NCERT Solutions Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use

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 8 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 1: Natural Resources
and Their Use

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

1 – 20 14 21 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 39 pages

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 8 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 1: Natural Resources and
Their Use
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use from
Exploring Society: India and Beyond, Grade 8 Part 1 — the opening chapter of the theme India and the World:
Land and the People. Every question in the chapter is answered — The Big Questions, both DON'T MISS OUT
questions, both THINK ABOUT IT boxes, all seven LET'S EXPLORE boxes, the in-text question on page 19, and
all five Questions and activities.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 8) 1 – 20

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

14 21

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 1
Theme: India and the World: Land and the People

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 How do we categorise natural resources?

ANSWER

By choosing a criterion — a shared characteristic — and grouping resources by it. The chapter
uses two criteria, so it gives two different sets of categories.
1. By the use we put them to (page 4):

CATEGORY WHY IT IS A SEPARATE GROUP THE CHAPTER'S EXAMPLES

Resources Life could not exist on Earth without them, The air we breathe, the water we
essential for life and we cannot manufacture them ourselves drink, the soil that gives us food

Resources for We turn them into physical objects — for Wood (a chair, a statuette), marble,
materials utility, and for beauty coal, gold

Resources for They run buildings, transport and every kind Coal, water, petroleum, natural gas,
energy of production process sunlight, wind

2. By whether they are renewable (pages 5–8):

Page 1 of 39

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CATEGORY TEST EXAMPLES

Renewable Nature restores and regenerates it within a Solar energy, wind energy, energy from flowing
human timescale water, timber from forests

Non- Created over long periods; cannot be Coal, petroleum, iron, copper, gold
renewable replenished at the rate we use it

Natural resources

Criterion 1: the use Criterion 2: renewability

essential for non-
renewable
for life materials renewable

for
energy

e same resource can sit in a box on both sides — coal is a resource for energy and non-renewab

Two criteria, two sets of categories. Coal appears in both schemes; so does flowing water.

Why we categorise at all: the chapter explains it before it gives the categories. We
pick out shared characteristics, name the group, and then a single word does the
work of a whole description. Saying ‘non-renewable’ tells your listener at once that
the stock is limited, that using it faster does not make more of it, and that a
substitute will one day be needed — you do not have to explain any of that again.

Tip: a category is only as good as its criterion. Ask yourself what question the
categorisation is meant to answer. ‘Can I keep using this for ever?’ gives you
renewable/non-renewable. ‘What do I need this for?’ gives you the three use-based
groups.

Q2 What is the connection between the distribution of natural resources and different
aspects of life?

ANSWER

Resources are not evenly distributed across the planet or even within a country, and almost
every part of human life bends around that fact.

Page 2 of 39

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ASPECT OF LIFE HOW DISTRIBUTION SHAPES IT THE CHAPTER'S EVIDENCE

Where people live Industries come up near the resource, Page 9 — industries near natural
townships grow around the industries, and resources create employment;
people move to them townships grow and expand economic
opportunities for others too

Quality of life Modern facilities follow the township Page 9 — ‘more modern facilities that
improve the quality of life become
accessible'

Displacement and The same development uproots people Pages 9–10 — people in resource-rich
conflict living on the resource; sacred places may areas displaced from their homes; in
be threatened some cases sacred places under
threat, leading to conflicts

Trade National and international trade depend on Page 10 — Wootz steel; trade fuelled
where resources happen to lie; skill added the development of large empires in
to a raw material creates a unique product India

Relations between Nature ignores political boundaries, so a Page 10 — sharing Kaveri water
States and shared resource has to be shared by among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
countries agreement Kerala and Puducherry needed
negotiation and deft management

War Control of resources has been, and still is, Page 8 — ‘many wars have been
a cause of war fought, and continue to be fought, to
gain control over natural resources'

Fairness within a Even where a resource exists, access to it Page 18 — many city areas get no
society is often unequal adequate, regular drinking water; air
pollution hits hardest those least able
to protect themselves

Why the link is not automatic: the chapter is careful here. Having plenty does not
guarantee prosperity — that is the ‘paradox of plenty' (page 11). What converts a
deposit into a lasting benefit is human knowledge, good governance and strategic
planning; without them, a rich deposit can be a temporary windfall and little else.

Page 3 of 39

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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What are the implications of unsustainable use / over exploitation of natural
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Over-exploitation breaks the rhythm of restoration and regeneration on which a renewable

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Forests Harvest timber faster than trees grow and the forest is eventually

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Fish stocks Commercial over-fishing collapsed tuna numbers; tuna keep the ocean Page 6 — DON'T
ecosystem in balance by eating smaller fish and shrimp, so the MISS OUT
imbalance spreads

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Groundwater Extraction beyond recharge builds up a deficit — extraction Pages 12–14
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costlier, then impossible. In Punjab the water is out of reach till depths
of about 30 metres, and almost 80% of the State is classified ‘over-
exploited'
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Soil Improper use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides degrades the soil; in Pages 12–13

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Punjab those chemicals also dissolved into the groundwater, causing
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Non-renewables They simply run out. India's coal is estimated to last about another 50 Page 8

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years while demand keeps rising

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Scientists studying this, the chapter says on page 12, warn that
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the damage outlasts the gain: Punjab is the chapter's clearest case. The
Green Revolution genuinely worked — it fed a large part of the country and made
India self-sufficient in food. But food security was ensured for the short term, while
the long-term consequences ‘will take time and effort to heal'. A gain measured in
seasons was paid for with a loss measured in decades.

Don't Miss Out — Page 3
Nature as sacred in indigenous traditions

DON'T MISS OUT

Q1 Do you know of practices that reflect this?

ANSWER

Yes — many. In traditions that see Nature as a nurturer and nourisher, the respect is not only
stated, it is built into everyday practice.

