NCERT Solutions Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 5 · THE WORLD AROUND US

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 6: Some Unique Places

NCERT Textbook — Our Wondrous World

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

94 – 111 19 40 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 59 pages

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 5 · THE WORLD AROUND US · OUR WONDROUS WORLD

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 6: Some Unique Places
Chapter 6 of Our Wondrous World sits in Unit 3, Incredible India. Shanti and her parents take one long
summer journey — from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, by ship to Kolkata and into
the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, then up to the Northeast with its living root
bridges and Hargila birds, and finally down the Western Ghats to Silent Valley and Kanyakumari. The chapter
carries 4 Activities, 4 Discuss questions, 3 Find out sets, seven Write sets, two questions asked straight to
the reader, and the closing Let us reflect set of 7 items. There is no exercise at the end — the questions are
spread right through the chapter.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Our Wondrous World (Class 5) 94 – 111

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

19 40

MEDIUM

English

Find out — Page 95

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The southernmost point of India; the islands

FIND OUT

Q1 Look at the map for the southernmost point of India.

N

Bay of Bengal
Arabian Sea

Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands

Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari
Indian Ocean

Map of India, with its island groups in the Bay of Bengal. The red dotted line goes
straight east from Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari is the southern tip of the Indian
mainland.

The southernmost point of India is Indira Point. It is not Kanyakumari — that surprises most
people, and it surprised Shanti too.
How to find it on the map, step by step.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

1. Open the map of India in your atlas. Find the pointed bottom end of the main land. That tip
is Kanyakumari, in Tamil Nadu.
2. Now look to the right of the map, out in the sea. You will see a long line of small islands
running from top to bottom.
3. That line is the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
4. Follow the line down to the very last big island. It is called Great Nicobar.
5. The bottom tip of Great Nicobar is marked Indira Point. Nothing of India lies further south
than this.

QUESTION ANSWER WHERE IT IS

Southernmost point of the whole of Indira Point On Great Nicobar Island, Andaman and
India Nicobar Islands

Southernmost point of the Indian Kanyakumari In Tamil Nadu, where three seas meet
mainland

Why there are two answers: Mainland means the one big joined-up piece of land.
Kanyakumari is the last point of that big piece. But India also owns islands far out in
the sea, and one of them reaches much further south. So Indira Point is the
southernmost point of India, and Kanyakumari is the southernmost point of the
mainland. Both statements are correct — you only have to say which one you mean.

Did you know? Kanyakumari is the place where three waters meet — the Arabian
Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. That is why people go there to watch
the sun come up out of one sea and go down into another on the same day.

Q2 In which sea are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands located?

They lie in the Bay of Bengal. The stretch of water just to their east is called the Andaman Sea.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands → in the Bay of Bengal

To their west — the Bay of Bengal

To their east — the Andaman Sea

Look at your map again. Draw an imaginary line east from Chennai across the water. It runs into
the Andaman Islands.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ISLAND OR ISLAND WHERE IT IS WHY IT IS KNOWN
GROUP

Lakshadweep In the Arabian Sea, west of India's other island group — 36 small coral
Kerala islands. Kavaratti is its main town.

Majuli In the river Brahmaputra, One of the largest river islands in the world.
Assam People reach it by boat.

Swaraj Dweep Andaman Islands Famous for Radhanagar beach
(Havelock)

Shaheed Dweep (Neil) Andaman Islands Coral reefs close to the shore

North Sentinel Island Andaman Islands The Sentinelese live there and no visitors are
allowed

Barren Island East of the Andamans India's only active volcano

Elephanta Island Near Mumbai, Maharashtra Old caves cut into rock

Sagar Island West Bengal, where the The Gangasagar fair is held here
Ganga meets the sea

Divar and Chorao In the river Mandovi, Goa Chorao has a bird sanctuary

Sriharikota Off the Andhra Pradesh coast India's rockets are launched from here

Pamban Island Off Tamil Nadu Joined to the mainland by a long bridge over
(Rameswaram) the sea

How an island forms: Some islands, like the Andamans, are mountain tops sticking
out of the sea. Some, like Lakshadweep, are built up by corals over thousands of
years. Some, like Majuli, are made of sand and silt that a river dropped in its own
path. Different beginnings, same result — land with water all round.

Write your own list: Add any island you have seen or heard of, even a tiny one in a
river near your town. An island in a village pond counts too, as long as you can say
where it is.

Activity 1 — Page 96

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why roots hold a tree up

ACTIVITY

Q1 Take a rectangular piece of newspaper or used paper, and roll it into a thin tube.
Glue the edges so it does not open. Then, make it stand it up on a flat surface. Does
it stay up?

No. The plain paper tube does not stay up. It wobbles and falls over almost at once.
What to do, step by step.

1. Take one rectangular sheet of old newspaper.
2. Start at one long edge and roll it up tightly into a thin tube, about as thick as your thumb.
3. Put a line of glue along the loose edge and press it down. Wait a minute for it to dry, so the
tube does not open again.
4. Stand the tube up on the desk, on one end.
5. Take your hand away slowly and watch.

What you will see. The moment you let go, the tube leans a little to one side and falls flat. Even
if you get it to balance for a second, one puff of air or one shake of the desk knocks it down.

Why it falls: The bottom of the tube touches the desk in only a tiny circle. A tall thing
standing on a tiny spot is easy to tip. As soon as it leans even a little, its weight is no
longer over that tiny circle, and it keeps going — down. This is exactly what would
happen to a tall tree with only a thin stem and no spreading roots.

Try it fairly: Do not press the tube into a groove or lean it on a book. Stand it free on
a flat, level surface. That is the point of the test.

Q2 Now, cut 3 – 4 small triangles from thick paper. Stick the triangles evenly around
the bottom of the roll. Rest the paper on a flat surface again. Does it stay upright
now?

Yes. With three or four triangles stuck round the bottom, the tube stands up on its own
and does not fall.
What to do, step by step.

1. Cut 3 or 4 triangles from thick paper or card. Each one should be about the size of your
thumb.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2. Fold a small flap along one side of each triangle. The flap is what you will glue.
3. Stick the first triangle to the bottom of the tube so that it stands out sideways, like a small
foot.
4. Stick the others on at equal distances all round the tube — not all on one side. Three
triangles go at about a third of the way round each.
5. Let the glue dry. Then stand the tube on the desk and let go.
6. Now blow on it gently, and give the desk a small tap. It still stands.

Plain tube — falls Tube with a base — stands

touches in one small spot weight spread over a wide base

Left: a bare paper tube tips over. Right: four paper triangles give it a wide base, and it stands — the
same trick a tree's spreading roots use.

WHAT YOU TRIED DOES IT STAY WHY
UP?

Plain paper tube No It touches the desk in a tiny circle, so a small lean tips it
over

Tube with 3–4 triangles round Yes The triangles make a wide base. Now the tube must lean
the bottom much further before it tips

Triangles all stuck on one No It is held on one side only, so it falls the other way
side only

Tube with a coin taped inside Better, but still Extra weight low down helps a little; a wide base helps
the bottom wobbly much more

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it happens: Anything standing up stays up only while its weight presses down
inside the patch of ground it is touching. A thin tube touches a tiny patch, so it tips at
once. The triangles make that patch big, so the tube can lean quite a lot and still not
fall. That is exactly what the huge buttress roots in the picture on page 95 do for a
rainforest tree — they flare out from the bottom of the trunk and spread the tree's
weight over a wide circle of soft, shallow soil.

Look for the same idea around you: a table fan with a heavy round base, the three
legs of a camera stand, the wide feet of an electric pole, the flared bottom of a tall
flower vase. Nature thought of it first — nature often has the best designs.

In-text Question — Page 97
Birds and animals of the islands

Q1 Why do you think some birds and animals are found only on these islands?

Because the sea keeps them shut in. An island is surrounded by water on all sides, so land
animals and small birds cannot walk or fly across to other places, and animals from other places
cannot easily come in.
Here is the story, step by step.

1. Long, long ago a few birds or animals reached these islands — blown by a storm, or floating
on a raft of broken branches.
2. They stayed. They could not go back across so much open sea.
3. Life on the island was a little different — different food, different trees, different weather,
and often no big hunters.
4. Over thousands and thousands of years, the ones that suited the island best lived on and
had young. Slowly the whole group changed.
5. In the end they became different from their cousins on the mainland. Now they live here and
nowhere else on Earth.

FOUND ONLY ON THESE ISLANDS WHAT IT IS

Andaman wood pigeon A dark forest pigeon, shown in the photograph on page 97

Andaman hornbill A big black bird with a heavy pale bill, also on page 97

Many island trees Rani says several kinds grow only on these islands

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

SEA WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE ITS SPECIAL TRICK
ANIMAL

Clownfish Small, bright orange with white Lives safely inside a stinging sea anemone, which
bands does not sting it

Dolphin Smooth grey body, curved fin on Breathes air, and finds its way by making clicking
the back sounds

Sea turtle Hard shell, flat flippers instead of Comes back to the very beach where it hatched, to
legs lay its eggs

Seahorse Tiny, swims standing up, head like The father carries the eggs in a pouch
a horse

Octopus Soft body with eight long arms Changes colour in a moment to hide

Starfish Five arms, like a star Has no brain, and can grow a lost arm again

Sample answer: My favourite sea animal is the clownfish. It is small — about as long as my
finger — and bright orange with three white bands across its body. It lives in warm, shallow
water near coral reefs. It makes its home among the waving arms of a sea anemone. The
anemone stings other fish, but the clownfish has a coating on its skin that keeps it safe. So the
anemone is its guard, and in return the clownfish keeps the anemone clean and chases away
fish that would nibble it. It eats tiny bits of food floating in the water. I like it because two very
different animals help each other to stay alive.

