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Summary

Geography Class 42

## Initiatives for the fishing sector in India: (5:17 PM)

## Blue Revolution:

- It was launched during the **Fifth** and **Sixth Plans**.

## Phase I:

- **1980 to 1991.**
- During which **FFDA** (Fishing Farming Development Agency) was established as the nodal agency for fishing activity in India.
- FSDP: Fish Seed Development Program was also initiated.

## Phase II:

- 1991 to 2005.
- Both inland and marine were targeted.
- FFDA centers were opened.
- Coastal regions were given special emphasis.
- In 2005, National Fisheries Development Board.
- National Marine Fisheries Policy: introduced in 2016.
- Mission Neel Kranti:
- Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries. To increase inland and marine fisheries production.
- To triple the production.
- To double the income, exports will be tripled.

## Distribution of Water: (5:36 PM)

- Uneven distribution of water between Himalayan and Peninsular rivers.
- Uneven precipitation: 90% of rain during monsoon season.
- Rainshadow regions of Deccan regions.
- Pollution in the rivers.
- Water-intensive agriculture: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, etc.
- Government policies such as subsidies.
- Excessive extraction of groundwater without recharging.
- Encroachment of wetlands.
- Deforestation, etc.

## The Extent of Water Stress in India: (6:03 PM)

- **Falcon Mark Index:** The level of water scarcity by calculating the per capita water availability.
- **Water stress:** If the availability drops to 1700 m3/person/year.
- **Water scarce:** If availability drops below 1000 m3/person/year

## North Region:

- Very high water stress, reasons:
- Water-intensive agriculture,
- High population,
- Pollution, industries,
- Deforestation,
- Higher groundwater extraction.

## Western Region:

- The region is arid and semi-arid.
- Water-intensive agriculture.
- Soil erosion.

## Eastern Region:

- Higher population density.
- Higher extraction of groundwater.
- Mining, e.g. Jharkhand, etc.
- Pollution, UP, Bihar, etc.

## Southern Region:

- Rainshadow effect.
- Coromandel Coast.
- Water-intensive agriculture.
- Hard plateau rocks.
- Large urban centers.
- **North East:**
- Not water stressed.

## How to deal with water stress?: (6:20 PM)

- Water efficient agriculture, thus **less water-intensive** crops.
- Usage of indigenous varieties.
- Micro irrigation methods, eg. drip and sprinkler irrigation.
- Reforestation and afforestation.
- **3Rs:** Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
- Better urban planning, and reclamation of degraded water bodies and wetlands.

## Rainwater harvesting: (6:36 PM)

- It is a technique of collection and storage of rainwater in **natural reservoirs or tanks or infiltration** of surface water into subsurface aquifers.
- The methods involve rooftop collection, in situ recharge (recharge pits), surface water collection, and recharge through check dams, lakes, and ponds.

## Watershed Management: (6:41 PM)

- **Watershed:**
- Is an area of land where all the water, i.e. under it or drains of it, collects into one waterbody.
- Watershed development involves the **rational utilization** of land and water resources for optimum and sustained production with minimum hazard to natural resources.
- It involves the conservation and management of both surface and groundwater using watersheds as a single unit.

## Interlinking of Rivers:

- Link from the surplus Himalayan basin to the deficit peninsular basin using 30 river links connecting 37 rivers.
- **Advantages of river-linking:**
- Drought and flood control.
- Fishing activities.
- Supply of water to cities.

## Issues with river-linking:

- To decide the definition of surplus itself.
- Biodiversity loss through submergence of forests.
- **Reservoir-induced** earthquakes.
- Ecological loss for rivers.
- Loss of green cover.
- Release of methane.
- Too expensive to construct, too expensive to maintain.
- Social issues of displacement of people.
- Land acquisition, rehabilitation, etc.

## Natural Vegetation: (6:54 PM)

## Tropical Evergreen Rainforests:

- An abundance of rainfall.
- High temperature and high precipitation.
- Vegetation is evergreen.
- No specific period of shedding leaves.
- Very high diversity of life.
- Multilayered vegetation.
- Presence of climbers and epiphytes.
- Low undergrowth.
- Regions: Amazon, Congo Basin, Parts of Western Africa, Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.
- Fragile soil.

## Tropical Deciduous Forests: (7:30 PM)

- Monsoon Forests.
- Shed leaves in a particular season.
- Less biodiversity compared to Evergreen.
- **Regions:**
- India, South Asia, Eastern Africa, Northern Australia, Indo-China, South East Brazil.

## Mediterranian Type of Forest: (7:33 PM)

- Wet winter and dry summer.
- Known for citrus fruits.
- Oranges, grapes, viticulture (growing grapes and making wine).
- **Region:**
- All countries around the Mediterranean, California,

## Mixed Forest:

- A mixture of broad leave and coniferous forests.
- Found in the cool temperate regions.
- British and Laurantial types.
- Moderate temperatures and uniform rainfall.

## Taiga Forest: (7:40 PM)

- Also called the **Boreal forest** or the **Coniferous forest**.
- It accounts for ⅓ of all the vegetation in the world.
- The proportion of coniferous trees is very high.
- Higher economic utility.
- Very low biodiversity.
- They are evergreen in nature.
- Needle-like leaves, reduce loss.

## Lumbering activity:

- Cutting trees and making wooden logs.
- Regions behind better development of lumbering activities in temperate regions than tropical regions:
- **Difference between hardwood and softwood:**
- Tropical woods are hardwoods, and temperate woods are softwood.
- Softwood: Easy to use, transport, make furniture, etc.
- Easy to cut single tree species.
- **Temperate regions:** cutting in winter seasons.
- Harsh climatic conditions in equatorial and tropical regions like high temperatures, high rainfall, etc. make it difficult to practice lumbering.
- Shifting cultivation in warmer regions.

## Natural Vegetation of India: (7:52 PM)

- **Champion and Seth model** of classification. We have a total of 16 types of vegetation.
- Five prominent are:
- **Tropical Evergreen Vegetation:**
- **Tropical Wet Evergreen:**
- It is found in regions with more than 250 cm of rainfall per annum.
- Western Ghats, Meghalaya, North East, parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Andaman Nicobar.
- **Tropical Semi-Evergreen:**
- Rainfall between 250 to 200 cm.
- Mahogany,
- Ebony,
- Rosewood,
- Laurel, also called as water tree.
- Jackfruit.
- Jamun tree.
- Rubber tree.
- Tropical Dry-Evergreen.
- **Tropical Deciduous:**
- Tropical Moist Deciduous.
- Tropical Dry Deciduous.

## Topic for the next class: Tropical Deciduous examples, onwards.