NCERT Solutions Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life

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 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 3: Landforms and Life

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

41 – 58 10 23 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 35 pages

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 3: Landforms and Life
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life from the NCERT textbook
Exploring Society: India and Beyond. Every question of the chapter is answered — The Big Questions, all five
LET'S EXPLORE boxes (pages 42, 49, 53, 54 and 55–56), the THINK ABOUT IT box on page 43, the in-text
questions on Kālidāsa's verses (page 46), Before we move on … and all five Questions, activities and
projects, including the full true/false and matching answers.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 6) 41 – 58

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

10 23

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 41
Chapter opening

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 What are the major types of landforms and their significance to life and culture?

A landform is a physical feature on the surface of our planet. The chapter divides them into
three major types — mountains, plateaus and plains (Fig. 3.1). Experts add a few more, such as
the desert.

narrow summit

flat top

sea level
MOUNTAIN PLATEAU PLAIN
broad base, steep slopes flat top, steep sides flat, under 300 m

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The three landforms drawn as side views on one sea-level line. The drawing is not to scale — a real
mountain peak would be thirty times taller than the plain is thick.

LANDFORM HOW YOU INDIAN EXAMPLES WHAT LIFE IS LIKE
RECOGNISE IT THERE

Mountain Much higher than the land The Himalayas, the Rugged terrain, so farming only
around; broad base, steep Aravalli Range, the in valleys and on terraces;
slopes, narrow summit; Western Ghats herding, tourism, pilgrimage;
often snow-capped (Anamudi, 2,695 m) montane forest of pine, fir,
spruce and deodar

Plateau Rises above the surrounding The Deccan Plateau, the Mining — plateaus are called
land with a more or less flat Chhota Nagpur Plateau, ‘storehouses of minerals’;
top and often steep sides the Cherrapunji rocky soil, so less farming,
(Meghalaya) Plateau except on fertile black-soil lava
plateaus; waterfalls

Plain Extensive, flat or gently The Ganga plain Very fertile soil from river
undulating; no large hills or (‘Gangetic plain’), the sediments; farming and fishing;
deep valleys; generally under Indus and Brahmaputra easy travel by road and boat;
300 m above sea level plains most of the population lives here

Desert (a fourth Large, dry expanse with very The Thar Desert in the Harsh conditions, yet rich
type experts little precipitation and unique north-west cultural traditions — folk songs
add) flora and fauna and legends of the desert

Why they matter to life:

They decide the climate. The same country can have permanent snow on a Himalayan peak
and burning sand in the Thar.
They decide the water. Snow melting in the mountains feeds rivers; those rivers carry
sediments down and build the fertile plains.
They decide the work people do — herding and tourism in the mountains, mining on the
plateaus, farming and fishing in the plains.
They decide where people live. Humans have adapted to every landform, but the numbers
are very uneven: about 40 crore people live in the Ganga plain alone.

Why they matter to culture:

The Bhūmi Sūkta of the Atharva Veda, quoted at the start of the chapter, praises the Earth
“with many heights, slopes and great plains”.
Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhava opens with Himālaya as “the Lord of mountains … who
measures the Earth”.
Mountains are worshipped: Everest is Chomolungma, ‘Mother Goddess of the World’, to
Tibetans and Sagarmatha, ‘Goddess of the Sky’, to Nepalis; Mount Kailash is sacred to
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

River sources and confluences are held sacred, and festivals and rituals are held there.
The five tiṇais of ancient Tamil Sangam poetry tie five landscapes to five moods and
occupations — kuriñji (mountains), mullai (forest and grassland), marudam (fertile plains),
neydal (coast) and pālai (arid land).

Q2 What are the challenges and opportunities of life associated with each landform?

No landform is only kind or only cruel. Each one hands people a problem and a gift at the same
time, and people answer with clever adaptations.

LANDFORM CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES

Mountains Rugged terrain and steep slopes, so very Crisp air and scenic beauty, so tourism is a
little flat land to farm; landslides, major income; sports — skiing, hiking,
avalanches, flash floods and cloudbursts; mountaineering, paragliding; centuries-old
heavy snowfall and cold weather; roads pilgrimage routes; timber and montane forest
blocked for days; a fragile environment produce; herding; snow-fed rivers that water the
strained by uncontrolled tourism whole country below

Plateaus Often rocky soil, less fertile than plains and Minerals — ‘storehouses of minerals’; the
less favourable to farming; water can be Chhota Nagpur Plateau has iron, coal and
scarce because the surface is raised and manganese, the East African Plateau gold and
hard; mining damages land and forest diamond; lava plateaus have rich black soil;
waterfalls that bring tourists and can generate
electricity

Plains High population and pollution; floods The most fertile soil, built up from river
when rivers overflow; groundwater sediments — rice, wheat, maize, barley, millets,
depletion caused by heavy pump irrigation cotton, jute, hemp; river fishing; a gentle slope,
— a real challenge for the future of farming so navigation and road building are easy; the
birthplace of the first civilisations

Deserts Very little precipitation, extreme heat or Unique flora and fauna; hardy livestock such as
extreme cold, scarce water and few plants camels; a rich culture of folk songs and legends;
today also solar energy and desert tourism

One adaptation worth looking at closely — terrace farming. Since mountain slopes are too
steep to plough, people cut the slope into flat steps (Fig. 3.5):

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
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the original steep slope
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Terrace farming. The dashed line is the bare slope; the green staircase is the same slope after steps

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Why the steps work: on a bare slope, rain runs straight down and carries the
topsoil away — that is erosion. A flat step has nowhere to run to, so the water sinks
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in and the soil stays. One simple change of shape turns unusable land into a paddy
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field.

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agl Did you know? Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb Mount
Everest in 1984 (Padma Shri that year, Padma Bhushan in 2019). Arunima Sinha,
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who lost a leg in an accident at 22, climbed Everest in 2013 with Bachendri Pal's
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training and went on to climb the highest peak of every continent, including Mount

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Vinson in Antarctica (Padma Shri, 2015). Mountains challenge people — and people
answer back.

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LET'S — Page 42

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Introduction — the landscape around you

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 As a class activity, form groups of four or five students and observe the school's
surroundings. What kind of landscape do you see? Will the landscape change a few
kilometres away? Or within some 50 kilometres? Compare with other groups.