Drawing tip: Draw the animal filling most of the box. Add a line of blue water and
one or two things around it — a rock, a coral, some weed — so anyone can see
where it lives. Write the name under the drawing.

Q2 List at least three living things found in the sea.

Fish, corals and dolphins are three easy ones. Here is a longer list, sorted so you can see the
kinds.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

KIND LIVING THINGS FOUND IN THE SEA

Fish Clownfish, seahorse, shark, sardine, mackerel, pomfret

Animals that breathe air Dolphin, whale, sea turtle, sea snake

Soft-bodied animals Octopus, squid, jellyfish, sea slug

Animals with a shell or hard cover Crab, prawn, lobster, oyster, conch

Animals that look like plants or stones Coral, sea anemone, sponge, starfish, sea urchin

Plants and plant-like life Seaweed, sea grass, and tiny floating plants too small to see

Birds that feed at sea Seagull, tern, kingfisher near the shore

Any three will do, for example — coral, dolphin, starfish

One surprise worth knowing: a coral looks like a colourful stone or plant, but it is
an animal. So is a sea anemone, and so is a sponge. They stay in one place all their
lives, which is why people mistake them for plants.

Did you know? The smallest living things in the sea are floating plants so tiny that
you cannot see one on its own. They make a very large share of the oxygen we
breathe. The sea keeps the whole Earth alive, not just the fish.

Discuss — Page 98
Marine Interpretation Centre; North Sentinel Island

DISCUSS

Q1 Why do you think life under the sea is just as important as life in the forests?

Because the sea does the same jobs a forest does, and a few more. We notice a forest
because we can walk into it. The sea does its work out of sight, so it is easy to forget.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

JOB HOW A FOREST DOES HOW THE SEA DOES IT
IT

Makes the oxygen we Trees make oxygen in Tiny floating sea plants make a very large part of
breathe their leaves the world's oxygen

Gives food Fruit, honey, roots, leaves Fish, prawns, crabs and salt — the daily food of
millions of Indians

Gives work Forest produce, honey Fishing, boat making, net making, ports, tourism
collecting

Keeps the weather Trees cool the air and The sea heats slowly, sends up the vapour that
steady bring rain becomes our monsoon rain

Protects the land Roots hold the soil on Coral reefs and mangroves break big waves before
hillsides they hit the shore

Home for living things Tigers, birds, insects, Corals, fish, turtles, dolphins — countless kinds,
orchids many still unknown

The idea to hold on to: everything is joined. A reef shelters small fish; the small fish
feed big fish; the big fish feed people in the fishing village; the village keeps the
harbour going. Damage the reef and every link after it suffers. The chapter says the
same thing at the end — everything is connected.

For your discussion: Ask one another, "name three things in your house that came
from the sea." Salt, dried fish, a shell, a pearl button, sand in the cement of the wall.
The list gets longer than anyone expects.

Q2 How do you think the coral reef helps the fish and other sea creatures?

A coral reef is a town under the sea. It gives sea creatures the three things every living thing
needs — a home, food and safety.

1. A home. A reef is full of holes, cracks and branches. Small fish, crabs, prawns and eels slip
inside and live there.
2. A hiding place. When a big fish comes, the small ones dart into a hole. Their bright stripes
and spots also match the colours of the coral, so they are hard to spot.
3. A safe nursery. Many fish lay their eggs on a reef. The baby fish grow up in the shelter of the
coral before they go out into open water.

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4. Food. Tiny plants and animals grow all over the coral. Small fish eat them; bigger fish come
to eat the small fish. The whole food chain starts here.
5. A shield for the shore. A reef stands like a low wall across the path of the waves. Waves
break on it and reach the beach much weaker.

What a coral actually is: a coral is a tiny, soft sea animal. It builds a hard stony cup
around itself for protection. Millions of them live side by side, and when the old ones
die the new ones build on top. Over hundreds of years those stony cups pile up into
the ridge we call a reef. So a reef is really a huge block of flats built by very small
animals.

Where to see reefs in India: around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in
Lakshadweep, in the Gulf of Mannar off Tamil Nadu, and in the Gulf of Kachchh in
Gujarat. Corals need clean, clear, warm water — muddy or dirty water kills them.

Q3 How do you think their knowledge might have helped the people of North Sentinel
Island stay safe?

They knew their island so well that they read nature's warning and moved to high ground
before the tsunami reached them.
A tsunami is a huge sea wave, usually caused by a strong earthquake under the sea floor. In
December 2004 one struck this region. The Sentinelese survived it.
The signs they would have noticed:

1. The ground shook. An earthquake comes first. People who live close to the earth feel it at
once.
2. The sea pulled back. Before a tsunami, the water often draws far away from the shore and
the sea floor is left bare. Anyone who watches the sea every day of their life knows that this
is wrong.
3. The wind and the sound changed. A strange roar comes from the sea before the wave.
4. The animals behaved oddly. Birds flew inland in flocks. Animals went uphill and would not
come down. Living so close to animals, the Sentinelese would have seen it immediately.
5. They moved. They went inland and uphill, away from the beach, and waited.

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Sundarbans: Home of the Mangroves

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT YOU FIND WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN THE PICTURE

Mangrove trees Trees standing on arching roots, with a mass of pale roots below the leaves

Breathing roots Thin, pencil-like sticks poking up out of the water — the ones Shanti asked about

Stilt roots Curved roots that carry the trunk up above the mud, like legs

Royal Bengal Tiger Standing among the roots on the left

Spotted deer On the right, under the trees

Monkey Sitting on a branch above the deer

Crocodile Lying on the mud and roots at the bottom left

Birds A kingfisher on the roots and a white egret standing in the shallow water

Salty creeks and mud The wide brown-green water the boat is moving through

People in a boat A boatman rowing, with a mask on the back of his head, and visitors in life jackets

Any three, for example — mangrove trees with breathing roots, the Royal Bengal Tiger,

crabs, fish and crocodiles in the salty creeks

Why a mangrove forest looks so odd: the tide comes in and goes out twice a day.
Half the day this forest is standing in water; the other half it is standing in mud. No
ordinary tree could live like that. Everything you see there is built for that one hard
job.

The name: The Sundarbans are said to be named after the Sundari tree, a
mangrove that grows there. Sundar means beautiful, and ban means forest.

Q2 What do you think makes this place different from other forests?

Its water is salty, its floor is soft mud instead of firm soil, and the sea comes in and goes
out of it twice every day. No other kind of forest lives like that.

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AN ORDINARY A MANGROVE FOREST LIKE THE SUNDARBANS
FOREST

Where it On dry land Where the river Ganga meets the sea
grows

The water Fresh, from rain and Salty — sea water mixed with river water
streams

The ground Firm soil Deep, soft, sticky mud with no air in it

The tide No tide Flooded and drained twice a day by the tide

The roots Under the ground, out of Above the ground — stilt roots and breathing roots you can
sight see

Getting On foot, along paths By boat, along creeks
about

What lives Land animals and birds Land and water animals together — tiger, deer, crocodile,
there crab, mudskipper fish

Why ordinary trees cannot grow here: two reasons. First, salt. Salty water pulls
water out of a plant instead of feeding it, so most plants dry up and die. Mangroves
can block the salt at their roots, or push it out through their leaves. Second, air.
Roots need air, and thick sea mud has almost none in it — so mangroves grow
special roots that stick up above the mud and breathe.

A record worth remembering: The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in
the world. It is shared between India and Bangladesh, and it is the only mangrove
forest anywhere with tigers living in it.

Write — Page 100
People and the mangroves

WRITE

Q1 In what ways do people in Sunderbans depend on the mangrove forests?

The forest is their food, their work and their wall against the sea. Families here have lived
beside it for generations and take from it what they need for each day.

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WHAT PEOPLE HOW THEY GET IT
GET

Fish and prawns They fish in the creeks with nets, and catch prawn seed in the shallows. Fish is their
main food and their main earning.

Crabs Mud crabs are collected from among the roots and sold in the market.

Honey and wax Honey collectors go into the forest in the season and cut wild bees' combs from the
trees. This is the most dangerous work of all, because of tigers.

Firewood and Dry branches for the cooking fire, poles for house frames and for boats.
building wood

Leaves and thatch Palm and grass from the forest edge for roofs and mats.

Safety from storms The thick belt of trees breaks the force of cyclone winds and waves before they reach
the villages behind.

Land that stays put Mangrove roots hold the mud together, so the river does not wash the islands away.

Nursery for the Fish and prawns breed among the roots. No mangroves would soon mean no fish to
catch catch.

Visitors Some people work as boatmen and guides for those who come to see the forest.

