IAS Prelims(GS) Preparation 2018
Day # 17 (April 9, 2017)
Topics of the day: Geography 7th NCERT chapter 9 & 10 key points
Grassland can be defined as a region where grasses form the dominant type of plant life.
Grasslands make up almost a quarter of the total land surface.
The types of plants that grow here greatly depend on what the climate and soil are like.
As climate plays an important role in the formation of grasslands, it is generally used as a basis to divide the world’s grasslands into two broad categories: those that occur in the temperate region and those that occur in the tropical regions.
THE PRAIRIES:
The temperate grasslands of North America are known as the Prairies.
It is a region of flat, gently sloping or hilly land.
For the most part, prairies are treeless but, near the low lying plains, flanking river valleys, woodlands can be found.
Tall grass, upto two metres high, dominates, the landscape.
It is actually a “sea of grass.”
The word Prairie originated from Latin word priata which means meadow.
The prairies are bound by the Rocky Mountains in the West and the Great Lakes in the East.
In the USA, the area is drained by the tributaries of Mississippi and the Canadian prairies are drained by the tributaries of Saskatchewan Rivers.
The grasslands of Prairies were the home of native Americans often called “Red Indians”. They were the actual habitant of the continent.
The Prairies were home of other tribes also like the Apache, the Crow, the Cree and the Pawnee.
Chinook is a hot wind that blows in winter and therefore raises the temperature within a short time. This increase in temperature results in the melting of snow, making pasture land available for grazing of animals.
The Prairies are also known as the “Granaries of the world,” due to the huge surplus of wheat production.
Dairy farming is another major industry.
Important cities in the American prairies are Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Kansas and Denver. In the Canadian prairies the important cities are Edmonton, Saskatoon, Calgary and Winnipeg.
THEVELDS
The temperate grasslands of South Africa are called the Velds.
Velds are rolling plateaus with varying heights ranging from 600 to 1100 m.
It is bound by the Drakensburg Mountains on the east.
To its west lies the Kalahari desert.
The tributaries of rivers Orange and Limpopo drain the region.
The Veld name was given by the Dutch settlers before South Africa was colonised by the British.
Velds are known for cattle rearing and mining.
The soils are not very fertile in the velds due to the presence of discontinuous grasses exposing barren surface.
However where the land is fertile crops are grown.
The main crops are maize, wheat, barley, oats and potato.
Cash crops like tobacco, sugarcane and cotton are also grown.
Sheep rearing is the most important occupation of the people.
Sheep is bred mainly for wool and has given rise to the wool industry in the velds. Merino sheep is a popular species and their wool is very warm.
Gold and diamond mining are major occupations of people of this region. Johannesburg is known for being the gold capital of the world.
Kimberley is famous for its diamond mines.
Desert: It is an arid region characterised by extremely high or low temperatures and has scarce vegetation.
Depending on the temperatures there can be hot deserts or cold deserts.
Sahara Desert:
Covers a large part of North Africa.
It is the world’s largest desert.
It has an area of around 8.54 million sq. km.
The Sahara desert touches eleven countries. These are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.
Al Azizia in the Sahara desert, south of Tripoli, Libya recorded the highest temperature of 57.7°C in 1922.
The climate of the Sahara desert is scorching hot and parch dry.
It has a short rainy season.
The sky is cloudless and clear.
Here, the moisture evaporates faster than it accumulates. Days are unbelievably hot.
The temperatures during the day may soar as high as 50°C, heating up the sand and the bare rocks, which in turn radiates heat making everything around hot. The nights may be freezing cold with temperatures nearing zero degrees.
Vegetation in the Sahara desert includes cactus, date palms and acacia.
In some places there are oasis – green islands with date palms surrounding them. Camels, hyenas, jackals, foxes, scorpions, many varieties of snakes and lizards are the prominent animal species living there.
The Bedouins and Tuaregs groups are nomadic tribes rearing livestock such as goats, sheep, camels and horses. They wear heavy robes as protection against dust storms and hot winds.
The oasis in the Sahara and the Nile Valley in Egypt supports settled population. Since water is available, the people grow date palms.
Crops such as rice, wheat, barley and beans are also grown.
Egyptian cotton, famous worldwide is grown in Egypt.
The discovery of oil – a product in great demand throughout the world, in Algeria, Libya and Egypt is constantly transforming the Sahara desert.
Other minerals of importance that are found in the area include iron, phosphorus, manganese and uranium.
Depressions are formed when the wind blows away the sands. In the depressions where underground water reaches the surface, an oasis is formed. These areas are fertile. People may settle around these water bodies and grow date palms and other crops. Sometimes the oasis may be abnormally large. Tafilalet Oasis in
Morocco is a large oasis with an area of about 13,000 sq.km.
Ladakh:
Ladakh is made up of two words – “La” meaning ‘mountain pass’ and “Dak” meaning ‘country’.
Drass, one of the coldest inhabited places on earth is located in Ladakh.
Ladakh is a cold desert lying in the Great Himalayas, on the eastern side of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Karakoram Range in the north and the Zanskar mountains in the south enclose it.
Several rivers flow through Ladakh, Indus being the most important among them. The rivers form deep valleys and gorges.
Several glaciers are found in Ladakh, for example the Gangri glacier.
The altitude in Ladakh varies from about 3000m in Kargil to more than 8,000m in the Karakoram.
Due to its high altitude, the climate is extremely cold and dry.
The air at this altitude is so thin that the heat of the sun can be felt intensely.
The day temperatures in summer are just above zero degree and the night temperatures well below –30°C.
It is freezing cold in the winters when the temperatures may remain below – 40°C for most of the time.
As it lies in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, there is little rainfall, as low as 10 cm every year.
The area experiences freezing winds and burning hot sunlight.
Ladakh is also known as Khapa-chan which means snow land.
The Chiru or the Tibetan antelope is an endangered species.
It is hunted for its wool known as shahtoosh, which is light in weight and extremely warm.
Due to high aridity, the vegetation is sparse.
There are scanty patches of grasses and shrubs for animals to graze.
Groves of willows and poplars are seen in the valleys.
During the summers, fruit trees such as apples, apricots and walnuts bloom.
Several species of birds are sighted in Ladakh.
Robins, redstarts, Tibetan snowcock, raven and hoopoe are common.
Some of these are migratory birds.
The animals of Ladakh are wild goats, wild sheep, yak and special kinds of dogs. The animals are reared to provide for the milk, meat and hides.
Yak’s milk is used to make cheese and butter.
The hair of the sheep and goat is used to make woollens.
The finest cricket bats are made from the wood of the willow trees.
The people here are either Muslims or Buddhists.
In fact several Buddhists monasteries dot the Ladakhi landscape with their traditional ‘gompas’.
Some famous monasteries are Hemis, Thiksey, Shey and Lamayuru.
Leh, the capital of Ladakh is well connected both by road and air.
The National Highway 1A connects Leh to Kashmir Valley through the Zoji la Pass.
Manali - Leh highway crosses four passes, Rohtang la, Baralacha la Lungalacha la and Tanglang la. The highway opens only between July and September when snow is cleared from the road.