This is an observation activity, so your group's answer must describe your own surroundings.
Here is how to do it well, and a model answer to adapt.
What to look for and note down:

Is the ground flat, sloping or hilly? Can you see any hill or ridge on the horizon, or is the
sky-line level all round?
Is there water? A river, canal, pond, lake or the sea — and does the land tilt towards it?
What is growing? Paddy and wheat fields suggest a plain; scrub, rocky ground and low trees
suggest a plateau; terraced fields and conifers suggest mountains.
What is the soil like? Deep and soft, or thin with rock showing through?
What are the houses and roads like? Roads that wind and climb, and sloping roofs, point
to a hilly area; straight roads and flat roofs to a plain.

Sample answer (a school in the Ganga plain): “From our school gate the land is
flat in every direction. We can see paddy fields, a canal and a line of trees, but no hill
anywhere. A few kilometres away the landscape is exactly the same — only the
villages change. Within 50 kilometres it is still plain, but the river and its sandy bank
appear. Group 3, who had visited Chitrakoot, said hills begin about 120 km to the
south.”

Sample answer (a school in Almora, Uttarakhand): “Our school stands on a slope.
Below us is a valley with a stream, and pine forests rise on the opposite hill. A few
kilometres away the landscape changes fast — a new valley, a new ridge, terraced
fields on every slope. Within 50 kilometres we reach much higher mountains where
snow lies on the peaks in winter.”

The point of comparing groups: different groups will notice different things from
the same spot — one sees the fields, another the slope of the road, another the
rocks. Put together, the class gets a far better description than any one group could
write. That is exactly how geographers work.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 In the same groups, discuss a journey that any of you has made through a region of
India. List the different landscapes seen on the way. Compare with other groups.

Pick one journey the group knows well, then list the landscapes in the order they appeared,
with a landmark for each. A journey table is the clearest way to present it.

STAGE OF THE WHAT WE SAW LANDFORM
JOURNEY

Delhi to Haridwar Flat fields of wheat and sugarcane, canals, straight roads Plain

Haridwar to Rishikesh The Ganga rushing out between low forested ridges Foothills
(Shivalik)

Rishikesh to Devprayag A narrow winding road above a deep valley; two rivers Mountains
meeting

Devprayag to Auli Terraced fields, deodar and pine forest, snow peaks ahead High mountains

Sample answer (a very different journey): “We travelled from Hyderabad to
Visakhapatnam. Around Hyderabad the land is a rocky plateau with huge boulders
and thin red soil. Near Warangal there were open black-soil fields. Then the road
climbed through the low, broken hills of the Eastern Ghats, and finally dropped to a
narrow green coastal plain with the sea on our right.”

Why journeys teach geography better than maps: a map shows you that a
plateau ends and a plain begins, but a journey lets you feel the change — your ears
pop as you climb, the crops change, the houses change, even the language and food
change. The chapter's own example (Chhota Nagpur → Prayagraj → Almora) is built
on exactly this idea.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 43

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Snow, hail and precipitation

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 What is snow?

Snow is precipitation of water in a solid state — water that reaches the ground from the
atmosphere not as liquid drops but as soft white ice crystals.

Water vapour rises into the sky and cools

If the air is above freezing → the vapour condenses into drops → rain

If the air is cold enough (below freezing) → it turns straight into ice crystals → snow

If drops are tossed up and down inside a storm cloud → they freeze in layers → hail

Rain, snow and hail are all precipitation

cloud of water vapour

RAIN SNOW HAIL
air is warm air is cold enough stormy cloud
liquid drops soft ice crystals hard ice balls

all three together are called precipitation
The same water leaves the same cloud in three different forms. What decides the form is the
temperature of the air it falls through.

Where you can see snow in India: in the Himalayan regions — Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. In the rest of India, most precipitation
is rain and hail, so many students may never have seen snow.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why snow matters far beyond the mountains: at lower altitudes the snow melts
every summer and turns into the water that feeds our rivers; at very high altitudes it
never melts, leaving peaks permanently snow-capped. So the wheat grown in a
Punjab field in May is partly drinking snow that fell on a Himalayan slope months
earlier.

Tell them apart: snow is soft, light and falls quietly in flakes, mostly in winter;
hailstones are hard, heavy pellets that come down suddenly with a thunderstorm
and can bruise crops. Both are frozen water — but snow is formed gently, hail
violently.

In-text Questions — Page 46

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
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Two verses from Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhava
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What are the ‘western to the eastern oceans’? Can you locate them as well as the
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‘Lord of mountains’ on Fig. 5.2?

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HINDU KUSH

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River Yamuna
River Indus River Ganga River Brahmaputra

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INDIAN OCEAN
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

IN THE VERSE WHAT IT IS WHERE IT IS
TODAY

The western ocean The Arabian On the west (left) of the subcontinent, off Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa,
Sea Karnataka and Kerala — an arm of the Indian Ocean

The eastern ocean The Bay of On the east (right), off West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Bengal Nadu — also an arm of the Indian Ocean

The ‘Lord of The Himalayas The great range across the whole north, from Jammu & Kashmir and
mountains’ Ladakh through Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim and
(Himālaya) Bhutan to Arunachal Pradesh

How to locate them on Fig. 5.2 (the physical map of the Indian Subcontinent, in Chapter 5):

1. Find the brown band running right across the top of the map — that is the Himalayas, the
‘Lord of mountains’.
2. Follow the band west until it comes near the sea: the water on that side is the Arabian Sea.
3. Follow it east to where the Brahmaputra turns south: the water on that side is the Bay of
Bengal.
4. Now sweep your finger along the mountains from one sea to the other — that single sweep
is exactly what the verse means by “stretches from the western to the eastern oceans”.

Why the poet calls it a measuring rod: the verse says Himālaya “measures the
Earth”. Lay a scale across the top of the map and you see why — the range is a
straight, unbroken line about 2,400 km long that touches sea to sea. To an ancient
poet with no satellite, that was the natural yardstick of the whole land.

Both are the same ocean: the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are not separate
oceans at all. As you learnt in Chapter 2, they are two arms of the Indian Ocean, and
all the oceans are interconnected.

