Land Resources
Prepared by
Department of Wildlife Sciences
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
• Land is among the most important natural resources.
• It covers up only 29% of the earth’s surface and all
parts of the land are not habitable.
• The uneven distribution of population in different parts
of the world is mainly due to varied characteristics of
land and climate.
• Land Resources in India enclose approximately 1.3
million sq. miles.
• 43% of land area is plain region; Indian mountain
region constitutes 30% of the area, where as plateaus
account for 27 % of the total surface area of the nation.
Land Use
• If land is utilized carefully it can be considered a
renewable resource.
• Land resources in India include agricultural land,
farmland, barren land, real estate land, commercial
land and residential land.
• Agricultural land accounts for near about 56.78 % of
the total land area of the country.
• Land resources in India also include vast barren
lands. They are mostly found in states like Rajasthan,
parts of Leh and Jammu.
Uses of Land Resources
• Land is used for Agriculture.
• Land contains huge amount of Minerals.
• It is also contains water in the form of underground
water.
• Most of the animals/plants have their habitat on
land.
• Land provides all the resources required to fulfils
the basic needs of human civilization such as food
cloth and shelter.
• Land is also converted into a non-renewable
resource when highly toxic industrial and nuclear
wastes are dumped on it.
• Land on earth is as finite as any of our other natural
resources.
• We needs land for building homes, cultivating food,
maintaining pastures for domestic animals, developing
industries.
• We needs to protect wilderness area in forests,
grasslands, wetlands, mountains, coasts, etc.
• A rational use of land needs careful planning.
Land Degradation
• Every year, between 5 to 7 million hectares of
land worldwide is added to the existing degraded
farmland.
• When soil is used more intensively by farming, it
is eroded more rapidly by wind and rain.
• Over irrigating farmland leads to salinization.
• More chemical fertilizers poisons the soil.
• Urban centers grow and industrial expansion
occurs, the agricultural land and forests shrink.
Natural Causes
• Heavy rains lead to the removal of topsoil making
soil infertile and hence unsuitable for agriculture
• Natural disasters: Earthquake and floods can have
considerable impact on land resources.
• High speed winds: Winds of high intensity and
storms are responsible for land degradation
Anthropogenic Causes
• Mining: generates a lot of waste that destroys
vegetation and disrupts water circulation over
large tracts, causes land degradation
• Urbanization: The growing urbanization all over
the world is major cause of concern
• Deforestation: The indiscriminate and
uncontrolled removal of trees have led to the
destruction of forests.
• Overgrazing: lowers soil quality and leads to land
degradation
• Dams and Canals: Construction of large dams
and canals are also responsible for loss of
vegetation leading to land degradation.
• Fertilizers: Most of the chemical fertilizers used
in modern Agriculture affect the productivity of
soil and leads to land degradation.
Soil erosion
• Soils of various types support a wide variety of
crops.
• The misuse of an ecosystem leads to loss of
valuable soil through erosion by the monsoon rains
and by wind.
• Deforestation leads to rapid soil erosion.
• Soil is washed into streams and is transported into
rivers and finally lost to the sea.
• To prevent the loss of millions of tons of valuable
soil every year, it is essential to preserve natural
forest cover.
Causes of soil erosion
1. Water induced soil erosion
• Sheet erosion: Uniform removal of a thin layer
of soil from a large surface area. This is usually
due to run-off water
• Rill erosion: rapidly running water produces
finger shaped grooves or rills over the area
• Gully erosion: when the rain fall is very heavy,
deeper cavities or gullies are formed, which
may be U or V shaped.
• Slip erosion: occurs due to heavy rainfall on
slopes of hills and mountains.
• Bank erosion: fast running streams take a turn
in some other direction, they cut the soil and
make caves in the banks.
2-Deforestation
3-Over grazing
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