PRACTICE WHAT IT SHOWS

Tulasī pūja at home (Fig. 1.6 in your A plant tended and honoured daily for the wellbeing of the
book) household

Sacred groves — devrai, kavu, sarna, Whole patches of forest where cutting is forbidden. The chapter
orans itself uses these on page 2 as an example of something culturally
unacceptable to exploit — which is exactly why they are still
standing

Offering arghyam to Sūrya (Fig. 1.9) Water offered to the sun as a mark of gratitude for light and warmth

Rivers addressed as mothers — Gaṅgā, A river you call mother is harder to treat as a drain
Narmadā, Kāverī

Festivals built around crops and Thanks given to soil, sun, cattle and rain at the moment they have
animals — Pongal, Bihu, Onam, Baisakhi, delivered
Govardhan pūja, Nāga Panchamī

Trees honoured individually — peepal, A named, protected tree is rarely felled
banyan, neem tied with thread and
watered

Gentle ploughing (Fig. 1.4) Minimal disturbance to the underground ecosystem, and soil
moisture retained

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why these practices matter beyond belief: look at what each one does. Sacred
groves preserve native biodiversity and recharge local water. Fallow days and no-
fishing seasons let a population recover. Honouring a tree keeps it standing. The
chapter's own point on page 6 is the same — traditional communities regulated
fishing during the spawning season, and that maintained the fish population.
Reverence, in practice, works out as restraint at exactly the moment restraint is
needed.

Try This: ask an elder in your family which plant, tree, river or animal is treated as
special at home, and on which day. Then work out what the practice protects. Write
both columns side by side — the custom, and what it conserves.

Think About It — Page 3
Tracing everyday things back to Nature

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Take a pause. Look at yourself and the things around you. What is the origin of each
of them? At some point they all lead to Nature; even the plastic button on your
shirt.

ANSWER

Every object in the room traces back to Nature — usually through several steps, which is exactly
why the origin is easy to forget.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

THING MADE FROM WHICH COMES FROM

Cotton shirt Cotton fibre A plant grown in soil, on water and sunlight

Plastic button A polymer made from Petroleum — the remains of living things buried for
petrochemicals millions of years

Notebook and this Paper Wood pulp from trees
textbook

Steel compass, blade, Steel Iron ore mined from the ground, smelted using coal
cycle

Glass window Glass Silica sand, melted at high heat

Wall of the classroom Cement, sand, bricks Limestone, sand, clay — and a great deal of energy

Electricity in the fan Generated in a power station Coal, flowing water, sunlight or wind

Your lunch Grain, vegetables, milk Soil, water, sunlight, and animals fed on plants

Your own body Food, water, air Nature, continuously — you are not an exception to
the list

Why the chapter asks you to pause: the more steps there are between a thing and
its origin, the less natural it looks. A button feels manufactured and a mango feels
natural — yet both begin in Nature. Once you have traced the chain, ‘resource' stops
being a word about mines and forests far away and becomes a word about the
objects on your own desk. That change of view is the point of the whole chapter.

Check it yourself: pick up any five things you touched this morning. For each, write
the chain in three arrows: object → material → element of Nature. If you cannot
complete a chain, that is the interesting one — find out what it is made of.

Think About It — Page 4

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Criteria for categorising natural resources

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 What might be the different criteria we can use to categorise natural resources?

ANSWER

A criterion is simply the shared characteristic you sort by. Change the criterion and you get a
different, equally valid set of categories.

CRITERION CATEGORIES IT EXAMPLES
PRODUCES

What we use it for (the Essential for life · for materials · Air and water · timber and marble ·
chapter's first criterion) for energy coal and sunlight

Whether Nature renews it Renewable · non-renewable Wind, flowing water, forest timber ·
(the chapter's second criterion) coal, petroleum, gold

Living or non-living origin Biotic · abiotic Forests, fisheries, livestock · minerals,
metals, rock

Where it is found Atmospheric · water · land and Air · rivers and groundwater ·
soil · sub-surface (mineral) farmland · iron ore, bauxite

Stage of development Known but unused · in use Petroleum under deep ocean we
cannot yet reach · Mumbai High, in
production

Who it belongs to Individual · community · A farmer's well · a village pond or
national · international grove · a coal field · the open ocean

Why more than one criterion is useful: each answers a different question. ‘Biotic
or abiotic' tells you whether the stock can reproduce itself. ‘Renewable or not' tells
you whether you may keep drawing on it. ‘Who owns it' tells you who must agree
before it is used — which is precisely why the Kaveri needed an agreement between
four States (page 10). No single categorisation is the ‘right' one; you pick the
criterion that fits the decision you have to make.

Tip: a good criterion has to sort every resource, and put each one in only one box.
Test yours on an awkward case — groundwater. It renews, but slowly; that is what
makes it easy to over-draw, and why Punjab appears later in the chapter.

Page 8 of 39

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Don't Miss Out — Page 6
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Rotational grazing and fallow Grass and soil organisms recover before the
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why commercialisation broke the tuna custom: a village that fishes the same
water every year loses if it empties that water, so restraint pays. A commercial fleet
that can move on to the next fishing ground does not carry that loss — the cost falls
on someone else, later. That is why, as the box says, the collapse of tuna numbers
had to be answered by agreements on control of fishing rather than by custom,
and why the species is still in decline even so.

Did you know? The box explains why tuna matter beyond their own numbers: by
consuming smaller fish, shrimps and so on, they keep the ocean ecosystem in
balance. Remove a large predator and the species it fed on multiply, which changes
the whole food web beneath it.

Let's Explore — Page 7
Human actions that block Nature's restoration and regeneration

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Identify human actions in your surroundings that result in Nature losing her ability
to restore and regenerate. What types of interventions can be undertaken to
restore Nature's cycle?

