(a) India is bestowed with rich mineral resources due to its geological structure. Correlate the above statement with large…

(a) Geological structure and mineral belts

India’s geological evolution directly governs the spatial distribution of its mineral reserves. The stable, ancient Peninsular shield, shaped by cratonic stability and long metamorphic cycles, concentrates the vast majority of metallic, non-metallic, and fossil fuel deposits, whereas the tectonically active extra-Peninsular region primarily contains tertiary sediments, young coal, and petroleum reserves.

The Archaean crystalline complex and the Dharwar system form the primary repository of metallic minerals. These metalliferous rocks host major iron ore, manganese, and mica belts across the Singhbhum craton, the Bailadila region, and Karnataka's Sandur (Bellary-Hospet) and Kudremukh belts. The Cuddapah and Vindhyan sedimentary basins are rich in non-metallic minerals, limestone, dolomite, and building stones. In contrast, late Paleozoic-Mesozoic rift basins and grabens facilitated the preservation of the Gondwana formation, which contains over 90% of India’s coal reserves along the Damodar, Mahanadi, Godavari, and Wardha river valleys. Intensive tropical weathering of the Deccan basaltic traps and Eastern Ghats granulites produced significant lateritic bauxite belts across Odisha (Panchpatmali) and Gujarat.

These structural units map onto the large mineral belts. The Chota Nagpur belt (Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal) combines Dharwar iron ore, Gondwana coal of the Damodar valley, mica, copper of the Singhbhum shear zone and uranium at Jaduguda. The central belt (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh) has Bailadila iron, Malanjkhand copper, Korba coal and Amarkantak bauxite. The southern belt (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu) holds Bellary-Hospet iron, Kolar and Hutti gold and Neyveli lignite. The north-western Aravalli belt (Rajasthan, Gujarat) holds Khetri copper, Zawar and Rampura-Agucha lead-zinc, and marble, while the south-western coast (Goa, Kerala) has Goa iron and the monazite-ilmenite beach placers of Kerala.

(b) Importance of dry-land farming

Dry-land farming is vital for sustaining the agrarian economy of drought-prone tracts in the rain-shadow Deccan plateau, western Rajasthan, Gujarat, and interior Karnataka. Rainfed land is about half of India’s net sown area and, by ICAR-CRIDA estimates, yields about 40% of food grains and most of the country’s coarse cereals (millets like jowar, bajra, and ragi), pulses, and oilseeds, which makes it central to nutritional security and to the livelihoods of the poorest farmers.

Sustainable dry-land farming depends on moisture conservation and scientific water management. Integrated watershed management under schemes like PMKSY aids groundwater recharge and surface storage. In-situ soil moisture conservation techniques, including contour bunding, ridge-and-furrow cultivation, and organic mulching, retard runoff and enhance soil-water retention. The adoption of micro-irrigation systems, specifically drip and sprinkler networks, optimizes water-use efficiency. Concurrently, deploying drought-resistant and short-duration high-yielding varieties (HYVs) developed by ICAR-CRIDA, along with agroforestry systems, stabilizes rural incomes, protects topsoil, and builds ecological resilience against recurrent monsoon deficits.

(c) Extreme rainfall, flash floods and their consequences

The increasing incidence of extreme rainfall events is closely linked to climate change, characterized by accelerated atmospheric warming, anomalous Arabian Sea heating, erratic monsoon low-pressure systems, and the intensification of Western Disturbances interacting with the monsoon trough. Widespread extreme rain events over central India roughly tripled between 1950 and 2015 (Roxy et al., 2017). These dynamics trigger localized cloudbursts and intense precipitation over short durations, resulting in flash floods and severe inundation.

Devastation is most acute in low-lying areas and river floodplains, exacerbated by unplanned urbanization, destruction of urban wetlands, and encroachment onto natural drainage channels. Catastrophes such as the 2013 Uttarakhand flash floods, the 2015 Chennai urban inundation, the 2018 Kerala floods, the Wayanad landslides of July 2024, the Dharali (Uttarkashi) flash flood of August 2025 and the Punjab floods of 2025 demonstrated the vulnerability of low-lying settlements, resulting in severe infrastructural destruction, economic dislocation, and loss of life.

The consequences fall hardest on the poor who occupy the cheapest flood-plain and low-lying land: loss of homes and lives, standing crops and livestock, long displacement into relief camps, outbreaks of water-borne disease, and the destruction of roads and bridges that cuts off relief. Flash floods give minutes rather than hours of warning, so hill settlements built on debris fans and river terraces, as at Dharali, are wiped out with little chance of evacuation.