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Soils and Vegetation - Short Trick

Soils, erosion, forest types and trees, ISFR 2023 and forestry institutes — one sentence each

4 trick sentences6 pairs5 parts
0 / 5 learned · 0%
How to read
  • Guru Ram Each coloured word = one name in the list, shown below in the same colour
  • Panda Two colours in one word = two names
  • ➜ Order the numbered order matters · ⇄ Any order no order
1

Soils of India

Soils by area, the states with black, laterite and arid soil, and how to tell the special soils apart.

Trick 1

Main soils — by area

➜ largest first

Aladdin rescued a black Arabian lamp.

  1. 1Alluvialabout 40% — the most widespread
  2. 2Red-yellowabout 18.6%
  3. 3Black (regur)about 15.2%
  4. 4Arid (desert)about 4.3%
  5. 5Lateriteabout 3.7%

ICAR (1953) classes Indian soils into 8 major and 27 minor types; the other three major ones are saline-alkaline, peaty-marshy and forest/mountain.

Trick 2

States with black (regur) soil

⇄ Any order

Karan made Mahesh telephone the guru for Andy.

  1. Karnataka
  2. Madhya Pradesh (western part)
  3. Maharashtraalmost all of it
  4. Telangana
  5. Gujarat
  6. Andhra Pradesh

Formed from weathered Deccan Trap basalt · also parts of Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu and Bundelkhand (Jhansi, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Banda) · it holds moisture, so cotton grows without irrigation.

Trick 3

Where laterite soil is found

⇄ Any order

Asha made Tamanna order Karan’s kettle.

  1. Assam hills
  2. Madhya Pradesh
  3. Tamil Nadu
  4. Odisha hills
  5. Karnataka
  6. Kerala

Named from the Latin "later" = brick · the result of leaching by heavy rain · with manure it suits tree crops like cashew.

Trick 4

Arid soil and thorn forests — where

⇄ Any order

The Raja and Harry drank punch in the desert.

  1. Rajasthan
  2. Haryana (south-west)
  3. Punjab (south-west)

Both where annual rain is below 50 cm. Arid soil turns fertile once watered — Sri Ganganagar on the Indira Gandhi Canal. Thorn forests also in dry parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Pairs

Special soils — how to tell them, how to fix them

6 sentences

A khadi shirt is brand new.

Khadar=New alluvium — in the flood plain, a fresh layer with every flood, less lime

Bangles from the old days

Bangar=Old alluvium — above flood level, with calcareous kankar

Soda for Uttam in a Gypsy

Sodic (alkaline) soil=Largest area in Uttar Pradesh · reclaimed by adding gypsum

Salty snacks for the guru

Saline soil=Largest area in Gujarat (Kachchh)

Acid spilt on limestone

Acidic soil=Reclaimed by adding lime

Peter put on his coat and boiled the kettle.

Peaty soil=Kerala — western Kottayam, Alappuzha · black, heavy, highly acidic

Local names of usar — reh, kallar, rakar, usar, thur, karl, chopan · names of black soil — regur, black cotton soil, tropical chernozem.

2

Soil Erosion — Where and Why

India’s worst-eroded areas and the main cause in each.

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3

Natural Vegetation

Which forest grows with how much rain, the main trees of each forest, the shola hills and the top mangrove states.

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4

Forest Cover — ISFR 2023 Records

The states with the biggest and densest forest, the biggest gain and loss, and the most forest fires.

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5

Forestry Institutes — Where

India’s main forestry research and training institutes and their cities.

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Read the full chapter for the complete notes — a trick helps you remember the list; understanding comes from the notes.