Natural Resources and Their Use Class 8: Complete Chapter Notes

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When Does Nature Become a Resource?

Nature refers to the totality of life and non-life forms that are part of our environment. Living things — humans, animals, plants — are called biotic elements, while non-living things that are part of the environment but not created by humans are the abiotic elements.

Elements of nature become resources only when humans use them for their sustenance or convert them into new things for consumption. Trees, for example, are part of the environment and exist independently of humans — but the moment we cut them and convert the wood into furniture, we see the trees as a resource.

💡 Expert Tip by Ajay Singh Solanki: If a question asks "when does nature become a resource," the key idea is conversion for human use — nature by itself is just nature; it becomes a resource only through human use or transformation.

What Is the Definition of a Resource?

A resource is anything that satisfies our need. This is a direct definition you should write if asked "Define resource" in an exam.

For something in nature to qualify as a resource, it must meet three conditions:

1. Technologically accessible — the technology to extract or use it must exist. For example, petroleum may exist deep under the ocean, but if we lack the technology to access it, it isn't yet usable as a resource. Similarly, ocean water is salty, and we currently lack mass-level technology to convert it for daily consumption.
2. Economically feasible — extracting it must be affordable. Even if a laboratory can convert seawater into drinking water, if the cost is too high, it won't work at a market level.
3. Culturally acceptable — the community must permit its use. For instance, cutting down trees in sacred groves that certain communities worship (similar to how many households worship a tulsi plant or bel leaves) would be culturally unacceptable.

💡 Expert Tip by Ajay Singh Solanki: Write these three conditions — technologically accessible, economically feasible, culturally acceptable — as a numbered list in your notes. This exact framework is likely to appear as a 3-mark question.

What Is a Natural Resource?

Natural resources are the materials and substances that occur in nature and are valuable to humans. Obvious examples include water, air, and soil, while less obvious ones — that humans learned to use over time — include coal, petroleum, precious stones, metal ores, and timber.

How Are Natural Resources Categorised?

The chapter gives two main ways to categorise natural resources:

1. Based on Use

Resources can be grouped as essential for life, a source of material, or a source of energy:

• Essential for life: Life could not exist on Earth without the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat — all of which come from the atmosphere, rivers, ponds, and cultivated soil.
• Source of material: Humans create physical objects out of nature's gifts for utility and beauty — a piece of wood, for instance, can be transformed into a chair or carved into a statue. India's geographical diversity provides a wide variety of materials, from wood to marble to gold.
• Source of energy: Energy is described as a cornerstone of modern living, needed for buildings, transportation, and production processes. Energy can come from diverse sources including coal, water (hydroelectricity), petroleum, natural gas, sunlight, and wind.

2. Based on Renewability

The second way to categorise resources is based on whether they are renewable or non-renewable — covered in detail in the next two sections.

Restoration and Regeneration Explained

Two important terms in this chapter are restoration and regeneration:

• Restoration is the process of returning something to its original, healthy state if it has been degraded or damaged. A cut on your skin healing normally, or a forest recovering after a wildfire, are both examples of restoration.
• Regeneration goes beyond restoration — it is about nature's ability to create new life and the conditions for thriving. Planting the types of trees that were originally growing in an area that lost them to human intervention (like clearing forests for housing) restores the ecosystem, and the returning trees provide food and shelter for birds and other creatures, enabling life to return.

Nature also works in cycles where there is no waste — for example, when a tree falls in a forest, it decomposes with the help of bacteria, fungi, and insects, becoming part of the soil and enriching it, while new trees and plants grow from seeds.

Renewable Resources and Their Examples

Renewable resources exhibit the characteristics of restoration and regeneration over time. Examples given in the chapter include:

• Sunshine — most of India has abundant sunshine in its natural course
• Rivers — fed regularly by rain and melting glaciers
• Forests — which renew themselves
• Soil — which replenishes itself, though this happens very slowly

However, for a resource to remain renewable, there is one condition: the natural rhythm of restoration and regeneration must not be disrupted. Building dams obstructs the natural flow of rivers (even though dams have their own benefits), and harvesting timber faster than forests can grow trees will eventually deplete the forest entirely.

A combination of factors — fossil-fuel-driven industrialisation and cutting down forests for agriculture and other purposes — is contributing to rising temperatures. As a result, glaciers in parts of the Himalayas are melting faster than precipitation (rainfall) can replace them, which has implications for the water security of populations dependent on these water towers.

💡 Expert Tip by Ajay Singh Solanki: A mature tree produces about 275 litres of oxygen per day, while a human needs about 350 litres of oxygen every day. This exact figure is a strong candidate for an MCQ in your exam.

Fishing communities also demonstrate sustainable use through regulation — many communities have systems to regulate fishing during the spawning season, so fish populations can reproduce and the ocean ecosystem stays in balance.

Non-Renewable Resources and Their Examples

Non-renewable resources are created over very long periods and cannot be replenished at the rate we use them. Examples include:

• Fossil fuels like coal and petroleum
• Minerals and metals like iron, copper, and gold

India's coal reserves have been estimated to last another 50 years, based on current mining to meet the country's growing energy needs. Demand for electricity keeps increasing as population expands and developmental work accelerates, so until more sustainable options become widely available, coal needs to be used judiciously.

Uneven Distribution of Natural Resources

Natural resources are not evenly distributed across the planet, or even within countries — different parts of India (Rajasthan and Gujarat, the northern belt of Punjab-Haryana-Himachal, and the southern states) all have different resources available.

