NATURAL RESOURCES

Renewable and
non-renewable
Natural resources
 NATURAL RESOURCES
 Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered
valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form.
 A commodity is generally considered as a natural resource when the primary
activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to
creation.
 Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, and forestry are generally
considered natural resource industries, while agriculture is not.
 Natural resources are two types (i) Renewable and (ii) Non-renewable
 UN reports say that half of the wetlands have been lost during the last 100
years.
 Forests have been mercilessly felled and destroyed and their extent also has
shrunk by 50 %.
 About 75 % of the fisheries have been over exploited and about two thirds of
agricultural lands have been degraded.

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RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES
 Renewable resources are generally living resources (fish and forests for
example), which can restock (renew) themselves and be used indefinitely if
they are not over harvested.
 Once renewable resources are consumed at a rate that exceeds their natural
rate of replacement, the standing stock will diminish and eventually run out.
 The rate of sustainable use of a renewable resource is determined by the
replacement rate and the amount of standing stock of that particular resource.
 Non-living renewable natural resources include soil, as well as water, wind,
tides and solar radiation.
 On the basis of their stages of development, resources can be classified into
 Actual resources: The resources actually held in stock.
 Potential resources: The portion of actual resources that can be used
profitably with the help of available technology.

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 NON-RENEWABLE NATURAL
RESOURCES
 Non-renewable resources are found in fixed amounts and are being used
faster than they can be replenished.
 Non-renewable resources are those found inside the earth, and they took
millions of years to form.
 These include the fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), nuclear energy,
metal ores, groundwater in certain aquifers.
 Today, close to 84% of the total amount of energy used globally comes
from fossil fuels.

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 CLASSIFICATION OF NATURAL
RESOURCES

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 NATURAL RESOURCES AND
ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS
 The biotic components of nature comprise plants, animals and
microorganisms. These are closely related to one another and require
certain abiotic conditions. The abiotic features include land, water, air,
sunshine, wind and rain.
 So we find that rivers, sea, ocean, reservoirs, ponds, forest, grass lands,
mountains and deserts are habitats for specific plants and animals.
 Man exploits plants, animals and microorganisms to derive his food and
components of living.
 Ecosystems were gradually transformed into agricultural fields, human
habitats, roads and reservoirs.
 Irrigation was practiced in an increasing manner.
 Urbanization, industrialization and consequent growth in pollution began
to take place.

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 NATURAL RESOURCES AND
ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS
 Air and water were polluted and land was degraded.
 The resources thus were depleted in an increasing manner.
 As result of health care and development of medicines population
explosion took place.
 Consequently the natural systems were stressed beyond their resilient
capacity and ultimately are in a stage of collapse.
 All the waterways, rivers, inland and coastal waters are polluted.
 Forests, grasslands and wetlands have been razed down.
 All the resources of the lithosphere have been mined and used in order to
sustain industries and produce more and more goods and services.
 Granite, marble, clay, iron ore, copper, gold and silver ores have been
exploited in a big way, thereby decimating forests, displacing tribals and
driving the wildlife away.

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 NATURAL RESOURCES AND
ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS
 The regeneration capacity has been totally reduced.
 So man is reaching a stage, when he cannot exploit the resources any more as he
likes and begins to feel his limitations and helplessness.
 Fuel resources have been mined and used indiscriminately to run the industries.
 These actions in turn have triggered a series of chain reactions which man is unable
to control. For example:
 One Boeing aircraft uses 35 tonnes of oxygen on its flight from Paris to New York.
 At one take off, a plane releases as much pollutants as 6000 automobiles would
release.
 An automobile to run 1000 km would use as much oxygen as that is consumed by
one man in one year.
 The oxygen required to burn one tonne of oil is 10,300 m 3, to burn one tonne of
cooking gas it is 15,000 m3, and to burn one tonne of coal it is 1,15,000 m3.

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 ATMOSPHERE
 Atmosphere contains oxygen (21%), carbon dioxide (0.04%) and nitrogen
(78%).
 Oxygen is required for respiration of man, animals and plants.
 Carbon dioxide is required for photosynthesis by plants and to keep the
earth in a warm condition.
 Nitrogen is required to fertilize the land and water by means of lightning
and rains.
 Ozone layer prevents UV radiation reaching the surface of the earth
thereby protecting man, animals and plants from adverse impacts.
 The atmospheric disturbances such as winds, rainfall and cyclones occur
due to differential heating of atmosphere.
 This atmosphere is now grossly polluted by industries, automobiles,
aeroplanes and ships.
 Pollution causes diseases such as bronchitis and cancer.
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 HYDROSPHERE
 Water is one of the most important items required for life.
 It is required for drinking, domestic purposes, industrial process and
irrigation.
 It is in this sphere that fish and aquatic plants live.
 Solar radiation activates the atmospheric engine.
 It is water that carries wastes from one place to other.
 It cleanses one area and pollutes other area.

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 LITHOSPHERE
 The earth’s crust and soils belong to this sphere.
 Soil is the bed on which all structures stand.
 Lithosphere is the source of all mineral sources, sand, gravel, marble and
granite.
 It is the soil on which cultivation is carried out.
 It is from lithosphere that we draw fossil fuels and other resources.
 Soil is an absorber and sink of wastes.
 All the 94 elements are derived from earth.
 However it is a non-renewable resource.

