Conservation Geography

Dr. Ankur Awadhiya, IFS

Indian Forest Service
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Module - 1
Introduction to Conservation Geography
Lecture – 1
Overview of the course

Namaste and welcome to this course on Conservation Geography. I am Dr. Ankur Awadhiya, an
officer in the Indian Forest Service and your instructor for this course. In this course we are
going to learn about conservation - what conservation is, why is it necessary for us to do
conservation and what are the kinds of benefits that we get from conservation? And we are going
to learn about Geography.

What are the different processes that happen on our planet? What are the different phenomena
that keep this planet going? We will understand these phenomena in the context of conservation.
That is there is a certain phenomenon; how does that impact the survival of different species on
this planet. We will try to understand why in different locations on this planet we have different
species.

And we will also try to understand how we humans have brought a large number of these species
to the brink of extinction. Now, at times you will hear people say that okay, even if a few species
become extinct. How does that impact us? Let them be extinct. How does that matter to us? In
this course will try to understand why that matters to us, how that matters to us; and how by
reducing the biodiversity on our planet we perform harm to ourselves.

We will try to understand the kinds of ecosystem services that well-functioning ecosystems and
biodiversity provide to us; the kinds of benefits that we get from conservation. Now, when we try
to understand conservation or the lack of it, we can understand it by two ways. We can look at
the cases where there was conservation not done as per requirements and the kinds of negative
impacts that it brought to the people living in those areas.

And at the same time we can also look at the certain case studies, where conservation was done
and the kinds of benefits that people in the area got from it. So, in this course we will look at a
large number of such examples, and it will be full of case studies. Now, this course will be

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divided into several modules and each module will have several lectures. So, with that let us now
begin this course.

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(Refer Slide Time: 02:47)

The first module is introduction to the course, and we will have three lectures: The need for
conservation, Geography and conservation and Biogeography. So, in the need for conservation
will try to understand why do we need to perform conservation. In geography and conservation
will try to understand what is this field of geography and how is it related to conservation.

And in biogeography, we will try to understand how different biotic phenomena are differentially
distributed on this planet. That is why do certain areas have certain organisms and not others.
That is how the biodiversity is distributed on this planet, and why is it distributed in the way that
it is distributed. So, let us begin with the need for conservation.

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(Refer Slide Time: 03:43)

The term conservation is derived from two Latin words; ‘con' which means together and
‘servare’ which means to keep. So, essentially conservation is to keep something together or to
protect something, to preserve something, to restore something; and in the context of this course
conservation is the preservation, protection and restoration of the natural environment and
wildlife.

So, we are trying to preserve the natural environment and wildlife; meaning that we are trying to
maintain it in the way that it exists. We are trying to protect the natural environment and wildlife.
We are trying to protect it from harm; we are trying to protect it from degradation. We are trying
to protect it from loss; we are trying to protect our wildlife from extinction; so that is protection.

And at the same time we are trying to restore the natural environment and wildlife. Meaning that
if there are certain impacts especially certain negative impacts that have already occurred, can be
bring the natural environment and wildlife back to a good position. That is if in certain areas we
have polluted the environment a lot. What are the mechanisms that we have with us to bring the
level of pollutants down?

If we have diverted large segments of our habitats for uses other than the wildlife uses; then is
there something that we can do to restore this environment back to a condition, where the
wildlife are able to survive? So, conservation is preservation, protection and restoration of the
natural environment and wildlife.

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(Refer Slide Time: 05:34)

Now, this term is different from other similar terms like preservation or environmentalism or
Ecology. So, conservation is not the same as preservation. Preservation is allowing some places
and some creatures to exist without significant human interference. That is if we say that we
want to preserve the natural environment; then we mean that okay, this is the natural
environment; let us keep it as such without any human interference.

If we do such things, we will say that we are trying to do preservation. So, preservation is
maintaining the thing as it is without any further human interference. Whereas, when we talk
about conservation, we permit human interference; we permit extraction of resources from the
natural environment. Because we have a large population and we have a lot of aspirations
associated with this population.