Why this is called living in harmony: They take honey but leave the hive to rebuild.
They fish but leave the breeding creeks alone in the season. They cut branches, not
whole trees. They know that if the forest goes, so does everything they live on — so
protecting it and using it are the same job.

The mask on the back of the head: A tiger springs at a person's back. Honey
collectors and woodcutters sometimes wear a face mask backwards, so that
whichever way the tiger looks, a face seems to be looking back. It may make a tiger
hold off. It is not perfect, but it shows how carefully these people have studied the
animal they share the forest with.

Discuss — Page 101

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Caring for the Sundarbans

DISCUSS

Q1 Why do you think it is important to take care of places like the Sundarbans?

Because a mangrove forest does five big jobs at once, and nothing else can do them in its
place.

1. It stops the sea from eating the land. Mangrove roots grip the mud. Waves break on the
tangle of roots and lose their force. Villages behind the forest are safer in a cyclone.
2. It is a nursery for fish. Fish, prawns and crabs lay eggs among the roots, where the young
are safe. Thousands of fishing families along the coast depend on that.
3. It is the last home of some animals. The Sundarbans is the only mangrove forest in the
world where tigers live. If it goes, those tigers have nowhere else to go.
4. People live from it. Honey, fish, crabs, wood and work all come out of this forest.
5. It cleans and cools. Mangroves soak up a great deal of the gas that warms the Earth, and
they trap dirt carried down by the river before it reaches the sea.

Why it cannot simply be replaced: A mangrove forest takes many years to grow,
and it only grows where fresh river water and salty sea water mix in just the right
way. Cut it down and you cannot put it back the following season. Once the roots are
gone, the mud starts washing away — and then even the ground it grew on is gone.

For your discussion — name the threats: cutting mangroves for firewood and for
building land; ponds dug for prawn farming; plastic and waste carried down the
river; oil spilt by boats; and the sea slowly rising. Then ask the more useful question:
which of these could children and villagers actually do something about?

Find out — Page 101

Page 18 of 59

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Special features that help living things survive
co m
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FIND OUT

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a s emaround yourself. Do you see any living thing that has something special to
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Look
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Q1
help it live there? What is it?

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ag you will find them everywhere.
Yes — almost every living thing has one. Look for the part of its body that suits exactly the
place it lives in. Once you start looking

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How to do it, step by step.
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1. Choose a spot — your yard, the school wall, a pond edge, a field, a tree.
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2. Watch one living thing quietly for five minutes.

a s em
3. Ask: what is hard about living here? Too hot? Too wet? Enemies about? Not much water?

a gl4. Now look for the body part or the habit that answers that difficulty.
5. Write it in two columns: where it lives and what helps it live there.

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comSPECIAL THING THAT HELPS IT
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LIVING WHERE IT LIVES
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THING
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Mangrove tree Salty mud with no Breathing roots that stick up above the water; it also pushes salt
air in it
co m
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out through its leaves

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House lizard On walls and Sticky pads under its toes, so it can hang upside down

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ceilings

a Cactus
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little water is lost

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Camel Hot sandy desert
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Water hyacinth Floating on a pond A swollen, air-filled stalk that keeps it afloat

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Duck In and out of water Webbed feet for pushing water, and oily feathers that stay dry

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Earthworm
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Under the soil
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earth

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Hanging roots that reach the ground and become extra props

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Grasshopper In grass and crops A green body the colour of the leaves, so it is hard to see
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ledge town
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.co


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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer: I looked at the house lizard on our verandah wall. It walks straight up the wall
and even across the ceiling without falling. It can do this because the underside of each toe has
rows of very fine pads that stick to the surface. Living high on the wall keeps it away from cats,
and it sits near the tube light because insects come to the light — so its food comes to it.

The idea behind all of these: A living thing does not choose its body. Over a very
long time, the ones whose bodies happened to suit that place lived longer and had
more young, and slowly the whole kind came to look like that. So when you find a
strange body part, ask what problem it solves. There is almost always an answer.

In-text Questions — Page 101
The mask; the Northeastern states

Q1 Why would someone wear a mask on the back of their head?

To confuse a tiger. A tiger creeps up and springs from behind. If a face is looking back at it, the
tiger thinks it has been seen — and a tiger usually gives up an attack once it believes its prey is
watching.
How it works, step by step.

1. A honey collector or a woodcutter goes deep into the Sundarbans, where tigers live.
2. He ties a face mask on the back of his head, facing backwards.
3. He works bending forward, so he cannot see behind him.
4. A tiger following him sees a face. It does not attack a person who seems to be looking
straight at it.
5. The tiger waits, or moves away, and the person gets on with the work.

Why the trick makes sense: A tiger is a careful hunter. It wants to catch its prey
unawares, from behind. Being seen means the prey may run, or fight, so the tiger
loses the advantage and often gives up. The mask does not make anyone safe — it
only takes away the tiger's surprise. People in the Sundarbans worked this out by
watching tigers for generations.

An honest note: Masks are not a sure defence, and forest officers today rely more
on staying in groups, keeping to allowed areas and going only in the permitted
season. The mask is remembered as a clever, old and very local idea — one that
could only have come from people who know a tiger's habits by heart.

Page 20 of 59

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Can you name the seven Northeastern states?

The seven, called the Seven Sisters, are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Add Sikkim to them and you have all of Northeast India —
eight states in all.

STATE CAPITAL KNOWN FOR

Assam Dispur The Brahmaputra, tea gardens, Kaziranga's one-horned rhinoceros, Bihu

Arunachal Pradesh Itanagar The first sunrise in India; the Apatani people of the Ziro valley

Manipur Imphal Loktak lake with its floating islands; Manipuri dance

Meghalaya Shillong Living root bridges; Mawsynram, the wettest inhabited place on Earth

Mizoram Aizawl Bamboo hills and the bamboo dance

Nagaland Kohima The Hornbill Festival; woven shawls whose patterns say who wears them

Tripura Agartala Bamboo and cane craft

Sikkim — the eighth Gangtok Kanchenjunga; India's first fully organic state

A way to remember the seven: Assam · Arunachal · Manipur · Meghalaya · Mizoram ·

Nagaland · Tripura

Two A's, three M's, one N, one T.

Why "Seven Sisters": These seven states are joined to one another and are cut off
from the rest of India by a narrow strip of land only about twenty kilometres wide in
places. Being neighbours in a tight corner, sharing hills, rivers and history, they came
to be called sisters. Sikkim lies just beyond that strip and is often called the brother.

Look at a map while you say the names. A state you have found on a map with
your finger is a state you remember. A state you have only read in a list is a state you
forget.

Write — Page 102

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Northeast market picture

WRITE

Q1

The picture on page 102, redrawn.

Look at the picture. Identify three things being sold in the market.

Three easy ones: cane and bamboo baskets, hand-woven cloth, and earthen pots of pickle
and honey. Look at the ground in front of the people in the picture on page 102 — the goods
are laid out there.

Page 22 of 59

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT IS ON SALE WHERE TO LOOK IN THE PICTURE

Cane and bamboo baskets Four round open baskets on the ground at the left, in front of the weaver

Hand-woven cloth Bright striped shawls and stoles with fringes, hung over stands at the
centre-right

Earthen pots with cloth-tied Three reddish clay jars — pickle or honey, tied over with cloth
lids

Small bottles Little pale bottles beside the pots — honey or chilli pickle

Brooms of broom grass The tall bundle of pale yellow stalks standing behind the cloth

A woven cane mat or shield The flat piece with a red and blue pattern, on the right of the cloth

Bananas A hand of green-yellow bananas at the right, near the bushes

Cloth being woven then and The woman at the left is weaving striped cloth on a bamboo loom
there

Any three, for example — cane baskets, hand-woven shawls, pots of honey and pickle

Notice what they all have in common: every single thing on sale was made by
hand from something that grows right there — bamboo and cane for the baskets,
cotton and wool for the cloth, broom grass for the brooms, clay for the pots, fruit
and honey from the forest. Nothing had to be brought from far away. That is what
"living with nature" looks like in a market.

Answer from the picture, not from memory. Put your finger on each thing you
name before you write it down. That is how a careful observer works.

Page 23 of 59

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places
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co m
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Q2

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ag

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a
The picture on page 102, redrawn.

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Identify the festival from the above picture.

m .co a g
l a se
g
a It is Bihu, the festival of Assam. The two women in the middle of the picture are doing the
Bihu dance.
m a s
The clues that prove it:
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1. The dancers wear a cream clothl with a broad red and gold border. That dress is the
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mekhela chador, the traditional dress of Assam.
2. They have both arms raised and are bending sideways — the well-known step of the Bihu
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dance.

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.c them a market and a village fair are going on, with cloth,
3. There are flowers in their hair, and one of them is smiling towards the crowd.
4. m
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las Bihu is a village festival held with just such a fair.
Behind

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5. The setting fits — green hills, a river, houses on stilts, an elephant and a hornbill. This is

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Assam and its neighbours.
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What Bihu is about: Bihu marks
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Bihu or Rongali Bihu, comes in April, when the new year begins and the fields are

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being sown. People wear new clothes, sing Bihu songs, dance to the dhol and the
pepa (a horn made from a buffalo horn), and give one another a woven gamosa, a
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white cloth with red borders. Two more Bihus fall at other points of the farming year.
a g
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a An honest note: the picture shows people from several Northeastern communities
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together — one wears a feathered headdress and another a woven cap with a red

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tassel. So a classmate might name a different Northeastern festival, such as
.
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Nagaland's Hornbill Festival.
athe clue along with the name.
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dance step. Always give

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 Why do you think the houses are built on bamboo structures?

