Page 179 - SST Class 07

People
The topography of the basin is varied and the
distribution of population in different areas
depends highly on the types of environment in
those areas. Mountainous areas have steep
slopes and inhospitable terrain (ground that is
very difficult to live in due to many slopes and
hills), so very few people live there. The plain is
the most suitable area for habitation and its
population density is very high, because the land
is flat and the soil is fertile and agriculture is the
main occupation of the people. Rice paddies are
the main crop of these regions because it rains a
lot in these regions and rice needs a lot of water.
Wheat, sorghum, gram, millets, maize and cash
crops like sugarcane and jute are also grown
here. There are plantations of bananas in the
plains, tea in West Bengal and Assam and silk
worms for silk in Bihar and Assam. The Ganga-
Brahmaputra plain has many big cities and
towns on the banks of river Ganga such as
Allahbad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Patna,
and Kolkata, all of which have a population of
more than ten lakhs (one million). The
wastewater from the city’s industries is dis-
charged into the rivers, and this pollutes them.
The transport system in the basin is well-
developed, with railways and roadways connect-
ing important towns and villages and waterways
connecting towns that are on the banks of rivers.
Kolkata is an important international port on the
Buddhist Stupas
Social Science-7 179
Bada Imambara in Lucknow
river Hooghly and there are also many airports in
the plains. Tourism is also a major activity in the
plains, and important sites are the Taj Mahal on
the banks of Yamuna in Agra, Allahabad on the
confluence (meeting) of rivers Ganga and
Yamuna, Buddhist stupas in Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar, Imamabara in Lucknow, Kaziranga and
Manas wildlife sanctuaries in Assam, and the
tribal villages in Arunachal Pradesh.
PRAIRIES
Prairies of the North American continent extend
from Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains in
Canada and U.S.A. North and South Dakota,
Minnesota, Wisconsin Iowa, Illionois, Kansas and
Missouri are the major states of Praire region of
U.S.A. The chief Prairie provinces in Canada are
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The word ‘Prairie’ originated from the Latin
word ‘priata’ which means meadow. They have
the following features :
g It is a region of flat, gently sloping or hilly
land.
g For the most part, prairies are treeless, but
near the low lying plains, flanking river
valleys, woodlands can be found.
g Tall trees, upto two metres high, dominate
the landscape.
g It is actually ‘a sea of grasses’. The prairies
cover parts of the United States of America
and parts of Canada. They are bound by