himachal pradesh

After independence the Chief Commissioner's Province of H.P. came into being on 15 April 1948 as a result of integration of 28 petty princely states.
since then 15th april is observed as Himachal Diwas, 
5 major river, 55,673 sq k.m, geographical area, 12 districts and 12 major national park. There are around 1200 bird and 359 animal species in the state. 20,300MW of hydro electric power can be generated in the State. The state has road network of 28,208 km, Himachal Pradesh has a total population of 68,56,509 including 34,73892 males and 33,82,617 females as per the provisional results of the Census of India 2011,Famous people associated with Himachal include: Dalip Singh Rana, Anupam Kher, Amrish Puri (who studied here), Prem Chopra (brought up here) , Mohit Chauhan, Anand Sharma (Member ofRajya Sabha and Union Cabinet Minister for Commerce and Industry^[37] of the Government of India), Third Supreme Court Chief-Justice and former Prime Minister of Kashmir in 1947 Mehr Chand Mahajan, economist and former vice-president of World Bank Shahid Javed Burki, NSG Commando, Pritam Singh, Bollywood actresses Preity Zinta, Kangna Ranaut, Hollywood actress Namrata Singh Gujral, Satyananda Stokes who introduced apple in the region, writer Idries Shah, ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume (had his home here), former general of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and current President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai who both studied here.
968 sex ratio
77.13% literacy rate, 
17000 educational institute,
36,783 (2006–2007) Expecte_ Per capita income,
heavenly climate, 
PROUD TO BE A HIMACHALI, 
HAPPY HIMACHAL DAY , 15TH APRIL, 
Regards, d.d.sharma,

GEOGRAPHICAL G.K

Q. Hydrabad is located on the bank of river   1 Godavari   2 Krishna   3 Kavery   4 Musi     Ans: 4

Q. The largest producer of Coffee in India is   1 Kerala   2 Tamilnadu   3 Karnataka   4 Andhra Pradesh     Ans: 3

Q. In which of the following countries High Yield Variety seed develop for the first time ?   1 Argentina   2 China   3 Mexico   4 India     Ans: 3

Q. The First Industry to develop in India was the-   1 Cottage Industry   2 Cement Industry   3 Iron and Steel industry   4 Engineering Industry     Ans: 1

Q. The deepest trenches of the ocean are found in-   1 Indian Ocean   2 Pacific Ocean   3 Arctic Ocean   4 Atlantic Ocean     Ans: 2

Q. The deepest lake of the world is-   1 Pushkar lake in Rajasthan   2 Lake superior in America   3 Victoria lake in Africa   4 Baikal lake in Russia     Ans: 4

Q. The planet which which is called twin sister of earth is-   1 Mercury   2 Venus   3 Mars   4 Pluto     Ans: 2

Q. The distance of Moon from the Earth-   1 364 thousand kms   2 300 thousand kms   3 446 thousand kms   4 384 thousand kms     Ans: 4

Q. Chilka lake is situated in-   1 West Bengal   2 Andhra Pradesh   3 Orissa   4 Tamil Nadu     Ans: 3

Q. Uttar Pradesh holds the first place in India in the production of-   1 Ice and Wheat   2 Wheat and Sugarcane   3 Rice and Sugarcane   4 Wheat and Pulses     Ans: 2

SOURCE: http://www.onlinegk.com/general-knowledge/default.aspx?cat=Geography

VON THUNEN MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE

VON THUNEN MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE

v The Von Thunen model of agricultural land use was created by farmer and amateur economist J.H. Von Thunen (1783-1850) in 1826 (but it wasn't translated into English until 1966). Von Thunen's model was created before industrialization and is based on the following limiting assumptions:

·         The city is located centrally within an "Isolated State" which is self sufficient and has no external influences.

·         The Isolated State is surrounded by an unoccupied wilderness.

·         The land of the State is completely flat and has no rivers or mountains to interrupt the terrain.

·         The soil quality and climate are consistent throughout the State.

·         Farmers in the Isolated State transport their own goods to market via oxcart, across land, directly to the central city. Therefore, there are no roads.

·         Farmers act to maximize profits.

In an Isolated State with the foregoing statements being true, Von Thunen hypothesized that a pattern of rings around the city would develop.

There are four rings of agricultural activity surrounding the city. Dairying and intensive farming occur in the ring closest to the city. Since vegetables, fruit, milk and other dairy products must get to market quickly, they would be produced close to the city (remember, we didn't have refrigerated oxcarts!)

The Von Thunen Model

Timber and firewood would be produced for fuel and building materials in the second zone. Before industrialization (and coal power), wood was a very important fuel for heating and cooking. Wood is very heavy and difficult to transport so it is located as close to the city as possible.

The third zone consists of extensive fields crops such as grains for bread. Since grains last longer than dairy products and are much lighter than fuel, reducing transport costs, they can be located further from the city.

Ranching is located in the final ring surrounding the central city. Animals can be raised far from the city because they are self-transporting. Animals can walk to the central city for sale or for butchering.

Beyond the fourth ring lies the unoccupied wilderness, which is too great a distance from the central city for any type of agricultural product.