ANSWER

Work in two columns — first the action, then the intervention that answers it. A useful answer
names things you can actually point to on the way to school.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ACTION THAT BLOCKS WHY NATURE CANNOT INTERVENTION
RESTORATION RECOVER FROM IT ON
ITS OWN

Untreated sewage and The waste cannot decay into food Treat effluent before discharge; enforce
industrial effluent let into a for any lifeform; the cycle is the standards; revive the water body and
drain, nallah or river broken and the water turns check its quality every month
poisonous (page 7)

Plastic waste and packaging It does not decompose, blocks Segregate waste, reduce single-use plastic,
thrown into open ground or drains, and stops rain from compost the wet fraction, recycle the dry
drains soaking in

Concreting every open Rain runs off instead of Rooftop rainwater harvesting; recharge
surface — courtyards, recharging groundwater; the pits; permeable paving; restore ponds and
footpaths, playgrounds water table keeps falling tanks

Over-pumping borewells for Extraction outruns recharge and Drip and sprinkler irrigation; crops
irrigation, or leaving taps the deficit builds up year on year matched to the local rainfall; repair leaks;
and pipes leaking (page 12) reuse treated water

Felling trees for Habitat, shade, soil binding and Plant native species — the chapter is
construction; clearing a water filtering all go at once specific that planting the types originally
grove growing there restores the ecosystem
(page 5)

Burning crop residue and Organic matter that should have Compost or mulch the residue; use it as
garbage returned to the soil goes into the fodder or for biogas
air as pollution

Heavy or repeated use of Soil degrades; the chemicals Cow dung and natural fertilisers,
chemical fertilisers and dissolve into groundwater (pages mulching, multi-cropping, natural pest
pesticides 12–13) repellents such as neem

Sand mining from a river The river loses its ability to hold Regulate mining; keep floodplains free of
bed; building on a floodplain and clean water, and to refill the construction; protect wetlands
or wetland aquifer

Sample answer: ‘In my neighbourhood the drain behind the market carries untreated waste
water into the canal, the vacant plot is used to dump and burn plastic, and every courtyard on
our street has been cemented. As a result, the canal water is black and has no fish, the smoke
reaches our classrooms, and our handpump now has to be pumped much longer than it did
three years ago. Three interventions we proposed to the ward office are: a covered composting
pit and separate dry-waste collection for the market, recharge pits at the four street corners,
and a row of neem, peepal and jamun saplings along the canal bank, with each class in our
school responsible for watering ten of them for two years.'

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the intervention must match the break: Nature's cycle fails at a specific point
— recharge, decomposition, or habitat. Planting trees does not fix an untreated
effluent pipe, and a treatment plant does not refill an aquifer. Find the broken step
first, then choose the repair.

Let's Explore — Page 8
A research study of renewable resources in your region

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Take up a small research study to assess the types of renewable resources in your
region; you may discuss with your teacher the geographical area of your study and
sources to access information that you may need. What has been the change in
their status over time? Make a small report that identifies the reasons for the
change and what may be done.

ANSWER

This is a field study, so what matters is the method. Here is how to run it and what your report
must contain.
Step 1 — Fix the area. Settle it with your teacher first. A ward, a village panchayat, a block or a
small watershed is workable; ‘my State' is not. Write the boundary down and mark it on a sketch
map.
Step 2 — List the renewable resources present. Go by the chapter's own examples and look
for them locally.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

RESOURCE WHAT TO RECORD

Sunlight Number of clear months; rooftop solar panels, solar pumps, solar street lights in
the area

Wind Whether the area is windy in any season; any windmills or wind pumps

Flowing water Rivers, canals, streams; any micro-hydel or watermill (see Fig. 1.2)

Surface water and Ponds, tanks, wells, handpumps, borewells — and their depth
groundwater

Forest and trees Area under trees, species, what is collected from them — firewood, fodder, fruit,
honey, leaves

Soil Crops grown, yields, fallow practice, manure vs chemical fertiliser

Fish and livestock Ponds and rivers fished; grazing land

Step 3 — Establish the change over time. One reading is not a study; you need then and now.

Interview elders — the same three questions to five or six people: how deep was the well
then and now; what grew here then; what was collected from the forest then.
Official sources — the panchayat or municipal office, the block agriculture or forest office,
the groundwater board's district reports, the census, State portals.
Direct observation — count and photograph what is there today. Old photographs of the
same spot are excellent evidence.

Step 4 — Write the report in five short parts: (i) the area and why you chose it; (ii) the
resources found; (iii) a then-and-now table with your sources named; (iv) the reasons for each
change; (v) what may be done, with who must do it.
Sample answer (extract): ‘Our study covered the four wards around the school. The pond near
the temple held water till March in the 1990s; today it dries by January and half its bed has been
built over. Three of the five elders we interviewed said their open wells gave water at about 6
metres in their youth; the two borewells drilled last year went to 55 and 60 metres. Reasons: the
pond's inlet drain was blocked when the road was widened, most courtyards have been
cemented so rain no longer soaks in, and paddy has replaced millets on the fields to the north.
What may be done: clear and deepen the pond and reopen its inlet, require recharge pits for
new construction, and try a millet plot as a demonstration with the agriculture office.'

Why ‘reasons for the change' is the hard part: a falling water table or a thinning
grove usually has more than one cause, and the causes are linked. In the extract
above, the road, the cement and the crop choice all push the same way. Naming only
one of them would give you a repair that does not work.

Page 13 of 39

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Tip: record where every number came from — person, office or document, and the

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Let's Explore — Page 8
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which is why they are easy to overlook.
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

NON- HOW YOU USE IT EVERY DAY POSSIBLE RENEWABLE SUBSTITUTE
RENEWABLE

Coal Indirectly — most of the electricity for Solar, wind and hydro electricity; hydrogen or
lights, fans, pumps and phone charging; electric routes in steel
also steel-making

Petroleum Directly and indirectly — the bus or auto Electric vehicles charged from renewables;
(petrol, diesel) to school, goods brought to the market, cycling and walking; buses and trains instead
diesel pumps and generators of many small vehicles; biofuels

LPG / natural Cooking at home Biogas from cattle dung and kitchen waste;
gas solar cookers; efficient improved chulhas;
induction run on renewable electricity

Iron and steel Cycle, utensils, taps, school gate, No true substitute — so recycle scrap, and
reinforcement in the walls make things that last and can be repaired

Aluminium Foil, cans, window frames, cookware Recycled aluminium, which needs a small
(from bauxite) fraction of the energy of new metal

Copper Every wire in the house and in your Recovery from old wiring and electronics
charger

Limestone The building you are sitting in The chapter's own list on page 15 — traditional
(cement) stone and mud, new plant-based materials,
recycled materials from waste plastic

Plastic (from Bottles, bags, pens, the button on your Cloth, jute, paper, steel and glass containers;
petroleum) shirt refill instead of rebuy

Groundwater Drinking and washing — a slow Harvested rainwater, revived tanks and ponds,
renewer, and non-renewable in practice treated and reused water
once drawn beyond recharge

Steps for the transition:

1. Reduce first. The cheapest unit of energy is the one not used — switch off, use daylight,
keep appliances serviced, walk short distances. Nothing has to be substituted if it is not
consumed.
2. Shift the source, not the habit. The chapter's own example on page 17 — make the switch
to renewable sources of energy for as many purposes as we can. Rooftop solar for a school
or home; solar pumps for irrigation; solar water heating instead of an electric geyser.
3. Electrify what burns fuel, then feed that electricity from renewables — this is why an
electric bus helps only as much as the grid behind it is clean.
4. Recycle metals and reuse materials, so the same copper and aluminium serve twice or ten
times instead of once.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

5. Build with less cement, using the alternatives the chapter names — stone, mud, plant-
based and recycled materials.
6. Work at scale as well. A single household cannot build a solar park; that is why the
International Solar Alliance (page 18) matters — shared finance and technical expertise are
what let sunshine-rich countries actually make the shift.

