This MCQ module is based on: State of India’s Environment, Global Warming & Ozone
TOPIC 19 OF 23
State of India’s Environment, Global Warming & Ozone
🎓 Class 11
Economics
CBSE
Theory
Ch 7 — Environment and Sustainable Development
⏱ ~25 min
🌐 Language: [gtranslate]
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7.10 India's Natural Wealth — A Brief Audit
India is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world. NCERT lists this wealth in detail. India has hundreds of rivers and tributaries, lush green forests, plenty of mineral deposits beneath the land surface, the vast stretch of the Indian Ocean, and ranges of mountains. The black soil of the Deccan Plateau is particularly suitable for cultivation of cotton, leading to a concentration of textile industries in this region. The Indo-Gangetic plains — spread from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal — are one of the most fertile, intensively cultivated and densely populated regions in the world. India's forests, though unevenly distributed, provide green cover for a majority of its population and natural cover for its wildlife.
📘 NCERT Fact — India's Mineral Position
Large deposits of iron-ore, coal and natural gas are found in the country. India accounts for nearly 8 per cent of the world's total iron-ore reserves. Bauxite, copper, chromate, diamonds, gold, lead, lignite, manganese, zinc, uranium and other minerals are also available in different parts of the country.
Yet developmental activities have placed immense pressure on this finite resource base. The threat to India's environment poses a dichotomy: on one side is the threat of poverty-induced environmental degradation; on the other, the threat of pollution from affluence and a rapidly growing industrial sector. The country must somehow defend itself against both at once.
7.11 Six Priority Environmental Concerns of India
NCERT identifies six priority issues as India's most pressing environmental concerns. These are the categories on which the rest of this part is built.
① Land Degradation
Loss of soil productivity from deforestation, overuse and poor management.
② Soil Erosion
5.3 billion tonnes per year — losing nutrients to wind and water.
③ Deforestation & Biodiversity Loss
Per-capita forest land of just 0.06 ha against need of 0.47 ha.
④ Wildlife Extinction
Habitat loss, poaching and pollution threaten endemic species.
⑤ Air Pollution
Vehicular and industrial emissions, especially in urban India.
⑥ Water Contamination
70% of India's water is polluted; the Yamuna and Ganga are stark examples.
NCERT's exact priority list reads: (i) land degradation, (ii) biodiversity loss, (iii) air pollution with special reference to vehicular pollution in urban cities, (iv) management of fresh water, and (v) solid waste management. The remaining critical concerns — soil erosion, deforestation and wildlife extinction — are also explicitly named earlier in the chapter.
7.12 Land Degradation — Twelve Drivers
Land in India suffers from varying degrees and types of land degradation?, stemming mainly from unstable use and inappropriate management practices. NCERT identifies twelve specific factors behind this. Read them carefully — board exams often ask "any six".
| # | Factor | Brief Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loss of vegetation | Caused by deforestation |
| 2 | Unsustainable fuelwood & fodder extraction | Beyond the regenerative capacity of forests |
| 3 | Shifting cultivation | Repeated short-cycle "slash-and-burn" |
| 4 | Encroachment into forest lands | Conversion to agriculture and settlements |
| 5 | Forest fires & over-grazing | Destroys topsoil and regrowth |
| 6 | Non-adoption of soil-conservation measures | No bunding, terracing, contour farming |
| 7 | Improper crop rotation | Same crop repeatedly drains specific nutrients |
| 8 | Indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals | Excessive fertilisers and pesticides |
| 9 | Improper irrigation planning | Causes water-logging and salinity |
| 10 | Over-extraction of groundwater | Beyond the recharge capacity |
| 11 | "Open access" resource problem | No clear ownership leads to overuse |
| 12 | Poverty of agriculture-dependent people | Forces ecologically harmful coping behaviour |
📊 Why the Pressure is So Heavy
India supports approximately 17 per cent of the world's human population and 20 per cent of livestock population on just 2.5 per cent of the world's geographical area. Competing demands of forestry, agriculture, pastures, human settlements and industries exert enormous pressure on this finite land base. The per-capita forest land in India is only 0.06 hectare, against a requirement of 0.47 hectare to meet basic needs — leading to an excess felling of about 15 million cubic metre of forest over the permissible limit.
7.13 Soil Erosion — A Quiet Hemorrhage
Estimates of soil erosion? show that soil is being eroded at a rate of 5.3 billion tonnes a year for the entire country. As a result, India loses 0.8 million tonnes of nitrogen, 1.8 million tonnes of phosphorus and 26.3 million tonnes of potassium every year. According to the Government of India, the quantity of nutrients lost due to erosion ranges between 5.8 and 8.4 million tonnes annually — a quiet but enormous loss of agricultural productivity, equivalent to a permanent tax on the rural economy.