Even though the Von Thunen model was created in a time before factories, highways, and even railroads, it is still an important model in geography. The Von Thunen model is an excellent illustration of the balance between land cost and transportation costs. As one gets closer to a city, the price of land increases. The farmers of the Isolated State balance the cost of transportation, land, and profit and produce the most cost-effective product for market. Of course, in the real world, things don't happen as they would in a model.

 SOURCE: INTERNET, 

development of the sex ratio at birth in India for some time now on the PRB website and the latest figures from the Sample Registration System of the Registrar General of India

February 9th, 2011 Carl Haub Posted in Population Basics | No Comments »

by Carl Haub, senior demographer
We have been following the development of the sex ratio at birth in India for some time now on the PRB website and the latest figures from the Sample Registration System of the Registrar General of India have just been received.
To refresh everyone’s memory, the biological sex ratio at birth favors the birth of a boy baby over a girl baby worldwide by about 5 percent. Thus, a “normal” sex ratio at birth is 105 boys per 100 girls. India, unlike most countries publishes the ratio in reverse so that a normal ratio would be 950 girl births per 1,000 boy births.
In India, as in several other Asian countries, such China and South Korea (although the South Korean government has now succeeded in returning the country’s ratio to normal), there has been quite a strong preference for male births. This often has to do with having a son or sons to support one in old age and, in India, many Hindu sects specify that a son should light one’s funeral pyre at cremation. As a result, sex-selective abortion began in a serious way at some point in the 1990s, largely enabled by the introduction of tests, such as ultrasound, to determine the sex of a fetus. In some wealthier states of the northwest, such as Haryana (adjacent to Delhi) and Punjab, couples who were able to afford the test began to abort female fetuses in lincreasing numbers. The practice was also undoubtedly spurred by relatively low birth rates in those states, placing greater urgency on having a son.
The practice has been outlawed and doctors who perform ultrasounds for sex selection have been prosecuted and clinics have had their licenses revoked. Large newspaper ads and TV spots extolling the value of the girl child are just a few of the steps being taken to end the practice.
The graph below shows the progress made in returning the sex ratio at birth to normal since 1999, the first year for which those data were published. There has been significant progress in Punjab, although its ratio, at 775 in 1999-2001, was by far the worst in India to begin with. It appears that progress has slowed somewhat in the most recent period in Punjab as also appears to be the case in Haryana. Does this suggest that finishing the task of bringing the ratio up to normal 950 will prove more difficult than raising it from very low levels?

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Sex Ratio at Birth in India and in Two States, 1999-2001 to 2006-2008

Source: Registrar General of India

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Overall, India’s sex ratio at birth stood at 904 in 2006-2008, still not satisfactory but comparatively good compared with China’s 120 male births per 100 female births[1]. Hopefully, the more recent trends are but pauses on the road to normalcy.

personalities from geography,

Eratosthenes is Known as the Father of Geography  The ancient Greek scholar Eratosthenes is commonly called the "father of geography" for he was the first to use the word "geography" and he had a small-scale notion of the planet that led him to be able to determine the circumference of the earth.

Alexander von Humboldt: The Founder of Modern Geography  Charles Darwin described him as "the greatest scientific traveler who ever lived." He is widely respected as one of the founders of modern geography. Alexander von Humboldt's travels, experiments, and knowledge transformed western science in the nineteenth century.

William Morris Davis: The Father of American Geography  William Morris Davis is often called the 'father of American geography' for his work in not only helping to establish geography as an academic discipline but also for his advancement of physical geography and the development of geomorphology.

Christopher Columbus  A brief biographical overview of Christopher Columbus, the explorer who discovered North America for Europe.

Biography of Ferdinand Magellan  A biography of the life of Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who is credited with circumnavigating the earth.

Ellen Churchill Semple: First Influential Female Geographer  Ellen Churchill Semple was America's first influential female geographer. Explore Semple's life and scholarship in this fantastic biographical article.

Cheng Ho  The famous eunuch Chinese Admiral explorer Cheng Ho sailed the Indian Ocean with his Treasure Fleet in the 15th century, long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. sourcr: aboutgeography.com

GIS

Apr 6 2008

The acronym GIS refers to Geographic Information Systems - a tool that allows geographers and analysts to visualize data in several different ways in order to see patterns and relationships in a given area or subject. These patterns generally appear on maps but they can also be found on globes or in reports and charts.

The first truly operational GIS appeared in Ottawa, Ontario in 1962 and was developed by Roger Tomlinson of Canada's Department of Forestry and Rural Development in an effort to use map overlays for analysis of various areas in Canada. This early version was called CGIS.

The more modern version of GIS used today emerged in the 1980s when ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) and CARIS (Computer Aided Resource Information System) created a commercial version of the software that incorporated the methods of CGIS, but also included newer "second generation" techniques. Since then it has undergone a number of technological updates, making it an efficient mapping and informational tool.

How GIS Works

GIS is important today because it is able to bring together information from multiple sources so that various types of work can be done. In order to do this though, the data must be tied to a specific location on the Earth's surface. Latitude and longitude are usually used for this and the locations to be viewed are attached to their points on the geographic grid.