Q2 Why is Gangā mentioned? (Hint: There could be several reasons.)

The hint is important — there is no single right answer. Kālidāsa brings in the Gangā for several
reasons at once, and a good answer gives more than one.

Because the Gangā is born in the Himalayas. The river rises from the Gangotri glacier in
Uttarakhand. Naming her is the quickest way to say how great the mountain is: it does not
merely stand there, it gives India her largest river.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Because she carries the mountain's cool touch down to people. In the verse, the wind
carries “spray from descending Gangā” which shakes the deodar trees and cools the
mountain people after they hunt. The river is the mountain's breath reaching human life.
Because the Gangā is the most sacred river of India. Countless festivals and rituals take
place along her banks and at her source and confluences. Mentioning her makes the
mountain sacred too.
Because of the story of her descent. In the Purāṇic account, Gangā comes down from the
sky with such force that Shiva catches her in his hair on the Himalaya and lets her out gently.
The word “descending” in the verse points straight at that story.
Because of family. In the same tradition Gangā and Pārvatī are both daughters of Himavan,
the Himalaya. Kumārasambhava is the story of Pārvatī's marriage to Shiva — so naming
Gangā at the very beginning quietly introduces the family the poem is about.

What the two verses together show: for Kālidāsa the Himalaya is not scenery. It is
a living presence — a god who measures the Earth, a father, the source of a sacred
river, and the provider of shade, wind and water to the people living on it. That is
precisely the chapter's point about landforms and culture.

Some geography from the same chapter: the Gangā is the largest river originating
in the Himalayas, nearly 2,500 km long. Tributaries such as the Yamuna and the
Ghagara also rise in the Himalayas, while the Son comes from the Vindhya Range
south of the Ganga plain.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 49

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Challenges of life in the mountains (Fig. 3.6, page 50)

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 These images (Fig. 3.6 on page 50) depict a few challenges that people living in the
mountains may face. Discuss them in groups in the class and write one paragraph
on each. Also discuss why, despite many such challenges, people still choose to live
in the mountains.

Flash flood Landslide Uncontrolled tourism Avalanche

Heavy snowfall Cloudburst Cold weather

Fig. 3.6, page 50 — the seven pictures, redrawn as labelled sketches.

Fig. 3.6 carries seven labelled pictures. Here is one paragraph on each, in the order the labels
appear, followed by the answer to the second half of the question.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CHALLENGE A PARAGRAPH ON IT
IN FIG. 3.6

Flash flood A flash flood is a sudden local flood, often caused by a cloudburst. In the mountains the slopes are
steep and the soil is thin, so rain does not sink in — it races downhill and turns a small stream into
a roaring brown torrent within minutes. There is almost no warning. Bridges, footpaths, parked
vehicles and riverside houses can be swept away, and villages get cut off because the road has
simply vanished.

Landslide A landslide is the sudden collapse of a mass of earth or rock from a mountainside. Heavy rain
soaks the soil and makes it heavy and slippery, and gravity does the rest. Road cutting, blasting
and unplanned construction make slopes weaker still. A single landslide can bury a stretch of
highway, block a river and isolate whole valleys for days — the picture in the book shows exactly
this, a road broken clean through.

Uncontrolled This is a human-made challenge, not a natural one. Tourism brings welcome income, but when too
tourism many vehicles and visitors arrive at once, narrow hill roads jam for hours, water and electricity run
short, plastic waste piles up on slopes where no truck can collect it, and the quiet that people came
for is destroyed. The mountain environment is fragile, and it is often difficult to find the right
balance between welcoming visitors and protecting the place.

Avalanche An avalanche is the sudden fall of snow, ice or rock down a mountainside, and it often happens
when the snow starts melting. A whole hillside of snow can break loose and rush down faster than
a car, burying anything in its path. Mountaineers, soldiers posted at high altitude, road workers and
villages below steep snow slopes are all at risk, and rescue is very hard because the debris sets
almost as hard as concrete.

Heavy snowfall A heavy snowfall can bury roads, roofs and fields in a single night. Passes close, buses stop,
schools shut and villages may be cut off for weeks. Water pipes freeze and burst, electricity lines
snap under the weight, and food, fuel and medicines have to be stored in advance. That is why hill
houses have steep sloping roofs — so that snow slides off instead of piling up and crushing the
roof.

Cloudburst A cloudburst is a sudden violent rainstorm in which an enormous amount of rain falls on a small
area in a very short time. Mountains force moist air to rise sharply, which is why cloudbursts are
common over them. The falling water cannot soak in or drain away fast enough, so a cloudburst
usually triggers the other two disasters in this figure — flash floods and landslides — one after the
other.

Cold weather Temperature falls as altitude rises, so mountain winters are long and bitter. Warm clothing,
firewood and well-insulated homes are necessities, not comforts. Crops grow for only part of the
year, so food must be preserved and stored. Cold also makes ordinary things hard — construction
stops, taps freeze, and elderly people and infants need special care.

So why do people still choose to live in the mountains?

It is home. Families have lived there for generations; their land, houses, temples, festivals,
language and relatives are all there. People do not measure a home only by its dangers.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
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Pure air and beautiful surroundings. The chapter's own caption says life in the mountains
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has definite positives, “from pure air to the beautiful scenery”.
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A living from the mountain. Terrace farming in the valleys, herding, orchards of apple and
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income.
Water and safety. Mountain springs give clean water all year, and the isolation that makes

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Culture and faith. Many communities regard mountains as sacred; pilgrimage routes and

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shrines have supported settlements for centuries.
Skill and resilience. People adapt
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Tip for.cthe group work: divide the seven pictures among theaggroup members, one
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LET'S EXPLORE — Page 53a

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The world map of landforms (Fig. 3.8)

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Use the colour code in Fig. 3.8 to add a landform to each name. For instance,
‘Tibetan plateau’, ‘Rocky range’, ‘Nile plain’. (You do not have to remember the
names in this map.)

