NCERT 8th Class (CBSE) Social Science: Natural Resources – Natural Vegetation

Question: Name the typical wildlife found in each continent.

Answer: Some of the typical wildlife found in continents are:

1. Africa: Africa is rich in wildlife. Elephants, hippos, rhinos, pythons, gorillas, apes and chimpanzees live in the equatorial forests. Grass-eating animals like deer, giraffes, zebras, stags and elephants are found in the Savanna grasslands. Flash-eating animals like lions, tigers, and leopards are also found in large numbers. Camels and ostriches are found in the deserts.
2. Antarctica: In Antarctica there is plenty of life where land and water meet. Small krills, whales, Penguins, snow petrels, seals and albatrosses inhabit the coastal areas, especially during the summer season.
3. Asia: Asia has extremely varied wildlife. Monkeys, sloths, leopards, tigers, elephants and lions are found in the tropical areas. Herons, cranes, bears and foxes are found in the temperate areas. Fur-bearing animals like lynxes, minks, sables, polar bears, musk oxen and arctic foxes are found in the taiga and tundra regions.
4. Australia: Australia has many animals. Half of them are marsupials. Kangaroos and koalas are found only in this continent. The duck-billed platypuses, emus, lyrebirds, kingfishers or  kookaburras are other significant animals and birds.
5. Europe: Europe has limited wildlife the main animal specials found in this continent are Polar bears, wolves, wild boars, wild sheep and native antelopes. The fur-bearing animals like minks, sables and ermines are now also raised on fur farms. The well-known birds include partridges, larks, cuckoos, skylarks and nightingales.
6. North America: The main animal species found here are the reindeer, arctic foxes, musk oxen, sables, polar bears and blue foxes. In other parts of the continent one can mooses, elks, bisons badgers, beavers and hedgehogs.
7. South America: South America has a rich diversity of wildlife. Rheas is a flightless bird like ostrich, while condors, is the largest bird of prey in the world. Anteaters, armadillos are ancient mammals of South America. Llamas are found in the Andes mountains while anacondas are found in the marshlands. Other animals include pumas, jaguars, alligators and giant turtles.

Question: What are the initiatives taken to conserve natural vegetation and wildlife?

Answer: Following are few steps that have been taken to conserve forest and wildlife:

1. National Forest Policy framed by the government should be implemented.
2. National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Bioreserves, Botanical Gardens have been setup.
3. Special Projects (e.g. Project Tiger, Project Elephant etc.).
4. Celebration of Van Mahotsav.
5. Every National festival is followed by tree plantation ceremony.
6. Large scale afforestation or planting of tress is undertaken.
7. Controlling of deforestation and overgrazing.
8. Practices like shifting agriculture have been stopped.
9. Social Awareness Programmes to be implemented.
10. Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

Question: What is the threat to vegetation and wildlife? What is the need to conserve them? How can we do this?

Answer: Forests and wildlife are an important resource. Climate change and human interference in the animal kingdom can cause loss of natural habitat for plants and animals. Certain species have become endangered and many have become extinct now. Poaching incidents contribute to their extinction. Plants and animals are an important part of the ecosystem. Plants provide food, oxygen and shelter to humans and animals. Animals provide us important products such as milk, meat, honey, etc. There exists a balance in the environment if we do not disturb the natural number of species living on the earth. A single extinction can affect the ecosystem badly. So animals and plants obviously need to be conserved. The government has introduced national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves for this purpose. Poaching should be severely dealt with. Indiscriminate killings need to be discouraged. Social awareness must be created about importance of trees, social forestry. Students should be involved in vanamahotsavas at regional and community levels.