In order to then do an analysis, another set of data is layered on top of the first one to show spatial patterns and relationships. For example, elevation at specific locations can show up in the first layer and then rates of precipitation at various places in the same area can be in the second. Through a GIS analysis patterns about elevation and the amount of precipitation then arise.

Also important to the functionality of GIS is the use of raster and vectors. A raster is any type of digital image, such as an aerial photograph. The data itself however is depicted as rows and columns of cells with each cell having a single value. This data is then transferred into GIS for use in making maps and other projects.

A common type of raster data in GIS is called the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and is simply a digital representation of topography or terrain.

A vector is the most common way data is shown in GIS however. In ESRI's version of GIS, called ArcGIS, vectors are referred to as shapefiles and are made up of points, lines, and polygons. In GIS, a point is the location of a feature on the geographic grid, such as a fire hydrant. A line is used to show linear features like a road or river and a polygon is a two dimensional feature that shows an area on the earth's surface such as the property boundaries around a university. Of the three, the points show the least amount of information and the polygons the most.

The TIN or Triangulated Irregular Network is a common type of vector data that is capable of showing elevation and other such values that change consistently. The values are then connected as lines, forming an irregular network of triangles to represent the land's surface on a map.

In addition, GIS is capable of translating a raster to a vector in order to make analysis and data processing easier. It does this by creating lines along the raster cells that have the same classification to create the vector system of points, lines, and polygons which make up the features shown on the map.

The Three GIS Views

In GIS, there are three different ways in which data can be viewed. The first is the database view. This consists of the "geodatabase" otherwise known as the data storage structure for ArcGIS. In it, data is stored in tables, is easily accessed, and is able to be managed and manipulated to fit the terms of whatever work is being completed.

The second view is the map view and is the most familiar to many people because it is essentially what many see in terms of GIS products. GIS is in fact a set of maps that show features and their relationships on the earth's surface and these relationships show up most clearly in the map view.

The final GIS view is the model view which consists of tools that are able to draw new geographic information from existing datasets. These functions then combine the data and create a model that can provide answers for projects.

Uses of GIS Today

GIS has many applications in various fields today. Some of which include traditional geographically related fields like urban planning and cartography, but also environmental impact assessment reports and natural resource management.

In addition, GIS is now finding its place in business and related fields. Business GIS as it has come to be known is usually the most effective in advertising and marketing, sales, and the logistics of where to locate a business.

Whichever way it's used though, GIS has had a profound influence on geography and will continue to be used in the future as it allows people to efficiently answer questions and solve problems by looking at easily understood and shared data in the form of tables, charts, and most importantly, maps.

SOURCE: aboutgeography.com. matt rosenberg.

Need you feed back . dev.tropicalzone@gmail.com

FOOD SECURITY;

According to the world food summit of 1996 food security is the situation when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.

The national advisory council (NAC) struck a compromise between the political promise and economic pragmatism to finalise the contours of the national food security bill paving the way for a likely roll- out from the next fiscal year.

While the proposal of universalisation of food security has been shelved, the NAC has recommended legislative backing to meet the nutritional needs of vulnerable groups.

The NAC abandoned an initial proposal for universal implementation of food security in one- fourth of the country in th first phase. It has been replaced with a differential but legal entitlment for about 75 per cent of population. The NAC has called for exclusion of 25 per cent population (10  per cent form rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas) from the propsed right to food.

The “legal entitlement” for child and maternal nutirtion would mean providing legislative backing for existing schemes such as the mid-day meal scheme, maternity benefit schemes and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)along with launching programmes for “new components” like community kitchens for feeding destitutes, vulnerable groups and street children.

While the NAC recommendation does not use the exixting differentiation of below poverty line and above poverty line households, it has called them “priority households” and “general households” for the purpose of the proposed legislation. The criteria for this new differentiation is likely to be set by Planning Commission.

The NAC has recommendd to provide the following “legal entitlemnts”:

·         Rural Priority Group: 35 kg food-grains to 46 per cent of rural population at rs 3 a kg for rice, Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 1 a kg for millets per month.

·         Urban Priority Group: 35 kg of foodgrains to 28 per cent of urban population at Rs 3 a kg for rice, Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 1 a kg for millets per month.

·         Rural General Group: 20 kg foodgrains per month ot 44 per cent of rural population at a price not exceeding 50 per cent of the MSP.

·         Urban General Group: 20 kg foodgrains per month to 22 per cent of rural population at a price not exceeding 50 per cent of the MSP.

·         Special group: Children, street children, pregnant mothers, destitutes and vulnerable groups.

·         Excluded: 10 per cent of rural population, 50 per cent of urban population.

·         Fixed: prices til the end of 12^th five-year plan in 2017.

Incidentally, the 46 per cent rural priority households recommended by the NAC  is only slightly more than the 41.8 per cent rural BPL families estimated by te Tendulkar Committee. Similarly, the 28 per cent urban priority households is slightly more than the 25.5 urban BPL families estimated by the Tendulkar committee based on 2004-05 poverty estimates.