NCERT Solution for Class 12 Geography Book II Chapter 2 Human Settlements

Question.1. Choose the right answers of the following from the given options.

(i) Which one of the following towns is NOT located on a river bank?

(a) Agra
(b) Bhopal
(c) Patna
(d) Kolkata

(b) Bhopal

(ii) Which one of the following is NOT the part of the definition of a town as per the census of India?

(a) Population density of 400 persons per sq km.
(b) Presence of municipality, corporation, etc.
(c) More than 75% of the population engaged in primary sector.
(d) Population size of more than 5,000 persons.

(c) More than 75% of the population engaged in primary sector.

(iii) In which one of the following environments does one expect the presence of dispersed rural settlements?

(a) Alluvial plains of Ganga
(b) Arid and semi-arid regions of Rajasthan
(c) Lower valleys of Himalayas
(d) Forests and hills in north-east

(d) Forests and hills in north-east

Question.2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.

(i) What are garrisson towns? What is their function?
Answer. Garrison towns are settlements formed due to the establishment of a military facility. They are also referred to as cantonment towns. Ambala, Mhow, etc can be referred to as garrison towns. The central purpose of garrison towns is to provide for the requirements of the nation’s defence forces and people employed in the country’s defence services. These are specifically built for military, naval, or airforce operations.

(ii) How can one identify an urban agglomeration?
Answer. An urban agglomeration consists of any one of the following three combinations:

  1. A town and its adjoining urban outgrowths.
  2. Two or more contiguous towns with or without their expansion.
  3. A continuous spread is formed by a city and one or more adjacent towns, as well as their outgrowths.

(iii) What are the main factors for the location of villages in desert regions?
Answer. Aridity, or a lack of water, defines desert regions, resulting in scant vegetation that is called xerophytic vegetation in nature. Water availability is the most important element in determining settlement patterns in the desert. In Rajasthan, India, clustered settlements are located around the oasis and other water-rich areas. Because these are the only places where water is accessible, therefore settlement around the water source becomes clustered and is the main driving force for habitation.

(iv) What are metropolitan cities? How are they different from urban agglomerations?
Answer. Metropolitan cities are defined as cities with a population of 1 to 5 million people, according to the Indian census. An urban agglomeration is a large land region that includes two or more cities. Many of India’s major cities are basically urban agglomerations.

(iv) ‘The agricultural sector has the largest share of Indian workers.’ Explain.
Answer. The agricultural sector has the largest share of Indian workers:

  1. About 58.2% of the total working population are cultivators and agricultural labourers.
  2. Hence, it show that large population engaged in agricultural sector rather than secondary sector and tertiary sector.
  3. Primary sector has potential to absorbed maximum number of the working population.

Question.3. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.

(i) Discuss the spatial pattern of density of population in India.
Answer. In India, the compact or clustered village is common, particularly in the northern plains. However, there are certain locations with different types of rural villages. The existence of distinct sorts of rural villages in India is due to a variety of circumstances and conditions.

These are some of them:

  1. Physical features – nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water
  2. Cultural and ethnic factors – social structure, caste and religion
  3. Security factors – defense against thefts and robberies

There are four types of rural settlements:

  1. Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,
  2. Semi-clustered or fragmented,
  3. Hamleted, and
  4. Dispersed or isolated.

 

  1. Clustered Settlements: A clustered rural village is a closely packed area of houses. The general residential area here is different from the neighbouring farms, barns, and pastures. Patterns of geometric shapes found in these settlements are rectangular, radial, linear, and so on. These are mostly found in the northeastern states and fertile alluvial plains.
  2. Semi-clustered: Clustering in a limited region of scattered settlement can result in semiclustered or fragmented settlements. In this situation, one or more portions of the village community prefer to reside a bit further away from the main cluster or village or are compelled to do so.
  3. Hamleted: A area or large village that have influence by social and ethnic factor. Such area are more often found in middle and down of Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas.
  4. Dispersed Settlements: These settlement patterns are found in India as isolated huts or hamlets of a few huts in distant forests, or on small hills with crops or grazing on the slopes. The topography frequently produces extreme settlement dispersion, and the land resource base of livable places is severely fragmented.

(ii) Can one imagine the presence of only onefunction town? Why do the cities become multi-functional?
Answer. The broad classification of towns and cities is based on the functions they provide. No town serves a specific function; instead, they are categorised according to their primary function. Specialised cities become multipurpose as they evolve into metropolises, with industry, business, administration, transportation, and other essential functions.

The functions become so entangled that the city cannot be classified into a single functional category. Due to the many demands of human beings, a town’s whole population cannot be involved in a single activity.

Even if a town is a garrison town, essential commerce operations must be conducted to provide citizens with necessities such as food and clothing.

Mumbai is a transport town because it has a port, but it is also a trade town because it is the hub of international trade in India.

It is also the country’s commercial capital because of the diverse commercial activities that are a result of the presence of large capital in the city because it is a trading town and a port city. As a result, the predominance of a single function attracts people to the town, which creates favourable conditions for the growth of other functions, resulting in multifunctional cities.

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