Because bamboo grows all round them, and a bamboo house on stilts is exactly right for a
wet, hilly, shaky place. Look at the picture — the houses stand on posts with a floor raised
above the ground.

REASON WHY IT MATTERS IN THE NORTHEAST

Bamboo grows everywhere It is right outside the village, so it costs nothing and can be cut and used at
there once

It grows back fast A bamboo clump gives new poles in a few years, so the forest is not finished
off

Light but strong Two or three people can carry the poles up a hill path where no truck can go

Raised on stilts, above flood The Northeast gets very heavy rain and rivers rise fast. The floor stays dry.
water

Away from damp, snakes The ground stays wet for months; a raised floor keeps the family off it
and insects

Air flows underneath The house stays cool and the floor dries quickly

Bamboo bends instead of This is an earthquake region. A springy bamboo frame sways and survives
breaking where a heavy wall would crack

Useful space below Firewood, tools and animals are kept under the raised floor

Easy to repair A damaged pole is simply replaced. No cement, no machine, no mason
needed

The big idea: A good house is not the same everywhere. It is made of whatever the
land gives, and shaped by whatever the weather does. In the Northeast the land
gives bamboo and the weather gives rain, floods and earth tremors — so the house
is a light bamboo box standing on legs. In a hot desert the same house would be
wrong; there you need thick mud walls to keep the heat out.

Look at your own village or street: what are the roofs made of, and why? Sloping
tin or thatch where it rains hard; flat concrete where it does not. The answer is
always in the weather and in what grows nearby.

Page 25 of 59

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4

The picture on page 102, redrawn.

What animals do you see in the picture?

An elephant and a hornbill are the two clear animals in the picture. There are also
butterflies among the flowers.

ANIMAL WHERE IT IS IN THE WHAT IT TELLS YOU
PICTURE

Elephant In the bushes behind the Wild elephants live right beside the villages here. The
people, on the right chapter says ghost pepper is even used to keep them away
from crops.

Hornbill Perched on a branch at the The hornbill is the best-known bird of the Northeast.
bottom right, with a huge Nagaland's biggest festival is named after it.
yellow bill

Butterflies Small pink shapes among the Many kinds of butterfly live in these hill forests
flowers on the right

Why the animals are drawn so close to the market: that is not a mistake by the
artist. In much of the Northeast, forest and village sit side by side. An elephant may
walk past the edge of a field, and a hornbill may nest in a tree the village has
protected for years. People and wild animals share the same hillside.

Look again for smaller ones. A picture like this usually hides more than you spot
the first time. Go over it slowly with a finger — the sky, the bushes, the ground —
before you write your answer.

Page 26 of 59

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q5

The picture on page 102, redrawn.

What does this picture tell you about the people who live with nature in the
Northeast of India?

It tells you that here nature is not somewhere people go — it is where they live, work,
dress, dance and earn.

1. They make things from what grows around them. Baskets from cane and bamboo,
brooms from broom grass, pots from clay, cloth on a bamboo loom. Nothing comes from a
factory far away.
2. They build with the forest. The houses are bamboo, raised on stilts, roofed with thatch —
made to suit heavy rain and hilly ground.
3. Skill stays in the family. The woman is weaving in the open, in front of everyone. Weaving is
learnt at home, from mother to daughter, and every community has its own pattern.
4. They share the land with wild animals. An elephant stands in the bushes and a hornbill
sits on a branch, a few steps from the market. Nobody has driven them away.
5. Their festivals follow nature. The Bihu dance in the picture marks the farming year — the
new season, the sowing, the harvest.
6. Many communities live side by side. You can see at least four different traditional dresses
in one small scene. Each has its own weave, its own headgear, its own language.
7. The market is the meeting place. People come to sell what they made, buy what they need,
meet, dance and talk — all in the same spot.

Page 27 of 59

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer: The picture shows that the people of the Northeast take almost everything
they need from the hills and forests around them — bamboo for their houses, cane for baskets,
grass for brooms, thread for the cloth being woven on the spot. Wild animals like an elephant
and a hornbill are right there beside the village, and nobody seems afraid or angry about it.
Their festival, Bihu, is about the farming season. So nature is not something separate from their
life. It is their house, their work, their clothes and their calendar all at once.

Why this way of living matters: when a family's food, house and earnings all come
out of the forest nearby, protecting that forest is not charity — it is common sense.
This is what the chapter means by living in harmony with nature: taking what you
need, leaving enough to grow back, and making room for the animals that were
there first.

Discuss — Page 104
A protection plan for an animal near you

DISCUSS

Q1 In small groups, choose an animal or bird near you that needs protection. What can
you do to help? Create a protection plan and share it with the class.

Choose an animal you can actually see near your school, and write a plan with three parts
— what is going wrong, what you will do, and how you will know it worked. The women of
Assam did exactly this for the Hargila bird, and its numbers went up.
Step 1 — Choose. Pick something local. A creature you can watch is worth ten famous animals
you cannot.

Page 28 of 59

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
ANIMAL OR WHAT IS GOING WRONG FOR WHAT CHILDREN CAN ACTUALLY DO

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BIRD IT

. a g l
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House sparrow New buildings have no holes or Put up cardboard or wooden nest boxes; keep a

agl
ledges for nests; few seeds and shallow water bowl on the wall; leave a little
insects left grain out

m
.co ag
Street dogs Hunger, thirst, injuries, cruelty Keep a water bowl; tell an adult about a hurt

sem
dog; never throw stones; put up a "we feed

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here" note

Pond frogs and The pond is filling with plastic and Hold a monthly clean-up; put a bin near the
fish dirty water
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pond; a poster asking people not to wash things

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in it

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.
Butterflies No flowering plants; sprays killing
ag and curry-leaf in pots at
Grow marigold, tulsi

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bees insects school; ask that no spray be used there

Vultures Fewer nesting trees; poisoned Protect the big old trees they nest in; tell people

a s
com agl
food never to poison a dead animal

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Monkeys near Fed junk food, tangled in wires A polite board asking people not to feed them

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the temple packets of chips

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Peacocks in the Hunted for feathers; poisoned Tell an adult if you see a trap; keep a water pot
fields grain in summer
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Step 2 — Fill in this plan.
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m as e
.co


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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

PART OF THE SAMPLE ANSWER — THE HOUSE SPARROW
PLAN

Which animal, The house sparrow, around our school wall and the neem tree at the gate
and where

What is going The new building has smooth walls with no holes to nest in, and there is no water in the
wrong summer

What we will do Make ten nest boxes from old shoe boxes and hard board; fix them under the roof edge;
keep two clay bowls of water filled; scatter a handful of broken rice near the tree

Who does what Group A makes the boxes; Group B fills the water every morning; Group C counts the
birds each Friday

Who will help us The class teacher, the school gardener, and one parent who has kept a nest box before

How we will Count sparrows for five minutes every Friday and put the number on a chart. If any nest
know it worked box is used, mark the date

How we will tell A poster at the school gate and a two-minute talk at assembly
others

Why the Hargila story is the right model: The Hargila, the Greater Adjutant Stork,
was disliked — people called it dirty and cut down its nesting trees. Women in Assam
changed that. They did not fence off a forest. They gave the bird a good name,
taught children to guard its nests, and made it something to be proud of. Because
everyone in the village joined in, the numbers went up. Protection works best
when the local people want it, not when it is ordered from outside.

Keep it small and keep it going. One water bowl filled every day of the summer
helps more birds than a big poster made once and forgotten. Choose something you
can keep doing.

Activity 2 — Page 104

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Make a bird's nest

ACTIVITY

Q1 In small groups, collect twigs, leaves and soft materials like cotton or paper
available around you. Create a small bird’s nest using the materials. What makes a
good nest? What does the nest need to keep the eggs safe?

A good nest is a strong bowl on the outside and a soft cup on the inside. Build it in that
order and it works — build it the other way and it falls apart.
Step 1 — Collect. Only pick up things that have already fallen. Do not break anything off a living
plant.

LAYER WHAT TO COLLECT ITS JOB

Outside Thin dry twigs, coconut-leaf ribs, stiff grass stalks Makes the frame and holds the shape

Middle Dry leaves, soft grass, thin roots, jute string, coir Fills the gaps and binds the frame together

Inside Cotton wool, feathers, torn soft paper, wool ends Cushions the eggs and keeps them warm

Step 2 — Build it, step by step.

1. Bend three or four long twigs into a circle and twist the ends together. This is the rim.
2. Weave shorter twigs in and out across the circle, over one and under the next, until you have
a rough floor.
3. Press the middle down with your fist so it becomes a bowl, not a plate.
4. Poke dry grass and leaves into every gap, from the outside, until no light shows through the
bottom.
5. Line the inside with cotton, feathers or soft paper. Press it smoothly all round the cup.
6. Check the shape: the rim must be higher than the middle, so an egg rolls back in instead of
out.

