Class 5 Environmental Studies Chapter 6: Some Unique Places

A holiday with a map

Tara's family is planning a holiday. Amma spreads a big map of India on the floor. "Start at the very bottom," she says. Tara puts her finger on Kanyakumari. Amma smiles and slides the finger far to the right, into the blue. "Our last piece of land is out here," she says. Tara stares. How can India sit in the middle of the sea?

Land inside water

An island is a piece of land with water all around it. To reach one you need a boat, a ship or a plane. The seas near India hold more than a thousand islands. Many of them are part of our country. The longest chain of them is the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The southernmost tip

India's southernmost tip is Indira Point. It lies far out in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Kanyakumari is the southern tip of the mainland. The mainland is the big joined-up part of the country. So India reaches much further south than most people guess.

Into the island forest

Sri Vijaya Puram is the main city of these islands. A forest path there runs under tall, thick trees. Some trunks rest on huge roots that spread out wide like feet. The roots hold the tree steady. A wide base does the same job for a rolled-up paper tube standing on a table.

Birds of one place only

A few birds live in one place in the whole world. The Andaman hornbill and the Andaman wood pigeon are two of them. If their forest goes, they have nowhere else to fly to. That is why these island forests matter so much. Special plants and animals make a place a kind of treasure chest.

Safety before the ferry

A ferry carries people from one island to the next. Before stepping on board, everyone puts on a life jacket. Even a strong swimmer wears one. A life jacket keeps a person floating if they fall in. Good rules make a sea trip both safe and happy.

Tiny builders of the sea

Corals are tiny sea animals. Thousands of them live together and build hard, colourful reefs. Fish, crabs and other small creatures feed and hide among them. A reef is like a crowded town under the water. Life in the sea matters just as much as life in a forest.

Neighbours who wish to be alone

North Sentinel Island has people who live in their own old way. They hunt and gather their food. They do not want visitors, so nobody is allowed to land there. Their wish is respected, and the law protects it. Every community may choose how it wants to live.

Reading the signs of nature

A tsunami struck this region in 2004. The people of North Sentinel Island came through it. They may have noticed changes in the wind, the sea and the behaviour of animals. People who watch nature closely often read its warnings early. That knowledge is passed down for many years.

Islands need our care

Islands hold rare trees, rare birds and reefs full of colour. They are also small, so harm spreads fast. Plastic waste, careless boats and cut trees hurt them quickly. Tara shuts the map with a plan. She will read about every place before she visits it.

Scenario:

A class is told that more than a thousand islands lie in the seas around India. Meena asks how an island is counted, since some are tiny. Her teacher gives the class a simple rule to test. An island is a piece of land with water all around it. The children apply it to a map and find rocks that qualify and sandbanks that vanish at high tide. They decide the vanishing ones cannot be counted the same way. Meena sees why a count needs a rule first. Without one, two people counting the same sea would honestly reach different totals.

Analysis:

The number depends on the rule. A sandbank that disappears at high tide shows why the rule has to be settled before the counting starts.

Activity:

On a map, count the islands you can see near one coast. Write the rule you used to decide what counted.

Title:

The wobbly tower and its roots

Safety:

Use round-tipped scissors and ask an adult to help with the cutting.

What You Notice:

The plain tube falls over quickly. With the triangles it stands much better. The wide base does the work that spreading roots do for a tall tree.

Sri Vijaya Puram is the main city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Ships and ferries link the islands to one another.

A coral reef looks like coloured stone. It is really built by thousands of tiny living animals.

What an island is — Land in the middle, water all round — Draw a blob of land inside a ring of blue and say the line aloud.

Two island birds — HOP: Hornbill Or Pigeon — The Andaman hornbill and the Andaman wood pigeon live only on these islands.

A forest she had never seen

Tara's boat leaves Kolkata in the morning. The river grows wider and wider. Soon she cannot tell where the river ends and the sea begins. Amma points to a dark green line on the water. "That is a forest," she says. Tara looks again. The trees seem to be standing in the water itself. What kind of forest grows in a river?

Where the Ganga meets the sea

The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world. It grows where the river Ganga reaches the sea. Here the ground is soft mud, and the water is salty. Rivers and creeks run through the trees like narrow lanes. A boat is the only way to move about.

Trees made for salty mud

Most trees would die in this ground. Their roots would rot in the mud, and the salt would harm them. Mangroves are different. These trees are built for wet, salty land. They hold on in soft mud and live where the sea comes in.

Roots that come up for air

Tara sees thin, stick-like things poking out of the water. They look like a bed of nails. Appa tells her they are roots. Mud packs tightly and leaves little air inside. So these roots rise into the open air and help the tree breathe.

A living wall

Mangrove roots spread in a thick tangle under the mud. They hold the soil together. When waves come in, the roots slow the water down. Without them the sea would wash the loose land away. A mangrove forest works like a soft, living wall along the coast.

People and the forest

Many people live right beside this forest. They fish in the creeks and use what the forest gives them each day. Boats take them from island to island. For many years, families here have taken what they need and left the rest. That is what living in harmony means.

A face at the back

A boatman wears a mask on the back of his head. Tara is puzzled. Appa explains that a tiger creeps up behind its prey. A mask that looks like a watching face may confuse the tiger. People in the Sundarbans share the forest with tigers.

Why this forest matters

The Sundarbans is not only beautiful. It shelters tigers, deer, crabs, birds and fish. It slows storm waves before they reach homes. It holds the muddy land in place. A forest that does all this for us deserves our care.