Why the transition cannot be instant: the chapter is realistic about this. Coal still
meets a rising demand for electricity as the population expands and development
accelerates, and India's reserves are estimated at about 50 more years. The task is
therefore twofold — use what we have judiciously so it lasts long enough, and build
the renewable capacity that will replace it before it runs out.

Let's Explore — Page 9

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Fig. 1.11 — Distribution of important minerals

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Observe the map in Fig.1.11. Notice the uneven distribution of important minerals.
What types of resources are available in your region? How are they distributed?

35° N
N

30° N
Hugrijan
Makum
Moran
Digboi
Janji

Jharia Naharkatia
25° N Katni
Bokaro
Amarkantak Raniganj
Kalol Korba
Bilaspur Gua Mayurbhanj
Ankleshwar
Durg Keonjhar
20° N Chandrapur Talcher
Bassein
Mumbai High Koraput
Bailadila BAY OF BENGAL
Ratnagiri
BallariSinghareni
15° N Goa
Chitradurga
Chikkamagaluru
Tumkur
Kudremukh
Neyveli
ARABIAN SEA
10° N

70° E 75° E 80° E 85° E 90° E 95° E

LEGEND Coal Oil Iron ore Bauxite

Fig. 1.11, page 9 — the map redrawn. Coal, oil, iron ore and bauxite are plotted at the
very places named on the printed map.

ANSWER

The first thing the map settles is that the four minerals in its legend — coal, oil, iron ore and
bauxite — are not spread evenly at all. Each one sits in a few districts and is missing from most
of the country.
Reading Fig. 1.11 mineral by mineral:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

MINERAL PLACES MARKED ON THE MAP THE PATTERN
(LEGEND
SYMBOL)

Coal (black Raniganj, Jharia, Bokaro, Korba, Talcher, A belt across the north-east peninsula —
circle) Singhareni, Neyveli; Makum and Janji in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha,
Assam Chhattisgarh — plus outliers at Neyveli in
the far south and in upper Assam

Oil (yellow Digboi, Naharkatia, Moran, Hugrijan Two clusters only — upper Assam in the
triangle) (Assam); Kalol and Ankleshwar (Gujarat); north-east and Gujarat with the sea off
Bassein and Mumbai High, both offshore Mumbai in the west

Iron ore (pink Gua, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Durg, Two arcs — one in the east (Jharkhand–
square) Bailadila, Chandrapur; Ratnagiri, Goa, Odisha–Chhattisgarh) and one down the
Ballari, Chitradurga, Chikkamagaluru, west and south (Maharashtra, Goa,
Kudremukh, Tumkur Karnataka)

Bauxite Katni, Amarkantak, Bilaspur, Koraput The fewest sites of all, strung along the
(orange central-eastern plateau
diamond)

What the pattern means. Notice how often coal and iron ore lie close together in the
Jharkhand–Odisha–Chhattisgarh belt. That is why India's big steel towns — Bokaro, Durgapur,
Rourkela, Bhilai — grew exactly there: iron ore and the coal needed to smelt it were both within
reach. This is the chapter's point on page 9 in visible form — industries locate near natural
resources, and townships grow around the industries.
Notice equally what the map does not show. There is no symbol across most of the Northern
Plains, Rajasthan or the far south. Those regions are not poor — their wealth is soil, water,
sunshine and people rather than these four minerals. A resource map always shows only what
its legend measures.
Sample answer (for your own region): ‘Our district lies in the plains and carries no symbol on
Fig. 1.11. Our resources are alluvial soil, canal and groundwater, strong sunshine for about eight
months, and brick clay from the riverbank. They are distributed by the river — the finest soil and
the highest water table lie in a broad band on either side of it, brick kilns line the bank itself, and
the older land away from the river needs more irrigation. The nearest mapped mineral is the
coal at Singrauli, about 200 km to our south, which is where our electricity comes from.'

Check it yourself: find your own district on the map first, then look for the nearest
symbol in any direction and measure it against the scale bar (0 – 200 – 400 km). If
nothing is marked, list the resources your district actually lives on — soil, water,
sunlight, forest, stone, sand, fish — and say how each is distributed within it.

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Why uneven distribution matters so much: because no region can be self-

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IRON ORE (NON-RENEWABLE) SOLAR ENERGY (RENEWABLE)

Where it is Odisha (Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj), Jharkhand Strongest in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Ladakh,
found (Gua), Chhattisgarh (Bailadila, Durg), Karnataka Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka,
(Ballari, Chitradurga, Kudremukh, Tumkur), Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — the
Maharashtra (Ratnagiri, Chandrapur) — all chapter notes on page 5 that most of India has
marked on Fig. 1.11 abundant sunshine

Pattern on Points. A few dense clusters; blank almost A gradient. Available everywhere, more
the map everywhere else. It exists only where particular intense in the dry north-west and thinner
rocks formed where cloud cover is high. Nothing has to be
transported

Economic Mining; crushing and beneficiation; railway and Solar parks such as Bhadla in Rajasthan (Fig.
activities port haulage (Paradip, Visakhapatnam, 1.21) and the farm near Raichur, Karnataka
Mormugao); iron and steel plants at Bokaro, (Fig. 1.22); panel and inverter manufacture;
Bhilai, Rourkela; engineering, automobile, rooftop installation and maintenance; solar
construction and railway industries downstream; pumps for irrigation; grid transmission
mining townships

Limits A finite stock. Once a deposit is mined out, the No stock to exhaust, but it needs land, storage
town must find something else to live on for the night, and a grid to carry it to where
people live

What you observe: a non-renewable is located — it fixes industry and settlement to a few spots,
and everything else must come to it. A renewable like sunshine is distributed — it lets economic
activity spread out instead of concentrating. That difference, and not just the quantity, is why
the chapter treats the two categories separately.

