राइट 10 बेनिफिट्स ऑफ नेचुरल रिसोर्सेज
Answers
Answer:
Sustainable
Management of
Natural Resources
CHAPTER16
‘Living in harmony with nature’ is not new to us. Sustainable living has
always been an integral part of India’s tradition and culture. It has been
integrated with our long-lasting traditions and practices, customs, art
and crafts, festivals, food, beliefs, rituals and folklore. Ingrained within us
is the philosophy that ‘entire natural world be in harmony’ which is
reflected in the famous phrase in Sanskrit ‘Vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ that
means “the entire earth is one family”. The phrase is mentioned in
‘Mahaupanishad’, that is probably a part of the ancient Indian text,
Atharva Veda.
In Class IX we have already learnt about some natural resources
like soil, air and water and how various components are cycled over and
over again in nature. Also, we learnt in the previous chapter about the
pollution of these resources because of some of our activities. In this
chapter, we shall look at some of our resources and how we are using
them. Maybe we should also think about how we ought to be using our
resources so as to sustain them and conserve our environment. We shall
be looking at our natural resources like forests, wildlife, water, coal and
petroleum and see what are the issues at stake in deciding how these
resources are to be managed for sustainable development along with
the input from our traditional practices.
We often hear or read about environmental problems. These are often
global-level problems and we feel helpless to bring any change. There
are international laws and regulations, and then there are our own
national laws and acts for environmental protection. There are also
national and international organisations working towards protecting our
environment.
n Find out about the international norms to regulate the emission
of carbon dioxide.
n Have a discussion in class about how we can contribute towards
Explanation:
There are a number of organisations that seek to spread awareness
about our environment and promote activities and attitudes that
lead to the conservation of our environment and natural resources.
Find out about the organisation(s) active in your neighbourhood/
village/town/city.
n Find out how you can contribute towards the same cause.
Awareness about the problems caused by unthinkingly exploiting
our resources has been a fairly recent phenomenon in our society. And
once this awareness rises, some action is usually taken. You must have
heard about the Ganga Action Plan. This multi-crore project came about
in 1985 because the quality of the water in the Ganga was very poor.
Coliform is a group of bacteria, found in human intestines, whose
presence in water indicates contamination by disease-causing
microorganisms.
Answer
Sagar in the Bay of Bengal. It is being turned into a drain by more than a hundred
towns and cities in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal that pour their garbage
and excreta into it. Largely untreated sewage is dumped into the Ganges every
day. In addition, think of the pollution caused by other human activities like
bathing, washing of clothes and immersion of ashes or unburnt corpses. And then,
industries contribute chemical effluents to the Ganga’s pollution load and the
toxicity kills fish in large sections of the river. Namami Gange Programme is an
Integrated Conservation Mission approved as a Flagship Programme by the Union
Government in June, 2014. It was launched to accomplish the twin objectives of effective
abatement of pollution conservation and rejuvenation of River Ganga. The National
Mission for Clean Ganga is the implementation wing set up in October, 2016.
n Check the pH of the water supplied to your house using universal
indicator or litmus paper.
n Also check the pH of the water in the local waterbody (pond, river,
lake, stream).
n Can you say whether the water is polluted or not on the basis of
your observations?
As you can see, there are some measurable factors which are used
to quantify pollution or the quality of the water that we use for various
activities. Some of the pollutants are harmful even when present in very
small quantities and we require sophisticated equipment to measure
them. But as we learnt in Chapter 2, the pH of water is something that
can easily be checked using universal indicator.