ASSIGNMENT ON NOTE MAKING (1)
Read the passage given below: (8)
This isn’t a mountain region of mere subjective beauty. Nor one, which claims its greatness, based on
just an overwhelming opinion of a large majority. For Sikkim, is a treasure that few know about.
However, the facts of its remarkable geography bear enough testimony to pitch Sikkim in a slot that no
other mountain region, anywhere in the world, could duplicate or rival. What Everest is to peaks, Sikkim
is to the mountains. Tragically, a region so wild and exotic and with such geographic and climatic
extremes, that its amazing wilds and not its unremarkable hill stations, ensure its accessibility to the
adventurous only.
Just delve on these facts a bit. From the plains, in a mere 80 kms as the crow flies, the altitude reaches
28,168 feet at the very top of Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. Such a sharp elevation
is unrivalled anywhere else and is the first geographical claim of Sikkim.
The second is an offshoot of the first. Nowhere else do so many 7,000 metre plus peaks crowd up such
a confined space. And the third is really a consequence of the first and the second with the sharp
gradation creating the most variegated flora and fauna possible anywhere in the mountains. The fourth
uniqueness is also a consequence of the first and the second and lies in the extremes of the climate
which ranges from the tropical to the typical arctic type. The fifth claim is its thin permanent population
and relatively fewer travellers by virtue of its remote far-eastern Himalayan location.
The startling facts about Sikkim never seem to end. For starters, all of Sikkim lies in a mere 110 kms
by 65 kms of mountains, peaks, glaciers, rivers and forests. A little dot on the map at a latitude 27
degrees North and longitude 88 degrees East. Its 7,000 sq kms make it about as large as the National
Capital Region of India! To the North and extending to the East of Sikkim, is Tibet/China, and to the
West is Nepal. To the South are the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions of West Bengal.
It is, in fact these geographical extremes and the resulting ambience that makes mountaineers trek here,
when they are not climbing, besides fuelling mountaineering dreams in the minds of the trekkers, what
with the closest possible proximity to magnificent peaks while trekking.
On the subject of trekking here, it is strange but true that acclimatization is much tougher in Sikkim
than elsewhere. It may have something to do with being closer in latitude to the Tropic of Cancer,
besides the rather sharp stages involved in each day of trekking. The closeness to the Tropic of Cancer
has meant that the snowline will always be much higher and therefore human settlements are seen even
at altitudes of 16,000 feet! (473 words) – Adapted from a travelogue by Ashish Kaul, Travel Writer
(a) On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and sub-
headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (minimum 4), and a format you consider suitable. Supply an
appropriate title to it. (5)
(b) Write a Summary of the passage in 80 words. (3)
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