NCERT Book Class 6 Social Science Landforms and Life PDF Download

Chapter 3: Landforms and Life

Free from the burden of human beings, may the Earth with many heights, slopes and great plains, bearing plants endowed with varied powers, spread out for us and show us her riches! ... The Earth is my mother and I am her child.

- Atharva Veda, Bhumi Sukta ('Hymn to the Earth')

The Big Questions

1. What are the major types of landforms and their significance to life and culture?
2. What are the challenges and opportunities of life associated with each landform?

Introduction

Humans, like most mammals, live on land. Land, as you may have noticed, has many forms and features; its appearance changes a lot from one region to another. Suppose that you are travelling by road from the region known as Chhota Nagpur in Jharkhand, reach Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, and go on to Almora in Uttarakhand. On the way, you will see very different landscapes. In fact, you will encounter three major landforms, which we will now explore.

Let's Explore

• As a class activity, form groups of four or five students and observe the school's surroundings. What kind of landscape do you see? Will the landscape change a few kilometres away? Or within some 50 kilometres? Compare with other groups.
• In the same groups, discuss a journey that any of you has made through a region of India. List the different landscapes seen on the way. Compare with other groups.

A landform is a physical feature on the surface of our planet Earth. Landforms take shape over millions of years and have a significant connection with the environment and life. They can broadly be divided into three categories - mountains, plateaus and plains (Fig. 3.1).

These landforms have different climates and are home to a variety of flora and fauna. Humans have adapted to all landforms, but the number of people living on different kinds of landforms varies throughout the world.

Mountains

Mountains are landforms that are much higher than the surrounding landscape. They can be recognised by a broad base, steep slopes and a narrow summit. Depending on their height, some mountains are covered with snow. At lower altitudes, the snow melts every summer and turns into water that feeds rivers. At high altitudes, the snow may never melt, leaving the mountain permanently snow - capped.

Other highlands with a lower height, less steep slopes and rounded tops are called hills.

[Figure 3.1: This drawing illustrates three landforms - mountains in the background (two of them snow-capped), a plateau on the left and a plain in the foreground, with a river emerging from the mountains, See in your textbook]

Think About It

What is snow? Unless you live in a Himalayan region (such as Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), you may never have seen snow! In the rest of India, most precipitation is in the form of rain and hail. But at higher altitudes, if it is cold enough, snow will fall, covering the landscape in a soft and beautiful white blanket. Snow and hailstones are nothing but precipitation of water in a solid state.

Teacher's Note

When you see the word "altitude", remember it always means height above sea level. Mountains can be identified by their altitude: very high mountains stay snow - capped because it is always cold there, while lower mountains only have snow in winter. This is a key difference that helps explain why mountains have such different climates at different heights.

Key Points

• Landforms are physical features on Earth's surface that take millions of years to form and include mountains, plateaus and plains.
• Mountains are high landforms with broad bases, steep slopes and narrow summits; some are covered with snow that feeds rivers, while permanently snow - capped mountains never melt.
• Hills are lower highlands with less steep slopes and rounded tops, different from the steep, narrow peaks of mountains.
• Each landform type has different climates and supports different plants and animals, and humans have learned to live in all of them.
• Altitude is the height above sea level, and it determines whether snow falls and how much melts during the year.

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