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The NCERT Class 11 Indian Economic Development Chapter 7: Environment and Sustainable Development discusses the critical role of the environment in economic growth, its functions, the current state of degradation in India due to population pressure and industrialisation, and the path to sustainable development that balances present needs with future generations. It highlights global and local environmental crises, resource classification, land degradation factors, and strategies like non-conventional energy and traditional practices. These solutions provide clear, concise, and CBSE-aligned answers for effective exam preparation. You can also download the free PDF for revision.
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NCERT Solutions Class 11 Indian Economic Development Chapter 7: Environment and Sustainable Development
This section provides detailed and student-friendly answers for the Class 11 Indian Economic Development Chapter 7 exercise questions. Each answer is explained clearly to strengthen understanding and exam preparation.
Exercise
1. What is meant by environment?
Environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources. It includes all the biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other. Biotic elements comprise living components such as birds, animals, plants, forests, and fisheries, while abiotic elements include non-living components like air, water, land, rocks, and sunlight. It encompasses the inter-relationship between these components, forming the basis for all life and economic activities.
2. What happens when the rate of resource extraction exceeds that of their regeneration?
When the rate of resource extraction exceeds that of their regeneration, the environment fails to sustain its vital function of life sustenance, leading to an environmental crisis. Resources become depleted or extinct, wastes generated exceed the assimilating capacity, and the carrying capacity is breached. This results in pollution, dried-up rivers and aquifers, health costs from degraded air and water quality, and massive expenditure on technology to explore new resources, ultimately increasing opportunity costs of negative environmental impacts.
3. Classify the following into renewable and non-renewable resources (i) trees (ii) fish (iii) petroleum (iv) coal (v) iron ore (vi) water.
Renewable resources: (i) trees (can regenerate through growth); (ii) fish (can reproduce to maintain supply); (vi) water (replenishes through the hydrological cycle).
Non-renewable resources: (iii) petroleum (exhausted with extraction); (iv) coal (finite stock); (v) iron ore (depletes with mining and use).
4. Two major environmental issues facing the world today are ____________ and _____________.
Two major environmental issues facing the world today are global warming and ozone depletion.
5. How do the following factors contribute to the environmental crisis in India? What problem do they pose for the government?
(i) Rising population: Increases demand for resources and waste generation beyond regeneration and absorptive capacity; poses the challenge of providing basic needs without further degradation.
(ii) Air pollution: From vehicles and industries, leads to respiratory diseases; requires strict emission norms and costly monitoring.
(iii) Water contamination: 70% of water is polluted, causing water-borne diseases; it demands huge investment in purification and health infrastructure.
(iv) Affluent consumption standards: Higher production/consumption exhausts resources; the government faces pressure to regulate luxury impacts.
(v) Illiteracy: Leads to unsustainable practices like over-extraction; complicates awareness and policy implementation.
(vi) Industrialisation: Causes pollution and unplanned urbanisation; necessitates pollution control boards and accident prevention.
(vii) Urbanisation: Increases vehicular pollution and solid waste; strains urban planning and waste management.
(viii) Reduction of forest coverage: Excess felling (15 million cubic metres over limit) reduces biodiversity; requires afforestation and enforcement.
(ix) Poaching: Threatens wildlife extinction; demands stronger wildlife protection laws.
(x) Global warming: Contributes to financial commitments; India must align with international protocols while pursuing growth.
6. What are the functions of the environment?
The environment performs four vital functions: (i) it supplies resources, including renewable (e.g., trees, fish) and non-renewable (e.g., fossil fuels); (ii) it assimilates waste; (iii) it sustains life by providing genetic and biodiversity; (iv) it provides aesthetic services like scenery.
7. Identify six factors contributing to land degradation in India.
Six factors contributing to land degradation in India are: (i) loss of vegetation due to deforestation; (ii) unsustainable fuelwood and fodder extraction; (iii) shifting cultivation; (iv) encroachment into forest lands; (v) forest fires and overgrazing; (vi) non-adoption of adequate soil conservation measures.
8. Explain how the opportunity costs of negative environmental impact are high.
Opportunity costs are high because degraded environmental quality requires massive expenditure on health (respiratory and water-borne diseases from polluted air/water), technology and research to explore new resources after exhaustion of existing ones, and mitigation of global issues like warming. Resources diverted to these could have been used for development, education, or infrastructure, representing foregone alternatives.