Ural
Ural
Alaska
Alaska
Mongolian
Mongolian
ky
ykco

Mississippi Tibetan
Roc

Mississippi Tibetan
R

Atlas
Atlas
Himalaya
Himalaya
Indus
Indus Yangtze
Yangtze
Nile
Nile

Amazon
Amazon
East African
East African
Ganga &
Ganga & Brahmaputra
Brahmaputra
es
sedn
And A

Patagonian
Patagonian

Plateau River Plain Mountain Range

Not to scale

Fig. 3.8, page 53 — the world map and its colour code, redrawn.

The key in Fig. 3.8 gives three colours — brown = plateau, green = river plain, orange =
mountain range. Match each name to the colour of the patch it labels:

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

NAME ON THE COLOUR FULL NAME WHERE IT IS
MAP

Alaska orange Alaska range North-west corner of North America

Rocky orange Rocky range Western North America

Mississippi green Mississippi plain Central United States

Amazon green Amazon plain Northern South America

Andes orange Andes range Along the western edge of South America

Patagonian brown Patagonian plateau Southern tip of South America

Atlas orange Atlas range North-west Africa

Nile green Nile plain North-east Africa

East African brown East African plateau Eastern Africa — famous for gold and diamond
mining

Ural orange Ural range The usual dividing line between Europe and Asia

Mongolian brown Mongolian plateau Central Asia, north of China

Tibetan brown Tibetan plateau The largest and highest plateau in the world —
the ‘Roof of the World’

Indus green Indus plain North-west of the Indian Subcontinent

Ganga & green Ganga & Northern India and Bangladesh
Brahmaputra Brahmaputra plain

Himalaya orange Himalaya range Across the north of the Indian Subcontinent

Yangtze green Yangtze plain Eastern China

Ranges (orange): Alaska, Rocky, Andes, Atlas, Ural, Himalaya

Plateaus (brown): Patagonian, East African, Mongolian, Tibetan

River plains (green): Mississippi, Amazon, Nile, Indus, Ganga & Brahmaputra, Yangtze

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A pattern worth noticing: every green patch is named after a river — Mississippi,
Amazon, Nile, Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Yangtze. That is not a coincidence. River
plains are built by rivers, out of the sediments they carry down from the mountains,
so the plain naturally takes the river's name.

Another pattern: the orange ranges often sit right beside the green plains — the
Himalaya beside the Ganga plain, the Andes beside the Amazon. Mountains supply
the rock and silt; the river carries it; the plain is the result.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 54
A satellite view of the Ganga plain (Fig. 3.9)

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Which colour is the Ganga plain?

Fig. 3.9, page 54 — the satellite view of north India, redrawn as a colour sketch. Nothing
in it is named — reading the colours is the task.

The Ganga plain is the broad green band that runs across the middle of the picture from left to
right, just below the mountains.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The green is vegetation — mostly crops. The plain is one huge stretch of cultivated fields, so
from a satellite it reads as continuous green.
Look closely and you can trace pale silvery lines winding through the green: those are the
Ganga and its tributaries, with their wide sandy beds.
Towards the right (east), the green fades into a hazy grey-white sheet. That is smog and mist
hanging over the lower Ganga plain — a reminder of the pollution the chapter mentions.

Why green means fertile here: the rivers bring sediments — particles of rock,
sand and silt — down from the Himalayas and drop them on the plain. That
deposited soil is deep, soft and rich, so almost every square kilometre can be
farmed. Colour on a satellite image is really a report on the soil beneath.

Q2 What does the white expanse represent?

Fig. 3.9, page 54 — the satellite view of north India, redrawn as a colour sketch. Nothing
in it is named — reading the colours is the task.

The white expanse across the top and top-right of the image is snow and ice on the Himalayas
and the Tibetan Plateau, mixed with some cloud.

Page 18 of 35

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
PART OF THE WHITE AREA WHAT IT IS

m as e
. c o
The sharp, ridged white line along
a g l
The high Himalayan range under permanent snow — you can even see

s em
the top of the green plain
a
the dark shadowed valleys between the ridges

gl broad, softer white sheet beyond
aThe The snow-covered Tibetan Plateau, together with clouds sitting over it
it, at the top right

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Small dark blue patches inside the
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High-altitude lakes on the plateau ag
white
g l as
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Why it is white all year: at those altitudes the air is so cold that the snow may never
co m
melt, leaving the mountains permanently snow-capped (page 43). Lower down, the
em.
m l as
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snow melts every summer — and that melt-water is what feeds the rivers running
m a
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through the green plain just below.

g l a
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Look for the boundary: the white and the green meet along a remarkably sharp
m a
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line. That line is where the mountains end and the plain begins — one of the clearest

se m
a
natural borders on the Earth, and you can see it from space.

a g l

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com
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 What does the brown expanse at the bottom left of the image represent?

Fig. 3.9, page 54 — the satellite view of north India, redrawn as a colour sketch. Nothing
in it is named — reading the colours is the task.

The brown and sandy-tan expanse on the lower left is dry land with very little vegetation — the
Thar Desert region of Rajasthan and the bare, rocky uplands south and east of it.

Brown from space means bare soil, sand or rock showing through, because there are few
plants to cover it.
This part of north-west India gets very little rainfall, so it cannot support the continuous crop
cover that makes the Ganga plain green.
Further down, the brown becomes patchy and reddish — that is the drier, stonier country of
the central Indian uplands, where thin soil sits directly on rock.

COLOUR IN FIG. WHAT IT SHOWS WHY
3.9

Green The Ganga plain Deep fertile soil from river sediments, plenty of water —
continuous crops

White The Himalayas and Tibetan Snow and ice, plus cloud, at very high altitude
Plateau

Brown / sandy The dry lands of the north- Very little precipitation, so bare sand and rock instead of
west plants

Page 20 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The whole lesson in one picture: three landforms and three climates lie side by
side in a single frame — snow-white mountains, a green fertile plain and a brown
dry expanse. The colours are not decoration; each one is telling you how much water
reaches that land and what kind of life it can support.

LET'S EXPLORE — Pages 55–56
Rivers, sacred sites and tourist destinations

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Can you give examples of river sources or confluences from your region that are
regarded sacred by any community?

Yes — almost every part of India has one. A confluence is the meeting point of two or more
rivers, and a source is the place where a river is born; both are widely held sacred.