Q2 Discuss the implications of extracting the natural resources in those parts for
current and future generations. Suggest ways in which we can use Nature's gifts in
responsible ways.

ANSWER

Extraction gives real benefits now and imposes real costs later, and the chapter asks you to hold
both in view at once.

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FOR THE PRESENT GENERATION FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Gains: employment for local people; townships with Losses: the deposit is smaller or gone; India's coal is
schools, hospitals and transport; economic opportunities for estimated to last about another 50 years (page 8)
others too; raw material for steel, cement and power; revenue
for the State (page 9)

Costs: displacement of people living in resource-rich areas; Degraded land and forest; a lowered water table;
sacred places under threat, leading to conflicts (pages 9–10); pollutants that persist — the chemicals dissolved in
dust, noise and polluted water around mines and cement Punjab's groundwater are already a health hazard
plants (page 15) (page 13)

The benefit is concentrated and immediate The cost is diffuse and delayed — which is exactly
why it is easy to discount

Responsible ways to use Nature's gifts — the chapter's own prescriptions:

Match the rate of use to the rate of renewal. Timber only as fast as the forest grows;
groundwater only as fast as it recharges. This is the single test that keeps a renewable
renewable (page 6).
Stretch the non-renewables by using them judiciously, so they last long enough for
humanity to find more sustainable alternatives (pages 8 and 17).
Recycle and repurpose — the chapter opens with exactly this idea, a regenerative economy
that repurposes used resources, minimises waste and replenishes depleted resources.
Restore what has been taken. Refill and replant mined land with native species; revive
ponds and tanks; harvest rainwater (pages 5 and 12).
Treat waste before it leaves the factory, so the river is not asked to absorb what it cannot
break down (page 7); follow the Central Pollution Control Board's guidelines, as cement
factories are required to (page 15).
Use less polluting materials — stone, mud, plant-based and recycled materials in place of
some cement (page 15).
Include the people of the place in the decision, in the employment and in the
compensation, so that development does not begin with displacement.
Add value at home. Converting ore into steel, and steel into machines, is how a region
escapes the ‘paradox of plenty' — this is why India invested in such industries (page 11).

Why this is a question about fairness, not only about supply: the people who
gain from extraction and the people who bear its cost are often not the same people
— and future generations, who will inherit the exhausted deposit and the polluted
aquifer, cannot argue their case at all. That is the thought behind lokasangraha on
page 19: to act for the wellbeing of all, we have to count those who are not in the
room.

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Let's Explore — Page 10
A resource conflict in the international context

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Find out about such a conflict in the international context. Discuss your findings in
the class.

ANSWER

The chapter has just given you the domestic case — Kaveri water shared by Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, where negotiation and deft management were needed to keep
the peace. The international version is the same problem without a single government above
the parties, which is why, as page 10 says, ‘reaching such agreements between neighbouring
countries is not easy'.
Cases you could research:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CASE RESOURCE WHAT IS DISPUTED HOW IT HAS BEEN
AT STAKE HANDLED

The Indus, India River water Sharing the waters of a river The Indus Waters Treaty
and Pakistan system that crosses the border (1960), brokered with the
World Bank, divided the
eastern and western rivers
between the two countries

The River water The same river is the Yarlung Data-sharing arrangements
Brahmaputra Tsangpo in Tibet, the and bilateral talks; there is
(Fig. 1.12 in your Brahmaputra in India and the no single basin-wide treaty
book) Jamuna in Bangladesh;
upstream dams and diversion
worry those downstream

The Nile River water Ethiopia's large dam upstream Long negotiations, with
against Egypt's and Sudan's African Union mediation;
dependence downstream not fully settled

The Ganga at River water How much dry-season flow The Ganges Water Sharing
Farakka reaches Bangladesh Treaty (1996) between India
and Bangladesh fixed a
sharing formula

The Arctic Oil, gas, Overlapping claims to the Claims filed under the UN
fisheries, seabed as the ice retreats Law of the Sea; the Arctic
shipping routes Council provides a forum

Fishing grounds Fish stocks Fleets from many countries Regional fisheries
in the open taking the same migratory stock, agreements and catch limits
ocean such as tuna — the very agreements the
DON'T MISS OUT box on
page 6 mentions

How to present it in class — four steps, so the discussion stays on evidence: (i) name the
resource and the countries; (ii) state the geography that causes the problem, usually that the
resource crosses a border Nature never drew; (iii) give each side's case in its own words, fairly;
(iv) say what mechanism has been tried — treaty, tribunal, mediation, data sharing — and
whether it has held.

Why these conflicts are so persistent: a river or a fish stock is one physical system,
but it is governed by several sovereign authorities. Whatever the upstream user
takes, the downstream user does not get; there is no higher court that both must
obey. So the only durable solution is an agreement both sides think is fair — and
fairness has to be renegotiated as populations, rainfall and needs change.

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Tip: when you present, use at least two sources from different countries. On a

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shared-resource dispute, any single national source will tell you a true but partial
story.
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resources available in different geographical areas?
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ANSWER

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and the chapter's closing line on page 11 names the decisive ones: human knowledge, good

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governance and strategic planning determine whether resources become lasting benefits or
temporary windfalls.
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INPUT WHAT IT DOES WITHOUT IT

Knowledge and Finds the deposit, reaches it, and The chapter's own example on page 2 —
technology processes it petroleum deep under the ocean that we do
not have the technology to access is not a
resource at all

Skilled people Engineers, geologists, machine The plant is built but cannot be run or
operators, technicians — and the repaired
schools and training institutes that
produce them

Capital Money to sink a mine, build a plant, Nothing gets past the survey stage. Note
lay a grid — usually spent years how the International Solar Alliance works
before any return partly by ‘creating affordable financing
options' (page 18)

Energy and water Every extraction and processing step Extraction stalls — or it drains the local water
consumes both table and creates a second problem