Step 3 — Test it. Put a small stone or a marble in as a pretend egg, then tilt the nest gently to
one side. In a good nest the marble rolls back to the middle. In a flat one it rolls straight out.
Then hold the nest by its rim — a good nest holds together and does not sag.
What makes a good nest?

Page 31 of 59

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A GOOD NEST IS… WHY

Deep and cup-shaped The eggs roll to the middle instead of rolling out in the wind

Strong at the rim It must hold the weight of the parent bird sitting on the eggs

Soft inside An eggshell is thin. Twigs would crack it

Warm and closed at the bottom Eggs need steady warmth to hatch

Dry, or able to drain Rainwater must run off or through, not collect

The same colour as its Twigs, grass and mud hide it from crows, cats and snakes
surroundings

Light but firmly fixed It must not blow down; birds wedge it into a fork or hang it from a
branch

Just big enough A small cup is easier to keep warm than a large one

What does the nest need to keep the eggs safe?

1. Deep sides, so eggs cannot roll out.
2. A soft lining, so the shells do not crack.
3. A high, hidden place, out of reach of cats, dogs, snakes and hands.
4. Camouflage — the same colours as the branch around it.
5. Shelter from sun and rain, usually a leafy branch above.
6. A strong hold on the branch, so wind cannot shake it down.
7. The parent bird, which is really the most important part of all.

What you learn by making one: Try it and you will find out how hard it is. You have
two hands, glue and scissors; a bird has only a beak, and works in the wind, with no
plan drawn out. A tailorbird actually stitches two leaves together using plant fibre. A
weaver bird knots long grass strips into a hanging pot with a tube for a door. When
you have failed once at making a nest, you will never again call a bird's nest untidy.

Important rule: Never take a real nest, and never touch a nest that has eggs or
chicks in it. Watch it from a distance. If the parent bird sees people near it too often,
it may leave the eggs for good.

Activity 3 — Page 105

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The root bridge challenge

ACTIVITY

Q1 Try a ‘Root bridge challenge’ in class. Can you connect two chairs using string or
sticks in a way that will hold a small toy?

Yes — and the design that works is the one that copies the real root bridge: many strands,
spread wide, tied to each other and to both ends. One string alone will sag and let the toy
slide off.
What you need. Two chairs, a ball of string or several long shoelaces, some straight sticks or
rulers, sticky tape, and a small light toy.
Step 1 — Set it up. Put the two chairs back to back, about half a metre apart. Everything must
stretch between them; nothing may touch the floor.
Step 2 — Try the simple ways first, and see them fail.

WHAT YOU TRY WHAT HAPPENS WHY

One single string, chair It sags and the toy slides down to the middle Nothing holds the toy
to chair and falls off sideways

Two strings side by side The toy still slips down between them There is no floor between the
strings

One stick laid across It holds a very light toy, but rolls or tips The ends are not tied down

Step 3 — Build the bridge that works.

1. Tie four strings from one chair to the other. Space them out so they lie side by side, like the
rails of a ladder.
2. Pull each one tight and knot it firmly to the chair leg. A loose string means a sagging bridge.
3. Now lay sticks across the four strings, one after another, close together. These are the steps
of the ladder.
4. Tie or tape each stick to the strings at both ends. Do not skip this — untied sticks roll.
5. Take two more strings and weave them over and under, across the sticks, to lace the whole
thing together.
6. Add two short strings from the outer edges up to the chair backs, like handrails. They stop
the bridge from twisting.
7. Now place the toy in the middle.

What you will see. The single string could not hold the toy at all. The woven bridge holds it
easily, and hardly dips. Add a second toy and it still holds. The load is now shared by six or eight
strands instead of resting on one.

Page 33 of 59

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places
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co m
m.
BRIDGE DESIGN HELD THE WHY

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TOY?

. a g l
m
ase
One string No All the weight on one strand; it sags into a V

gl strings, nothing across
aTwo No No surface for the toy to rest on

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.co ag
Four strings + sticks across, untied Only just The sticks shift and roll apart

s m
efirmly
Four strings + sticks tied + strings
gl a
Yes, Every part holds every other part; the weight is
woven through a shared all over

co m
m.
How the real bridge is made: In Meghalaya, the Khasi and Jaintia people find a

o m l a se
rubber-fig tree growing on a stream bank. They guide its long thin air-roots across

m .c — traditionally along a hollow betel-nut trunk laid aasga guide. The roots
se growing. When they reach the far bank they take hold in the soil. Then, year
the water

g l a
keep
a after year, people twist the new roots together and weave in more. Roots that touch

m a s
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and rub for long enough actually join into one. It takes fifteen to thirty years before

m .co
the bridge can be walked on — and after that it goes on getting stronger, because it

l a se
g
is alive. Some are more than a hundred years old, and one at Nongriat has two
levels, one above the other. a

co m
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The thought to take away: A bridge of cement is at its strongest on the day it is
m as e
.co a g l
finished, and weakens from then on. A living root bridge is at its weakest on the day

s e mis finished, and grows stronger every year after. That is why Chandan says, we just
it

agla have to look after them now.
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl
Write — Pages 105–106

co m
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m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
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m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Western Ghats

WRITE

Q1 Look at the map, locate the Western Ghats and name the six states it passes
through.

N

Bay of Bengal
Arabian Sea
Western Ghats
Western Ghats

Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari

Map of India. The green hill marks show the Western Ghats along the west coast.

The six states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
How to find the Western Ghats on the map, step by step.

1. Open the physical map of India — the one with green plains and brown hills.
2. Find the western coastline, the one along the Arabian Sea.

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3. Just inland from that coast you will see a long brown ridge running down the map, almost
parallel to the sea.
4. That ridge is the Western Ghats. It begins near the Tapi river in the north and ends near
Kanyakumari in the south — about 1,600 km in all.
5. Now run your finger down the ridge and name each state it passes through, from north to
south.

ORDER FROM NORTH TO STATE WHAT LIES THERE
SOUTH

1 Gujarat The northern end, near the Tapi river

2 Maharashtra The Sahyadri hills; Mahabaleshwar,
Bhimashankar

3 Goa A short, very green stretch with the Dudhsagar
falls

4 Karnataka Kodagu (Coorg), Agumbe, Bandipur, Kudremukh

5 Kerala Silent Valley, Periyar, Eravikulam; the Palakkad
gap

6 Tamil Nadu The Nilgiris and the Anamalai hills; Mudumalai

Why these hills matter so much: The Western Ghats stand like a wall in the path of
the monsoon wind blowing in from the Arabian Sea. The wind is forced to rise up the
slope, cools, and drops its rain on the western side. That is why Kerala and coastal
Karnataka are so green and wet, and why the land just behind the hills is much drier.
The same hills are the birthplace of most of the rivers of south India.

Two ranges, not one: India's other coastal range, along the Bay of Bengal side, is
the Eastern Ghats. Those are lower and broken into pieces, cut through by big
rivers. The Western Ghats are higher and almost unbroken — except at one wide
gap in Kerala, the Palakkad gap.

Q2 What animals can you spot in the forest?

Look carefully at the big picture on page 106 and name what is actually drawn there, from the
top of the picture down.

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WHERE IN THE WHAT YOU CAN SEE WHAT IT IS
PICTURE

On the tree An orange-brown monkey with a mane A monkey — the book names the lion-
branch, top left round its face and a long tail tailed macaque, found only in the
Western Ghats

On the same A tall grey-and-white bird with a heavy A large water bird — a stork
branch, to the right yellow bill

On the rock, left A spotted golden cat crouching A leopard

Behind the rock A dark brown deer standing high up A sambar deer

Centre left A reddish deer with branched antlers A deer (spotted deer / barking deer)

Centre A grey animal with a trunk and tusks, An elephant
at the stream

Top right, on the A grey goat-like animal standing on a The Nilgiri tahr, the wild goat of these
cliff rocky ledge hills

Flying, centre A blue bird with long tail feathers; a Forest birds
red-and-white bird

Right side, on the A dark bird with a white throat; a small More forest birds
plants red-breasted bird; a blue bird lower
down

Bottom left A long striped snake round the tree A snake and a frog
root; a green frog on the wet rock

A short answer: monkeys (lion-tailed macaque), leopard, elephant, deer, Nilgiri tahr,

snake, frog and many forest birds

Why so many kinds in one picture: The Western Ghats are a nature's hotspot. The
hills catch heavy rain, so food grows all year; and the ridge is so long that it holds
cold high ground, warm low ground, wet slopes and dry slopes all at once. Different
animals fit into different corners of it. Many of them — the lion-tailed macaque, the
Nilgiri tahr, the Malabar giant squirrel — live here and nowhere else on Earth.

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Honest note: the book prints the picture without labels, and the artist has drawn
the monkey orange, whereas a real lion-tailed macaque is black with a grey mane
round its face. Say what you can see first, then give the name your book gives. That
is how a careful learner works.

Q3 What are the people doing in the picture given below?

The picture on page 106, redrawn.

They are collecting forest produce — bending down among the low plants beside the
stream, gathering herbs, spices and other useful plants. On the right of the picture their
collection is spread out on the ground.