9. Outline the steps involved in attaining sustainable development in India.
Steps include: (i) using non-conventional energy (wind, solar, mini-hydel); (ii) promoting cleaner fuels like LPG, gobar gas in rural areas, CNG in urban areas; (iii) reviving traditional knowledge and practices (Ayurveda, environment-friendly agriculture); (iv) adopting biocomposting with organic wastes and earthworms; (v) implementing biopest control using neem, mixed cropping, and natural predators; (vi) limiting population to carrying capacity; (vii) ensuring input-efficient technology and renewable resource management per Herman Daly’s principles.
10. India has abundant natural resources, substantiating the statement.
India has rich quality soil (black soil in Deccan for cotton, fertile Indo-Gangetic plains), hundreds of rivers and tributaries, lush green forests providing cover for population and wildlife, vast Indian Ocean stretch, mountain ranges, and mineral deposits (8% of world’s iron-ore reserves, coal, natural gas, bauxite, copper, chromate, diamonds, gold, etc.).
11. Is the environmental crisis a recent phenomenon? If so, why?
Yes, the environmental crisis is a recent phenomenon. In the early days, before population explosion and industrialisation, demand for resources and services was less than supply; pollution was within absorptive capacity, and extraction below regeneration. Post-industrial revolution and population growth, demand exceeded regeneration and absorptive capacity, reversing the supply-demand relationship.
12. Give two instances of (a) Overuse of environmental resources (b) Misuse of environmental resources.
(a) Overuse: (i) Excess felling of forests (15 million cubic metres over the permissible limit); (ii) Groundwater extraction exceeding recharge.
(b) Misuse: (i) Indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals causing soil and water contamination; (ii) Improper planning of irrigation systems leading to salinity.
13. State any four pressing environmental concerns of India.
Four pressing concerns: (i) land degradation; (ii) biodiversity loss; (iii) air pollution with special reference to vehicular pollution in urban cities; (iv) management of fresh water.
14. Correction for environmental damages involves opportunity costs; explain.
Correcting damages (polluted rivers, depleted resources, health issues) requires diverting funds to technology, health care, and restoration, which could otherwise be used for education, infrastructure, or poverty alleviation. For example, treating diseases from 70% polluted water or researching new resources after fossil fuel exhaustion represent high foregone opportunities.
15. Explain how the supply-demand reversal of environmental resources accounts for the current environmental crisis.
Initially, demand was less than supply, keeping extraction below regeneration and pollution within absorptive capacity. With population explosion and industrialisation, demand for production/consumption exceeded the regeneration rate, and wastes surpassed the absorptive capacity. This reversal limits supply due to overuse/misuse, causing resource extinction, pollution, and crisis.
16. Highlight any two serious adverse environmental consequences of development in India. India’s environmental problems pose a dichotomy; they are poverty-induced and, at the same time, due to affluence in living standards. Is this true?
Two consequences: (i) Soil erosion at 5.3 billion tonnes/year, losing 5.8-8.4 million tonnes of nutrients annually; (ii) Air pollution from 35 crore vehicles (2022), causing health issues.
Yes, it is true: poverty induces deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable extraction for survival; affluence and industrialisation cause pollution, unplanned urbanisation, and high consumption.
17. What is sustainable development?
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It involves redistributing resources to meet the basic needs of all, especially the poor, while minimising resource depletion, environmental degradation, cultural disruption, and social instability.
18. Keeping in view your locality, describe any four strategies of sustainable development.
(Answers may vary by locality; based on chapter strategies): (i) Install solar photovoltaic cells for electricity in homes/schools to reduce grid dependence and pollution; (ii) Promote gobar gas plants using cattle dung for cooking fuel and organic fertiliser; (iii) Encourage biocomposting with household organic waste and earthworms to enrich soil; (iv) Use CNG vehicles or public transport to lower vehicular air pollution.
19. Explain the relevance of intergenerational equity in the definition of sustainable development.
Intergenerational equity means the present generation has a moral obligation to hand over the planet in good order, bequeathing at least the same stock of ‘quality of life’ assets (natural and built environment) to future generations. It ensures conservation of natural assets, preservation of regenerative capacity, and avoidance of added costs/risks, preventing depletion that compromises future needs.
Also Read: CBSE Class 10 Economics Chapter 1 NCERT Solutions
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