Transport and Roads, railways, ports, pipelines and The deposit is stranded; ore in the ground
connectivity transmission lines to carry the with no railway is worth nothing
resource to where it is used

Industry that Converts the raw material into Exactly the failure the ‘paradox of plenty'
adds value products of higher value — ore into describes: economies unable to develop such
steel, steel into machines industries stay poor while exporting riches

Good governance Grants leases, sets pollution limits, Displacement, conflict over sacred sites, and
and clear rules enforces them, resolves disputes, unchecked pollution
protects the people of the place

Strategic planning Decides how fast to extract, what to A boom followed by an exhausted deposit
do when the deposit runs out, and and a town with no work
how to build the substitute in time

Cultural Makes extraction legitimate to the The chapter's third condition on page 2 fails
acceptance and people who live there — like cutting trees in a sacred grove
local consent

The inputs change with the geography. A solar park in Rajasthan needs flat, cheap, sunlit
land, panels, storage and transmission. A hydel project in Himachal needs a steep gradient,
dependable stream flow and difficult mountain engineering. An offshore rig at Mumbai High
needs marine platforms, helicopters and undersea pipelines. Same idea, different list.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why India has largely avoided the ‘resource curse': page 11 gives the reason
directly — by investing in the development of industries that convert resources into
products of higher value, to meet our growing needs. That is why the coal and iron
ore of the eastern belt became steel plants and an engineering industry rather than
only an export of raw ore. You will study these inputs formally as the factors of
production in a later chapter of this book.

In-text Questions — Page 19
Lokasangraha and stewardship

Q1 The Bhagavad Gītā refers to lokasangraha, the idea that everyone must transcend
personal desires and act for the wellbeing of all. Has the time come for us to
consider this seriously?

ANSWER

Yes — and the chapter's own evidence is what makes the case, not the sentiment.
Every problem the chapter has described has the same shape. Each individual decision is
reasonable on its own, and the sum of them is a loss for everybody:

A single farmer pumping a little more groundwater is acting sensibly for his crop. When
every farmer does it, extraction outruns recharge and almost 80% of Punjab is classified
‘over-exploited' — and then no one can reach the water (page 14).
One commercial fleet taking a larger tuna catch loses nothing. When all of them do, the
stock collapses and the fishery ends for all (page 6).
One factory saving the cost of treating its effluent gains. When many do, the river becomes
poisonous and cannot support life (page 7).

That is precisely the gap lokasangraha addresses: it asks each person to weigh the wellbeing of
all, including those downstream and those not yet born, and not only their own immediate
desire.

Why the chapter thinks the timing is now: because the scale of use has changed.
Page 12 notes that pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change have been taking
place at an increased pace in recent years, and page 18 adds that access to even basic
resources — water, clean air — is already unfair to some sections of society. When
damage is slow and small, custom and habit are enough to contain it. When it is fast
and large, a deliberate ethic is needed.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The chapter is not asking for a return to the past, and it does not pretend the idea is easy. Its
own examples show what acting on it looks like in practice: Sikkim's farmers accepting five hard
years of lower yields to reach a soil that would last; India sharing technology and finance for
solar power with other countries through the International Solar Alliance rather than keeping it;
communities that once stopped fishing in the spawning season. In each case someone accepted
a smaller gain now for a larger, shared gain later.

Think about it: the honest counter-argument is that a poor household cannot
afford to give up anything today for a benefit thirty years away. That is a fair
objection — and it is why the chapter puts good governance beside individual
restraint. Rules, prices and shared investment are what make the responsible choice
affordable, so that stewardship does not fall hardest on those with the least.

Questions and activities — Page 19
End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 What can make what is today a renewable resource non-renewable tomorrow?
Describe some actions that can prevent this from happening.

ANSWER

One thing only: using it faster than Nature can restore and regenerate it. A resource is not
renewable because of what it is made of — it is renewable because of the rate at which it
renews compared with the rate at which we take it. Break that comparison and the label
changes.

rate of use < rate of renewal → renewable

rate of use > rate of renewal → the stock shrinks every year

continue long enough → the resource becomes non-renewable in practice

The chapter's own examples of this happening:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

RENEWABLE WHAT TIPS IT OVER RESULT
RESOURCE

Forest / timber Harvesting timber faster than the The forest is eventually depleted (page 6)
forest can grow trees

Groundwater Extraction greater than the rate of Deeper, costlier pumping and finally
recharge, year after year unavailability; almost 80% of Punjab ‘over-
exploited' (pages 12, 14)

River water Untreated industrial waste that The river turns poisonous and cannot support
cannot decay into food for any life (page 7)
lifeform

Fish Commercial over-fishing, Rapid, extensive decline — the tuna example
including during the spawning (page 6)
season

Soil Improper use of chemical Soil degradation and crop failure (Fig. 1.14, page
fertilisers and pesticides 12)

Glacier-fed rivers Fossil-fuel industrialisation plus Himalayan glaciers melting faster than
deforestation → rising precipitation can replace them, threatening
temperatures water security in the plains (page 6)

Actions that prevent it:

1. Set the rate of use by the rate of renewal. Cut only as much timber as grows back; draw
only as much groundwater as recharges. This is the one rule from which the rest follow.
2. Protect the regeneration period. No fishing in the spawning season; fallow years for land;
closed periods for grazing — the traditional practice the chapter praises on page 6.
3. Replant with native species. Page 5 is specific: planting the types of trees that were
originally growing there restores the ecosystem, so that birds, squirrels and other creatures
return.
4. Recharge, do not just extract. Traditional water harvesting, rejuvenation of ponds and
tanks, cutting wasteful consumption, processing and reusing water (page 12).
5. Keep the waste out of the cycle. Treat effluent before it reaches a river, so decomposition
can continue to work.
6. Restore the soil with cow dung and other natural fertilisers, mulching and multi-cropping
instead of heavy chemical use — the practices that made holistic soil management possible
(page 12).
7. Reduce the fossil-fuel burning and forest clearing that drive the temperature rise, since
that is what is melting the glaciers behind our rivers.

