NCERT Solutions Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India s Urban Landscape

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 14: India’s Urban
Landscape

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

Part II, 191 – 214 8 25 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 43 pages

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 14: India’s Urban
Landscape
Why does a city stand where it stands? This chapter answers with cases rather than definitions — Sakchi
becoming Jamshedpur because iron ore lay nearby, Mumbai becoming the financial capital after the Bombay
Stock Exchange opened in 1875, Bengaluru turning into an IT hub because firms, start-ups and colleges
clustered together — and then asks the harder question: what happens to water, air, housing and green space
when everybody arrives at once.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 8) Part II, 191 – 214

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

8 25

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 191
Chapter opener

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 How do cities become the centre of diverse economic activities?

ANSWER

A place becomes an economic centre when something about it makes work easier or cheaper to
do there than elsewhere — and then, because people and money have collected, it becomes
easier still. The chapter shows six such starting advantages.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT GIVES HOW IT WORKS THE CHAPTER’S EXAMPLE
THE PLACE ITS
START

Location Rivers give ease of transport; crossroads Mumbai on the Arabian Sea and Kolkata
of trade routes let markets develop; near the eastern coast became vital port
nearness to farm produce and raw cities for domestic and international
materials supports artisans and trade
manufacturing

Raw materials An industry is set up where its material Sakchi, a small village in the Chota
lies, and a town is built around the Nagpur Plateau, was chosen for Asia’s
workers first steel plant because rich iron ore
deposits lay close by; it was renamed
Jamshedpur in 1919

Clusters Specialised firms group together, and a Bengaluru — software firms, new start-
close link with colleges keeps supplying ups and higher education institutions;
skilled people and new ideas Hyderabad likewise for technology-based
enterprises

Finance and Money and news concentrate; the The Bombay Stock Exchange, 1875,
information exchange of information and ideas leads made Mumbai the financial capital; the
to innovation film industry started in the 1910s and
was flourishing by the 1930s

Administration Government brings offices, universities Delhi — forts, roads and markets under
and research centres, and jobs follow the Rajputs, Turks and Mughals; a new
them British capital with railways and
electricity; then New Delhi, capital of the
Republic

Heritage and Visitors have to travel, eat, sleep and Agra’s Taj Mahal draws 70–80 lakh
pilgrimage buy, so whole service trades grow visitors every year; Amritsar and
around a monument or a shrine Varanasi thrive on pilgrims

Agra’s visitors, worked out per day:

70,00,000 ÷ 365 ≈ 19,178

80,00,000 ÷ 365 ≈ 21,918
So roughly 19,000 to 22,000 people arrive every single day — a permanent market for

transport, hospitality, local food vending and handicrafts.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the activities become diverse: all six routes end in the same thing —
concentration. Once workers, buyers, suppliers, banks and government are in one
place, a new business finds its staff and its customers already waiting, so it costs less
to start there than anywhere else. That is why the steel town also acquired hospitals,
schools and gardens, and why the port city also grew a film industry. Growth attracts
growth.

Two more points the chapter makes are worth holding on to:

Small centres specialise instead of doing everything. Moradabad for brass work,
Ludhiana and Tirupur for textiles, Jaipur for handicrafts and gem jewellery, Channapatna for
wooden toys, Kanchipuram for silk sarees.
Cost matters as much as size. Companies establish warehouses and offices in Kochi,
Indore, Lucknow and Nagpur precisely because the cost of operations is lower than in the
largest cities — while still serving customers across India and globally.

Did you know? Once a city is large, it starts building for its own congestion.
Mumbai’s Bandra–Worli Sea Link and the Coastal Road were built to ease mobility for
commuters, and the Bandra Kurla Complex was created to hold banks, corporate
offices and financial institutions that the old centre could no longer fit.

Q2 In what ways can urbanisation impact people’s lives?

ANSWER

Urbanisation is the population shift from rural to urban areas and the corresponding decrease
in the proportion of people living in rural areas. It changes lives in three directions at once —
work, culture, and the daily struggle for water, air and space.
1. Work becomes varied. In the village, work is largely farm-related. Fig. 7.6 shows what
replaces it as urbanisation proceeds: first a shift to secondary and tertiary sectors — small-scale
industries, transport and services — and then a full spread of jobs. The figure names an auto
driver, a writer, a musician, an architect and a security guard on the same page, which is the
point: they could not all earn a living in one village. New infrastructure follows — factories,
hotels, government institutions, banks, entertainment and sports.
2. Culture mixes. Cities draw people from many regions and create a potpourri of culture,
languages, customs, traditions, food and festivals. Vaḍā pāv is the chapter’s neat proof: a
Maharashtrian-style potato dumpling placed inside a pāv — and both pāo (bread) and potatoes
came to India through the Portuguese. It became popular among workers in Mumbai’s textile
mills because it was easy to make, carry and eat. Kolkata’s Durga Puja, a five-day autumn

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape
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festival, was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.
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Cities also build libraries, museums, cultural centres and stadiums where people meet, share
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ideas and form networks.

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3. Daily life gets harder in specific ways. Cities become crowded and expensive. Demand for
food,l water, energy and housing strains infrastructure. The chapter lists narrow and poorly
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maintained roads, unplanned residential areas with poor access to water, sanitation, energy and

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waste management, more vehicles, and rising temperatures from ‘heat islands’. Urban areas

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also often see higher crime rates than rural regions, because of higher density and economic
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How fast the shift is happening — the chapter’s own figures:
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India, urban share: 17% in 1951 → about 40% in 2025

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aglaThe urban share is now 40 ÷ 17 ≈ 2.35 times what it was in 1951
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World, urban share: 55% now → 68% by 2050 (United Nations estimate)
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Rise = 68 − 55 = 13 percentage points
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Share of population living in cities
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India, 2025 about 40%

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World, now 55%

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World, 2050
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0% 50% 100%

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The four figures the chapter gives on page 194, drawn to scale. India is still below the present world

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average, which is why so much of its urban growth is yet to come.

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many people in a small area. Concentration is what makes a specialised job, a library
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or a stadium possible at all; it is also what makes water, air and road space scarce.
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Urbanisation does not choose between the two. Planning is what decides the
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 What kind of challenges do cities face in the 21st century?

ANSWER

The influx of large populations puts pressure on a city’s resources, and demand for food, water,
energy and housing strains its infrastructure. Fig. 7.18 lays out seven of these pressures as
photographs.

CHALLENGE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, AND WHAT CAUSES IT
(FIG. 7.18)

Poor air quality A growing number of vehicles, construction dust and industry. The NCR frequently
records an AQI over 400 — the safe limit is 50, so that is eight times the safe level —
posing serious health risks

Water scarcity Households queuing at a tanker to fill drums. Caused by overuse of groundwater, no
rainwater harvesting, and lakes lost to encroachment

Traffic jams More vehicles on narrow and poorly maintained roads

Reduced green spaces Built-up area replacing open ground, which also feeds the ‘heat islands’ that raise city
temperatures

Waste generation More people and more consumption than the waste-management system was built for

Flooding during Water has nowhere to go once drainage channels are blocked and lake beds are built over
monsoons

Urban slums Overcrowded settlements with poor housing and limited water and sanitation — because
there is not enough affordable housing for everyone migrating to the city

Two more the chapter adds: higher crime rates than in rural regions, arising from higher
population density and economic inequality, which affects safety and needs greater policing;
and, running under all of it, climate change, which is why the chapter insists cities be planned
as dynamic systems with evolving needs.

Bengaluru’s lakes — the chapter’s clearest number:

Lakes the city once had ≈ 1,000

Lakes left after rapid urbanisation ≈ 200

Lost = 1,000 − 200 = about 800 lakes
Share lost = 800 ÷ 1,000 = 80 per cent; only one-fifth remain — and many of those were

polluted by sewage and chemicals

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Bengaluru shows how these challenges knot together. Losing the lakes gave the city water
shortages in summer and flooding during the monsoon — the opposite problems, from the
same cause. Bellandur and Varthur got covered in foam, released toxic gases and even caught
fire; wells dried up.