This uneven distribution shapes human settlement patterns, trade routes, and international relations, and many wars have been fought — and continue to be fought — to gain control over natural resources.

Industries located near natural resources create employment opportunities for local people, and townships grow and expand around them. National and international trade also depends on the geographical location of natural resources combined with human knowledge and skills, which can create unique products.

Where India's Key Minerals Are Found

Major mineral belts mentioned in the chapter include the Jharkhand–Chhattisgarh region (Katni, Bokaro, Jharia, Raniganj, Mayurbhanj, Korba), the Odisha–Karnataka belt (Gua, Noamundi, Koraput, Bailadila, Ballari, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Kudremukh), and the Assam oil belt (Digboi, Naharkatiya).

The Natural Resource Curse and Paradox of Plenty

Having abundant natural resources does not guarantee economic prosperity. This phenomenon is called the natural resource curse, and the related idea is the paradox of plenty — the idea that having plenty of resources doesn't automatically mean a country is rich, because frequently these economies are unable to develop industries that convert the resources into products of higher value.

💡 Expert Tip by Ajay Singh Solanki: If you have a resource but never utilise it — like an ancient gold nugget lying unrecognised on the ground for centuries — it provides no benefit until it is identified, extracted, and put to use. This is exactly what the paradox of plenty describes.

Balancing resource extraction with sustainability remains a challenge — human knowledge, good governance, and strategic planning together determine whether resources become lasting benefits. This concept connects to resource planning, a term that appears again in the Class 10 chapter "Resource and Development."

Sustainable Development and Overuse of Resources

Sustaining life on Earth requires that we respect nature and use natural resources in a way that enables the restoration and regeneration of renewable resources, alongside the responsible and judicious use of non-renewable ones. This principle is called sustainable development — using resources in a way that meets today's generation's needs while keeping resources available for future generations too. It does not mean stopping resource use altogether; it means using resources judiciously.

Case Study: Groundwater and Punjab's Green Revolution

Many farmers in India extract groundwater for irrigation. Over time, extracting more than is naturally replenished builds up a deficit, leading to higher extraction costs, and it has been predicted that many growing cities will run out of groundwater soon.

Punjab's Green Revolution in the 1960s and 70s was highly successful, but the same state today faces sustainability issues, having exploited nature beyond its regeneration capacity, at least in the short term — a concern that also affects many other states.

In the 1960s, farmers began growing high-yielding varieties of wheat and paddy (rice), which required more water than traditional seeds. Combined with free electricity that encouraged over-pumping, groundwater in large parts of Punjab has become inaccessible up to a depth of about 30 metres, and chemicals from pesticides have dissolved into the groundwater itself.

Almost 80% of the area of Punjab has been classified as over-exploited, including districts like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Moga, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Bathinda, Mansa, and Muktsar. In other words, water has been drawn at a rate much greater than the rate at which restoration and rejuvenation of groundwater is possible.

Remedies Being Used for Water Scarcity

• Building ponds in various locations to collect rainwater for future use
• Connecting rivers, such as the ongoing Ken-Betwa river linking project, to transport water from surplus areas to deficit areas
• Traditional water-harvesting practices such as johads and tankas (traditional Rajasthan water-storage structures)
• Rooftop rainwater harvesting systems for reuse of water
• Reducing the improper use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, which leads to soil degradation, by promoting organic farming, natural fertilisers like cow dung, and multi-cropping

Case Study: Cement Production and Pollution Control

Cement is essential for building houses, bridges, and schools, but cement production releases fine dust particles. When inhaled continuously, this dust can cause illness in humans and animals, and dust settling on leaves interferes with the plants' photosynthesis process.

The Central Pollution Control Board has created guidelines for cement factories to ensure pollution is minimised. Traditional methods are being combined with modern methods to create sustainable materials, with a production process that is less polluting, provides local employment, and is designed with the climate of the place in mind.

💡 Expert Tip by Ajay Singh Solanki: Vriksha Ayurveda is an ancient Indian botanical science that focuses on the study and care of plants — "vriksha" means tree and "ayurveda" means science. This is a strong candidate for a short-answer question.

The chapter also references Auroville, a community building constructed by the Auroville Earth Institute, made largely from mud using special techniques.

Case Study: Sikkim's Switch to Organic Farming

The Pema family in Sikkim faced declining yields and mounting debts from expensive chemicals. When the state government announced a policy to promote organic farming, the family decided to try it.

The transition was not easy — production typically falls for a couple of years when farming shifts away from chemicals, before productivity rises again as the soil returns to its natural state. The family switched to using compost and natural pest repellents prepared from neem and garlic, and started growing multiple crops across the year.

The Pema family's farm began thriving — they were able to sell cardamom, ginger, and traditional vegetables at premium prices. In 2016, Sikkim became India's first 100% organic state, with all its farmland certified organic.

The effects were transformational: local biodiversity flourished, with beneficial insects and birds returning, and tourism also increased as people came to see how the state achieved organic farming at scale. Today, Sikkim serves as a global model demonstrating that an entire region can successfully transition to sustainable agriculture.

The International Solar Alliance and Bhadla Solar Park

India and France launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in 2015. The alliance focuses on countries blessed with abundant sunlight throughout the year, and India has helped channel billions of dollars into solar projects across developing nations.

The Bhadla Solar Park, located in the Balotra area of Rajasthan, is described as a symbol of India's solar ambition, and it currently generates a significant amount of electricity.

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