q120. A plot has lain uncultivated for seven years though it could be farmed. Which category does it belong to, and where is it listed?

Q121. Consider the following time rules. I. Current fallow — one agricultural year or less. II. Fallow other than current fallow — one to five agricultural years. III. Culturable waste land — more than five agricultural years. IV. Barren land — exactly ten agricultural years. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q122. A field in Punjab carries a wheat crop in one season and a rice crop in another within the same agricultural year. How is it counted?

Q123. A revenue clerk must record the extent of ground on which crops were actually sown and harvested this year, without counting any field twice. Which figure is being compiled?

Q124. A student writes that gross cropped area is the total area of a country available for farming. What is the correction?

Q125. A region with fertile soil and reliable rain is nonetheless farmed very little because few people live there and traditional practice discourages settlement. Which kind of factor explains this?

Q126. A student divides a land use figure by India's whole territory rather than by the reported extent, and gets a different answer from the textbook. What has been overlooked?

Q127. A student is puzzled that land use percentages are given against a reporting area rather than the whole country. What are the two reasons?

Q128. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): Land use figures in India are expressed as a share of the reporting area. Reason (R): Land use data is available for the whole of the country's geographical area.

Q129. Between 1960-61 and 2019-20, net sown area moved from 45.26 to 45.64 per cent. What does this show?

Q130. Which land use category almost doubled between 1960-61 and 2019-20?

Q131. A district builds a new highway, an industrial estate and three housing colonies on former farmland. Under which category does that land now fall?

Q132. Grazing land has shrunk over sixty years while the number of cattle has not. What question does the chapter raise about this, and what does the next section answer with?

Q133. Why are most other than current fallow lands cultivated only once or twice in about two to three years?

Q134. A student quotes net sown area as 54 per cent and another as about 45 per cent. Who is right?

Q135. Two neighbouring states in the north-west record over four fifths of their total area under crops, a share matched almost nowhere else. Which states are these?

Q136. Which set correctly names places where net sown area is less than 10 per cent of the total area?

Q137. Why is quoting only the national average for net sown area misleading?

Q138. A revenue map marks a stretch of desert, a rocky outcrop and an arid tract as unusable. Under which heading do these fall?

Q139. Land under miscellaneous tree crops and groves is recorded under which heading?

Q140. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): Net sown area has changed very little in sixty years. Reason (R): Land is an asset of finite magnitude.

Q141. Two plots look identical from the roadside, yet the revenue record places them under different headings. How is that possible?

Q142. A stony hillside on which nothing can be grown is recorded under which heading?

Q143. Consider the following about land use in India. I. Total geographical area is 3.28 million sq km. II. Land use data covers 93 per cent of it. III. Forest area exceeds the 33 per cent target of the National Forest Policy. IV. Net sown area is over 80 per cent in Punjab and Haryana. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q144. The land use section closes by turning to the damage done to land itself. What connects the two?

Q145. A planner argues that India can raise its net sown area sharply by bringing in new land. What does the land use record suggest?

Q146. Which pairing of a category with its definition is correct?

Q147. Distinguish between current fallow, fallow other than current fallow, and culturable waste land.

Q148. Why is land use data available for only 93 per cent of India's area?

Q149. What does the land use record show about forests and permanent pasture?

Q150. A district planner argues that land degradation is purely a natural process that human beings merely witness. Which statement of the chapter contradicts this?

Q151. A committee treats land degradation as a minor environmental matter beside food and housing policy. Why does the chapter disagree?

Q152. A worked-out mine is abandoned with its pit open and waste rock heaped beside it. Which phrase from the chapter describes what has been left?

Q153. A survey of four eastern and central states finds forest cleared to reach ore, with pits abandoned once the ore ran out. Which cause does this describe, and which states are named?

Q154. A state in western India reports that its commons are cropped bare and the soil beneath exposed. Which cause of degradation does this describe, and which states does the chapter name for it?

Q155. A canal-irrigated field in Punjab has turned white with salt and waterlogged. What has happened?

Q156. A student lists Madhya Pradesh under mining-related degradation and is told it belongs under overgrazing. Who is right?

Q157. Consider the following causes of land degradation and the states named for each. I. Mining — Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha II. Overgrazing — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra III. Over irrigation — Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh IV. Quarrying — Kerala and Goa Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q158. A cement works grinds one mineral all day and a nearby pottery works grinds two others. Which are they?