Why the 21st century is different: earlier, cities grew slowly enough for their water,
roads and drains to be extended alongside. Now the arrival is faster than the
building. The chapter’s closing warning is that the consequences do not stop at the
city limits — pollution, congestion, inequality and the loss of green spaces affect not
only those who live in cities but also the rural areas connected to them.

Q4 How can effective urban planning improve life in cities?

ANSWER

Urban planning improves life by deciding, in advance, where things go — so that water, air,
movement and open space are designed in rather than squeezed out later. An urban planner
plans and designs how land in cities and towns is used, aiming to optimise infrastructure and
the overall quality of life for residents.
Page 206 lists the questions a planner must answer before anything is built: How many people
live there? What types of jobs do they have? What transport do they need, and how can it be
interconnected for a smoother commute and access for everyone? Where would homes, businesses,
parks and public facilities — schools, hospitals, libraries, sports facilities, cultural and community
centres — be located? What public safety provisions are required, such as safe streets for pedestrians
and cyclists, and fire and police stations in easy-to-reach places?
Jaipur, 1727 — planning that has outlasted three centuries. Vidyadhar Bhattacharya was
appointed chief architect and urban planner by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, chosen for his
knowledge of vāstu shāstra and śhilpa shāstra. What he did, and why each choice worked:

A grid pattern divided into rectangular blocks called chowkris, aligned to the east–west and
north–south cardinal directions — so streets are predictable and every block gets sun and air.
Wide streets, open spaces, gardens and nine public squares, which became centres of trade
and interaction and held important buildings and temples.
A 20-foot wall with seven gates for security.
Pink sandstone on the buildings along major streets, giving a uniform appearance and a
single identity — hence the ‘Pink City’.
Reservoirs and canals for a steady water supply, and shaded porches on the markets — both
answers to the local dry climate, for the comfort of traders and travellers.

Even today Jaipur works much as it was originally designed. That is roughly three centuries of
use (2025 − 1727 = 298 years) from one plan — the chapter calls it a marvel of traditional
planning, sustainability and aesthetics.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Singapore — planning that is never finished. A small island nation with over 8,000 people per
sq km, yet a high quality of life. Its method is two documents working at different speeds:

Concept Plan — looks up to 40 years ahead (the long view of how land must be used)

Master Plan — updated every 5 years (the short view, reflecting changing needs)

40 ÷ 5 = 8 revisions inside a single Concept Plan horizon

That is what makes the planning flexible: the destination is fixed for 40 years, the route is
corrected eight times.

What that flexibility bought, from an overcrowded port in the 1960s:

Mixed-use spaces — homes, offices, parks and museums close together. Marina Bay Sands
(museum, theatre, hotels, restaurants, gardens) and Raffles Place (banks and offices) are just
a few kilometres apart.
Mass public transport connecting rail, buses, cycling paths and green walking corridors,
which reduces reliance on cars and makes public places vibrant.
Rooftop and vertical gardens on high-rise buildings — the ‘garden city’. This is not only
pretty: it reduces heat during summers and supports biodiversity.
Intergenerational design — housing for senior citizens integrated with healthcare,
childcare facilities and green spaces. Because of this community-centred design, Singapore
is counted among the blue zone cities, where people live longer, healthier lives.

And in India. Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Riverfront blends ecology and public utility —
promenades, parks, markets, boating, and the Atal Bridge for pedestrians and cyclists.
Gangtok’s M.G. Road is a pedestrian-only shopping hub known for its cleanliness. Both should
be supported by ICT — intelligent traffic systems, digital surveillance, online grievance redressal
platforms and solar-powered public spaces.

Why planning is the lever: almost every challenge in this chapter is a planning
failure seen later. Bengaluru’s floods came from encroached lake beds and blocked
drainage channels; its summer shortage from overuse of groundwater and no
rainwater harvesting. Slums grow where affordable housing was not planned for the
people the city needed. So planning does not merely decorate a city — it decides in
advance which problems the city will have.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 192

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Introduction

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Where do you live? Is it a village, town or city? In what ways can you differentiate
between urban and rural areas? Write your observations and share with your
classmates.

ANSWER

This is about your own place, so write from what you can actually see. Before you answer the
first part, settle the second — the chapter gives you the tests.

WHAT TO LOOK RURAL AREA URBAN AREA
AT

Population Usually lower; close-knit communities A concentration of people; many are
where most people know each other strangers to one another

Main occupations A larger number of agriculture-based Many kinds of businesses and
occupations occupations, and government
institutions

Businesses Fewer businesses Different kinds of businesses, shops,
offices, factories

Transport and Generally less elaborate than in cities Often elaborate transport and
communication communication systems

Who governs it Gram panchayat (Grade 6, ‘Grassroots Elected local bodies responsible for
Democracy — Local Government in Rural infrastructure and other amenities
Areas’)

Did you know? There is no single world rule. A place counts as urban if its
population exceeds 220 in Denmark, 5,000 in India and 50,000 in Japan. India’s
threshold is about 23 times Denmark’s, and Japan’s is 10 times India’s — so the very
same settlement could be a ‘town’ in one country and a village in another.

How to do it well: walk one kilometre of your own area with a notebook and record five things
— what most working adults around you do for a living; how many shops and what kind;
whether there is a bus, an auto stand or a railway station; who collects the waste and repairs the
street lights (panchayat or municipality); and how much open, unbuilt land you can see. Then
place your answer against the table above.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape
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Sample answer: I live in Rampur, which I would call a small town rather than a

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village. About half the families here still own farmland, but most of the younger
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headquarters to work in offices. We have a weekly market, around forty permanent
ashops, a bus stand with buses every hour and a branch of a bank — none of which
the neighbouring village of Kheri has. Kheri is governed by its gram panchayat; we
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have a nagar panchayat that collects house tax and looks after street lights and the
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drains. The clearest difference I noticed is the land: in Kheri the houses sit in a small
agall sides, while in Rampur the houses have spread
cluster surrounded by fields on
continuously along both sides of the road for nearly two kilometres, and the fields

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have shrunk back. That spread, I think, is urbanisation beginning.

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THINK
Population Density in Cities

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THINK ABOUT IT

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Fig. 7.3 shows the satellite view of a village and a city in Haryana, respectively. The
larger blocks of green and brown land on the left in the village show open areas,

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whereas the grey built-up area on the right shows a complex network of buildings.

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What can you infer about the population density of the two regions?

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The inference: Asadpur Khera has a low population density and Gurugram a very high one.

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Look at what fills each frame. On the left, oalmost the whole image is field — large rectangular
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few thin roads, with the houses gathered into one small

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surface is unbroken from edge to edge; you can pick out the sector grid (Sector 4, Sector 10A,

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Sector 14 are all marked in one small frame), a hospital marker and a temple, with only thin
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Population density = total population of a region ÷ area of the region (in sq km)

The two images cover a similar area of ground.
Left: the same square kilometre is mostly crop, and holds one small cluster of houses.

Right: the same square kilometre is almost entirely roofs, and the buildings also rise

upward.

Same denominator, far larger numerator on the right — so density is many times higher in

Gurugram.

Same area, different number of people

village: 8 people in 1 sq km city: 64 people in 1 sq km
density = 8 ÷ 1 = 8 per sq km density = 64 ÷ 1 = 64 per sq km
64 ÷ 8 = 8 times as dense, on exactly the same amount of land

The squares are equal, so only the numerator changes. This is why density, not population alone, is
what demographers compare.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the difference exists — it follows from the kind of work each place does.

Farming needs land per household. A family that lives by cultivation must have
fields, so houses stay few and spread out. You can see the fields taking the space
in the left image.
Urban work needs floor space, not land. Offices, shops, factories and services
can be stacked, so a city grows upward and packs many more people onto the
same square kilometre.
Jobs pull people in. Gurugram has been a major IT and BPO hub since the 1990s,
drawing global companies and driving housing and commercial development —
the chapter’s own explanation. Every new job brings a household that needs
somewhere to live inside the same city limits.
Services make the density work. Piped water, sewerage, electricity, roads and
public transport are what allow so many people to live so close together; a village
neither has nor needs them at that scale.

Check it yourself: count the roofs in a 1 cm square of each image in your book. You
will not get an exact population, but the ratio you get is the point — and it will be
large.

LET’S EXPLORE — Pages 194 – 195
How do Cities Become Centres of Economic Activities?

