Subject: Environmental Applications

Class: X

There will be one paper of two hours duration carrying 100 marks and Internal Assessment of 100 marks.

The paper will have two Sections:

Section A (Compulsory) will contain short answer questions covering the entire syllabus.

Section B will consist of questions, which will require detailed answers. There will be a choice of questions in this section.

THEORY – 100 Marks

1. Caring for our Basic Resources

(i) Caring for our Soil

(a) Causes and consequences of soil erosion. Study improper land use, deforestation, overgrazing, etc and also the impact of soil erosion on food production, generation of wastelands, silting of waterways and dams.
(b) Soil conservation strategies.

• Contour bunding.
• Tree breaks.
• Check dams.

A study of solutions and their applicability. Examples such as Auroville’s work and Tarun Bharat Sangh’s work.

(c) Fuel wood crisis. To develop an understanding in students that a very large section of Indians still use firewood as fuel, the impact it has on nature in terms of a fast dwindling  resource and the pressure put onsurviving forests. Impact on health of the poor, particularly women, from inhaling the smoke.

(d) Waste generation - its toxicity and its impact on life and land. The politics of waste dumping, the unmanageable wastes that we generate, leaching of toxins from land fills into water bodies, agricultural lands, and issues around incinerating waste.

(e) Treatment of wastes:

• Effluent treatment plants.
• Biological treatment.
• Strategies to reuse waste. Evolving solutions to treat wastes. The scope and limitation of end of the pipe treatment.
• Combating deforestation. JFM, community forestry.

(f) Alternatives to timber Design solutions-alternate materials, etc. Suggested Activities/ Visits:

• Visit an industry to study waste generated and waste treatment.
• Make models of Chula for reduced firewood consumption.
• Model of solar cooker.
• Setting of compost pit.

(ii) Caring for our Air

(a) Technical methods to control air pollution. Electro static precipitators, cyclone separators, wet scrubber, bag filters, fluid bed boilers.

(b) Strategies to reduce air pollution -

• Economic Penalties and subsidies, Bubble theory.
• Technical Hybrid vehicles, alternate fuels, alternate energy vehicles. • Traffic management Study of Curitiba in Brazil, synchronised signals, use of lanes, one way roads, etc.

(c) Legislation as a means to reduce air pollution. The role of law in controlling and reducing pollution with examples like the Taj Mahal trapezium, Delhi city, etc.

(d) Remote sensing satellites and their applications. Why is it such a good tool? What can it be used for?

(e) International norms on air pollution. What are the International norms on air pollution? How are they drawn? Limitations with the implementing. Example: Euro 1, Euro 2. Suggested Activities/ Visits:

• Visit to a pollution control board.
• Interaction with an NGO working in the field of environment.

(iii) Caring for our Water

(a) Techniques of watershed management Conserving water bodies; Study of indigenous examples like the Eri system of Tamil Nadu or Rajasthan’s traditional systems and newly evolving modern techniques of water management; Ramsar convention.

(b) Rain water harvesting.

• Roof water harvesting through percolation pits etc.
• Water harvesting in rural areas through check dams, bunds etc.The need for the above and the scope.

(c) Small dams vs. large dams. An analysis - can many small dams replace a large dam? Do large rivers require large dams only? Issues around large dams. Scope and limitation of small dams. Other possibilities like Micro hydel, Mini hydel, run off the river.

(d) Water recycling. The scope of water recycling and importance.

(e) Alternatives to existing sewage treatment like dry compost toilets. Decentralised answers to centralised ones, Use of decomposed night soil as a fertiliser as in China. Suggested Activities / Visits

• Carry out rain water harvesting in the neighbourhood.
• Visit a catchment area of the city.
• Visit to a nearby dam.

2. Resource use

(i) Impact of globalisation on environment. Understanding the basic intention of globalisation; the possibility and challenge of a global economy; impact of globalisation on developing countries - increased disparities, national debt and recession; impact on human resources and natural resources.

(ii) Role of NGOs in sustaining environment. Study the work of a few NGOs. Choose an international, national and a local NGO working in different areas - issue based, women’s collectives and child welfare organisations.

(iii) Evolving a sustainable growth paradigm eg. Gandhi. Large-scale development vs. Village  community based self-sufficient growth. What does sustainability mean? GDP vs Growth paradox. (Questioning the notion that increase in power will bring about economic growth and this in turn will alleviate poverty.) How to integrate the principle of sustainability in development? Gandhi’s model of decentralised governance like Panchayati Raj.
A study of a few working examples like Khadi, Dastkar, Auroville, Gandhi gram.

(iv) North- South divide. Patterns of resource use in the North and the South and the impact they have on the environment of both the regions. Suggested Activities / Visits

• Visit to a Khadi production center or other such units.

3. Appropriate Eco friendly Technologies

(i) Scope and limitation of indigenous technology and modern technology. Study an industry like fishing and/or weaving - where both technologies are practised.

(ii) Need for developing intermediate and appropriate technology. To be studied through the analysis of the power sector - the limitation of all conventional sources and the scope of alternate energy sources.

(iii) Developing least cost options. Environment Impact Assessments (EIA), their role including impacts while planning and the method to develop least cost options. Dynamics of implementation. Scope of grass root upward planning rather than trickle down planning.

(iv) Natural resource accounting. What is natural resource accounting? How to go about it? - Basic understanding with the aid of examples. Suggested Activities / Visits

• Visit a modern power plant.
• Visit a village with traditional occupation like weaving, pottery, etc.
• Visit a Bio-gas plant.

4. Initiatives I can take

(i) In my local environment.

(ii) In my future career choice.

(iii) In supporting initiative in my State or Country. By the end of Class X, the student must have a working understanding of the broad impact that his /her personal decisions can have on the environment and on society. The implications of such an understanding are that:

• the student is responsible for choices made.
• he/she is capable of mobilising responses to things that happen into meaningful and productive action.
• in whatever career context the student may function in later life, there is scope for applying environmental sensitivity.
• there is a clear connectedness to people and a capacity to interpret processes and decisions in society and governance and its impact on people.

This can be brought about by discussions in class or facilitated through any other empowering process

Courtesy: cisce.org

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