Tag: pollution and environment

Dryland communities have also developed deep knowledge of water and its elements. From the name of a particular system,(eg. a nadi) people knew how the water is collected, catchment prepared, embankment constructed, etc. Diverse systems to suit local ecology, geology, climate: nadi, talab, johad, bandha, etc. So many kinds of wells: Dugwells: kua owned by individuals; kohars community wells. Step wells: Baolis for drinking; constructed for philanthropic purposes; jhalaras not used for drinking. Different in architecture, Sagar ka kua : never run dry, Seer ka kua: underground channel opening into a well..

In many Indian languages, 'Sar' or 'Sarovar' refers to a lake or a water body.

A rift valley is formed mainly due to the subsidence of the floor of a river valley. A rift valley is formed on a divergent plate boundary, a crustal extension or spreading apart of the surface, which is subsequently further deepened by the forces of erosion.

Human activities have been the major causes for the depletion of flora and fauna. Various such activities are –

1. Agricultural expansion

2. Shifting cultivation (Jhum), a type of ‘slash and burn’ agriculture.

3. Large scale development projects.

4. Mining activities.

5. Habitat destruction, hunting, poaching, over-exploitation of forest products, environmental degradation, forest-fire are some other factors which have led to the decline of India’s biodiversity.

6. Environmental destruction due to unequal access, inequitable consumption of resources and differential sharing of responsibilities for environmental well-being are also responsible for the depletion of flora and fauna.

Lead is a heavy metal known to be a neurotoxin that accumulates in the body and damages the central nervous system.

The Indian Ocean is the only ocean named after a country, that is, India. The shape of the ocean is almost triangular. In the north, it is bound by Asia, in the west by Africa and the east by Australia. The Indian landmass has a central location between the East and West Asia. India is a southward extension of the Asian continent. The trans-Indian Ocean routes, which connect the countries of Europe in the West and the countries of East Asia, provide a strategic central location to India. No other country has a long coastline on the Indian Ocean as India has and indeed, it is India’s eminent position in the Indian Ocean, which justifies the naming of an Ocean after it.

There are reserves of a variety of natural resources in seawater, at the bottom of the sea and beneath the seabed, too. These resources available from seas and oceans are called marine resources.

The Pacific is the largest, the Atlantic is the second largest, and the Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean in the world.

Destination Fiji, a virtual guide to the island group in the South Pacific Ocean about 3,000 km north-east of Australia and 2,000 km north of New Zealand.

The Indian Ocean is landlocked to the north and subject to seasonally reversing monsoonal winds, causing ocean currents to change direction regularly rather than flow in a permanent steady pattern.