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Observe and compare the two satellite images of an area of Bengaluru (Fig. 7.5).
They are from 2012 and 2025, respectively. What are your observations? What has
changed? Guess what might be the causes for the change.

ANSWER

The two images show the same frame of Electronic City, thirteen years apart. Comparing them
square by square:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT TO 2012 (FIG. 7.5 A) 2025 (FIG. 7.5 B)
LOOK FOR

Open and Large dark-green patches of tree cover and Almost all of it built over; only thin
green land clearly marked field plots, especially on the fragments of green survive between
eastern side near Shanthi Pura and Bhovi Palya blocks

Buildings Clusters, mainly hugging the highway, with A continuous grey-white surface of
visible gaps and vacant plots between them roofs from edge to edge, with far
larger individual buildings

The road The elevated highway runs diagonally across the The same corridor is now lined
corridor frame with open land on either side solidly with structures on both sides

Named Kauvery Hospital, ELCITA, Electronic City Phase I, All of those, plus a new one that is
landmarks M5 Ecity Mall, India Post, Godrej E-City absent in 2012: Electronic City
Metro Station

The change in one sentence: in 2012 this was a built-up area set inside farmland; by 2025 the
farmland has gone and the built-up area is the landscape.

Likely causes, using the chapter’s own explanation for Bengaluru:

Clustering. Bengaluru became an IT hub through a concentration of software
firms, new start-ups and higher education institutions. Specialised industries
grouped together in clusters — and ELCITA, the Electronics City Industrial
Township Authority, is that cluster’s own governing body, visible in both images.
Jobs pull people. A cluster that offers jobs to skilled workers from different fields
attracts them from across the country — the chapter’s definition of urbanisation
in action.
Housing and commerce follow the workers. The mall, the hospital and the
housing blocks in the frame exist because tens of thousands of people now live
and work within it.
Transport both follows and accelerates. The metro station appearing between
2012 and 2025 is the clearest single piece of evidence in the image. New
connectivity is built because the area grew — and then makes the area grow
further, exactly as better roads, highways and the metro rail boosted the
expansion of the National Capital Region.
Land was available and cheaper on the periphery. Growth happened here, on
the city’s southern edge, rather than in the old centre where there was no room.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Think about the cost: the green that disappeared between the two images is the
same ‘reduced green space’ listed in Fig. 7.18, and the fields that were built over
cannot absorb monsoon rain. Comparing two satellite images is one of the simplest
ways to see an urban challenge being created.

Q2 As a small group project, make a list of adults from different generations in and
around your neighbourhood. Draft a questionnaire to enquire into their
observations about their own village, town or city and how it has changed over the
decades. What, in their view, are the key reasons that towns and cities have
changed? If they have grown larger, what are the reasons for this? What do they
miss about the ‘old days’ and what do they appreciate about the current time?
Report on your project through a presentation to the class.

ANSWER

This is a group field project, so the marks are in the method. Here is how to run it and what a
good report must contain.
Step 1 — Choose your people. Pick six to eight adults across at least three generations:
someone in their 20s or 30s, someone in their 50s, and someone above 70. The oldest interview
is the most valuable, because that person can remember the place before it changed. Take
permission first, and ask if you may write down or record their answers.
Step 2 — Draft the questionnaire. Keep it short — twelve questions at most — and open-
ended, so people tell stories rather than say yes or no.

THEME QUESTIONS TO ASK

The place then When did your family come here? What did this street look like then? Where did the built-up
area end?

Work What did most people here do for a living then, and what do they do now? What made the
change happen — a factory, an office, a road, a college?

Growth Has the population grown? Where did the new people come from, and why did they come?
What was built for them?

Water, air and Where did you get water then? Was there a pond, tank or open ground that is no longer there?
space Has the traffic or the air changed?

Then and now What do you miss about the old days? What is genuinely better now? What would you not want
to go back to?

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Step 3 — Look for patterns, not just quotes. Tally how many people gave each reason for
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growth. Compare generations: the oldest respondent’s ‘change’ may be a road; the youngest
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one’s may be an app-based delivery job. Both are urbanisation.

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Step 4 — Present. Eight to ten slides: your method, a table of who you interviewed, the reasons
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for growth
now’ comparison, and your group’s conclusion. If you can, add an old photograph beside a
photograph you take yourself from the same spot.
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Sample answer (extract from a group report): Six of our eight respondents named
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the same reason for growth — the bypass road built in the 1990s. Shri Ramlal, aged

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78, said that before it was built, our locality was three lanes of houses with a
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threshing floor at the end, and the nearest doctor was a bus ride away. After the

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bypass, a cold-storage unit and then two workshops opened, and families came
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further out to work in them. What people miss a
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from villages

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respondents mentioned the pond behind the school, now filled in and built over,
a where cattle were watered and children swam. What they appreciate is also

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common: piped water in the house, electricity that does not fail every evening, a
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government hospital within two kilometres, and schools that their granddaughters
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attend. Smt. Kamla, aged 54, put both halves in one sentence — "We had more air
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then and more work now." Our conclusion is that our town grew for exactly the
reason the chapter gives for many cities: a change in connectivity brought industry,

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and industry brought people.
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How do Cities Become Centres of Economic Activities?
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LET’S REMEMBER
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What were the reasons that Surat became a textile manufacturing and diamond-

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cutting hub? (Hint: Recall from your Grade 7 Chapter ‘Understanding Markets’.)

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ANSWER

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then a cluster that keeps feeding itself.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

REASON HOW IT WORKED AT SURAT

Location on a Surat stands on the Tapi, close to the Gulf of Khambhat on the Arabian Sea. It was one of
trading coast India’s great ports long before the modern industry existed, so goods, money and merchants
had been moving through it for centuries — the same ‘ease of transportation’ and ‘crossroads of
trade routes’ this chapter names as the classic reason a place becomes an urban centre

An existing Weaving and fine textile work were already old trades in the region. Skilled hands were
artisan available before the machines arrived, which is what let powerlooms and man-made fabric scale
community up so fast

Skill that Diamond cutting and polishing is precise handwork done in small units. A city with a large pool
transfers of patient, trained artisan labour could absorb the work, and the skill passed within families
and workshops

Clustering Once many small units sat side by side, everything they needed was next door — yarn and
rough stones, dyeing and finishing units, traders, transporters, brokers and buyers. This is
exactly the ‘specialised industries grouped together in clusters’ that the chapter uses to explain
Bengaluru

Links to distant Surat’s traders had long-standing connections with buyers abroad, so the cloth and the polished
markets stones had a market far larger than Gujarat

Why the two trades ended up in the same city: textiles and diamonds look
unrelated, but they need the same things — a very large number of small
workshops, a supply of skilled labour, traders who can finance the raw material, and
a port or transport hub to move a high-value, low-weight product. A city that had
assembled all four for one trade could hand them straight to the other. Clusters
attract clusters, which is why Grade 7’s chapter on markets and this chapter on cities
are really describing the same process from two sides.

Tip: when you meet any ‘why did this city specialise?' question, run the chapter’s
checklist — location, raw material, skilled community, cluster, cost of operations,
market access. Surat scores on five of the six.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 203

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Cities as Cultural Hubs

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Can you name some towns and cities near you? Find out some interesting
traditions, cuisines, and customs specific to those areas, and discuss them in class.

ANSWER

Answer this for your own district, but collect it properly — a list of names is not an answer; a list
of names with a tradition attached to each is.
How to gather the material:

List the towns and cities within about 100 km of you — your district headquarters, the
nearest big city, and two or three smaller towns.
For each, find one dish, one craft or trade, and one festival or custom. Ask grandparents,
shopkeepers and the local library; a sweet shop owner usually knows more local food history
than a website does.
Ask the question this chapter would ask: why here? A craft usually exists because of a raw
material, a ruler’s patronage, a pilgrimage or a trade route.