Page 21 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

REGION SACRED SOURCE OR WHAT IT IS
CONFLUENCE

Uttarakhand Gaumukh (Gangotri The source of the Bhagirathi–Ganga; a major pilgrimage
glacier)

Uttarakhand Devprayag Confluence of the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi — below it the
river is called the Ganga. Four more prayags lie upstream:
Vishnuprayag, Nandaprayag, Karnaprayag and Rudraprayag

Uttar Pradesh Prayagraj (Triveni Confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna; the Magh Mela and
Sangam) Kumbh Mela are held here

Madhya Amarkantak The source of the Narmada and the Son
Pradesh

Maharashtra Trimbakeshwar, near The source of the Godavari
Nashik

Karnataka Talakaveri, Kodagu The source of the Kaveri

Karnataka Tirumakudalu Confluence of the Kaveri and the Kapila; a Kumbh Mela is held
Narasipura (T. here
Narasipura)

Bihar Sonepur / Hajipur Confluence of the Ganga and the Gandak; the great Sonepur fair

Punjab Kiratpur / Anandpur Sites along the Sutlej associated with Sikh tradition
area

Sample answer: “In our district the Betwa meets the Yamuna near Hamirpur. People
bathe there on Kartik Purnima and immerse idols after festivals, and a small fair is
held on the bank every year.”

Why sources and confluences, of all places? A source is where water appears out
of the Earth — a beginning, and beginnings feel sacred. A confluence is where two
separate streams become one — a meeting, which stands for union. Communities
all over the world, not only in India, have marked such places with shrines and
festivals.

Page 22 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Visit a nearby river and observe all activities there, whether economic or cultural.
Note them down and discuss with your classmates.

This is a field visit, so the answer has to come from what you see. Go with an adult, stay away
from the water's edge, and carry a notebook ruled into two columns — economic and cultural.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES TO LOOK FOR CULTURAL ACTIVITIES TO LOOK FOR

Fishing with nets or lines; boats ferrying people or goods; A temple, mosque, gurdwara or shrine on the bank; steps
sand being dug from the bed; washermen at work; water (ghats) built for bathing; morning prayers and evening
being pumped for fields; cattle being watered; a pumping aarti; lamps or flowers floated on the water; immersion
station or waterworks; a bridge or ferry ghat; small shops of idols after a festival; last rites; a fair or mela; songs
and tea stalls on the bank; a watermill or a small dam and stories about the river; a picnic spot

What a good report contains:

1. The name of the river, where you stood, and the date and time.
2. A quick sketch of the stretch — bank, water, bridge, ghat, fields.
3. A list of activities, with roughly how many people were doing each.
4. Two or three sentences from people you spoke to — a boatman, a fisherwoman, a
shopkeeper.
5. What you noticed about the river's health: is the water clear or dirty, is there rubbish on the
bank, is the bed being dug up?

Sample answer: “We visited the Gomti at 7 a.m. Four men were fishing from a boat
and two more were repairing a net. Sand was being loaded onto a tractor near the
bridge. On the ghat about twenty people were bathing, and a priest was performing
a small puja; marigold garlands and diyas were floating in the water. A tea stall and a
flower shop stood at the top of the steps. There was a lot of plastic waste caught in
the weeds, which our whole group noted as a problem.”

What the exercise teaches: the same river is a workplace and a place of worship at
the same time. That is exactly the chapter's point — “rivers around the world have
carried immense cultural value”, and “river navigation is easy and supports a lot of
economic activities”. You are seeing both sentences happen on one bank.

Page 23 of 35

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
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co m
m.
Name some popular tourist destinations in India and identify the category of
e
Q3

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landform they are associated with.

a g
se m
g l a
a

Sort the destinations you name by landform. Here is a ready list you can add your own

m
favourites to:
. co ag
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LANDFORM TOURIST DESTINATIONS
g l as WHAT DRAWS

a PEOPLE

Mountains Shimla and Manali (Himachal Pradesh), Mussoorie, Nainital and
co m
Cool climate,

m.
e trekking and skiing,
Auli (Uttarakhand), Srinagar, Gulmarg and Leh (Jammu & scenery, snow,

m l as
.co
Kashmir, Ladakh), Darjeeling and Gangtok (West Bengal,

a g
se m
Sikkim), Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Ooty and Kodaikanal tea gardens,

l a
(Nilgiris and Palani hills), Munnar (Kerala, Western Ghats), monasteries

a g Mount Abu (Aravalli, Rajasthan)

om Plateau), Panchgani and a s
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Plateaus Hampi and Badami (Karnataka, Deccan Plateau), Ajanta and Rock-cut caves and

. c
medge), Ranchi and Netarhat with Hundru
Ellora caves (Maharashtra, Deccan temples, waterfalls,

s e
la Plateau), Cherrapunji/Sohra and
Mahabaleshwar (Deccan viewpoints at the

a g
Falls (Chhota Nagpur
Nohkalikai Falls (Meghalaya Plateau), Jog Falls (Sharavati river,
plateau edge

m
Western Ghats)

. coGhats
e m
as
Plains Varanasi, Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Mathura–Vrindavan and Agra and temples,
m l
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(Ganga–Yamuna plain), Bodh Gaya and Nalanda (Bihar), historic monuments,

m
ase
Amritsar (Punjab plain), Kaziranga (Brahmaputra plain) river fairs, wildlife of

agl
the floodplain

Desert Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner and the Sam sand dunes; the Rann of Forts, camel safaris,
se m
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.
Kutch (Gujarat) folk music and

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dance, the Rann a
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Utsav

Coasts and
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Goa, Kovalam and Varkala (Kerala), Puri (Odisha), Rameswaram Beaches, temples by

m
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islands (a further and Kanniyakumari (Tamil Nadu), the Andaman & Nicobar and the sea, coral reefs

m
landform)

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Lakshadweep Islands

com g l a
m .Sample answer in sentence form: “Shimla and Manalia are in the mountains; Hampi
as e
agl and the Ajanta caves are on the Deccan Plateau; Varanasi and Agra are in the
c
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Ganga–Yamuna plain; Jaisalmer is in the Thar Desert; and Goa is on the coastal
m a s
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plain.”
m .
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a g l

co m
m .
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.co


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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What the pattern tells you: the landform decides the attraction. Mountains sell
cool air and snow, plateaus sell waterfalls and rock-cut caves (because there is hard
rock to carve and a cliff for the water to fall from), plains sell river ghats and great
cities, deserts sell dunes and forts. Tourism is one more way in which landforms
shape human life — and, as Fig. 3.6 warns, uncontrolled tourism can also damage
the very place people come to see.