WHERE IN THE WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE DOING
PICTURE

Bottom left, two Bending over the plants near the water and picking leaves — collecting herbs and
people in hats medicine plants

Bottom right What they have gathered, laid out: heaps of turmeric and chilli, bundles of cinnamon
bark, cane baskets of ground spice, black pepper, jars of honey, a star-shaped spice,
cardamom plants

Middle right, on Two more people walking up the hill path
the hill

So the answer in one line: the people are gathering plants, herbs, spices and honey from the
forest — the work that forest-dwelling communities of the Western Ghats have done for
generations.

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Also on these pages: a group of students with notebooks and cameras doing a
survey. Working with schools, farmers and experts, they found and recorded more
than 200 kinds of mango in the Western Ghats, and have moved on to jackfruit and
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Why the Western Ghats have so many: These hills stand between the coast and
the plateau, and all the trade routes had to squeeze through their passes. Whoever
held the hilltop held the pass. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj built his kingdom on
exactly this idea, using forts such as Raigad, Pratapgad and Sinhagad. His soldiers
knew every goat track on those slopes, so they could move fast where a large army
could not move at all.

The trade-off: a hilltop fort was safe but hard to live in. Everything — water, grain,
firewood, even stone — had to be carried up. That is why forts had deep rock-cut
tanks to catch rain, and huge granaries inside.

Write — Page 106
Rivers of the Western Ghats

WRITE

Q1 Give the names of three rivers that start from the Western Ghats.

The Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri. All three begin in the Western Ghats and flow east,
right across the country, into the Bay of Bengal.

RIVER WHERE IT BEGINS WHERE IT GOES

Godavari Trimbakeshwar, near Nashik, East across the Deccan into the Bay of Bengal.
Maharashtra The longest river of peninsular India

Krishna Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra East through Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
into the Bay of Bengal

Kaveri Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri hills, East through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu into the
(Cauvery) Kodagu, Karnataka Bay of Bengal

Tungabhadra The Ghats in Karnataka Joins the Krishna

Periyar The Ghats in Kerala West, a short way, into the Arabian Sea

Sharavathi The Ghats in Karnataka West to the Arabian Sea; it makes the Jog Falls

Any three, for example — Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri

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Why so many rivers begin in one line of hills: The Ghats catch the monsoon rain
first, and huge amounts of it. That water has to run off somewhere. Because the
ridge is close to the west coast and the land slopes gently away to the east, the big
rivers run east, right across India, and only short, fast rivers run west. That is why a
raindrop that falls on a hill in Karnataka can end up in the sea near Andhra Pradesh,
hundreds of kilometres away on the other side of the country.

Why people call the Ghats a water tower: The drinking water of Mumbai, Pune,
Bengaluru and Chennai, and the water in the fields of five states, starts as rain on
these hills. Cut the forest and the rain runs off at once, taking the soil with it, instead
of soaking in and feeding the rivers all year.

Activity 4 — Page 107
Local fruits and vegetables and their varieties

ACTIVITY

Q1 Pick a fruit or vegetable that grows in your state. It may have varieties. With the
help of your teacher or elders make a list of how many types and varieties of fruits
and vegetables are locally known.

Do a small survey of your own, exactly like the one in the Western Ghats that found more
than 200 kinds of mango. You will be surprised how many names your grandmother knows.
Step 1 — Choose one fruit or vegetable that everybody around you grows or buys. Mango,
banana, rice, brinjal, chilli or gourd all work well, because each has many kinds.
Step 2 — Ask five people. Your grandmother, a neighbour who farms, the vegetable seller in
the market, the school cook, your teacher.
Step 3 — Ask these five questions about each kind:

1. What is it called here, in our own language?
2. What does it look like — size, colour, shape?
3. When is it ready — which month?
4. What is it used for — eaten fresh, pickled, dried, cooked?
5. Is it still grown, or has it become rare?

Step 4 — Fill this table.

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LOCAL NAME WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE SEASON USED FOR STILL GROWN?

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______

Sample answer — mango, in a village in Uttar Pradesh:

LOCAL NAME WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE SEASON USED FOR STILL
GROWN?

Dasheri Long, thin, golden June–July Eaten fresh Yes, plenty
yellow, very sweet

Langda Roundish, stays greenish July Eaten fresh, and Yes
even when ripe juice

Chausa Large, golden, very juicy July– Sucked whole; Yes
August aamras

Safeda Big, oval, pale yellow May–June Eaten fresh Yes
(Banganapalli)

Ramkela Small, sour, firm flesh May Pickle only Becoming rare

Desi aam (from a Small, fibrous, very June Aam panna, Only a few old
seedling tree) sweet, each tree sucking, chutney trees left
different

Sample answer — brinjal, for a class that picks a vegetable: the long thin green one, the
small round purple one, the big fat purple one for bharta, the white-and-purple striped one, and
the tiny cluster brinjal used in sambar. Five kinds — from one vegetable.

IF YOU CHOOSE… KINDS YOU ARE LIKELY TO FIND

Banana Robusta, Rasthali, Poovan, Nendran, Elaichi (small), red banana, plantain for cooking

Rice Basmati, Sona Masuri, Ponni, Gobindobhog, Black rice of Manipur, Red rice of Kerala

Chilli Guntur, Kashmiri, Byadgi, Bhut Jolokia of the Northeast

Gourd Bottle gourd, ridge gourd, snake gourd, bitter gourd, ash gourd, pointed gourd

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Why counting the kinds is real work, not a game: Every kind is a different answer
to a different problem. One ripens early, one keeps well, one stands drought, one
tastes best in pickle. Nowadays only a handful of kinds are grown for the market,
and the others quietly disappear — usually the moment the last elder who knew
them stops planting. When you write down the name of a rare local kind, you may
be the first person ever to do so. That is exactly what the researchers in the Western
Ghats are doing with mango, jackfruit and jamun.

Make it last: put every group's table into one class chart with the title Fruits and
vegetables of our area. Add the name of the person who told you each one. Next
year's class can add to it.

Write — Page 109
Protected areas of the Western Ghats

WRITE

Q1 List three protected areas in the Western Ghats.

Silent Valley National Park, Periyar Tiger Reserve and Bandipur National Park. The Western
Ghats have more than fifty protected areas in all.

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PROTECTED AREA STATE KNOWN FOR

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Silent Valley National Park Kerala
Movement; lion-tailed macaquesa
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A rainforest saved from a dam by the Save Silent Valley

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aPeriyar Tiger Reserve Kerala Tigers and elephants around a large lake

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Bandipur National Park Karnataka Tigers and one of India's largest elephant populations

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Nagarhole National Park
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Eravikulam National Park
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Kerala The Nilgiri tahr; the neelakurinji flower that blooms once in
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Mudumalai Tiger Reserve Tamil Nadu Elephants, on the Nilgiri slopes

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Anamalai Tiger Reserve Tamil Nadu

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High hills and tea and cardamom country

Maharashtra Home of the Indian giant squirrel
Sanctuary
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Goa Dudhsagar falls
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What "protected area" means: a forest, river or hill that the government keeps safe
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Western Ghats have over fifty of them — wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and
tiger reserves. They protect rare animals such as the lion-tailed macaque, the tiger,
the elephant and the hornbill, and they keep the forests and the rivers healthy.
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The Silent Valley story, in short: A dam was planned on a river in this rainforest. It
would have drowned the valley. Villagers, students, teachers, poets and scientists
joined together in the Save Silent Valley Movement — and the dam was stopped.
In 1984 the valley was made a national park. It is still standing. The valley got its
name because, unlike other rainforests, it did not ring with the sound of cicada
insects.

Let us reflect — Pages 109–111
Closing questions

LET US REFLECT

Q1 What surprised you the most about the places visited in this journey across India?
Why?

Choose one thing that changed your mind, and say what you had believed before. That is
what makes a surprise a surprise.
Here are the biggest surprises in the chapter. Any of them is a good answer.

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THE SURPRISE WHY IT IS SURPRISING

India's southernmost point is not Everyone is taught Kanyakumari. But Indira Point, on Great Nicobar
Kanyakumari Island, lies much further south

A bridge that is alive We think a bridge is built and then slowly weakens. A root bridge is
grown, and gets stronger every year

Trees whose roots grow upwards Roots are supposed to go down. Mangrove breathing roots push up
out of the mud to reach air

Coral is an animal It looks like a coloured stone or a plant, but a reef is built by millions
of tiny animals

Tigers living in a salt-water swamp The Sundarbans is the only mangrove forest in the world with tigers
in it

A mask worn on the back of the A strange idea until you learn that a tiger attacks from behind
head

The Sentinelese survived the 2004 With no radio and no warning system, they read the wind, the sea
tsunami and the animals

More than 200 kinds of mango in Most of us know four or five names
one range of hills

Ordinary people stopped a dam Villagers, students and scientists saved Silent Valley by acting
together

Sample answer: The living root bridges of Meghalaya surprised me the most. I had always
thought a bridge is something people build out of stone or iron, and that from the day it is
finished it slowly grows weaker. But here the people do not build the bridge — they grow it. They
guide the roots of a tree across a stream, and go on twisting new roots in year after year. It
takes fifteen or twenty years before anyone can walk on it, which means the person who starts
it may never use it. It is made for the grandchildren. And because it is alive, it keeps getting
stronger instead of weaker. That is the opposite of everything I thought about bridges.