Use the chapter’s own examples as your model of how much detail is enough:

PLACE WHAT IT IS KNOWN WHY IT IS THERE
FOR

Mumbai Vaḍā pāv — a Pāo (bread) and potatoes both came through the
Maharashtrian-style potato Portuguese; the snack spread because it was easy
dumpling inside a pāv to make, carry and eat, and became popular with
workers in the textile mills

Kolkata Durga Puja — a five-day Inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural
autumn festival Heritage of Humanity in 2021; the city also keeps
British-era institutions such as the Indian
Museum and Victoria Memorial

Varanasi Banarasi sarees, and bazaars A sacred city — pilgrims sustain transport,
where pilgrims buy souvenirs hospitality, food vending and handicrafts
and items for pūja

Kanchipuram · Silk sarees · wooden toys · Smaller urban centres that specialise in one craft
Channapatna · brass work · handicrafts and rather than doing everything
Moradabad · Jaipur gem jewellery

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Sample answer: Three places near us. Bhadohi, 40 km away, is a carpet-weaving
town; almost every second household has a loom, and the trade grew because
weaver families settled along the old route and the finished carpets could be
shipped out through Varanasi. Varanasi, 50 km away, is known for Banarasi sarees
and for the evening Ganga āratī; the sarees are sold in the same bazaars where
pilgrims buy their pūja items, so the craft and the pilgrimage support each other.
Mirzapur, our district town, is known for its brassware and for the Kajali songs sung
in the monsoon month of Sāwan, when women return to their parents’ homes. What
all three share is what the chapter says about cities as cultural hubs: the tradition
survives because enough people are gathered in one place to keep buying it.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 203
Challenges Faced by Cities

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Observe the pictures in Fig. 7.18. Do you notice the other side of the city? What
could be the possible challenges faced by people living in urban slums?

ANSWER

Yes — and Fig. 7.18 puts both sides in one frame. In the ‘Urban slums’ photograph, low
houses roofed with tin and tarpaulin are packed along the water’s edge, and directly behind
them, across the bay, stands a skyline of glass high-rises. The second photograph is taken inside
such a settlement: a lane barely wide enough for one person, its floor wet and uneven, water
pipes running along the wall — and a few potted plants on a windowsill, because it is
somebody’s home.
The chapter defines them plainly: slums are overcrowded city settlements with poor
housing and limited water, sanitation, and other municipal services. They grow near a city’s
periphery, along railway tracks and in industrial areas where vacant land is available, and they
exist in most countries worldwide.
The challenges people there face, read from the pictures and the text together:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CHALLENGE WHAT IT MEANS DAY TO DAY

Housing Small, crowded dwellings built of whatever is available, with little protection from heat, cold
or heavy rain

Water Limited supply. The ‘Water scarcity’ photograph in the same figure shows people filling
drums from a tanker — which means the day is organised around when the tanker comes,
and someone must be free to wait for it

Sanitation and Few toilets for many households, and lanes that hold standing water, as the second
drainage photograph shows

Health Crowding, poor drainage and poor air quality together raise the risk of disease, and a day
lost to illness is a day’s earnings lost

Insecurity of the Land beside railway tracks, drains or industrial units is unsafe and floods easily — but it is
site where vacant land was available

Schooling Little quiet space or light to study in, and schooling interrupted if the family has to move

Why slums exist at all — the chapter is precise about this: there is not enough
affordable housing for everyone migrating to the city. The city needs the workers; it
has not built homes they can afford. That is a planning and housing gap, not a
failing of the people who live there.

And the other half of the picture, which the chapter states directly: slum dwellers support
cities by performing informal work — vegetable vending, domestic help, laundry services,
construction work, plumbing and more. The buildings on the far side of that photograph were
raised by construction workers; the vegetables in the city’s kitchens were carried in by vendors.
So the two sides in the frame are not separate cities. They are one city, and one of them is
holding up the other.
What is being done. Improving housing, health and education infrastructure for them is
described as a key urban challenge. Many government schemes try to address it, such as the
Pradhan Mantri Aawaas Yojana, which provides affordable housing to economically weaker
households.

Questions and activities — Pages 212 – 214

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Did you know? Size is relative, and the world’s biggest cities are very big indeed.
Reading the bars of Fig. 7.4 (population in crores, 2025): Jakarta 4.19, Dhaka 3.66,
Tokyo 3.34, New Delhi 3.02, Shanghai 2.96, Guangzhou 2.76, Cairo 2.56, Manila 2.47,
Kolkata 2.25 and Seoul 2.25.
Those ten together = 2.25 + 2.25 + 2.47 + 2.56 + 2.76 + 2.96 + 3.02 + 3.34 + 3.66 + 4.19
= 29.46 crore people.
India’s two on the list, New Delhi and Kolkata, hold 3.02 + 2.25 = 5.27 crore, which is
5.27 ÷ 29.46 ≈ 18 per cent of that total. The largest, Jakarta, is 4.19 ÷ 2.25 ≈ 1.86
times the size of Kolkata.

Why these features come together: they are not a list of coincidences. A
concentration of people makes varied occupations possible; varied occupations need
transport and communication to link them; that many people and businesses need
an elected body to run water, drains and waste; and all of them together need so
much space that building goes upward and outward. Take away the first feature and
the rest do not appear.

Q2 Can you think of a city or town near you that has grown in population? What could
be the underlying reasons for the urban migration?

ANSWER

Name a real place you can check, and then explain the growth using causes, not guesses. The
chapter supplies the causes; your job is to say which of them apply to your town.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

REASON PEOPLE THE CHAPTER’S EVIDENCE
MOVE TO A CITY

Work in industry Sakchi became Jamshedpur around a steel plant; with planned development, more
factories emerged in the region, attracting people from within and outside the state
for work opportunities

Work in services and IT Bengaluru’s clusters offer jobs to skilled workers from different fields; Gurugram’s
IT and BPO firms drew global companies from the 1990s

Education New Delhi’s universities and research centres attract people for jobs and education
opportunities from across the country

Administration Ministries and government institutions concentrate employment in capital cities

Trade and tourism Pilgrim and tourist cities such as Varanasi, Amritsar and Agra support transport,
hospitality, food vending and handicrafts

Lower operating costs Companies set up warehouses and offices in Kochi, Indore, Lucknow and Nagpur, so
jobs appear in mid-sized cities too

Better connectivity Better roads, highways and the metro rail system boosted the region’s expansion in
the NCR

How to check your answer: compare two Census figures for the town, or ask three long-settled
families when the newest colonies were laid out and what opened just before. Growth almost
always follows one identifiable event — a factory, a highway, a college, a government office.

Sample answer: Hosur, about 40 km from Bengaluru, has grown very fast. The
underlying reasons are two. First, industry: automobile and electronics units set up
here because land and operating costs are lower than in Bengaluru, which is the
same reason the chapter gives for companies choosing Kochi, Indore, Lucknow and
Nagpur. Second, connectivity: the national highway links Hosur to Bengaluru’s
Electronic City in under an hour, so people can live here and work there. Those two
together pulled in workers from surrounding districts, and housing colonies, schools
and shops followed them. In short, jobs came first and people followed the jobs —
which is exactly how the chapter describes early urbanisation.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 With reference to the epigraph at the beginning of the chapter, who are the
participants in the making of the city and what could be their contribution?

ANSWER

The epigraph is Jane Jacobs: "Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only
because, and only when, they are created by everybody." Read it carefully — it is a condition, not a
compliment. A city can serve everyone only if everyone had a hand in making it; a city built by a
few will end up serving those few.
So the participants are far more than the planners.

PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE MAKING OF THE CITY

Urban planners and Decide where homes, businesses, parks, schools, hospitals and transport go. Vidyadhar
architects Bhattacharya’s grid of chowkris still shapes how Jaipur works, three centuries later

Elected local bodies and Responsible for the development of infrastructure and amenities — water, drains,
municipal staff waste collection, street lighting, roads

Industry and enterprise Create the work that brings people. The Tata family’s vision turned Sakchi into a
township with modern facilities for everyone working in the factory, and Sir Dorabji
Tata built a hospital in the village long before steel production began

Workers of every kind Fig. 7.6 names the auto driver, writer, musician, architect and security guard side by
side. The city runs because all five turn up

Informal workers, The chapter is explicit: they support cities through vegetable vending, domestic help,
including slum dwellers laundry services, construction work and plumbing. The buildings and the daily
supplies of the city pass through their hands

Migrants from other Bring the languages, customs, festivals and food that make the potpourri of a city’s
regions culture — vaḍā pāv exists because mill workers needed a quick meal

Educational and research A close link between industries and educational institutions encouraged innovation in
institutions Bengaluru and led to new products and services

Citizens acting together Non-profit organisations, Resident Welfare Associations and communities revived
Bengaluru’s lakes by desilting, repairing bunds, clearing drainage channels, planting
native species and restocking fish

Traders, shopkeepers and Make the public squares and bazaars live — Jaipur’s nine squares were built to be
vendors centres of trade and interaction

Artists, performers and Kolkata’s Durga Puja is made by thousands of ordinary participants — and became
festival organisers UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021

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Why Jacobs puts the condition that way: a city plan can only guess at what people
need; the people themselves know. When residents are left out of the making, the
city gets built for the ones who were included — good roads for cars but no
footpath, malls but no affordable housing. The Bengaluru lakes are the chapter’s
counter-example: the revival came from residents, not from a plan handed down.
That is what "created by everybody" looks like in practice.