Before we move on … — Page 57
The chapter in three points

BEFORE WE MOVE ON …

Q1 Landforms are classified into three main types — mountains, plateaus and plains.
They have very different physical characteristics and environments.

What this recap means, expanded:

MOUNTAIN PLATEAU PLAIN

Shape Broad base, steep slopes, narrow Raised, with a more or less flat Extensive, flat or gently
summit top and often one steep side undulating; no large hills
or deep valleys

Height Much higher than the land A few hundred to several Generally not more than
around; can be over 8,000 m thousand metres 300 m above sea level

Soil Thin, stony Often rocky and less fertile — Deep and very fertile,
except lava plateaus, which built from river sediments
have rich black soil

Vegetation Montane forest — pine, fir, Varies greatly across the Crops and grassland; a
spruce, deodar; higher up, grasses, world; often scrub and dry wide variety of flora and
mosses and lichen forest fauna

Indian The Himalayas; the Aravalli The Deccan Plateau; the The Ganga plain
example Range; the Western Ghats Chhota Nagpur Plateau

Two further points the chapter adds to this classification:

Age matters as much as shape. Young mountains such as the Himalayas have tall, sharp
peaks and are still growing; old ones such as the Aravalli have been worn round by erosion.
Plateaus, too, can be young or old — the Deccan is one of the oldest in the world.

Page 25 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Three is not the whole list. The Earth's surface is very complex, and experts define more
landforms — the desert being one, hot like the Thar and the Sahara or cold like the Gobi.

Q2 Throughout history, people's lives and activities have been much impacted by the
type of landform they have lived in. These landforms are an integral part of culture
across the world. Indian culture, in particular, has celebrated them in diverse ways.

Part one — landforms shape what people do:

LANDFORM MAIN OCCUPATIONS, AS THE CHAPTER DESCRIBES THEM

Mountains Terrace farming in the valleys, herding, tourism, mountaineering and pilgrimage services

Plateaus Mining — many of the world's largest mines are on plateaus

Plains Agriculture and river fishing; trade and travel along the rivers

Deserts Herding, trading along desert routes, and a strong tradition of folk songs and legends

Part two — landforms are part of culture everywhere. Many traditional communities across
the world consider mountains sacred and worship them. Everest is ‘Chomolungma’, ‘Mother
Goddess of the World’, to Tibetans and ‘Sagarmatha’, ‘Goddess of the Sky’, to Nepalis; Mount
Kailash in Tibet is held sacred by followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon.
Part three — how Indian culture in particular has celebrated them:

The Bhūmi Sūkta of the Atharva Veda, at the head of the chapter, greets the Earth of “many
heights, slopes and great plains” and calls her mother.
Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhava begins by praising Himālaya as the Lord of mountains,
stretching from the western to the eastern oceans.
River sources and confluences are treated as sacred, and numerous festivals, ceremonies
and rituals are held there.
The five tiṇais of ancient Tamil Sangam poetry give each landscape its own deities, moods
and occupations — kuriñji, mullai, marudam, neydal and pālai. They are a completely different
way of classifying land, built on human feeling rather than physical shape.
Communities of the Thar Desert keep rich traditions of folk song and legend that grew out
of desert life.

Page 26 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the tiṇais are put in this chapter: to show that a landform is never only rock
and soil. The Tamil poets tied mountains to longing and deserts to separation, which
means people had been reading the land as a mirror of human life for two thousand
years before geography became a school subject.

Q3 Each landform offers different challenges as well as opportunities.

This is the sentence that ties the whole chapter together. In one line each:

LANDFORM CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY

Mountains Steep, rugged terrain; landslides, avalanches, flash Tourism, sports, pilgrimage, terrace
floods, cloudbursts, heavy snowfall and cold; a farming, herding, and the snow-melt that
fragile environment feeds the rivers

Plateaus Rocky soil, less fertile and less favourable to ‘Storehouses of minerals’, waterfalls, and
farming rich black soil on lava plateaus

Plains High population, pollution, and groundwater The most fertile soil, easy navigation and
depletion from heavy irrigation travel, and space for large settlements

Deserts Very little precipitation and harsh living Unique flora and fauna, and rich cultural
conditions traditions

Why the chapter ends here: because the same fact can be read two ways. Steep
slopes stop the plough — and bring the tourists. Sediment-laden rivers flood — and
lay down the soil that feeds 40 crore people. The diverse ways in which humans have
made all landforms their home is, in the book's own words, “a testimony to our
adaptability and resilience”.

Questions, activities and projects — Page 58

Page 27 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 In what type of landform is your town / village / city located? Which features
mentioned in this chapter do you see around you?

Your answer must describe your own place. Work it out in two steps.
Step 1 — decide the landform. Use the chapter's own tests:

IF YOU SEE … YOU ARE IN
A…

Flat land in every direction, no hills, deep soft soil, fields of rice or wheat, canals, a slow wide river Plain

Land that is high but flat-topped, rock close to the surface, thin reddish or black soil, a steep drop Plateau
somewhere at the edge, quarries or mines nearby

Steep slopes, winding roads, valleys with fast streams, terraced fields, pine or deodar forest, cold Mountains or
winters hills

Sand, very little rain, thorny shrubs, camels Desert

Step 2 — list the chapter's features you can actually point to, such as: altitude, summit,
slope, valley, terrace farming, montane forest, river, floodplain, sediments, confluence, sea level,
plateau edge, waterfall, mining, precipitation as rain or snow.

Sample answer (a town in the Ganga plain): “Our town, Ballia, is in the Ganga
plain. The land is flat everywhere and the soil is deep and soft, exactly as the chapter
says sediments make it. The Ganga flows past the town in a broad channel with
sandy banks, and every year it floods some fields and leaves fresh silt. Almost
everyone farms — paddy, wheat and mustard — and some families fish in the river.
There is no hill within a hundred kilometres, and I have never seen snow, only rain
and sometimes hail.”

