IAS Mains Geography Optional Paper 2 Section B 2018 YouTube Lecture Handouts
Don't miss! Join geograpy complete video course with Dr. Manishika Jain. Join now!
Get video tutorial on: Examrace YouTube Channel
IAS Mains Geography Optional 2018 Solutions
Q.5 a Discuss the socio-economic problems associated with the left behind families of international migrants from India.
- Opportunities for health and education
- Minimize negative impact of migration
- Emotional stress, loneliness – psychological aspects
- Socio-cultural re-integration hard
- Youngsters need to learn that social control are strong
- Lack of compatibility between educational standards
- High unemployment rate in receiving nation
- Low ranking jobs to girls
- Difficulties faced by adolescent girls
Q. 5 b Explain the changing river courses and their impacts on the riparian population in India with suitable examples.
Riparian areas occupy the lowest topographic position in landscape and have natural connections throughout the Watershed. Rivers are very important and highly valued ecosystem under increasing pressure from anthropogenic factors such as habitat alteration
The main, factors responsible for degradation of the riparian habitats are river valley projects, deforestation, mining, soil erosion and siltation, agriculture expansion, changing crop pattern from traditional food crops to sugarcane, brick kilns, industrial and urban pollution.
There are increasing reports of mass fish mortalities, pollution, river bank erosion and siltation.
Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra is an important river that runs through China, India, and Bangladesh. Recently, it has been emerging as a great concern for India and Bangladesh. As a middle riparian country, India is concerned about the Chinese activities further upstream. Bangladesh is concerned about China՚s and India՚s upstream activities on the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, as it is the lowest riparian country. Each of the three countries has their own riparian perception and their own views to explain and justify their riparian activities and concerns. – Equitable distribution of waters
Q. 5 c Make a critical appraisal of the factors affecting river water quality in India.
As per Water Resource Information Systems of India - most important environmental factors controlling river chemistry are:
- Occurrence of highly soluble (halite, gypsum) or easily weathered (calcite, dolomite, pyrite, olivine) minerals
- Distance to the marine environment which controls the exponential decrease of ocean aerosols input to land (Na+ , CI-, SO-, and Mg2 + ) .
- Aridity (precipitation/runoff ratio) which determines the concentration of dissolved substances resulting from the two previous processes.
- Terrestrial primary productivity which governs the release of nutrients (C, N, Si, K) .
- Ambient temperature which controls, together with biological soil activity, the weathering reaction kinetics.
- Uplift rates (tectonism, relief) Stream quality of unpolluted waters (basins without any direct pollution sources such as dwellings, roads, farming, mining etc) .
- Other factors include
- Saltwater intrusion
- Chemicals
- Sediments
- Pesticides
- Herbicides
- Agricultural pollutants
- Storm water runoff
- Carbon dioxide
- Toxicity
Q. 5 d Examine the role of people՚s participation in successful decentralized planning in India.
Citizens actively involve themselves in the preparation, implementation and follow up of the developmental plans and programmes.
Participation has the following two approaches.
Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) : Rapid Rural Appraisal is an approach developed in 1970՚s conducted on site by a multi-disciplinary team, which uses simple non standard methods and local people՚s knowledge to elicit, analyze, and evaluate information and hypotheses about rural life and resources that are relevant for taking action. It is suitable for evaluating, diagnosing and identifying rural situations, particularly when quick action is called for; for giving an initial orientation in a project region, for analyzing a special problem, for resolving conflict, or for focusing on certain issues and monitoring and evaluation.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) : Participatory Rural Appraisal as a basic new approach developed around 1988 - 89. PRA stresses that those actually affected should assume an active role in analyzing their living conditions, share outcomes and to plan their activities. It concentrates on strengthening decision-making abilities of local communities while bringing about changes in the attitudes of local communities, while bringing about changes in the attitudes of outsiders regarding their role in the process. The focus is on learning from, with and through community members.
Idea of “empowerment” and “local knowledge creation”
Q. 5 e Describe the socio-spatial consequence of the recent Nipah viral encephalitis in India.
Refer Nipah Virus - All You Need to Know
Q. 6 a Illustrate with suitable examples the endeavors undertaken in augmenting conservation of water and vegetation in India.
- Chalara
- Talab
- Bawari
- Tanka
- Johad
Refer
NCERT Class 10 Geography Chapter 3: Water Resources
Irrigation & Water Conservation: Kurukshetra November 2017 Summary
Watershed Management - 5 Components & 4 Landmarks
Q. 6 b Discuss the strategies of integrated development of island territories in India.
Nearly two-thirds of the world population live near the sea coast; they provide an integral component of our culture and world view. Oceans are a source of wealth, providing food (fisheries) , minerals, chemicals, oil, gas and energy.
Rainwater harvesting can be popularized so as to both conserve water and also narrow the critical water infrastructure deficit in the region due to scarcity of resources and inefficient management.
Fishery management
The 2016 Indo-Japan Joint Statement on Bilateral Cooperation envisioned to develop “Smart Islands” on the line of the ‘Smart Cities’ project. Japanese capital and expertise can be both pioneering as well as beneficial to this endeavor. The development of the Reunion Islands by France can be a guiding example and also opens up the opportunity for prospective collaboration with Paris in implementation of such projects.