Q159. A village downwind of a cement grinding unit finds that rainwater now runs off its fields instead of soaking in. What explains this?

Q160. A student writes that mineral dust harms land while suspended in the air. What is the correction?

Q161. A river passing an industrial belt is found to be carrying factory waste, and the fields it irrigates are damaged too. Which recent source of damage does this illustrate?

Q162. A state proposes to solve all its land degradation by planting trees and regulating grazing. How far does the chapter support this?

Q163. A district officer in a desert region wants to check land degradation. Which set of measures suits the area?

Q164. Which set of measures suits industrial and suburban areas?

Q165. A student recommends shelter belts and thorny bushes to control degradation around an industrial estate. What is wrong with the answer?

Q166. A factory installs a pipeline to carry its untreated waste further from the town before releasing it. Does this meet the chapter's measure?

Q167. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): There is no single remedy for land degradation in India. Reason (R): One cause, overgrazing, accounts for land degradation in every region of the country.

Q168. How does the shrinking of permanent pasture recorded in the land use table connect to this topic?

Q169. A mining company argues that its work cannot degrade land because it clears no forest itself. What does the chapter's account suggest?

Q170. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): Over irrigation is a cause of land degradation. Reason (R): It causes water logging, which increases salinity and alkalinity in the soil.

Q171. Which statement best explains why both halves of the sentence about human activity matter?

Q172. A survey finds a hillside stripped of trees by a nearby quarry, its topsoil washing away in every shower. Which two of the named activities are at work?

Q173. Which pairing of a region with its dominant cause of degradation is correct?

Q174. Consider the following measures for arid areas. I. Planting shelter belts of plants II. Control on over grazing III. Stabilisation of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes IV. Control of mining activities Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q175. A committee proposes one national programme of shelter belts to solve land degradation everywhere. What does the chapter's structure suggest?

Q176. An inspection of a closed mine records a deep pit and great heaps of waste rock and earth beside it. Which term does the chapter use for the second of these?

Q177. Which of the following is NOT among the measures the chapter gives for industrial and suburban areas?

Q178. Why does the chapter qualify afforestation and grazing management with 'to some extent'?

Q179. A factory discharges untreated waste into a channel crossing farmland. Which two kinds of degradation does the chapter associate with such effluents?

Q180. Which statement about the chapter's conservation measures is correct?

Q181. Why is over-irrigation a surprising cause of land degradation?

Q182. Explain how over irrigation degrades land, and name the states affected.

Q183. How do mineral processing and industrial waste damage land?

Q184. In industrial and suburban areas, what can be done to slow the degradation of land and water?

Q185. A soil scientist notes that a few centimetres of soil on a hillside took millions of years to form and were lost in two monsoons. Which statement of the chapter does this illustrate?

Q186. A student says the organic part of soil is called kankar. What is the correction?

Q187. Why are red soil and laterite treated as different soils although both are reddish?

Q188. A farmer in the eastern coastal delta of the Kaveri asks what soil he is working. What is the answer?

Q189. Two plots of alluvial soil lie side by side. One is older and full of kanker nodules; the other is newer, finer and more fertile. What are they called?

Q190. Which statement about Bangar and Khadar is correct?

Q191. In the upper reaches of a river valley near the break of slope, the alluvial soil is coarse. Which plains are named as examples?

Q192. A plain supports sugarcane, paddy and wheat year after year without added fertiliser. Which nutrients in its soil account for this?

Q193. A cotton belt lies on soil formed from lava flows over the north-west Deccan plateau. Which soil is this, and what else is it called?

Q194. A student writes that black soil is rich in all plant nutrients. What is the correction?

Q195. A farmer on the Deccan must plough immediately after the first shower or leave them until the next season. Which soil property explains this?

Q196. Why do deep cracks in black soil during hot weather help rather than harm?

Q197. Read the Assertion and Reason and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): A given soil keeps the same colour wherever in the country it occurs. Reason (R): Its reddish colour is due to the diffusion of iron, and it looks yellow when it occurs in a hydrated form.

Q198. On what rock and in what rainfall conditions does red soil develop?

Q199. A soil is deep, acidic with a pH below 6.0, deficient in plant nutrients, and formed by intense leaching under alternate wet and dry seasons. Which soil is it?

Q200. A tea estate flourishes on laterite soil in the hills of Karnataka. What had to happen first?