NCERT Environmental Studies (EVS) important notes Part 9 for AEES, KVS, NVS, DSSSB, UPTET, REET, CTET, BTET, MPTET, HTET and All other Teaching Exams

NCERT

Environmental Studies

Important Notes

Part 9

 

• Malaria spreads through female mosquitoes (Anopheles).
• From early times, the dried and powdered bark of the Cinchona tree was used to make a medicine for malaria. Earlier people used to boil the bark powder and strain the water which was given to patients. Now tablets are made from this.
• To overcome deficiency of ‘haemoglobin‘ or iron in the blood we should eat jaggery, amla and more green leafy vegetables because these have iron.

• In December 1902, Ronald Ross got the highest award for his discovery—the
  Nobel Prize for medicine. Ronald Ross found that Mosquitoes spread malaria.
• Bachhendri Pal became the first Indian woman and the fifth woman in the world to
  reach the peak of Mount Everest. 
• Golconda Fort is a historic fortress and ruined city located in the western outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparudra in the 11th century out of mud walls.
• Sunita Lyn Williams is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who formerly held the records for most spacewalks by a woman and most spacewalk time for a woman.
• It is not easy to find out where oil is, deep down below the earth. Scientists use special techniques and machines to find this out. Then through pipes and machines petroleum is pumped up. This oil is a smelly, thick, dark coloured liquid. It contains many things mixed in it. To clean and separate these, it is sent to a refinery.
• From this ‘petroleum’ or oil that we get kerosene, diesel, petrol, engine oil and fuel for aircrafts. Do you know that L.P.G. (cooking gas), wax, coaltar and grease are also obtained from this? It is also used in making several other things like plastics and paints.
• At Leh area – high, dry and flat called a cold desert. Ladakh gets very little rainfall. Here there are high snowcapped mountains and a cold, flat ground. In Leh, I found myself in a quiet street with beautiful white houses.
• Changpa  – a tribe living on the mountains. The Changpa tribe has only about 5000 people. The Changpas are always on the move with their goats and sheep. It is from these that they get all that they need – milk, meat, skin for tents and wool for coats and sweaters. Their goats are their only treasure. If a family has more animals it is considered more rich and important. 
• From these special goats they get wool for making the world famous pashmina wool. The Changpa graze their goats at higher and colder places so that the goats have more and softer hair (fur). They stay high up on these mountains in very difficult conditions because that is where these goats can live. This is their life and their livelihood.

 

The world famous pashmina

 

It is believed that a pashmina shawl is as warm as six sweaters! It is very thin yet very warm. The goats from which the soft pashmina wool is collected, are found on very high altitudes of 5000 metres. In winter, the temperature here drops below 0° C (–40°C). A coat of warm hair grows on the goat’s body which protects it from extreme cold. The goats shed some of their hair (fur) in summer. This hair is so fine that six of these would be as thick as one hair of yours! The fine hair cannot be woven on machines and so weavers of Kashmir make these shawls by hand. This is a long and difficult process. After almost 250 hours of weaving, one plain pashmina shawl is made. Imagine how long it would take to make a shawl with embroidery. 

 

Sringar

• Tourists who come to Srinagar love to stay in houseboats. Houseboats can be as long as 80 feet and around 8 to 9 feet wide.
• Beautiful carving on wood can be seen on the ceiling of houseboats and some big houses. This design is called ‘khatamband’, which has a pattern that look like a jigsaw puzzle.
•  Some old houses have a special type of window which comes out of the wall. This is called ‘dab’. It has beautiful wood pattern. It is wonderful to sit here and enjoy the view!
  
• Many families in Srinagar live in a ‘donga’. These boats can be seen in Dal Lake and Jhelum river. From inside the ‘donga’ is just like a house with different rooms.
•  In villages of Kashmir, houses are made from stones cut and kept one on top of the other and coated with mud. Wood is also used. The houses have sloping roofs.
• The old houses here are made of stone, bricks and wood. The doors and windows have beautiful arches (mehraab).

Right to Forest Act 2007

 

People who have been living in the forests for at least 25 years, have a right over the forest land and what is grown on it. They should not be removed from the forest. The work of protecting the forest should be done by their Gram Sabha.

 

Jhoom farming

 

Jhoom farming is very interesting. After cutting one crop, the land is left as it is for some years. Nothing is grown there. The bamboo or weeds which grow on that land are not pulled out. They are cut and burnt. The ash makes the land fertile. While burning, care is taken so that the fire does not spread to the other parts of the forest. When the land is ready for farming it is lightly dug up, not ploughed. Seeds are dropped on it. In one farm different types of crops like maize, vegetables, chillies, rice can be grown.  Weeds and other unwanted plants are also not pulled out, they are just cut. So that they get mixed with the soil. This also helps in making the soil fertile. If some family is not able to do farming on time, others help them and are given food.

The main crop here is rice. After it is cut, it is difficult to take it home. There are no roads, only hilly paths. People have to carry the crop on their backs. This takes many weeks. When the work is over the entire village celebrates. People get together to cook and eat, sing and dance. They do their special ‘cheraw’ dance. In this dance people sit in pairs in front of each other, holding bamboo sticks on the ground. As the drum beats, the bamboos are beaten to the ground. Dancers step in and out of the bamboo sticks, and dance to the beat. About three-fourth people in Mizoram are linked to the forests. Life is difficult but almost all children go to school.

 

Gregor Mendel

 

Gregor Mendel was born in a poor farmer’s family in Austria in 1822. He was very fond of studies but the very thought of examinations made him nervous (Oh! you too feel the same!). He did not have money to study at the University so he thought of becoming a ‘monk’ in a monastery. He thought from there he would be sent to study further. Which he was. But to become a science teacher he had to take an exam. Oh no! he got so nervous that he kept running away from the exam, and kept failing! 

But he did not stop doing experiments. For seven years he did experiments on 28,000 plants in the garden of the monastery. He worked hard, collected many observations, and made a new discovery! Something which scientists at that time could not even understand! They understood it many years after his death, when other scientists did such experiments and read what Mendel had already written. 

What did Mendel find in those plants? He found that the pea plant has some traits which come in pairs. Like the seed is either rough or smooth. It is either yellow or green, and the height of the plant is either tall or short. Nothing in between. 

The next generation (the children) of a plant which has either rough or smooth seeds will also have seeds which are rough or smooth. There is no seed which is mixed – a bit smooth and a bit rough. 

He found the same with colour. Seeds which are either green or yellow give rise to new seeds which are either green or yellow. The next generation does not have seeds with a mixed new colour made from both green and yellow. Mendel showed that in the next generation of pea plants there will be more plants having yellow seeds. He also showed that the next generation will have more plants with smooth seeds. What a discovery!

 

 

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