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 BIOSPHERE
 All plants, animals and microbes constitute biosphere.
 All living beings occupy lithosphere and hydrosphere.
 Animals and plants provide us food.
 Timber and wood are required for building, furniture, fuel, paper and
apparel manufacture.
 Aquatic flora and fauna provide us with seafood.
 Flora: The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
 Fauna: The animals of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
 All the above mentioned spheres are linked with one another.

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 CYCLE OF NATURE
 The materials go through all the four spheres continuously.
 Solar radiation activates photosynthesis and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is
absorbed by leaves.
 Nitrates, phosphates, other nutrients and water enter through roots of plants.
 Vegetation build up their biomass.
 Animals eat leaves and fruits of plants.
 Man eats fruits, vegetables and animal products to sustain his life.
 The dead organic matter, excreta and urine are stabilized by microorganisms
and the organic matter is converted to CO2, water, nitrates, ect, which go into
the soil and the cycle continues.
 So also water gets into the cycle and enters atmosphere as water vapour and
clouds. The cloud in turn falls as rain and the water percolates into the ground
and replenishes rivers and streams.
 The cycle continues.

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 Case Study:
THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
 The Andaman and Nicobar Island contains some of the finest tropical
evergreen forests in the world.
 They are also rich in biodiversity with a variety of known and unknown
species of flora and fauna.
 The British established a Forest Department on the islands in 1883 and
began the extraction of timber using convicted labour.
 Even after independence, logging has continued without a break.

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 Case Study:
THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
 Many recent studies have shown that legal and illegal logging has led to
forest degradation.
 Further, the resultant soil erosion has led to a heavy flow of sediments into
the costal waters that has smothered and killed a substantial amount of
corals.
 Mangroves and corals have also been adversely affected by extraction.
 Species like saltwater crocodile and the Andaman wild pig have become
endangered.
 The indigenous communities have been seriously affected, with their
traditional occupations threatened and their rights violated.
 Communities like the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa, and the
Sentinelese have lived and flourished here for at least 20,000 years, but
they could soon become extinct.

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 Case Study:
THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
 About 150 years ago the population of the tribal communities was estimated
to be at least 5000.
 Over the years, there has been a substantial government-supported migration
of people from other parts of the country into the islands.
 Today, in a total population of 500,000, the four indigenous communities put
together account for a mere 500 (0.1 %).
 A major factor affecting the forests and the communities is the 340 km long
Andaman Trunk Road (ATR). Originating in port Blair in South Andaman,
the ATR cuts through the islands to reach Diglipur in the North. In some
places, it traverses through virgin tracts of forestland in Jarawa Reserve. The
ATR has increased the interactions between the Jarawas and the settlers as
well as the tourists and eroded much of the natives’ original way of life.
 The current population is clearly much more than the size that the islands can
support. Already, there is a scarcity of drinking water.

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 Case Study:
THE GREAT ANDAMANESE HISTORY
 Great Andamanese at one point of time numbered more than 10,000.
 Their total population, which was more than 7000 before the outsiders
arrived, dwindled to 3500 by the time of friendly contact with the
colonizers.
 In 1969 they were finally settled at Strait Island (1969) and their
population was around two dozen at that time. Someone aptly named Strait
Island as ‘Government Breeding Center’, as the gradual increase in
population began from there.
 In the year 2006 the total Great Andamanese population numbered more
than 43 and in 2010 more than 50,  thanks to the ‘efforts’ of the tribal
welfare and police department.
 It is startling but sad revelation that, except a few almost all Great
Andamanese children today are from non-Andamanese fathers.

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 Case Study:
THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA INVOLVEMENT
 Responding to a petition filed by three voluntary organizations in 1998, the
Supreme Court of India passed orders in October 2001 prohibiting the
felling of naturally grown trees in the entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
 The court also appointed an expert commission to study the state of the
forests and related matters on the Islands.
 In May 2002, accepting the report of the commission, the Court passed a
remarkable set of final orders.
 The Court orders included (i) a ban on the commercial exploitation of
timber from the Islands’ forests, (ii) a ban on the transport of timber to any
other part of the country, (iii) removal of encroachments, (iv) restrictions on
inward migration, (v) phasing out of monoculture plantations, (vi) reducing
sand mining on the beach, and (vii) the closure of the ATR in areas where it
passes through the Jarawa Reserve.
 The court also specified a time frame for implementing its orders.

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 Case Study:
THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA INVOLVEMENT
 One might think that it was a happy ending.
 The local administration, however, did not implement many of the orders.
 Several months after the passing of the orders, they filed a petition asking
for a review of the orders.

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 SOME TERMS RELATED TO
ENVIRONMENT
 Ecology: Absolute meaning: The study of household (of nature) and usually considered
as a branch of biology.
 Ecology or ecological science is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance
of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions
between the organisms and their environment.
 Acid rain: Acid rain originates from the emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and
nitrogen oxide (Nox) gases into the atmosphere from the stacks of generating stations
(coal, oil and natural gas), smelters, and automobile exhausts which later form H2SO4
(Sulfuric acid) and HNO3 (Nitric acid). These gases are transported by air currents
over wide regions. Rainfall washes them out creating acid rain, which is harmful to
humans, aquatic life, forests and agricultural crops.
 Acid rain also destroys monuments (buildings and statues) and it leaches out aluminium
and cadmium into water bodies. 
 Methods of reducing acidity: Pouring powdered limestone into water bodies, flue gas
desulphurization in power stations, catalytic converters and engine modifications in
automobiles.

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 SOME TERMS RELATED TO
ENVIRONMENT
 Sustainable development: The term as a form of development or progress
that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generation to meet their own needs”.

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