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Why the word ‘renewable' can mislead: it sounds like a permanent property of the

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An ecosystem function is something Nature does of its own accord; when humans benefit

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ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION (WHAT NATURE ECOSYSTEM SERVICE (HOW IT SERVES
US)

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1 Trees produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide The air we breathe, and a check on rising

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reservoirs
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and insects decompose dead matter the soil so new plants can grow
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Two more you can add if asked for extras: rivers and rain replenish groundwater, giving us

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water security; and wetlands and
downstream.

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Did you know? The DON'T MISS OUT box on page 7 lets you check the oxygen
function with arithmetic. A mature tree produces about 275 litres of oxygen a day; a
human being needs about 350 litres a day.

350 ÷ 275 = 1.27

So one person needs the daily output of about 1.3 mature trees — more than one tree

each.

Both figures vary — with the type of tree, and with a person's activity, height and
weight — but the direction of the answer does not change.

Why the distinction between function and service matters: the function happens
whether or not anyone is watching; it becomes a ‘service' only when a human benefit
is attached. Naming it a service makes it countable — and something that can be
counted is harder to destroy by accident, because its loss shows up.

Q3 What are renewable resources? How are they different from non-renewable ones?
What can people do to ensure that renewable resources continue to be available for
our use and that of future generations? Give two examples.

ANSWER

Renewable resources are those that Nature restores and regenerates over time — so they can
go on being available, provided the natural rhythm of restoration and regeneration is not
disturbed. Solar energy, wind energy, energy from flowing water and timber from forests are
the chapter's examples, and it adds the condition each time: as long as we are able to manage
them in a sustainable manner.
Non-renewable resources are created over long periods and cannot be replenished at the rate
we use them — fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, and minerals and metals such as iron,
copper and gold.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

POINT OF RENEWABLE NON-RENEWABLE
DIFFERENCE

How it is replaced Nature restores and regenerates it within a human Formed over millions of years;
timescale — rain and melting glaciers feed rivers, for practical purposes it is not
forests renew themselves, soil replenishes itself replaced at all

Effect of use The stock stays steady if use is within the rate of Every unit used is one unit less,
renewal permanently

Condition Renewable only while the rhythm of regeneration is No condition can make it renew
attached undisturbed — only the rate of use can be
managed

Examples Solar energy, wind energy, flowing water, forest Coal, petroleum, iron, copper,
timber gold

What responsible Use it, but no faster than it renews Use it judiciously so it lasts long
use means enough for a sustainable
alternative to be found

The chapter's Harvest timber faster than the forest grows and the India's coal reserves may last
warning forest is depleted another 50 years while demand
keeps rising

What people can do to keep renewables available:

1. Keep use within the rate of renewal — the single decisive rule.
2. Give the resource its recovery time: no fishing in the spawning season, fallow periods for
land, rotational grazing.
3. Replant and restore with native species so the ecosystem, not just the tree count, comes
back.
4. Recharge water — rooftop harvesting, revived ponds and tanks, less wasteful consumption,
treated water reused.
5. Keep the waste out, so rivers and soil can still complete their cycles.
6. Feed the soil back with compost, cow dung, mulching and multi-cropping.

Two examples, in full:

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EXAMPLE WHAT WAS DONE WHAT IT ACHIEVED

Sikkim's Pema's family switched to compost, made In 2016 Sikkim became a 100 per cent organic
organic farming natural pest repellents from neem and state, with all its farmland certified organic.
(pages 16–17) garlic, and grew multiple crops through Local biodiversity flourished and beneficial
the year. The State promoted organic insects and birds returned; tourism increased;
farming everywhere. The early years were farmers' incomes grew by 20 per cent on
hard — yields dropped while the soil average. The soil — a renewable resource —
recovered from years of chemical use was brought back within regenerating range

Groundwater Traditional practices of water harvesting, Recharge is brought back towards the rate of
recharge (page rejuvenation of ponds and tanks, cutting extraction, so wells stop deepening year after
12) down wasteful consumption of water, and year — the remedy the chapter offers against
processing and reusing water the prediction that many growing cities will
run out of groundwater soon

Why Sikkim is a strong example and not just a nice story: it shows both halves of
the trade-off honestly. Yields fell first, and only after about five years did the farm
thrive. A resource pushed past its regeneration point does not recover the moment
we stop pushing — the recovery itself takes time, and someone has to be supported
through it. That is why the change worked when a State policy backed it, and might
not have worked for one family alone.

Q4 Identify cultural practices in your home and neighbourhood that point to
mindfulness in the use of natural resources.

ANSWER

Look for the ordinary habits nobody calls ‘conservation'. Most Indian households are full of
them.

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PRACTICE WHAT IT CONSERVES

Rice or dal washing water poured on the plants; the last of Water — and the nutrients in it
the drinking water tipped into a pot, never down the drain

Bathing from a bucket rather than a running shower; Water
utensils scoured with ash or sand where water is scarce

A matka or earthen pot for cool drinking water; cross- Electricity
ventilation and thick walls instead of running a cooler all day

Cooking only what will be eaten; leftovers reused the next Grain, water and the energy that produced
morning; food never thrown away them

Kitchen scraps and peels fed to cattle or composted in a Soil fertility — waste is returned as food, as
corner of the yard in Nature's own cycle

Clothes handed down between siblings; old cotton turned Cotton, metal and the energy of manufacture
into kanthas, dusters or bags; steel and brass vessels used
for decades and given for repair

The kabadiwala who buys back newspaper, glass, plastic and Everything recyclable — an old, working
metal recycling system

A cloth or jute bag carried to the market; the same steel Plastic, and therefore petroleum
dabba refilled at the shop

Drying clothes, grain, papad and pickle in the sun Fuel and electricity

Tulasī watered daily; the peepal or neem near the temple Trees, and the birds and insects that depend
never cut; grain or water put out for birds on them

Ponds, wells and stepwells kept clean by the community; a Groundwater and surface water
shared village tank

Festivals tied to the harvest and to cattle — Pongal, Bihu, Gratitude expressed at the moment Nature has
Onam, Govardhan pūja delivered — the habit of mind behind all of
the above

Sample answer: ‘At home my grandmother never lets the water in which vegetables were
washed go down the drain; it goes to the tulasī and the curry-leaf plant. Our clothes are dried in
the sun on the terrace and the iron is used only for school uniforms. Every second Sunday the
kabadiwala takes away newspapers, bottles and old vessels, and my mother keeps a cloth bag
hanging on the door for the market. In our lane, the neem tree near the corner shop has a
raised platform around it and no one is allowed to cut its branches. None of these are called
environmental practices — they are just how things are done — but each of them saves water,
electricity, plastic or a tree.'