Writing tip: Begin your answer with I had always thought… and then but I learnt
that…. That shape turns a fact into a real answer about you.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 6 Some Unique Places AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Which place would you like to visit the most and what would you do there?

Name one place from the chapter, say why you picked it, and list three things you would
actually do there. A list of three real things is worth more than a page of praise.

PLACE WHY GO WHAT TO DO THERE

Andaman and Islands, forests and Visit the Marine Interpretation Centre; look at a coral
Nicobar Islands coral reefs together reef through a glass-bottom boat; try to spot the
Andaman hornbill; learn to wear a life jacket properly

Sundarbans The largest mangrove Go by boat through the creeks; watch the breathing roots
forest in the world at low tide; look for tiger pug marks on the mud; talk to a
honey collector

Meghalaya Living root bridges and Walk across a root bridge; see the double-decker bridge
the wettest place on at Nongriat; sit in the rain at Mawsynram; visit a village
Earth market

Assam Hargila birds, tea Join the women who protect the Hargila nests; watch
gardens, the someone weave a mekhela chador; learn a Bihu step
Brahmaputra

Western Ghats / A rainforest saved by Look for the lion-tailed macaque; smell cardamom and
Silent Valley people pepper growing wild; hear how quiet the valley really is;
help count mango kinds

Kanyakumari Where three seas meet Watch sunrise and sunset over the sea on the same day;
find Indira Point on a map and see how much further
south it lies

Sample answer: I would most like to visit the Sundarbans. I would go in a small boat along the
narrow creeks, early in the morning when the tide is low, because that is when the breathing
roots stand out of the mud like a field of pencils. I would look for tiger pug marks on the wet
bank — not for the tiger itself, because that would be dangerous. I would ask a honey collector
how he finds a wild bees' nest, and whether he really wears a mask on the back of his head. And
I would count how many different birds I could see from the boat in one hour, and write the list
in my notebook.

Make your answer yours: add one thing only you would do — a question you
would ask, something you would draw, a word you would learn in the local
language. That is what turns a trip into learning.

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Q3 How is your region similar or different from one of the places in the story?

Pick the place in the chapter that your own area is least like, and compare six things: the
land, the water, the weather, the houses, the work and the wildlife. The differences teach
you more than the likenesses.
How to build your answer, step by step.

1. Write the name of your village, town or city, and the state.
2. Choose one place from the chapter — the islands, the Sundarbans, the Northeast or the
Western Ghats.
3. Fill the six rows of the table below for both.
4. End with two sentences: one big similarity, one big difference.

COMPARE MY REGION THE PLACE IN THE STORY

The land — flat, hilly, coast, desert? _______ _______

Water — river, sea, pond, well, tap? _______ _______

Weather — hot, cold, wet, dry? _______ _______

Houses — what are they made of? _______ _______

Work — what do people do? _______ _______

Wild plants and animals near you _______ _______

Sample answer — a child in a village in western Rajasthan, compared with the
Sundarbans:

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COMPARE MY VILLAGE (RAJASTHAN) THE SUNDARBANS

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there too. The big similarity is that in both places people have built their houses, chosen their work
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Match the following aquatic
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# THE PICTURE MATCHES WITH

1 Blue-grey animal leaping, with a curved fin on its Smart mammals that breathe air and live in
back — dolphin groups

2 Green-brown animal with a hard shell and With hard shells, return to the beach where they
flippers — sea turtle were born to lay eggs

3 Pink branching lump on the sea floor — coral Tiny sea animals that form colourful reefs and
homes for fish

4 Yellow, upright, with a curled tail and a head like Fish that swims upright, face looks like that of a
a horse — seahorse horse

5 Small orange fish with white bands — clownfish Lives safely among stinging sea anemones

6 Red five-armed star — starfish Has no brain but can regrow its arms, if lost

7 Pale see-through bell with hanging threads — Has a soft, transparent body and stings with its
jellyfish tentacles

8 Reddish animal with long curling arms — Has eight arms and can change its colour to hide
octopus

The answers in the order the features are printed:

Has no brain but can regrow its arms → Starfish

Fish that swims upright, face like a horse → Seahorse

Hard shells, return to their own beach to lay eggs → Sea turtle

Eight arms, changes colour to hide → Octopus

Lives safely among stinging sea anemones → Clownfish

Tiny sea animals that form reefs → Coral

Soft, transparent body, stings with tentacles → Jellyfish

Smart mammals that breathe air, live in groups → Dolphin

A little more about each one:

Starfish — it is not a fish. It has no brain and no blood, and it walks on hundreds of tiny tube
feet. If a crab bites off an arm, it grows a new one.
Seahorse — a real fish, but it swims upright and slowly. It curls its tail round a weed to hold
on. The father, not the mother, carries the eggs in a pouch.

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Sea turtle — it swims thousands of kilometres, then comes back to the same beach where it
hatched, digs a pit in the sand at night and lays its eggs. On the coast of Odisha, olive ridley
turtles come ashore in their thousands.
Octopus — eight arms covered with suckers, and no bones at all, so it can squeeze through
a very small hole. It changes colour in a moment to match a rock.
Clownfish — the anemone's arms sting other fish, but a coating on the clownfish's skin
keeps it safe. It gets a guarded home; the anemone gets cleaned and defended.
Coral — each coral is a tiny animal that builds a hard stony cup round itself. Millions of them
together make a reef.
Jellyfish — mostly water, with no brain, no heart and no bones. Never touch one, even a
dead one on the sand.
Dolphin — a mammal, not a fish. It must come up to breathe air, it feeds its babies milk, it
lives in a group and it finds things by making clicks and listening for the echo. India's Ganges
river dolphin is our National Aquatic Animal.

How to do a matching question well: Do the ones you are sure of first and cross
them off both lists. The list gets shorter, and the last two or three become obvious.

Q5 What is special about mangroves?

Mangroves are the only trees that can live in salty, muddy, tide-washed land — and they
hold the coast together while doing it.

1. They can live in salt water. Salt kills most plants. Mangroves block most of the salt at their
roots, and push out what does get in through their leaves. You can sometimes see salt
crystals on a mangrove leaf.
2. Their roots breathe air. Sea mud has almost no air in it. So mangroves grow thin roots that
stick straight up out of the mud, like pencils, and take in air through tiny holes. These are the
stick-like things Shanti saw.
3. They stand on stilts. Arching stilt roots lift the trunk above the water and grip the soft mud,
so the tree is not knocked over by the tide.
4. They hold the land in place. The tangle of roots traps mud and stops waves from washing
the shore away.
5. They are a wall against storms. A thick mangrove belt breaks the force of a cyclone or a big
wave before it reaches the villages behind.
6. They are a nursery for the sea. Fish, prawns and crabs lay eggs among the roots, where the
young are safe. Much of the coastal fish catch begins here.
7. Their seeds sprout on the tree. Many mangrove seeds start growing while still hanging on
the parent, then drop point-first and stick straight into the mud. In a place washed twice a
day by the tide, an ordinary seed would simply float away.

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8. They feed and employ people. Honey, fish, crabs, wood and work all come out of a
mangrove forest.

breathing roots breathing roots

salty water

soft mud, almost no air
stilt roots grip the mud

A mangrove tree: arching stilt roots hold the trunk above the salty water, and thin breathing roots
push up out of the airless mud to take in air.

Why India cannot afford to lose them: India's coast is long and low, and cyclones
come every year. Wherever the mangrove belt is thick, the villages behind it come
through a storm far better. It also protects itself: a mangrove nursery grows the fish
that the fishing families catch. Take away the trees and you lose the shore, the catch
and the storm shield all at once.

The one to remember: The Sundarbans, where the Ganga meets the sea, is the
largest mangrove forest in the world — and the only one anywhere with tigers living
in it.

Q6 How do people in different regions live in harmony with the nature?

They take what they need from the place they live in, they take it in a way that lets it grow
back, and they make their houses, work and festivals fit the land instead of fighting it.
Every place in this chapter shows the same idea in a different form.

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PLACE WHAT NATURE HOW PEOPLE LIVE WITH IT
GIVES

Andaman and Sea, coral reefs, forest, They fish and travel by ferry; they wear life jackets and
Nicobar Islands fish learn the sea's ways; visitors are kept out of the reefs and
out of North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Forest and sea, nothing They live as hunter-gatherers, take only what they need,
Island brought from outside and read the wind, the sea and the animals so well that
they survived a tsunami

Sundarbans Mangrove forest, fish, They fish and collect honey by boat, cut branches and not
crabs, honey whole trees, wear masks to share the forest with tigers,
and keep the mangroves that keep the storm out

Assam The Brahmaputra, Women guard Hargila nests and teach children to do the
wetlands, tall birds same; the bird's numbers have gone up

Meghalaya Rain, steep streams, Instead of building a bridge, they grow one from living
rubber-fig trees roots, and hand the job on to the next generation

The Northeast Bamboo, cane, hill Bamboo houses on stilts, cane baskets, hand-woven cloth,
generally forest festivals like Bihu tied to the farming year

Arunachal Valley fields and water They grow rice and fish together in the same field, using
Pradesh — the no machines and no chemical fertiliser
Apatani

Western Ghats Herbs, spices, honey, Forest communities gather plants and honey without
fruit clearing the forest; students and farmers record more
than 200 kinds of mango so that none are lost

Kerala — Silent A rare rainforest Villagers, students and scientists came together and
Valley stopped a dam that would have drowned it

Sikkim Hill farms The whole state farms without chemicals — India's first
organic state

The five habits that come up again and again:

1. Build with what grows there. Bamboo in the wet hills, mud in the dry plains, wood and
thatch by the coast.
2. Take only as much as grows back. Honey but not the whole hive; branches but not the
whole tree.
3. Make room for the animals. An elephant beside the field, a hornbill on the village tree, a
tiger in the same forest you work in.
4. Follow the seasons. Festivals fall at sowing and harvest; fishing stops in the breeding
season.

