Resources and Development Class 10: Notes and Questions

Resources and Development is chapter 1 of the Class 10 Geography book, Contemporary India-II. It explains what makes something a resource, how resources are classified and planned, how India uses its land, and how its soils form and can be protected. This guide follows the chapter in order and ends with model answers and common mistakes.

CBSE 2026-27: the whole chapter is in the board exam, inside the Geography section worth "17+3 map pointing" marks (chapters 1 to 7; Lifelines of National Economy is tested only through map pointing). The map item for this chapter is "Identify Major Soil Types". Our CBSE Class 10 syllabus 2026-27 guide has the full marks split.

What is a resource?

A resource is anything in our environment that can meet our needs, provided it is technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable.

Resources are not free gifts of nature. They are a function of human activities: people turn materials into resources through an interactive relationship between nature, technology and institutions.

Classification of resources

Stock is material that could meet our needs, but we lack the technology to use it. Reserves are the part of the stock we can use with existing technology but keep for the future.

Sustainable development and Agenda 21

Treating resources as free gifts led to depletion for the greed of a few, accumulation in a few hands (haves and have-nots), and global crises such as global warming and ozone layer depletion.

Sustainable development means development should not damage the environment, and development today should not compromise the needs of future generations. The Club of Rome first argued for conservation systematically in 1968, and the Brundtland Commission Report (1987) introduced the idea of sustainable development.

In June 1992, more than 100 heads of state met at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and adopted Agenda 21, a plan to fight environmental damage, poverty and disease through global cooperation. Every local government should draw up its own local Agenda 21.

Resource planning in India

India's resources are unevenly spread. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are rich in minerals and coal; Arunachal Pradesh has plenty of water but lacks infrastructure; Rajasthan has solar and wind energy but little water.

Resource planning has three steps:

1. Identifying and listing resources through surveys, mapping and measurement.
2. Building a planning structure with suitable technology, skills and institutions.
3. Matching resource plans with national development plans.

India has followed this since the First Five Year Plan. Resources lead to development only with suitable technology and institutional change; colonisers used better technology to exploit the resources of colonies.

Land resources and land use

India's land is about 43% plains (agriculture, industry), 30% mountains (perennial rivers, tourism, ecology) and 27% plateaus (minerals, fossil fuels, forests).

• Net sown area (NSA): the physical area on which crops are sown and harvested.
• Gross cropped area: NSA plus the area sown more than once in the same agricultural year.

India's area is 3.28 million sq km, but land use data covers only about 93% of it. Reporting for most north-eastern states except Assam is incomplete, and some areas of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by Pakistan and China are unsurveyed.

The chapter's 2019–20 chart shows NSA at 45.64% and land under forests at 23.41% of the reporting area; adding other fallow lands takes NSA to about 54%. NSA is over 80% in Punjab and Haryana but under 10% in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Forest area is far below the 33% desired by the National Forest Policy (1952).

Land degradation and conservation

About 95% of our needs for food, shelter and clothing come from land.

Dust from grinding limestone, calcite and soapstone slows water infiltration. Remedies: afforestation, managed grazing, shelter belts, thorny bushes on sand dunes, controlled mining and treating industrial effluents.

Soils of India

Soil is a living system; a few centimetres take millions of years to form. Relief, parent rock, climate, vegetation and other life forms, and time shape it. A soil profile has topsoil, subsoil, substratum and unweathered bedrock.

Soil erosion and conservation

Running water cuts gullies in clayey soil, making bad land; in the Chambal basin these are ravines. Sheet erosion strips topsoil over a wide area, and wind blows loose soil away. Ploughing up and down slopes also speeds erosion.

• Contour ploughing along contour lines slows water.
• Terrace farming cuts steps into slopes (western and central Himalayas).
• Strip cropping leaves grass strips between crops to break the wind.
• Shelter belts of trees have stabilised sand dunes in western India.

Remember this

• Reserves are a subset of stock.
• Rio Earth Summit: June 1992; Agenda 21.
• Relief: 43% plains, 30% mountains, 27% plateaus.
• Land use data covers about 93% of 3.28 million sq km.
• Black soil = regur = cotton; laterite = leaching, acidic.

Important questions with answers

1. Name the three conditions for something to be a resource. (1 mark) It must be technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally acceptable.

2. Distinguish between stock and reserves. (3 marks) Stock can meet human needs but cannot be used because we lack the technology. Reserves are the part of stock usable with existing technology but saved for the future. All reserves are stock, but not all stock is reserves.

3. A farmer sows two crops a year on the same 3 hectares. Find the net sown and gross cropped areas. (1 mark) Net sown area is 3 hectares; gross cropped area is 6 hectares, because the land was sown twice.

4. Why is land use data available for only about 93% of India? (1 mark) Reporting for most north-eastern states except Assam is incomplete, and areas of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by Pakistan and China are unsurveyed.

5. Explain the three steps of resource planning. (3 marks) Identify and list resources through surveys and mapping; set up a planning structure with technology, skills and institutions; match resource plans with national development plans.

6. How do human activities cause land degradation? Suggest remedies. (5 marks) Mining in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha causes deforestation and leaves deep scars. Overgrazing degrades land in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Over-irrigation in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh causes waterlogging and salinity. Mineral dust slows infiltration, and effluents pollute land and water. Remedies include afforestation, controlled grazing, shelter belts and treating effluents.

7. Why is black soil suitable for cotton? (3 marks) It is fine and clayey, holds moisture well and is rich in calcium carbonate, magnesium, potash and lime. Cracks in hot weather let air into the soil.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing that resources are free gifts of nature.
• Mixing up net sown area and gross cropped area.
• Calling Khadar old alluvium. Bangar is old; Khadar is new.
• Treating 23.41% "land under forests" as satellite forest cover. They measure different things.

To practise these answers with quick checks, study this chapter with Joy.