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CONSIDERATION WHAT TO ASK WHERE THE CHAPTER SHOWS IT

The source of the Is it renewable, and is it being Pages 6, 8, 17
raw material taken within the rate of renewal? If
non-renewable, is it being used
judiciously and can recycled
material replace some of it?

Pollution from the What does the process release into Cement — one of the most polluting
process air, water and soil, and is it treated industries; fine dust damages lungs, settles
before it leaves? on leaves and lowers yields, and pollutes
soil and water (page 15). Industrial waste
discharged untreated poisons rivers (page
7)

Regulation and Are the applicable standards being The Central Pollution Control Board's
compliance followed? guidelines for cement factories, so that
pollution is minimised or eliminated (page
15)

Choice of material Is there a less polluting alternative Traditional stone and mud, new plant-based
that does the same job? materials, recycled materials from waste
plastic; Jaisalmer fort and the Auroville Earth
Institute's modern mud building (page 15)

Waste and reuse Can the waste become an input Pages 5 and 1 — a regenerative economy
again, so that production imitates that repurposes used resources and
Nature's cycles, where there is no minimises waste
waste?

Local employment Does the process provide work to Page 16 — the new sustainable materials
the people of the place, or only are less polluting, provide local
take from them? employment, and are designed keeping the
local climate in mind

Fit with the local Is it designed for the place it will Page 16
climate stand in, so that it needs less energy
to run?

Energy source Can the process run on renewable Page 17 — make the switch to renewable
energy instead of fossil fuel? sources of energy for as many purposes as
we can

Fair access to the Who gets it, and who pays the cost Page 18 — distribution and access, even to
product of making it? basic resources like water and clean air, is
often unfair to some sections of society

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CONSIDERATION WHAT TO ASK WHERE THE CHAPTER SHOWS IT

Future generations Will this still be possible in fifty Pages 12 and 14 — Punjab's short-term
years, or are we spending what our food security against long-term
grandchildren will need? consequences that will take time and effort
to heal

Why the cement example is the chapter's best test case: cement cannot simply
be given up. Houses, schools, hospitals, bridges, roads and airports all need it — the
chapter says as much. So the question is never ‘produce or not produce', but how to
produce: control the dust, follow the guidelines, substitute mud, stone, plant-based
and recycled materials where they will serve, and design for the local climate. That is
what responsible production means in practice.

Tip: a good short answer to this question names three stages, not three products —
where the material comes from, what the process releases, and what happens
to the thing when we are done with it. Almost every consideration above fits into
one of the three.

Chapter at a glance
An element of Nature becomes a resource only when humans can actually use it. The
chapter sets three conditions: it must be technologically accessible, its exploitation must be
economically feasible, and it must be culturally acceptable. Petroleum too deep to reach, or
trees in a sacred grove, are therefore not resources.
Resources can be categorised in more than one way. By use — resources essential for life
(air, water, soil), resources for materials (wood, marble, coal, gold) and resources for energy
(coal, water, petroleum, natural gas, sunlight, wind). By renewability — renewable and non-
renewable.
Nature works by restoration (returning to a healthy state) and regeneration (creating new
life), in cycles where nothing is waste. A resource stays renewable only while that rhythm is
undisturbed — cut timber faster than a forest grows and the forest is depleted; warm the
planet and Himalayan glaciers melt faster than precipitation can replace them.
Non-renewables form over very long periods. India's coal reserves are estimated to last
about another 50 years, while demand for electricity keeps rising — so they must be used
judiciously until sustainable options are widely available.
Resources are unevenly distributed (Fig. 1.11), which shapes settlements, trade,
international relations and conflicts. Abundance alone does not make a country rich — the

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

‘paradox of plenty’ or ‘natural resource curse’; India has largely avoided it by investing in
industries that raise the value of what it extracts.
Stewardship is the chapter's answer: Punjab's groundwater (almost 80% of the State
classified ‘over-exploited’), the pollution of cement-making, Sikkim's turn to 100% organic
farming in 2016, and the International Solar Alliance of 2015 are its four worked
examples.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1 Natural Resources and Their Use AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT EXAMPLE / DETAIL
APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER

Nature The totality of life and non-life forms Page 2 — ‘When A standing tree in a
that are part of our environment but does Nature forest
have not been created by humans become a
Resource?’

Natural resource Materials and substances that occur in Page 3 Air, water, soil, coal,
Nature and are valuable to humans petroleum, timber, metal
ores, precious stones

Exploitation In this chapter it carries no negative Page 2 (the Mining coal; pumping
sense — it means the extraction, bracketed note) groundwater
utilisation and consumption of natural
resources

Renewable A resource Nature restores and Pages 5–6 Solar energy, wind
resource regenerates — but only if we do not energy, energy from
use it faster than it renews flowing water, timber
from forests

Non-renewable Created over long periods; cannot be Page 8 Coal, petroleum, iron,
resource replenished at the rate we use it copper, gold

Restoration Returning something to its original Page 5 A cut on your skin
healthy state after it has been degraded healing; a forest
or damaged recovering after a wildfire

Regeneration Nature's ability to create new life and Page 5 Planting the original
the conditions for thriving — it goes species of trees so birds
beyond restoration and squirrels return

Ecosystem function Something Nature does of its own Page 7 — DON'T A forest filtering water,
accord MISS OUT preventing soil erosion,
giving habitat

Ecosystem service An ecosystem function from which Page 7 Clean water, protected
humans benefit farmland, pollinated
crops

‘Paradox of plenty’ / Regions rich in natural resources Page 11 India avoided it by
natural resource sometimes growing more slowly, investing in such
curse because they cannot convert those industries
resources into products of higher value

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TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT EXAMPLE / DETAIL

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Stewardship Using resources so that renewables can Page 12 Water harvesting,
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renewables are used responsibly and to solar energy

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Lokasangraha The Bhagavad Gītā's idea that Pages 18–19 The chapter's closing
everyone must transcend appeal to act as stewards
desires and act for the wellbeing of all of Nature

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