Class 7, Geography
Life in Desert regions
Questions covered are:
Write a short note on Desert?
What are the two types of Deserts?
Write the major difference between Tropical desert and Cold deserts?
List few Tropical deserts?
One word:
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Write a short note on Desert?
- The desert is a large area of land that has little water.
- Desert regions are dry wastelands.
- They receive less than 25cm of rainfall in a year.
- Deserts may be sandy/ rocky hot or cold.
- Vegetation is very less in the desert region due to the scarcity of rainfall.
What are the two types of Deserts?
- Hot desert in Tropical areas
- Cold deserts in Polar and Temperate areas
Write the major difference between Tropical desert and Cold deserts?
| Tropical Desert | Cold desert |
| An example for the Tropical desert is the Sahara. | An example of the cold desert is Ladakh. |
| Sahara is the largest and hottest tropical desert in the world. | Ladakh, “La” meaning Mountain pass,and “dak” meaning Countries. |
| It is known as “El Khala” meaning “Emptiness” | It is also known as Khapachan meaning “land of snow” |
| It lies in the Northern half of Africa. | It lies North of the Great Himalayas |
| The highest peak is Emi Koussi (3415m) in the Tibesti range. | The world’s second highest peak K2 (8611m) lies in the Karakoram range. |
| The climate of Sahara is extremely hot and dry annual rainfall is below 20cm. Days are hot and nights are cold. | Ladakh is warmer in summers and dry in winter. Temperature is 60C and 10 0C and in night below -300 C |
| The main species of trees are Acacia, Cactus, Baabab, Olive, Thyme, Oleander, Artemisia. | Stunted trees such as Elm, Cypress, Willow and Poplar grow. Lichens and Mosses grow above 4000m |
| Animals found are mainly Camels (Ship of Desert), Hyenas, Jackals, Ostrich, desert eagles, Raven etc. are found. | Yak is an important animal. It is a beast of burden to carry loads. Wild goats, antelope, Tibetan ass, robins, snowcock, ravens etc. are found here. |
| Mostly Nomadic tribes people near Oasis cultivate cereals such as millets, wheat, maize, barley etc. | Cereals such as Barley, Wheat are grown and fruits such as grapes, apples, apricots are grown. |
| People wear loose and light cotton clothes to protect them from heat and dust. | People wear woollen clothes from sheep, goat to protect them from cold conditions. |
| Houses consist of thatched roofs with thick walls and small windows to prevent heat. | Houses have flat roofs with sun dried bricks. |
List few Tropical deserts?
- Sahara and Kalahari Desert – Africa
- Atacama Desert – South America.
- Mexican Desert – North America.
- Thar Desert – India
- West Australian Desert.
One word:
- Kufra and Bilma are the large Oasis of Sahara.
- Lake Chad is the only fresh water lake.
- Date palms are found near Oasis.
- Plants have thorny surfaces, waxy leaves and long deep roots.
- Tuo regs and Bedouins are important nomadic tribes.
- The only fertile area in the desert region is Nile valley, cotton crops are grown here.
- Egypt, Libya, Algeria has large reserves of oil.
- Sahara is rich in copper, manganese and uranium.
- Ladakh also called as Moon land/ broken moon as it is remote and inaccessible.
- World’s second highest peak K2 is found in Karakoram range.
- Pangong Tso lake in ladakh extends into China.
- Main source of water is Melted snow.
- Wild life sanctuary in ladakh is Dachigam.
- Sindhu festival is organised every year.
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