Page 177 - SST Class 07
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and create a roof that is so dense that sunlight and sweet potato, and since hunting and fishing
cannot penetrate and reach the forest floor. This are uncertain, women grow and use vegetables
makes the forest floor permanently cold and to feed their families. The main type of agricul-
damp and only shade-tolerant or parasite plants ture practised here is ‘slash and burn’, and
such as orchids and bromeliads grow here. manioc or cassava (an underground vegetable) is
the staple diet. People also eat queen ants and
egg sacs, and grow cash crops like coffee, maize
and cocoa.
The rainforest provides a lot of wood to build
houses that are of two types— thatched houses
shaped like beehives and apartment like houses
(called ‘Maloca’) with steeply slanting roofs. The
life of the Amazonian people is changing rapidly.
The construction of the Trans-Amazon highway
has eased transportation in the region, so people
Orchids now don’t have to depend on the river to travel
to the heart of the basin.
Bromeliads
The forest is rich in fauna with birds like toucans, Trans-Amazon Highway
humming birds and birds of paradise that make Airplanes and helicopters are also used for
loud noises and have brightly coloured plumage, transportation and the indigenous population
over-sized beaks for eating. Animals like mon- that was pushed away from their lands has
keys, sloths, crocodiles, ant-eating tapirs and moved to other places and continued their way
reptiles like anacondas, rock pythons, etc. are of life. Modern development activities such as
also found here. It is also home to thousands of construction are destroying the rainforests, and
species of insects and hundreds of species of fish large areas of the rainforests are disappearing
like the famous flesh-eating Piranha. every year. As more and more trees are cut
People down, the top soil in the region gets washed
People grow most of their food in small areas away by the rains and the land turns barren
after clearing the trees there; men mostly hunt (becomes infertile).
and fish along the river, and women take care of GANGA-BRAHMAPUTRA BASIN
the crops. They mainly grow tapioca, pineapple, The Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin is one of the
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