7.14 Deforestation, Biodiversity Loss & the Chipko–Appiko Tradition
India's forests, though plentiful in absolute area, are stretched far beyond their per-capita capacity. The per-capita forest land stands at just 0.06 ha, leading to an excess felling of about 15 million cubic metres of timber every year. Indiscriminate felling for fuelwood and industrial use has eroded biodiversity, dried up streams, increased erratic rainfall and exposed crops to new diseases.
📦 NCERT Box 7.3 — Chipko or Appiko: What's in a Name?
The Chipko Movement aimed at protecting forests in the Himalayas. In Karnataka, a similar movement took the name Appiko — meaning "to hug". On 8 September 1983, when the felling of trees began in the Salkani forest of Sirsi district, 160 men, women and children hugged the trees and forced the woodcutters to leave. They kept vigil over the forest for the next six weeks. With felling halted, the volunteers saved 12,000 trees, and the movement spread quickly to neighbouring districts.
Twelve years after a paper mill was set up in Uttar Kanara, bamboo had been wiped out from the area. Broad-leaved trees that protected the soil from rain were removed; the soil washed away; only weeds grew. Farmers complained that rivers and rivulets dried up faster, and rainfall became erratic. Appiko volunteers demanded that local people be consulted before trees are marked for felling, and that trees within 100 metres of a water source and on slopes of 30 degrees or above not be felled.
Activity 7.4 — A Paper Mill vs a Million People
NCERT (Box 7.3) asks: the government allocates forestlands to industries to use forest materials as industrial raw material. Even if a paper mill employs 10,000 workers and a plywood factory employs 800 people, but they deprive the daily needs of a million people, is it acceptable? What do you think?
- Cost-benefit asymmetry: a million dispossessed villagers (fuel, fodder, water, NTFP) easily outweigh the income of 10,800 industrial jobs.
- Equity argument: the costs fall on the rural poor, while the benefits flow to industrial owners and urban consumers — a classic "displacement of the weak".
- Environmental argument: commercial felling damages the soil, dries up rivulets, makes rainfall erratic and triggers new pest attacks on crops.
- Sustainable alternative: joint forest management, community ownership rules (consult locals before felling, no felling within 100 m of water or on 30°+ slopes), and use of recycled paper and bamboo plantations.
- Verdict: the trade-off is unjust unless village livelihoods are protected first.
7.15 Air Pollution — Vehicles, Industry and the Indian City
In India, air pollution is widespread in urban areas, where vehicles are the major contributors, and in a few other regions with a high concentration of industries and thermal power plants. Vehicular emissions are of particular concern because they are ground-level sources and therefore have the maximum impact on the general population.
🚗 NCERT Vehicle-Stock Numbers
The number of motor vehicles in India has increased from about 3 lakh in 1951 to 35 crores in 2022. During this latter year, two-wheeled vehicles and cars constituted about 85 per cent of the total number of registered vehicles, and therefore contribute significantly to total air pollution.
India is one of the ten most industrialised nations of the world, but this status has brought unwanted and unanticipated consequences such as unplanned urbanisation, pollution and the risk of accidents. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified seventeen categories of large and medium-scale industries as significantly polluting.
📦 NCERT Box 7.4 — Pollution Control Boards
To address two major environmental concerns in India — water and air pollution — the government set up the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 1974. State-level boards followed, addressing all environmental concerns. Their work includes investigating, collecting and disseminating information on water, air and land pollution; laying down standards for sewage, trade-effluent and emissions; assisting governments to keep streams and wells clean; running mass-awareness programmes; and inspecting industries periodically. They monitor water quality in 125 rivers (including tributaries), wells, lakes, creeks, ponds, tanks, drains and canals.
Activity 7.5 — Diwali Air Quality (Work This Out)
NCERT asks: cut out the air-pollution column of any national daily a week before Diwali, on the day of Diwali, and two days after Diwali. Do you observe a significant difference in the value? Discuss in class.
- Likely observation: AQI (Air Quality Index) typically jumps from "moderate" (~150) before Diwali to "severe" (450+) on Diwali night, then declines slowly over 2–3 days.
- Cause: firecracker emissions add fine particulates (PM2.5), sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides on top of vehicular and industrial pollution.
- Health impact: respiratory distress, asthma flare-ups, eye and throat irritation, especially in children and the elderly.