It is proposed to step up the agricultural growth by focusing the strategy on low input-low volume-high value agriculture.
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has initiated active research programmes to identify potential drugs from marine living resources at Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
NIOT has also formed a self help group (SHG) titled ‘Aqua Crab Farming SHG’ at the Laxmipur village of Diglipur Zilla Parishad.
Lakshadweep coconuts are the highest oil content nuts in the world (72 per cent) .
Seagrass beds abound in the lagoons.
Infrastructure development
Q. 6 c Cross border terrorism has implications on border area development in India. Examine it with suitable examples.
The conflict dynamics range from insurgency for secession to insurgency for autonomy, from sponsored terrorism to ethnic clashes, to conflicts generated as a result of a continuous inflow of migrants from across the borders, as well as from the other states of the country.
Terrorism in the region can best be understood as a rational strategy to achieve political and personal ends, both through the use of extreme violence and intimidation through the instrumentalities of the state and at times with the complicity of the state՚s agencies.
Besides the problems of development, different border segments have different social problems such as incursion, infiltration, migration, smuggling, drug trafficking, AIDS etc.
Q.7 a Explain the pipeline network across India and its impact on regional development.
In future, the natural gas demand is all set to grow significantly at a CAGR of 6.8% from 242.6 MMSCMD in 2012 - 13 to 746 MMSCMD in 2029 - 30. This demand represents the Realistic Demand for natural gas in India. Gas based power generation is expected to contribute the highest, in the range of 36% to 47% , to this demand in projected period (2012 - 13 to 2029 - 30) .
Important pipelines of India:
HBJ (Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur) pipeline is the longest gas pipeline of India, due to which several gas based fertilizer plants have emerged at Bijapur, Jagdispur, Shahjahanpur, Aonla etc.
Naharkatiya-Nunmati-Barauni pipeline
Mumbai high – Mumbai – Ankleshwar – Kayoli pipeline
Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline
Advantages:
Pipelines can be laid through rough terrains as well as under water.
Operating and maintenance costs are low.
Low energy consumption therefore less environment pollution problems.
Industrial regions well integrated by pipeline e. g. the petrochemical industries have decentralized from port locations to the interior of the country (reduce regional disparity)
Limitations
High initial cost
Capacity can՚t be increased once the pipeline is laid down
Soft targets for terrorists (reason for TAPI delay in Afghanistan)
Difficult to repair, detection of leakages is quite difficult.
Q. 7 b Discuss the changing composition of international trade through major seaports of India.
Over the last ten years, since the onset of economic liberalization, there has been a significant spurt in handling of value-added goods mainly in form of containerized cargo movement, in several Indian ports – created demands for highly sophisticated handling equipment and logistics service efficiencies
The shift away from commodity nature of India՚s export trade is particularly, noticeable in the marked shift towards increasing value added exports and drive for global competitiveness
The decline in traditional items is largely due to the tough international competition. Amongst agricultural products there is a great decline in the exports of traditional items such as coffee, spices, tea, pulses etc. though an increase have been registered in floriculture products, fresh fruits, marine products and sugar etc.
Q. 7 c Peri-urbanization has created enormous environmental problems. Discuss their causes and consequence with reference to the National Capital Region (N. C. R.) of India.
Peri-urbanisation is landscape interface between town and country, or also as the rural — urban transition zone where urban and rural uses mix and often clash.
Issues of Safety
Delinked with larger region
Environmental Imbalances
Ambiguous Civic Status
Lack of physical and social infrastructure
Solid waste
Environment issues
Deforestation
Sewage disposal
Q.8 a Describe the changing regional morphology of rural settlements in India.
- Trend of transfer of population helps rural growth-points change from a simpler structure to a complex one and acts as a rural service centre with a silent indication of future urban prospect. Hamlets, Villages, Towns and Cities are mutually dependent on each other and they coexist as a unified system of settlements in any region
- Affected by
- Transport
- Urban growth
- Industrial growth
- Employment
- Health
- Education
- Quality of Life
- Rural intensity index signifies the assessment of density distribution over a spatial dimension and its change detection in different time period
Q 8 b Startups may play important role in giving fillip to economic growth in India. Illustrate with examples.
- New jobs
- New innovations
- Increase efficiencies
- Value creation loop
- Economic evolution
- Progression
- Start Up India
Q. 8 c Is the land boundary of India with its neighboring countries a cultural divide or divided culture? Explain with suitable examples.
Intimacy
Interactions
Integration
Thelen (1999) highlighted borders as sites of division but also of interaction between individuals from many backgrounds, hybridization, creolization, and negotiation.
To preserve its integrity, the Indian government has been involved in three bitter struggles by groups demanding self-determination: in Nagaland in northeast India, in Kashmir in the northwest, and in Punjab. In all three provinces, the leaders of militant uprisings based their demands for autonomy on common historical experience, shared history, territorial contiguity, language, and religion, all of which they alleged were threatened by oppressive rule of the Government of India, which had no legitimate claim to the area. The uprising in Punjab was ended, but with much violence, while in the east and northeast, sporadic resistance continues, and in Kashmir successive attempts at negotiating a peaceful settlement have broken down through mutual mistrust
✍ Manishika