Resources and Development — RBSE Class 10 (Geography)
A lump of iron ore in the ground is just rock — until someone learns to smelt it, and a railway exists to carry it, and a market wants steel. Only then does it become a resource. The lesson hiding in that sentence is the heart of this chapter: resources are not given by nature alone; they are made useful by human beings — and can just as easily be wasted.
1. What is a resource?
Everything available in our environment that can be used to satisfy our needs is a resource, provided it is technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable.
Resources are a function of human activity — humans transform material in the environment into resources and use them. The interactive relationship is between nature, technology and institutions.
2. Classifying resources
| Basis | Types |
|---|---|
| Origin | Biotic (from living things — plants, animals, fish) · Abiotic (non-living — rocks, metals) |
| Exhaustibility | Renewable (replenished: solar, water, forests) · Non-renewable (take millions of years to form: coal, petroleum) |
| Ownership | Individual · Community · National · International |
| Status of development | Potential (exists but not yet used — e.g. solar/wind in Rajasthan & Gujarat) · Developed · Stock (material we lack the technology to use, e.g. hydrogen as fuel) · Reserves (subset of stock usable with present technology, e.g. river water for hydel power) |
Renewable further splits into continuous/flow (solar, wind) and biological (forests, wildlife). The distinction between stock and reserve is a favourite exam point: stock = can't use yet (technology gap); reserve = could be used but kept for the future.
3. Why resources need planning
Indiscriminate use of resources has created three big problems:
- Depletion of resources to satisfy the greed of a few.
- Accumulation of resources in a few hands, dividing society into haves and have-nots.
- Global ecological crises — global warming, ozone-layer depletion, pollution, land degradation.
Hence resource planning is essential. In India it involves: (i) identifying and inventorying resources across regions; (ii) building a planning structure with technology, skill and institutions; and (iii) matching resource-development plans with national development plans.
Resources are unevenly distributed — Rajasthan has plenty of solar and wind energy but lacks water; Jharkhand is rich in minerals but lacks industry; Ladakh has a rich cultural heritage but is short of water and infrastructure. Planning must account for this.
4. Resource conservation and sustainable development
Conservation was urged early — Gandhiji said, "There is enough for everybody's need but not for anybody's greed." He blamed exploitative modern technology and greedy people.
Sustainable development = development that takes place without damaging the environment, and meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The Rio Earth Summit (1992) at Rio de Janeiro produced Agenda 21 — a global action plan for sustainable development in the 21st century, urging local bodies to draw up their own local Agenda 21.
5. Land and soil resources
Land is a finite, vital resource. India's land-use: about 43% plains (agriculture, industry), 30% mountains (rivers, tourism), 27% plateaus (minerals, fossil fuels). Land must be used as planned — land degradation comes from deforestation, overgrazing, mining, over-irrigation (which causes waterlogging and salinity) and industrial effluents. Conservation methods: afforestation, proper grazing management, planting shelter belts, control of mining and proper discharge of industrial waste.
Major soil types of India
- Alluvial soil — most widespread and fertile; deposited by rivers (the northern plains). Rich in potash, phosphoric acid and lime; ideal for sugarcane, wheat, rice. Khadar (new) is more fertile than bangar (old).
- Black soil (regur) — the cotton soil of the Deccan trap (Maharashtra, parts of Gujarat, MP). Made of fine clay, holds moisture, develops deep cracks in summer (self-ploughing). Ideal for cotton.
- Red and yellow soil — over crystalline rocks in low-rainfall areas (eastern/southern Deccan); reddish from iron, yellow when hydrated.
- Laterite soil — formed by intense leaching in high-temperature, heavy-rainfall regions; good for tea, coffee, cashew after manuring.
- Arid soil — sandy, saline, low in humus (Rajasthan); needs irrigation to be made fertile.
- Forest soil — in hilly, forested areas; varies with slope.
Soil erosion (removal of topsoil by wind/water) forms gullies (badland, e.g. Chambal ravines) and sheet erosion. Conservation: contour ploughing, terrace farming, strip cropping and planting shelter belts.
6. Closing thought
Two ideas anchor this chapter. First, a resource is co-created by nature, technology and human institutions — which means a "stock" today (hydrogen fuel, solar in a sun-rich state) can become a "reserve" and then a "developed resource" tomorrow. Second, because resources are finite and unevenly shared, planning and sustainable use are not optional luxuries but survival necessities — captured by Gandhiji's line about need versus greed and by Agenda 21.
For the RBSE board, lock in the classification table (especially stock vs reserve, potential vs developed) and the major soil types with one defining feature and crop each — these are the reliable scorers.