- Policy lesson: green crackers, time-bound bursting and switching to community fireworks reduce the spike. Long-run gains require curbing background sources (vehicles, biomass burning, industries).
7.16 Water Contamination — From Damodar to Yamuna
NCERT records that seventy per cent of water in India is polluted. The Damodar Valley — one of India's most industrialised regions — illustrates the problem in concentrated form: pollutants from heavy industries along the banks of the Damodar river are turning it into an "ecological disaster". The story repeats itself across the country: the Yamuna in Delhi receives untreated sewage and industrial effluents, and even the Ganga, despite multiple Ganga Action Plans launched since 1986, remains heavily polluted in its urban stretches.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984)
Methyl-isocyanate leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant — among the world's worst industrial disasters and a permanent reminder of the cost of weak environmental regulation.
Yamuna Pollution
Stretch through Delhi receives roughly 60% of the city's untreated sewage; froth on the surface during festivals has become a national symbol of water-quality failure.
Ganga Action Plan
Launched in 1986 and revived as Namami Gange; targets sewage treatment, riverfront development and pollution-load monitoring across the basin.
Delhi Air Quality
Vehicles, stubble burning, dust and industries combine to push AQI into severe territory each winter; CNG and odd/even schemes are first-aid responses.
7.17 Box 7.1 — Global Warming
Global warming? is a gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. Much of the recent observed and projected global warming is human-induced. It is caused by man-made increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Adding carbon dioxide, methane and similar heat-absorbing gases to the atmosphere — with no other changes — will make our planet's surface warmer.
📘 NCERT Box 7.1 — Key Numbers
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane (CH4) have increased by 31 per cent and 149 per cent respectively above pre-industrial levels since 1750. During the past century, atmospheric temperature has risen by 1.1 °F (0.6 °C) and sea level has risen several inches. Longer-term consequences include the melting of polar ice with rising sea level and coastal flooding, disruption of drinking-water supplies dependent on snow-melts, extinction of species as ecological niches disappear, more frequent tropical storms and an increased incidence of tropical diseases.
NCERT lists several factors contributing to global warming: the burning of coal and petroleum products (sources of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone); deforestation, which increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; methane gas released in animal waste; and increased cattle production, which contributes to deforestation, methane production and use of fossil fuels. A UN Conference on Climate Change held in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, resulted in an international agreement — the Kyoto Protocol — calling for reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions by industrialised nations.
Effects of Global Warming on India
India faces several specific impacts: (i) glacier retreat in the Himalayas threatens long-term flows of the Ganga, Yamuna and Brahmaputra; (ii) sea-level rise endangers low-lying coasts including the Sundarbans, Mumbai and the Lakshadweep islands; (iii) altered monsoon patterns mean more frequent droughts and floods; (iv) heat waves and tropical-disease vectors expand into new regions; and (v) agricultural productivity declines as wheat and rice yields fall under high temperature stress.
7.18 Box 7.2 — Ozone Depletion
Ozone depletion? refers to the phenomenon of reductions in the amount of ozone in the stratosphere. The problem is caused by high levels of chlorine and bromine compounds in the stratosphere. Their origins are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) — used as cooling substances in air-conditioners and refrigerators, or as aerosol propellants — and bromofluorocarbons (halons), used in fire extinguishers.
📘 NCERT Box 7.2 — Effects & the Montreal Protocol
As a result of depletion of the ozone layer, more ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaches Earth and causes damage to living organisms. UV radiation is responsible for skin cancer in humans, lowers production of phytoplankton (affecting aquatic organisms) and influences the growth of terrestrial plants. A reduction of approximately 5 per cent in the ozone layer was detected from 1979 to 1990. This led to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol, banning the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethane (methyl chloroform) and bromine compounds known as halons.
🗓️ Two Treaties to Remember
- Montreal Protocol (1987) — global treaty against ozone-depleting substances, especially CFCs and halons.
- Kyoto Protocol (1997) — global treaty under the UN Climate Convention setting binding targets for industrialised nations to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and tackle global warming.
7.19 The Two-Front Battle — Poverty and Affluence
NCERT presses one final point in this section. India's environmental crisis is unusual in being a two-front war. On one side, poverty-induced degradation forces small farmers to over-graze, over-fish and burn fuelwood beyond regeneration limits. On the other, affluence-induced pollution comes from industries, motor vehicles and a fast-growing middle class consuming more energy and goods than ever before. Solving one without the other will not work.
The chart compares per-capita energy use in India and the world. Even though India's per-capita figure is far below the world average, total emissions are growing fast as the population and economy expand. This is precisely why NCERT calls the problem a dichotomy — and why the solutions in Part 3 must address both poverty and affluence at once.
