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w Minerals: The earth contains minerals like gold, bauxite, mica, iron-ore and many others. They are reducing as
larger and deeper mines are dug to obtain these minerals. Mining these minerals causes damage to the earth.
Non-renewable Resources
• Exhaustible: Resources which are present in limited quantity and will deplete after a few hundred years due to their
over consumption by human activities.
• Inexhaustible: Resources which are present in abundance and cannot be exhausted even by their over consumption
are called inexhaustible resources.
Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 every year all over the world to demonstrate support
for environmental protection.
Natural resources come in many forms. It may be a solid, liquid, or gas. It may also be organic or inorganic. It may also
be metallic or non-metallic.
Natural Resources
Land Resources Water Resources Mineral Resources Energy Resources
Forest Resources Food Resources
• Land Resources: Human beings use land as a resource for production as well as residence and recreation. It is a
finite resource subject to both agricultural and non-agricultural uses, such as infrastructure development.
• Forest Resources: A forest is a natural, self-sustaining community characterised by vertical structure created by
presence of trees. Wood is used for making furniture, tool-handles, railway sleepers, matches, ploughs, bridges,
boats, etc. and as a source of energy for cooking purpose and for keeping warm. Tannins, gums, drugs, spices,
insecticides, waxes, honey, horns, musk, ivory, hides, etc. are all provided by the flora and fauna of forests.
• Water Resources: Water covers about three quarters of Earth's surface and is a necessary element for life. Water
resources include rivers, lakes, oceans, and underground aquifers, etc. Water is a vital resource in agriculture,
industrial, household and recreational and environmental activities.
• Mineral Resources: A mineral deposit is a concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid, or gaseous material, in
or on the Earth's crust in such form and amount that its extraction and its conversion into useful materials or items
are profitable now or may be so in the future. Mineral resources are non-renewable and include metals (e.g., iron,
copper, and aluminium), and non-metals (e.g., salt, gypsum, clay, sand, phosphates). Some minerals consist of a
single element, such as gold, silver, diamond (carbon), and sulphur.
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