Q4 In what ways can urbanisation affect rural areas? Do cities also depend on rural
areas? If yes, how? In what ways can rural and urban areas help each other
develop?

ANSWER

Part 1 — How urbanisation affects rural areas. The chapter’s closing paragraph makes the
link directly: rapid urbanisation brings pollution, traffic congestion, inequality and the loss of
green spaces, affecting not only those who live in cities but also the rural areas connected
to them.

People leave. Urbanisation is defined as the population shift from rural to urban areas and
the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas. Villages lose
working-age adults, especially the young.
Land changes hands. Cities expand into villages and forest areas (as Q5 puts it). Farmland
on the edge becomes housing and warehouses — visible between the two Bengaluru
images of Fig. 7.5.
Resources are drawn away. A growing city’s demand for water, energy, sand, stone and
timber is met from the region around it.
Pollution travels. Air and water do not stop at the city boundary; a river carries a city’s
sewage downstream to villages.
But money and services travel too. Earnings sent home, better roads, and access to city
hospitals, colleges and markets reach the villages that are well connected.

Part 2 — Yes, cities depend on rural areas, heavily.

Page 23 of 43

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape
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Q5 What is urban planning? What are the risks of ignoring sustainable urban planning
as cities expand into villages and forest areas?

ANSWER

Urban planning is deciding in advance how land in a city or town will be used, so that
infrastructure and the overall quality of life for residents are as good as they can be. An urban
planner is the person who does this. Planning answers, before construction: how many people
live here, what work they do, what transport they need and how it connects, where homes,
businesses, parks, schools, hospitals, libraries, sports facilities and community centres go, and
what public safety a place needs — safe streets for pedestrians and cyclists, fire stations and
police stations within easy reach.
The chapter adds one word that carries most of the weight: cities must be planned as dynamic
systems with evolving needs, especially considering climate change. A plan made once and
never revised is not planning. That is why Singapore keeps a Concept Plan looking 40 years
ahead and revises its Master Plan every 5 years.
The risks of ignoring sustainable planning — Bengaluru is the chapter’s worked example of
nearly all of them:

RISK WHAT GOES WRONG, AND THE CHAPTER’S EVIDENCE

Water scarcity and Bengaluru faces shortages in summer and flooding in the monsoon due to poor urban
flooding planning — overuse of groundwater, no rainwater harvesting, and encroachment of lake
beds. Both problems, one cause

Loss of water bodies About 1,000 lakes reduced to about 200 — a loss of roughly 800, or 80 per cent. Bellandur
and Varthur got covered in foam, released toxic gases and even caught fire; wells dried up

Loss of green space Reduced green spaces and ‘heat islands’ raise city temperatures — a serious risk as climate
and rising heat change adds to it

Air pollution The NCR frequently records an AQI over 400 against a safe limit of 50 — eight times the
safe level, with serious health risks

Slums and exclusion Unplanned residential areas with poor access to water, sanitation, energy and waste
management; slums grow because affordable housing was not built for the people the city
needs

Congestion Narrow, poorly maintained roads and a growing number of vehicles

Loss of farmland When a city expands into villages and forest areas, it takes the land that grew its food and
and forest the tree cover that cooled it, and it destroys habitat and biodiversity

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Why unplanned expansion is so hard to undo: a filled lake bed or a built-over
drainage channel cannot be reopened once flats stand on it. That is why the losses
show up as permanent problems — the water has nowhere to go every single
monsoon thereafter. The chapter’s standard for a good city is exact: it must offer
opportunities without excluding the vulnerable, and provide comfort without
exhausting resources.

Q6 Observe your own neighbourhood. What signs of good or poor planning do you
notice? How do they affect daily life for you and others?

ANSWER

Do this as a survey, not from memory. Walk one fixed route — say from your home to your
school — and score it against the things the chapter says a planner must get right. Then say, for
each, who it helps or hurts and how.

WHAT TO SIGN OF GOOD PLANNING SIGN OF POOR PLANNING
CHECK

Walking A continuous, unbroken footpath with No footpath, or one parked over —
ramps at crossings pedestrians pushed into traffic

Public transport A bus stop or station within walking Long walk or an expensive auto ride to
distance, connected to other modes reach any bus

Water and Piped supply; covered drains that carry rain Tanker dependence; lanes that flood after
drains away one hour of rain

Waste Regular collection, separate dry and wet Waste dumped at a corner or burnt in the
bins open

Open and green A park or playground within reach of every Open ground built over; nowhere for
space colony children or elders to sit

Mixed use Shops, clinic, school and homes close Everything needs a vehicle to reach
together, so trips are short

Safety Street lights that work; fire and police Dark stretches; blocked lanes a fire
stations easy to reach engine could not enter

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Sample answer: On my two-kilometre walk to school I counted four things. Good:
our colony’s park was kept when the layout was made, and every evening it holds
children playing and elderly people walking — it is the one place in the locality where
people from different streets actually meet. Also good: the market, the clinic and the
school are within 600 m of each other, so my grandmother can do her errands
without transport. Poor: the footpath on the main road stops after 300 m and
becomes a row of parked two-wheelers, so schoolchildren walk on the road beside
moving buses — my younger brother is not allowed to walk alone because of it. Also
poor: the drain along the lane is open and half-blocked, and after heavy rain the
water stands for two days at the corner where the vegetable sellers sit, so they lose
those days’ earnings and mosquitoes breed. My conclusion is that the planning here
got the land uses right but the connections between them wrong — which is precisely
what the chapter means by interconnected transport and access for everyone.

Why footpaths and drains matter more than they look: they are the parts of a city
that the poorest and the least mobile depend on most. Someone with a car does not
notice a missing footpath; a child, an elderly person or a street vendor lives with it
every day. That is what the chapter means by a city that offers opportunity without
excluding the vulnerable.

Q7 Imagine you are an urban planner, what are the things you would consider to plan
a city? Do groups like children, the elderly, and people with disabilities get easy
access to parks, toilets, and public transport? What changes would you introduce to
make it more inclusive?

ANSWER

Part 1 — What I would consider. The chapter gives the planner’s own checklist, and I would
work through it in this order:

1. People. How many live here, what ages, and how fast is the number growing? Everything
else is sized from this.
2. Work. What types of jobs do they have? Homes must be planned near where the work
actually is, or the city buys itself a commute.
3. Transport. What kind is needed, and how can it be interconnected for a smoother commute
and access for everyone — rail, bus, cycling paths and walking corridors linked into one
network, as in Singapore, so that people are not forced to rely on cars.
4. Land use. Where do homes, businesses, parks and public facilities — schools, hospitals,
libraries, sports facilities, cultural and community centres — go? Keep them mixed and close,
the way Marina Bay Sands and Raffles Place sit a few kilometres apart.

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5. Public safety. Safe streets for pedestrians and cyclists; fire stations and police stations in
easy-to-reach places.
6. Water, waste and energy. Rainwater harvesting, protected lakes and drainage channels,
waste segregation — the things Bengaluru lost.
7. Climate. Jaipur was designed for a dry climate with reservoirs, canals and shaded market
porches; Singapore’s rooftop and vertical gardens reduce summer heat and support
biodiversity. Design for the climate you have, and the one that is coming.
8. Housing for everyone who works here. Affordable housing planned from the start,
because its absence is what produces slums.
9. A plan that can be revised. A long-term Concept Plan with a Master Plan updated regularly,
so the city can change its mind.