📝 Competency-Based Questions — State of India's Environment
Source-based scenario: India hosts 17% of the world's people and 20% of its livestock on just 2.5% of the world's land area. Per-capita forest area is 0.06 ha against a need of 0.47 ha, leading to about 15 million m³ of excess felling. Soil is being eroded at 5.3 billion tonnes a year, costing 0.8 mt of nitrogen, 1.8 mt of phosphorus and 26.3 mt of potassium annually. Motor vehicles have grown from 3 lakh in 1951 to 35 crores in 2022, with two-wheelers and cars at 85% of the registered fleet. The CPCB (1974) has identified 17 categories of significantly polluting industries. Box 7.1 records that since 1750 atmospheric CO₂ has risen 31% and CH₄ 149%; Box 7.2 records a 5% loss of stratospheric ozone between 1979 and 1990, leading to the Montreal Protocol.
Q1. NCERT lists per-capita forest land in India as 0.06 ha against a requirement of 0.47 ha. The annual excess felling of forests is approximately:
L3 ApplyAnswer: (c) 15 million cubic metre — NCERT directly states this excess over the permissible limit.
Q2. Identify any six factors contributing to land degradation in India and group them as either "natural-resource pressure" or "policy/management failure".
L4 AnalyseAnswer: Six factors include: (i) loss of vegetation due to deforestation, (ii) unsustainable fuelwood and fodder extraction, (iii) shifting cultivation, (iv) over-grazing and forest fires, (v) indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals, (vi) ground-water extraction beyond recharge. Of these, (i)–(iv) reflect natural-resource pressure; (v) and (vi) are policy/management failures that subsidise overuse and fail to enforce limits.
Q3. India's environmental problems are described as a "dichotomy — they are poverty-induced and at the same time due to affluence in living standards". Evaluate this claim.
L5 EvaluateAnswer: The claim is supported. Poverty side: the agriculture-dependent poor over-graze, fell fuelwood, encroach on forest land, and over-extract groundwater because they have no alternative — leading to land degradation and biodiversity loss. Affluence side: the industrial fleet of 35 crore vehicles (2022), with cars and two-wheelers at 85%, plus 17 categories of polluting industries identified by CPCB, drive air and water pollution in urban India. Hence policies must tackle both ends — poverty alleviation and affluence-side regulation — for environmental relief.
Q4. (HOT) Compare the Montreal Protocol (1987) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) on three dimensions: target pollutants, scope of obligations, and observable success.
L6 CreateAnswer: Target pollutants: Montreal targets ozone-depleting substances (CFCs, halons, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform); Kyoto targets greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, HFCs, PFCs, SF₆). Scope: Montreal binds nearly every country and bans the offending chemicals outright; Kyoto sets binding emission-reduction targets only on industrialised "Annex-I" nations. Success: Montreal is widely seen as the most successful environmental treaty — global CFC use has fallen sharply and the ozone layer is gradually healing; Kyoto's record is mixed — emissions in many developing nations have continued to rise, prompting later agreements (Paris 2015).
🔗 Assertion–Reason Questions — India's Environment, Global Warming & Ozone
Options: (A) Both A & R true, R correctly explains A · (B) Both true, R does not explain A · (C) A true, R false · (D) A false, R true.
Assertion (A): The Montreal Protocol was adopted to address the problem of ozone depletion.
Reason (R): Ozone depletion is caused mainly by high levels of chlorine and bromine compounds in the stratosphere, originating from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons.
Answer: (A) — Both true and R correctly explains A. NCERT Box 7.2 directly links CFC/halon emissions to stratospheric ozone destruction and to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol.
Assertion (A): India's environmental challenge is purely a problem of affluence — only the rich pollute.
Reason (R): Poverty-induced over-extraction of fuelwood, fodder and groundwater also contributes to environmental degradation in rural India.
Answer: (D) — A is false. NCERT calls the threat to India's environment a dichotomy: poverty-induced degradation and pollution from affluence both apply. R is true on its own, but cannot justify the false assertion.
Assertion (A): Between 1979 and 1990, the ozone layer thinned by approximately 5 per cent.
Reason (R): Increased ultraviolet (UV) radiation that follows ozone depletion is responsible for higher rates of skin cancer in humans and reduced phytoplankton in oceans.
Answer: (B) — Both statements are true (NCERT Box 7.2), but R describes the effects of ozone depletion rather than explaining why the 5 per cent thinning occurred (which is due to CFCs and halons). Hence "Both true but R does not explain A".
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Class 11 Economics — Indian Economic Development
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