Sample answer (a town on the Chhota Nagpur Plateau): “Ranchi is on the Chhota
Nagpur Plateau, about 650 m above sea level. The land is high but mostly level on
top, with rock showing through the reddish soil and big boulders in the fields. A
short drive away the plateau ends in a steep edge, and the Subarnarekha drops over
it at Hundru Falls. Mining for coal and iron is common in our state, just as the
chapter says plateaus are storehouses of minerals.”

Page 28 of 35

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
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co m
m.
Let us go back to our initial trip from Chhota Nagpur to Prayagraj and Almora.
e
Q2

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.co
Describe the three landforms you came across on the way.

a g
se m
g l a
a

The journey crosses all three landforms in turn — a plateau, then a plain, then mountains.

co m
e m . ag
g l as
2000 m
a
m
Almora
co
1500 m
e m.
c o m g l as
.
mm a
s e
1000

ag la Chhota Nagpur
500 m

m a s
.co agl
Prayagraj
0m
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PLATEAU ~600 m
g l a PLAIN ~100 m MOUNTAINS ~1,600 m
a
The height profile of the journey. The land steps down from the plateau to the plain, then climbs

co m
.
steeply into the Himalayas.

e m
c o m g l as
m . a
a s e
PLACE LANDFORM WHAT YOU WOULD SEE

agl Chhota Plateau High but flat-topped land with rock near the surface and thin reddish soil.
Nagpur, Scrub and sal forest, boulders in the fields. This plateau holds huge reserves of
se m
com g l a
.
Jharkhand
a
iron, coal and manganese, so mines and quarries are common. Rivers such as

m
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the Subarnarekha tumble over its edge in waterfalls — Hundru Falls is one.

Prayagraj, Plain
agl Completely flat land, only about a hundred metres above sea level, with deep
Uttar Pradesh fertile soil laid down by rivers as sediments. Fields of rice, wheat and pulses

co m
stretch to the horizon; villages and towns are close together because the plain

m .
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is densely populated. The Ganga and the Yamuna meet here — a famous

m l as
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confluence.

em Almora, a
a s
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Mountains The road begins to climb through the foothills and then winds along ridges

a Uttarakhand above deep valleys. Slopes are cut into terraces for farming, pine and deodar

c
forest covers the hillsides, and on a clear day the snow-capped high Himalaya
m .
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is visible to the north. The air is cool and thin, and settlements are small and

m .
scattered.

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a g l

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m .
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.co


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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the change is so sharp: the plateau is old, hard rock that has resisted wearing
down. The plain in between is not rock at all — it is loose sediment carried there by
rivers, which is why it is flat and fertile. The mountains are young rock still being
pushed upward. In one road journey you cross three completely different chapters
of the Earth's history.

Q3 List a few famous pilgrimage spots in India along with the landforms in which they
are found.

India's pilgrimage places are spread over every landform. Here is a list you can shorten or add
to:

Page 30 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

LANDFORM PILGRIMAGE SPOTS WHERE

Mountains Kedarnath and Badrinath Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand (the Char Dham
yatra)

Mountains Amarnath cave; Vaishno Devi Kashmir Himalaya; the Trikuta hills, Jammu

Mountains Hemkund Sahib; Tawang Monastery Uttarakhand; Arunachal Pradesh

Mountains Sabarimala; Tirupati (Tirumala) Western Ghats, Kerala; the Seshachalam hills of the
Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh

Plateau / Shikharji (Parasnath Hill) Chhota Nagpur Plateau, Jharkhand — the most sacred
hills Jain site

Plateau / Palitana (Shatrunjaya) and Girnar; Hills of Gujarat; Mount Abu in the Aravalli Range,
hills Dilwara temples Rajasthan

Plateau Shirdi; Pandharpur; Ellora and Deccan Plateau, Maharashtra
Ajanta caves

Plains Varanasi (Kashi); Prayagraj; Ganga plain — Haridwar is exactly where the Ganga
Haridwar leaves the mountains and enters the plain

Plains Ayodhya; Mathura and Vrindavan; Ganga–Yamuna plain, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
Bodh Gaya and Sarnath

Plains Amritsar (Harmandir Sahib); Ajmer Punjab plain; the edge of the Aravalli in Rajasthan
Sharif

Coastal plain Puri; Rameswaram; Somnath; Odisha coast; Tamil Nadu; Gujarat coast
Velankanni

Desert Ramdevra; Karni Mata temple, Thar Desert, Rajasthan
Deshnoke

A pattern to notice: a great many pilgrimage sites sit either on a summit or on a
river — and often at a place where one landform meets another. Haridwar is where
the mountains end and the plain begins; Prayagraj is where two rivers meet;
Kedarnath is high above the tree line. Boundaries and beginnings have always felt
sacred to people.

Tip: add two or three places from your own state to the list, and write which
landform each is in. That is what the question is really asking for.

Page 31 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 State whether true or false — • The Himalayas are young mountains with rounded
tops. • Plateaus usually rise sharply at least on one side. • Mountains and hills
belong to the same type of landform. • Mountains, plateaus and rivers in India have
the same types of flora and fauna. • Ganga is a tributary to the Yamuna. • Deserts
have unique flora and fauna. • Melting snow feeds rivers. • Sediments from rivers
deposited in the plains makes the land fertile. • All deserts are hot.

# STATEMENT ANSWER WHY

1 The Himalayas are young False Young — yes; rounded — no. Young mountains like the
mountains with rounded Himalayas have tall and sharp peaks. Rounded tops
tops. belong to much older, eroded ranges such as the Aravalli.

2 Plateaus usually rise sharply True A plateau rises above the surrounding land with a more or
at least on one side. less flat top, and “some of its sides are often steep slopes”.

3 Mountains and hills belong True Both are highlands and belong to the same broad category.
to the same type of A hill is simply lower, with less steep slopes and a rounded
landform. top; there is no fixed height at which one becomes the other.

4 Mountains, plateaus and False Each landform has its own climate and therefore its own
rivers in India have the same life — deodar, moss and lichen with the yak and the snow
types of flora and fauna. leopard in the mountains; dry scrub on plateaus; crops,
grassland and river fish in the plains.