Part 2 — Do children, the elderly and people with disabilities get easy access today?
Usually not, and the reasons are physical and specific: footpaths that are broken, blocked or too
high to step onto; no ramps; buses with steep entry steps; parks with locked gates or no shade
and no benches; public toilets that are far apart, unclean, or have no accessible cubicle; signage
that assumes you can read fast and see well; and crossings timed for a person walking at a
healthy adult’s pace. Test any of these by trying to push a pram or a wheelchair along your
nearest main road.
Part 3 — Changes I would introduce.

WHERE CHANGE WHO IT HELPS FIRST

Streets Continuous, level footpaths at least 1.8 m wide with Wheelchair users, elderly
kerb ramps at every crossing, tactile paving, and people, children, anyone
longer crossing times with a pram

Public transport Low-floor buses, level boarding at metro stations, lifts People with disabilities,
as well as escalators, audio and visual announcements, elderly people, pregnant
reserved seating that is actually enforced women

Parks A park within walking distance of every Children and elderly people
neighbourhood, with shaded seating, a level path — the two groups who
around it, drinking water, and play equipment children cannot travel far to reach
with disabilities can use one

Toilets Clean public toilets at regular intervals, each with an Women, children, elderly
accessible cubicle, a baby-changing shelf and water people, street vendors and
outdoor workers

Neighbourhood Mixed-use blocks so school, clinic, market and home Everyone who does not have
design are within walking distance; senior citizens’ housing a vehicle
linked to healthcare and childcare, as Singapore does

Governance An online grievance redressal platform, and consulting The people a plan usually
residents — including children and disabled residents forgets
— before a design is finalised

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How to draw it. Take a 10 × 10 block of graph paper — that is 100 squares. Decide what one
square stands for; the easiest choice
zones first (residential, market, industrial, farmland, park, lake, school, hospital, post office),

com
.
then write a number of people inside each square. The numbers must add up to exactly 100.

e m
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Leave zeros in the squares where nobody lives.
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Sample allocation — each square = 1 sq km, so ‘people per square’ is directly the population

l a se
density:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ZONE SQUARES (SQ PEOPLE DENSITY (PEOPLE PER
KM) SQ KM)

Old residential neighbourhood, beside the 4 42 42 ÷ 4 = 10.5
market

New colony along the highway 3 21 21 ÷ 3 = 7.0

Market and commercial street (shopkeepers 2 11 11 ÷ 2 = 5.5
living above shops)

Industrial area with workers’ quarters 2 9 9 ÷ 2 = 4.5

Around the bus stand and railway station 2 7 7 ÷ 2 = 3.5

Farmland and orchards on the edge 6 9 9 ÷ 6 = 1.5

Hospital, school and post office 3 1 1 ÷ 3 ≈ 0.3

Park, playground, lake, forest patch, empty 78 0 0
land

Total 100 100 1.0

Checking the map before you hand it in:

Squares: 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 6 + 3 + 78 = 100 ✔

People: 42 + 21 + 11 + 9 + 7 + 9 + 1 + 0 = 100 ✔

Town’s average density = 100 ÷ 100 = 1 person per sq km

Densest zone = 10.5 per sq km, which is 10.5 ÷ 1 = 10.5 times the town average

Which areas are heavily populated, and which are not. The four squares of the old
neighbourhood hold 42 of the 100 people — nearly half the town on 4 per cent of its land. Add
the new colony and the market and 74 people occupy 9 squares, while the remaining 26 are
spread over 91. The parks, lake, forest and open land hold nobody at all.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Reasons behind the allocation:

People live near work and services. The densest zone is beside the market and
within walking distance of the school and hospital, so no vehicle is needed for
daily needs.
Farmland must stay thin. Cultivation needs land per household, so the six farm
squares carry only 1.5 people each — the same reason Asadpur Khera looks
empty from a satellite while Gurugram does not.
Transport nodes attract some settlement — tea stalls, repair shops, loaders —
but not families, because the noise and traffic make it a poor place to live.
Some squares are deliberately left at zero. The park, the lake and the forest
patch are not wasted land. They absorb rain, cool the town and give people
somewhere to go — and once built over, as Bengaluru found, they cannot be got
back.
Nobody lives on the hospital or school square, apart from a caretaker’s family,
because those buildings serve the whole town and need room to expand.

Try this: redraw the same map with 200 people instead of 100 and no extra land.
You will find yourself either stacking people upward in the dense squares, or
building on the park and the farmland. That choice, made a thousand times over, is
urban planning.

Q9 Observe the satellite view of Mumbai and Gangtok, respectively. Find out their
population density and likely reasons for the difference.

ANSWER

What the two images in Fig. 7.31 show. On the left, Mumbai fills the frame with a continuous
grey built-up surface, broken only by water — the creeks, the bay and the sea. The labels crowd
on top of each other: Andheri, Bandra West, Dadar, Byculla, Sion Koliwada, Navi Mumbai across
the water, an international airport, a port. It is flat, and every part of the land that is not water
has been built on. On the right, Gangtok is a dark green frame of steep, forested Himalayan
hillside; the built-up area is a pale pink ribbon threading down a single ridge and valley, with
Ganesh Tok and Bakthang Waterfall on the slopes above and a road curving away to the east.
Most of the picture is not built on at all — it is mountainside.
How to find the density. The book asks you to find out the figures, so use the formula and
current sources rather than a remembered number:

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Population density = total population ÷ area (in sq km)

1. Get the population and the area of each city from the Census of India report or the city’s
own municipal corporation website — the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and

the Gangtok Municipal Corporation both publish them.

2. Divide. Keep the units the same and say clearly which boundary you used (city or

metropolitan region) — the answer changes a great deal with the boundary.

Worked illustration of the method only — suppose a city had 40 lakh people in 500 sq km:

40,00,000 ÷ 500 = 8,000 people per sq km

which is about the density the chapter gives for Singapore.

Likely reasons for the difference — and they are mostly about land, not just
numbers.

Terrain. Mumbai sits on flat, low coastal land; almost all of it can be built on.
Gangtok is on steep slopes where construction is limited by gradient and by
landslide risk, so buildings can only follow the ridges and the roads. That is why
the green in the right-hand image stays green.
Land is finite in Mumbai, so building goes upward. Hemmed in by the sea on
both sides, the city adds people by adding floors rather than area, which drives
density up sharply.
The size of the economy. Mumbai is the country’s financial capital — the
Bombay Stock Exchange since 1875, banks and corporate offices at the Bandra
Kurla Complex, a port, and a film industry flourishing since the 1930s. That
volume of work has drawn people for over a century. Gangtok’s economy is
administration, trade and tourism, on a far smaller scale.
Migration follows jobs. Every new job in Mumbai brings a household that has to
live within the same limited land.
Infrastructure sustains density. Piped water, sewerage, suburban rail, the
Bandra–Worli Sea Link and the Coastal Road let millions live close together; a hill
town neither has nor could build that at the same scale.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: when you compare two densities, always state the boundary and the year.
‘Mumbai’ can mean the island city, the municipal corporation area, or the whole
metropolitan region — and the three give three very different answers for the same
real place.

Q10 Find out how the city of Beijing, China, tackled the problem of air pollution.
Prepare a report outlining measures that can be taken in India to mitigate air
pollution in cities.