Care, not clearing

Cutting mangroves for wood or for building is quick. Growing them back is slow. When the trees go, the soil slips away and the coast weakens. Many people now plant young mangroves along the banks to help the forest spread again.

Look around your own place

Amma asks Tara a question on the way home. "Can you find a living thing near our house with something special that helps it live there?" Tara thinks of the thick, waxy leaves on the plant by their gate. Every place grows the life that fits it.

Scenario:

A class studies the Sundarbans, which holds more mangrove forest than anywhere else on Earth. Arjun asks why the trees there have roots standing up out of the mud. His teacher asks the class what the mud is like. The children read that the land is muddy and the water salty, because the Ganga meets the sea there. They then try pushing a straw into wet mud and into dry soil. The mud gives way easily. Arjun works it out. Roots that stand up help in ground too soft to hold them, and they reach air that the mud does not hold.

Analysis:

The strange roots answer the ground. Soft salty mud gives no grip and little air, and roots above it solve both problems at once.

Activity:

Push a straw into dry soil and into wet mud. Write which holds it better and what a tree would need there.

Title:

Roots against the wave

Safety:

Do this outside or over a sink so that spilt water does not make the floor slippery.

What You Notice:

The bare bank loses much more soil. The twigs hold the soil and slow the water, just as mangrove roots do along a real coast.

Boats are the buses of the Sundarbans. Narrow creeks, not roads, join one part of the forest to the next.

A young mangrove planted on a bare bank can begin to hold the mud in place within a few years.

Why mangroves matter — BREATHE, BIND, BLOCK — Roots breathe air, bind the soil and block the force of waves.

Where mangroves grow — Salt plus mud equals mangrove — Salty water and soft mud make the home that only mangroves enjoy.

Hills on both sides

Tara's train winds into green hills. Mist sits on the treetops. A market by the track is full of colour. Baskets hold leafy greens, roots, bamboo shoots and bright chillies. "Where are we?" she asks. "The Northeast of India," says Appa. "Eight states of hills, rivers and forests."

Seven Sisters and Sikkim

Seven states here are called the Seven Sisters. They are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Sikkim stands with them. Together, these eight states make up the Northeast of India.

Living close to nature

In these hills, daily life and nature grow together. Weaving, crafts, music, dance and festivals all carry the colours of the forest. Some houses stand on bamboo posts, above the wet ground. Food, baskets and homes all come from what grows nearby.

Helping the Hargila

The Hargila is a tall stork. Its nests were once cut down with the trees. Then women of some Assam villages began to guard the nesting trees. They teach children to care for the chicks and to welcome the birds. Hargila numbers are growing again.

Bridges that grow

Across some streams here, people guide the roots of living trees. Year after year the roots thicken and knit together. In time they grow strong enough to walk on. A living root bridge only gets stronger, as long as people look after it.

A chilli with a fiery name

Bhut jolokia, the ghost pepper, grows in these hills. Few chillies anywhere are hotter. A little goes into pickles and chutneys. Farmers also use its sharp smell to keep elephants away from their crops.

What is a hotspot?

Appa gives Tara a new word. Some places hold plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Such a place is a hotspot of nature. The Northeast is one. So is the next place on their list.

The Western Ghats

The Western Ghats are a long chain of forested hills. They run down the west of India, through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The lion-tailed macaque, a black monkey with a grey mane, lives only in these hills.

Where rivers are born

Rain falls heavily on these hills. Streams gather and slide down the slopes. Several big rivers of India begin here and travel far across the land. Hills that hold forests hold water too, and pass it on.

A forest full of medicine

Many plants of the Western Ghats are used in traditional medicine. Quite a few of them grow nowhere else. Families who live in and beside this forest have called it home for many generations. The forest gives them food, medicine and work.

Counting the mangoes

Under a tree, Tara meets students with notebooks. With farmers, teachers and experts, they have recorded over two hundred kinds of mango from these hills. Jackfruit and jamun are next on the list. Counting what we have is the first step to keeping it.

The valley that was saved

Silent Valley in Kerala is a rainforest without the usual buzz of cicadas. A dam was once planned there, which would have drowned it. Villagers, students and scientists joined hands and stopped the plan. Today it is one of the many protected areas of these hills.

Scenario:

Kalpana studies in Class 5 in a village at the foot of the Western Ghats. Her teacher starts a fruit survey. Each child asks elders at home for the names of the mango kinds they know. The class makes a chart. Kalpana's group of five children brings back 14, 9, 12, 7 and 8 names. Many names come up twice, so the teacher strikes out repeats. Thirty-two different names remain. A farmer tells them that researchers in these hills have already recorded over two hundred kinds of mango. The class decides to count jackfruit names next month, and to plant two mango saplings in the school yard.

Analysis:

Counting turns a vague idea into a number. The class learns to add, to remove repeats, and to see how rich its own hills are.

Activity:

Pick one fruit or vegetable grown in your state. With an elder, list every variety of it that your family knows.

Title:

The root bridge challenge

Safety:

Keep the chairs low and steady, and do not climb on your bridge.

What You Notice:

One string sags and the toy slips. Many strands woven together hold it up. Root bridges work in the same way, with living roots twisting into one strong deck.

A living root bridge is never finished. It keeps thickening for as long as people keep training the roots.

Farmers in the Northeast use the sharp smell of the ghost pepper to keep elephants out of their fields.

The Seven Sisters — A MAN MAT: Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura — Say the seven names off the letters, then add Sikkim to make the Northeast complete.

What a hotspot means — Only here, nowhere else — If a plant or animal lives in one place alone, that place is a hotspot.