5 Ganga is a tributary to the False It is the other way round. The Yamuna is a tributary of
Yamuna. the Ganga, joining it at Prayagraj. A tributary is a river that
flows into a larger one.

6 Deserts have unique flora True The chapter says so directly — deserts are dry expanses
and fauna. with very little precipitation, and “their flora and fauna are
also unique”.

7 Melting snow feeds rivers. True At lower altitudes the snow melts every summer and “turns
into water that feeds rivers”. That is why Himalayan rivers
keep flowing even before the monsoon.

8 Sediments from rivers True Rivers collect particles of rock, sand and silt in the
deposited in the plains mountains, carry them to the plains and deposit them,
makes the land fertile. “making the soil very fertile”.

9 All deserts are hot. False Some are hot — the Sahara, the Thar. Others are cold —
the Gobi in Asia; some experts even describe Antarctica as
a desert. What defines a desert is dryness, not heat.

Page 32 of 35

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

True: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8

False: 1, 4, 5, 9

The trap in statements 1 and 9: both are half right, and a half-right sentence is
false. “Young” is correct for the Himalayas, but “rounded tops” is not. “Some deserts
are hot” is correct, but “all” is not. Read every word before deciding.

Q5 Match words in pairs: Mount Everest, rafting, camels, plateau, Ganga plains,
waterway, Mount Kilimanjaro, Yamuna — with — Africa, roof of the world, rice
fields, desert, river, Ganga, tributary, climbing.

COLUMN A MATCHES WHY
WITH

Mount Everest climbing The highest mountain in the world, 8,848 m. Bachendri Pal climbed it in
1984 and Arunima Sinha in 2013.

rafting river Rafting is an adventure sport done on fast-flowing rivers, such as the
Ganga at Rishikesh.

camels desert The camel is the animal best adapted to hot, dry desert life — as in the
Thar.

plateau roof of the The Tibetan Plateau, with an average altitude of 4,500 m, is nicknamed the
world ‘Roof of the World’.

Ganga plains rice fields The fertile Ganga plain grows rice, wheat, maize, barley and millets.

waterway Ganga Because plains have a gentle slope, river navigation is easy; boats still
carry people and goods on the Ganga (Fig. 3.10).

Mount Africa Kilimanjaro, in eastern Africa, is an isolated mountain that is not part of
Kilimanjaro any range.

Yamuna tributary The Yamuna is a tributary of the Ganga — it rises in the Himalayas and
joins the Ganga at Prayagraj.

Page 33 of 35

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
e m.
Mount Everest → climbing • rafting → river • camels → desert • plateau → roof of the
m l as
world
m .co a g
l a se
g
Ganga plains → rice fields • waterway → Ganga • Mount Kilimanjaro → Africa •
aYamuna → tributary

com
m . ag
l a se
How to solve a matching set safely: do the ones you are certain of first —
ag
Kilimanjaro–Africa and camels–desert — and strike them off both columns. The
doubtful ones then have far fewer options left. Here the only real trap is river and

co m
m.
Ganga: ‘rafting’ needs any fast river, while ‘waterway’ needs the particular river the

m as e
l
chapter names for boat transport.

m .co a g
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Chapter at a glance
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A landform is a physical feature on the surface of the Earth. Landforms take shape over
millions of years and fall into three broad categories — mountains, plateaus and plains

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(Fig. 3.1). Each has its own climate, its own flora and fauna, and its own way of life.
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Mountains are much higher than the land around them, with a broad base, steep slopes

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and a narrow summit. Young mountains like the Himalayas have tall, sharp peaks and are
.crising; old ones like the Aravalli Range have been rounded
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still
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steep sides. Plateaus are ‘storehouses of minerals’ — the Chhota Nagpur Plateau has iron,
coal and manganese — and they carry
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spectacular waterfalls such as Jog, Hundru and
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Nohkalikai (340 m).
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Plains are extensive, flat or
above sea level. Rivers build floodplains by depositing sediments, which makes the soil

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very fertile. That is why the first civilisations grew in plains and why about 40 crore people

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— more than a fourth of India — live in the Ganga plain.

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g floods and cold; plateaus
.ctourism and pilgrimage but bring landslides, avalanches,aflash
Every landform offers challenges and opportunities together. Mountains give pure air,

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give minerals but often rocky, less fertile soil; plains give rich harvests and easy travel but
face high population, pollution and falling groundwater.
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Landforms are woven into culture — the Bhūmi Sūkta of the Atharva Veda, Kālidāsa's

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Kumārasambhava, the worship of Everest as ‘Chomolungma’ and of Mount Kailash, and the

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five tiṇais of Tamil Sangam poetry. Experts add more landforms too, such as the desert —
g Sahara, or cold like the Gobi.
hot like the Thar andathe

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 3 Landforms and Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT EXAMPLE
APPEARS IN THE
CHAPTER

Landform A physical feature on the surface of the Page 42, Fig. 3.1 Mountains, plateaus and
Earth plains

Altitude The height of an object above sea level Margin note, page 42 The altitude of Mount
Everest is 8,848 m

Mountain A landform much higher than the land Page 42 Kanchenjunga, between
around it, with a broad base, steep slopes Nepal and Sikkim
and a narrow summit

Hill A highland lower than a mountain, with Page 43 The rounded hills of the
less steep slopes and a rounded top Aravalli Range

Mountain A connected line or group of mountains Page 45 The Himalayas, the Alps,
range the Andes

Precipitation Water from the atmosphere reaching the Margin note, page 43 Rain, snow and hail
ground in any form

Montane The type of forest that grows on mountain Page 46 Pine, fir, spruce and
forest slopes deodar

Terrace Cultivation on steps cut into a slope Pages 48–49, Fig. 3.5 Rice terraces in
farming Uttarakhand and the
North-East

Plateau A landform that rises above the Page 51 The Deccan Plateau; the
surrounding land and has a more or less Tibetan Plateau
flat top

Plain An extensive flat or gently undulating Page 53 The Ganga plain
landform, generally under 300 m above
sea level

Sediments Particles of rock, sand and silt carried and Page 53 The silt that makes the
dropped by a river Ganga plain fertile

Confluence The meeting point of two or more rivers Margin note, page 55 The Ganga and the
Yamuna at Prayagraj

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