ANSWER

This is a research task, so the report matters more than any single fact. Here is how to find the
material and what the report must contain.
Step 1 — Find reliable sources. Use the World Health Organization’s air quality pages, the
United Nations Environment Programme’s assessments of Beijing’s air programme, and news
archives. Note the year for every figure you quote and check it in a second source before you
put it in your report — air quality numbers change every year, and an old figure quoted as
current is a mistake.
Step 2 — Sort Beijing’s measures into the four categories every city’s air plan uses. These
are the kinds of action to look for and verify:

CATEGORY WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN BEIJING’S PROGRAMME

Energy Moving away from coal for household heating and power within and around the city, and
switching to gas and electricity

Industry Closing, upgrading or relocating polluting factories, and controlling construction dust

Vehicles Stricter emission standards for new vehicles, taking the oldest vehicles off the road,
restrictions on how many cars may be driven, and heavy expansion of the metro and buses

Monitoring and A dense network of monitoring stations with the readings published for the public,
greenery coordination with the whole surrounding region, and large-scale tree planting

Step 3 — Write the report in five sections: (i) the problem, with India’s own evidence; (ii) what
Beijing did, by category, with dated figures; (iii) what is transferable to Indian cities and what is
not; (iv) recommended measures; (v) how you would measure success.
The problem, using this chapter’s evidence: the National Capital Region frequently records an
Air Quality Index over 400, against a safe limit of 50. That is eight times the safe level, and the
chapter says plainly that it poses serious health risks to residents. The AQI itself folds particulate
matter (PM2.5, PM10), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants into one number,
so a high reading means several problems at once.

Page 33 of 43

ase
Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

c om
Measures for Indian cities — each tied to a cause the chapter names:
.
m road as a
Cut vehicle emissions — the chapter lists a growing number of vehicles onethe
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agbuild
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Control dust from the rapid, often unplanned construction the chapter describes — cover

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material, wash wheels, sprinkle water at sites, and pave road shoulders.

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Fix waste — open burning of waste is avoidable pollution. Segregate at source, compost wet
waste and stop landfill fires.

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co
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.c within and around the city. a g
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on industry

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regional approach, including crop-residue burning in the surrounding countryside.
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Publish the data — real-time public AQI displays and an online grievance platform let
agl
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citizens see the problem and demand action. The chapter itself recommends ICT such as
intelligent traffic systems andgonline

. c om
How to measure success: do not report only the average AQI. Report the number
of days in the year above 100, above 200 and above 400. A cityem
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average

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How does city life compare to rural life?

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ANSWER
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How to conduct the interview. Ask permission first and explain it is for a school project. Sit
.c a g in the person’s own words —
m
se a quotation is worth more than your paraphrase. Ten questions is plenty:
somewhere unhurried, ask open questions, and write the answers
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When did you move, and how old were you? Did you come alone or with family?
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Why did you move — was it work, education, marriage, health, or something that happened

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in the village?

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What was the first week like? Where did you stay, and how did you find work?
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What was hardest — rent, water, transport, language, food, being away from people?

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What opened up for you here that would not have in the village?

. co
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m l as
.co a g
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Do you send money home, or visit? Has the village changed since you left?
What do you miss most, and what would you never give up now?
Would you advise someone from the village to move today? Why?

What a good answer must contain: a clearly stated reason for migration, at least three specific
challenges and three specific opportunities, and an honest comparison at the end — not a
verdict that one life is simply better.
The comparison, as the chapter frames it:

VILLAGE CITY

Work Largely agriculture-based; A diversity of jobs across industry, transport and services
fewer businesses — and steadier cash income

Community Close-knit; everyone known Larger and more varied, but people begin as strangers;
networks have to be built

Services Fewer schools, hospitals and Hospitals, colleges, banks, libraries and public transport
transport links within reach

Housing and Usually a family house and Cities can be crowded and expensive; if affordable
cost some land housing is short, families end up in slums

Environment Open land, cleaner air Traffic, waste, poor air quality and water scarcity

Sample answer: My father’s cousin, Shri Mahesh, moved from a village in Jaunpur
district to Surat when he was nineteen, in 2004. He came because there was work:
two men from his village were already in a powerloom unit and told him a job was
waiting. His first year was the hardest — he shared one room with five others,
worked twelve-hour shifts, and could not follow Gujarati for months. Water came for
one hour in the morning and the whole room’s routine was built around it. What the
city gave him, he says, is a wage that arrives every month, which farming never did;
he learnt to service the machines and now supervises a section; and both his
daughters study in a school with a science laboratory, which the village school did
not have. He sends money home every month and goes back for Chhath. What he
misses is the open air and knowing everyone’s name; what he would not give up is
the hospital ten minutes away, which he says saved his younger daughter when she
had dengue. His own summary was this: "In the village I had space and no money.
Here I have money and no space." That is a fair statement of the trade the chapter
describes — cities are crowded and expensive, yet they offer social and economic
value because so many resources are concentrated in one place.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q12 Learn about urban planning in other cities around the world. In what ways can
some of those aspects be adapted for a city near you?

ANSWER

Start with the example the chapter has already given you — Singapore, which planners
study precisely because it is dense and still liveable: over 8,000 people per sq km, a Concept
Plan looking 40 years ahead, a Master Plan revised every 5 years, mixed-use districts, an
integrated transport system, and rooftop and vertical gardens on high-rises. Then look up two
more cities and note, for each, the one idea it is known for and the condition that made it work
there.
How to adapt rather than copy. An idea transfers only if the conditions behind it can be
reproduced. Ask three questions of every idea: does our climate suit it, can our municipal body
afford to run it every year, and who in our city would actually use it?

IDEA WORTH HOW IT WOULD WORK IN AN INDIAN CITY WHAT IT WOULD
ADAPTING FIX

Integrated public transport One ticket and one timetable across bus, metro and cycle Traffic jams; poor air
(Singapore) hire, with footpaths connecting stops so a whole journey quality
works without a car

Mixed-use Allow shops, clinics, offices and homes in the same block, Congestion; long
neighbourhoods so daily trips are short enough to walk commutes
(Singapore)

Rooftop and vertical Require green roofs on large new buildings; they cut Heat islands;
gardens (Singapore) summer heat and support biodiversity reduced green
spaces

Rolling plan revision A long-term city plan reviewed on a fixed cycle rather Plans that no longer
(Singapore) than left untouched for decades match the city

Pedestrian-only high Close one busy market street to vehicles; it is already Unsafe streets; poor
street (Gangtok’s M.G. known for cleanliness and a vibrant atmosphere air in market areas
Road)

Riverfront as public space Promenades, parks, markets and a pedestrian-and-cycle Lost public space;
(Sabarmati, Ahmedabad) bridge blending ecology with public utility neglected water
bodies

Climate-first design Shaded market porches, water storage through reservoirs Heat; water scarcity
(Jaipur, 1727) and canals, streets aligned for sun and air — designed for
a dry climate three centuries ago and still working

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why adaptation, not imitation: Singapore’s density and its budget are not most
Indian cities’ density and budget. But the principle behind each idea travels even
when the form does not. The principle behind the Master Plan is that a plan must be
revised; behind the garden city, that green surfaces cool a hot place; behind Jaipur,
that you design for the climate you actually have. Copy the principle; design the
form locally.

Sample answer (one paragraph of the kind expected): For our district town, the
single most adaptable idea is Gangtok’s pedestrian-only M.G. Road. Our main bazaar
is already too narrow for the two-wheelers that push through it, and shopkeepers
say customers leave rather than fight the traffic. Closing 400 m of it to vehicles,
adding shade and seating and moving parking to the tehsil ground behind would
cost little, needs no new technology, and would give the town the one thing it does
not have — a place where people can simply stand and talk.

Q13 Explore and suggest action points with respect to urban planning in cities to
mitigate the challenges below and write a report. Two have been completed for
you. Waste Management: Conducting a ‘Segregate at Source’ awareness drive in
residential areas with demos on dry/wet waste disposal and composting. Traffic
congestion: carpooling, high taxes on vehicle purchase, etc. Inadequate safety of
residents · Poor mobility within the city · Expansion of slums · Heat waves during
summers

ANSWER

Follow the pattern of the two worked examples: each action point names a specific thing to do,
not a wish. Here are action points for the four remaining challenges.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CHALLENGE ACTION POINTS

Inadequate safety Light every street and lane, and audit the dark stretches at night with residents rather than
of residents from a map. Place police stations and fire stations in easy-to-reach locations, as the chapter’s
planning checklist requires, and keep lanes wide enough for a fire engine and an ambulance.
Design streets with shops and homes facing them, so there are always eyes on the road. Install
emergency call points and CCTV at bus stops, subways and markets, with a published
helpline. Keep public toilets and transport stops well-lit and staffed. Address the causes too —
the chapter links higher urban crime to density and economic inequality, so schooling, skills
and jobs for young people belong in a safety plan.