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5. Pass the knowledge on. The root bridge, the tiger mask, the names of the mango kinds —
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all of it is taught to children before the elders are gone.
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Why "harmony" is the right word: Harmony does not mean never using nature.
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ends, so does the life that was built on it. The chapter's closing line puts it simply: we

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must all do our part by learning, respecting and protecting the land we call home.
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Q7 Make a collage by pasting pictures depicting vibrant India.

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se is a picture made by sticking many smaller pictures together on one sheet. The
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Step 1 — Collect your pictures. Old newspapers and magazines, calendars, travel leaflets,

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sweet-box wrappers, used postcards and stamps, seed packets. You can also draw the ones you
cannot find. Nothing new needs to be bought.
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Step 2 — Sort them into six groups. Use these headings, and try to take pictures from all

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GROUP WHAT TO LOOK FOR

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Land and water Snow mountains, desert dunes, a river, the sea, a mangrove creek, a hill forest, an island

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Animals and birds Tiger, elephant, peacock, hornbill, one-horned rhinoceros, dolphin, coral, lion-tailed

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People and clothes
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A safa from Rajasthan, a mekhela chador from Assam, a Himachali topi, a Kerala

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Festivals and Bihu, Onam, Pongal, Diwali, Eid, Christmas, a village fair

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Work and craft A handloom, cane baskets, a fishing boat, a farmer, a potter, a rocket launch

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Rice, fish curry, dal-baati, a sadya on a banana leaf, mangoes, spices

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Step 3 — Lay it out before you paste any of it.
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1. Take a full chart paper. Write the title lightly in pencil at the top: Vibrant India.
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2. Move all the pictures around on the paper first. Do not use glue yet.
g middle — it is the heart of the collage. An outline map of India
3. Put one big picture inathe
works very well.

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4. Arrange the rest around it, roughly where they belong on the map: Northeast pictures top
right, island pictures bottom right, Western Ghats pictures on the left.
5. Overlap the edges a little, so there are no ugly white gaps.
6. Now paste, working from the middle outwards. Use a thin, even layer of glue.
7. Write a small label beside each picture — the place and one word about it.
8. Add a border of small coloured paper triangles, or a strip of saffron, white and green along
one edge.

Step 4 — Give it a sentence. Under the title, write one line of your own. For example: Many
landscapes, many languages, many festivals — one country.
Sample answer — how one child's collage came out: In the middle I pasted a big outline map
of India. Around it I put a snow mountain at the top, a camel in the desert on the left, a fishing
boat and coconut trees at the bottom, and a mangrove creek with a tiger on the right. Below the
map I made a row of six people in the dress of six different states. Along the bottom I put a strip
of food pictures — rice and fish curry, dal-baati, idli, a sadya on a banana leaf. In one corner I
pasted a picture of a rocket, because India is not only old, it is also new. My line at the top was:
Every corner is different, and all of it is one home.

Why a collage suits this chapter: The chapter is a journey — islands, a mangrove
forest, hills, a rainforest — pieces that look nothing like one another. A collage does
the same thing on paper: many separate pieces, each keeping its own colour,
arranged so that together they make one whole picture. That is India.

Show it well: put every group's collage on the classroom wall side by side, and let
each group say two sentences about theirs. Then look at all of them together. That
wall is the chapter.

Chapter at a glance
An island is land with water all round it. India has more than a thousand islands. The
Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a long chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal. Their
capital city is Sri Vijaya Puram (it used to be called Port Blair). The southernmost tip of the
whole of India is Indira Point, and it is on Great Nicobar Island — not Kanyakumari.
Kanyakumari is only the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, the big joined-up piece
of land.
Some plants and animals live in one place on Earth and nowhere else. The Andaman
wood pigeon and the Andaman hornbill are found only in these islands. The lion-tailed
macaque is found only in the Western Ghats. This happens because the sea, or a wall of
hills, cuts a place off. Animals cannot walk across, so over thousands of years they slowly

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change to suit that one place. A place packed with such special living things is what the
chapter calls a nature's hotspot.
Roots are a tree's feet. In island rainforests, huge plank-like buttress roots spread out
from the bottom of a tall tree and hold it up in shallow, wet soil — exactly the way a wide
base holds up a rolled paper tube. In the mangroves the roots do a second job. The mud
there has no air in it, so mangrove trees push thin pencil-like breathing roots up above the
water to take in air. Arching stilt roots keep the trunk out of the salty water and grip the
soft mud.
The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world. It lies where the river
Ganga meets the sea, so the land there is muddy and salty. Mangrove roots hold the soil
together and break the force of waves, so the land is not washed away. The Royal Bengal
Tiger lives here, and it attacks from behind — so honey collectors and fishers sometimes
wear a mask on the back of the head to confuse it. People here fish, collect honey and
crabs, take fuelwood and honey from the forest, and have lived beside it for generations.
Corals are tiny sea animals, not stones. Thousands of them live together and build hard
homes around themselves. Over many years these homes pile up into a coral reef. A reef is
like a busy town under the sea — small fish hide in its holes, lay eggs there and find food
there. Sea life matters as much as forest life: the sea gives us food, most of the oxygen in
our air comes from tiny plants in the sea, and reefs also break big waves before they reach
the shore.
The people of North Sentinel Island read nature. They live like the ancient hunter-
gatherers and do not want visitors, so nobody is allowed to go there. In the 2004 tsunami
they survived — most likely because they noticed the warning signs: the wind changing, the
sea pulling back, birds and animals behaving oddly. Knowing your own place very well is a
kind of safety.
The Northeast is seven sisters and a brother. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are the Seven Sisters. With Sikkim they make
up Northeast India. Life there is tied to the hills and forests: bamboo houses on stilts, cane
baskets, hand-woven cloth, bamboo brooms, the Bihu dance, and Bhut Jolokia — the ghost
pepper, one of the hottest chillies in the world, used in pickles and even to keep elephants
out of crops.
People can protect a place, and it works. In Assam, women teach children to guard the
nests of the Hargila, the Greater Adjutant Stork, and the bird's numbers have gone up. In
Meghalaya, people train the roots of rubber-fig trees across streams for years until they
become living root bridges strong enough to walk on. In Kerala, villagers, students and
scientists joined the Save Silent Valley Movement and stopped a dam that would have
drowned a rare rainforest.
The Western Ghats are a long chain of forested hills down India's west side. They run
through six states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Many
Indian rivers begin here, including the Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri. The hills hold
hundreds of medicine plants, over 200 kinds of mango found by a survey, and more than
fifty protected areas — national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves where
nobody may cut trees or harm animals.

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Quick revision

WORD WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT AN EVERYDAY EXAMPLE
APPEARS

Island Land with water all round it Do you know?, Majuli in the Brahmaputra; the
page 95 Andamans in the sea

Indira Point The southernmost tip of India, on Great Find out, page 95 The last bit of India before
Nicobar Island open ocean

Sri Vijaya The capital city of the Andaman and Islands of India, Where Shanti's family began
Puram Nicobar Islands (earlier Port Blair) page 95 their trip

Buttress Wide, plank-like roots that flare from the Page 95–96 Like the wide base under a
roots bottom of a tall tree and hold it up table lamp

Ferry A boat that carries people across water Page 97 The boat to the next island
from one place to another

Life jacket A jacket full of air or foam that keeps you Safety Measures, Worn by everyone in a boat,
floating page 97 even good swimmers

Coral Tiny sea animals that live in groups and Page 98 The pink lump in the picture
build hard homes around themselves on page 110

Coral reef A ridge under the sea built up from the Discuss, page 98 A hiding place and nursery for
homes of millions of corals small fish

Mangrove A special tree that can grow in muddy, Sundarbans, page The Sundari tree of the
salty water where the river meets the sea 99 Sundarbans

Breathing Thin roots that stick up out of the mud so Page 99–100 The stick-like things Shanti
roots the tree can take in air saw in the water

Seven Sisters The seven Northeastern states; with Page 101 Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland
Sikkim they make up Northeast India and four more

Hargila The Greater Adjutant Stork, a very tall Page 103 The bird whose nests children
bird protected by women in Assam are taught to guard

Living root A bridge grown by training tree roots Page 104 The root bridges of Meghalaya
bridge across a stream until they are strong

Nature's A place with a great many living things Page 105 The Northeast; the Western
hotspot found nowhere else on Earth Ghats

Western A long chain of forested hills along India's Western Ghats, Where the Kaveri and the
Ghats western side, in six states page 105 Krishna begin

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WORD WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT AN EVERYDAY EXAMPLE

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