Poor mobility Build a connected network rather than separate services: integrate metro, bus, cycle tracks
within the city and footpaths on one ticket and one timetable, the way Singapore links rail, buses, cycling
paths and green walking corridors. Guarantee a continuous, level footpath on every main
road with ramps at crossings. Provide safe last-mile links so a bus stop can actually be reached
on foot. Plan mixed-use neighbourhoods so daily trips are short. Add bus lanes and signal
priority so public transport is faster than a car. Use ICT — intelligent traffic systems and real-
time arrival information.

Expansion of Attack the stated cause: there is not enough affordable housing for everyone migrating to the
slums city. Reserve land for affordable housing in every new layout before plots are sold, and use
schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Aawaas Yojana. Build that housing near where people
work, since residents earn from informal work — vending, domestic help, laundry,
construction, plumbing — that only exists in the city. Meanwhile, upgrade existing settlements
in place: piped water, toilets, drainage, electricity, waste collection, and paved lanes. Improve
housing, health and education infrastructure together, which the chapter calls a key urban
challenge. Provide rental housing for seasonal workers, and secure tenure so families can
invest in their own homes.

Heat waves Restore green cover — trees along every major street, protected parks, and no further loss of
during summers open ground, since reduced green spaces and ‘heat islands’ are listed together. Require rooftop
and vertical gardens on large buildings, as in Singapore, which reduce heat and support
biodiversity. Use cool or reflective roofs on schools, hospitals and low-income housing. Revive
water bodies, as the RWAs and communities did with Bengaluru’s lakes. Learn from Jaipur:
shaded market porches, streets aligned for air movement, and stored water for a dry climate.
Add a heat-action plan — public drinking-water points, shaded bus stops, adjusted school and
outdoor-work hours, and cooling shelters on the worst days.

Writing the report. Use five short sections for each challenge: the problem in our city (with one
observation of your own), why it happens, action points, who must act — municipal body, state
government, residents, RWAs, schools — and how we will know it worked. That last section is
what turns a list into a plan.

Tip: give every action point a measurable target. "Plant more trees" is a wish; "1,000
trees along the four main roads before the next monsoon, with survival counted
after one year" is an action point.

Page 38 of 43

as e
Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Find out about a slum rehabilitation program where people moved from slums to
e
Q14

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proper housing in your city. What do you think its possible benefits could be for
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the communities there? a
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How to find one. Ask at the municipal corporation or the state housing board office, look up
. co ag
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your state’s slum rehabilitation or housing authority, and search for projects under the Pradhan

l a se
Mantri Aawaas Yojana, which provides affordable housing to economically weaker
households. Record five things for a g project you choose: where the families lived before,
the
where they live now, how many households, what the new home has (rooms, tap, toilet,
m
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electricity), and how far it is from the work people were already doing.

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Possible benefits for the community — organised by what actually changes:

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AREA OF WHAT IMPROVES, AND WHY

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describes as poor and overcrowded

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co m
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Health Fewer illnesses from crowding, standing water and poor drainage; fewer working days lost to

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Light, quiet and a permanent address make regular schoolaattendance
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Recognition A permanent address makes it easier to open a bank account, get a ration card and gas
connection, and receive government schemes

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What decides whether it works — say this in your answer. The chapter is clear
that slum dwellers support cities by performing informal work — vegetable vending,
domestic help, laundry services, construction work, plumbing. That work exists at
particular places in the city. So a rehabilitation project succeeds when the new
housing keeps families within reach of that work, of the school the children already
attend and of the transport they use. If people are moved far out, the house
improves but the livelihood weakens, and the family pays for the new home with a
longer, costlier journey. Location, transport and livelihood are part of the housing
question, not separate from it.

What a good field report contains: the project’s name and year; the number of
households; a description of the old and new housing; two or three things residents
themselves say improved; one thing they say became harder; and your own
judgement, with reasons, on whether the project met the chapter’s test — offering
opportunity without excluding the vulnerable.

Chapter at a glance
A city is an area with a concentration of population, many kinds of businesses and
occupations, government institutions and elaborate transport and communication systems,
run by elected local bodies; a village has fewer people, more agriculture-based work and is
governed by a gram panchayat. Where the line is drawn differs everywhere: a place is
urban above 220 people in Denmark, 5,000 in India and 50,000 in Japan.
Population density = total population of a region ÷ area of the region (in sq km). It is
what separates the satellite image of Asadpur Khera village from that of Gurugram city (Fig.
7.3) — same state, same land, very different number of people on each square kilometre.
Cities become economic centres through location (rivers, coasts, trade routes), raw
materials (Sakchi’s iron ore), clusters of specialised firms and colleges (Bengaluru,
Hyderabad), finance and information (the BSE, 1875, and Mumbai’s film industry from the
1910s), administration (Delhi), and tourism and pilgrimage (Agra’s 70–80 lakh visitors a
year; Amritsar and Varanasi).
Urbanisation is the shift of population from rural to urban areas and the matching fall in
the rural share. India’s urban share rose from 17 per cent in 1951 to about 40 per cent in
2025; the United Nations expects 68 per cent of the world to be urban by 2050, against 55
per cent now.
Growth strains the city. Fig. 7.18 names seven pressures — poor air quality, water scarcity,
traffic jams, reduced green spaces, waste generation, monsoon flooding and urban slums.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The NCR frequently records an AQI over 400 against a safe limit of 50, and Bengaluru’s
lakes fell from about 1,000 to about 200.
Urban planning is the answer the chapter offers, in two examples: Jaipur (1727), laid out
by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya on a grid of chowkris with nine public squares and a 20-foot wall
with seven gates, still working today; and Singapore, with over 8,000 people per sq km, a
Concept Plan looking 40 years ahead and a Master Plan revised every 5 years.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT THE CHAPTER’S OWN
APPEARS IN EXAMPLE
THE CHAPTER

Population Total population of a region divided by Population Singapore has over 8,000
density its area in square kilometres Density in Cities, people per sq km (p. 207)
p. 193

Demographer People who study the characteristics of Margin note, p. Demographers are the
populations — size, age structure, 193 experts who work out
geographic distribution and so on density figures

Satellite view A top-down view or visual data of the Margin note, p. Fig. 7.3 — Asadpur Khera
earth’s surface captured by satellites 193 village beside Gurugram city
orbiting the Earth

Urbanisation Population shift from rural to urban Margin note, p. India: 17% urban in 1951 to
areas and the corresponding decrease in 197 about 40% in 2025 (p. 194)
the proportion of people living in rural
areas

Metropolitan area What a city expands into as it grows Fig. 7.6, p. 196; The NCR was created to
outwards and absorbs the settlements Delhi, p. 200 include NOIDA and
around it Ghaziabad; Gurugram grew
from the 1990s

Business Process A company hiring another service Margin note, p. Gurugram became a major
Outsourcing provider to do specific business 200 IT and BPO hub, drawing
(BPO) functions or processes for it, cutting global companies
costs and bringing in expert
professionals

Air Quality Index A numerical scale that folds data on Margin note, p. The NCR frequently records
(AQI) pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, 203 levels over 400, against a
carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide safe limit of 50
into one easy-to-understand value

Slum An overcrowded city settlement with Challenges They grow on vacant land
poor housing and limited water, Faced by Cities, near a city’s periphery,
sanitation and other municipal services p. 203 railway tracks and industrial
areas

Heat island The rise in temperature a built-up area Challenges Listed with narrow roads,
creates within itself Faced by Cities, unplanned colonies and
p. 203 more vehicles as urban
problems

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 14 India’s Urban Landscape AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT THE CHAPTER’S OWN
APPEARS IN EXAMPLE
THE CHAPTER

Urban planner A person who plans and designs how Margin note, p. Vidyadhar Bhattacharya,
land in cities and towns is used, to 206 chief architect and planner
optimise infrastructure and the overall of Jaipur, 1727
quality of life for residents

Master Plan A long-term planning document that Margin note, p. Singapore updates its
provides a conceptual layout to guide 207 Master Plan every 5 years; its
future growth and development Concept Plan looks 40 years
ahead

Blue zone A city or region where people live Margin note, p. Singapore; and Okinawa in
significantly longer, healthier lives — 209 Japan
often reaching 90 or 100 — with low
rates of chronic disease

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