People need certain resources to exist to survive; everybody needs access to food, water,
clothing, shelter. And in the today’s world we also need access to things like internet or
electricity or computers or mobile phones. Now, to make provisioning to these resources or these
wants of people; we need resources, natural resources.

So, if you want to provide people with electricity; you will either have to dig out coal and use it
in thermal power plants. Or you will have to say stop the rivers, create dams to get hydel power;
or you would require solar panels, and solar panels again would require the extraction of several
minerals. So, that you have the (materials) to be used in the solar panels and so on.

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So, if you need electricity, you need natural resources. Now, these natural resources can only be
had if we extract them from the nature. And so if we say that we want to preserve nature as it is;
we will not be able to extract these resources. And such a situation will not be acceptable to most
people. Now, in most of the countries in this world, we have democracy.

So, we cannot just say that we are going to preserve nature, and we are not going to provide any
resources to people; that is not going to happen, and so we have shifted from preservation to
conservation. Now, of course preservation also is needed in certain situations. For example, if
there is a species that is extremely under the threat of extinction. If we do not preserve its habitat,
the species will become extinct in no time; in that case we will go for preservation.

So, preservation also is needed; but, in it is very different from conservation. So, preservation is
a more extreme form of conservation; where we do not permit any human interference. But, at
the same time in certain cases preservation is not going to help us achieve our objectives.
Because, in cases where the habitats are already extremely degraded.

Then, if we went for preservation, we will not permit any human interference; and in that case
we will not be able to restore the environment back to a good state. So, in such situations
conservation also becomes important, and we will have to let go of preservation. So,
preservation, meaning allowing some places and some creatures to exist without significant
human interference maybe necessary in certain situations, but not all; and it is very different
from conservation. Now, similarly when we talk about environmentalism, we are talking about
concerned about the impact of people on environmental quality. So, in this case the main
objective is the environmental quality; the level of pollutants that we have in our air, in our
water, in our land, in our food and so on.

So, when our focus is only on the quality of the environment; we will say that we are talking
about environmentalism. When we talk about environmentalism, we are not that interested in
knowing the level of extinctions, the sizes of populations of various species; and things like that
we are only concerned about environmental quality.

So, this is related to conservation because if you perform conservation; the environmental quality
also increases, improves. But it is different from conservation. So, when we say

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environmentalism it is not the same thing as conservation. Similarly, when we talk about
Ecology, Ecology is the science of relationships between organisms and their environments.

Now, Ecology is related to conservation; but Ecology is not the same as conservation. If you
want to conserve wildlife, you need to know what they require; the kinds of food that they need,
the kinds of shelter that they need; the kinds of resources that they need, the threats that they are
facing; the predators that they have to deal with, the diseases that they have to deal with.

And all of these come under the topic of Ecology; because Ecology is the science of relationships
between organisms and their environment. And this environment includes not just the abiotic
environment meaning the air, the water, the land. But, it also includes the biotic environment
other organisms that are living with the organism of interest.

So, when we say a relationship with the environment, we are talking about relationship with its
predators, relationship with its preys, relationship with other competing species, relationship with
pathogens, relationship with vectors, diseases and so on. So, Ecology being the science of
relationships between organisms and their environment is a very important subset of
conservation; but, it is not the same as conservation.

Ecology is necessary or the knowledge of Ecology is necessary to perform good conservation;

but it is not the same. In other words, Ecology is the science and conservation is the application
of that science for certain benefits, for conserving the natural environment, for conserving the
organisms. So, conservation is related to preservation, environmentalism and Ecology; but it is
not the same as preservation environmentalism or Ecology.

And this difference need should be kept in mind. Of late these fields of conservation,
preservation, environmentalism have become vey important; because we have understood that
we have made a huge impact on the environment. And if nothing is done to undo those impacts,
then we may be in a situation where there will be huge changes in the Ecology of different areas.
So, we will have huge ecological consequences. The breakdown of ecosystems and so these
fields have now become more and more important.

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(Refer Slide Time: 13:30)

So, what are these human impacts on the environment? The first one is overconsumption. Now,
consumption of resources is necessary to provide people with their needs and wants; so, for
instance we need to provide people with food. But, with an increase in our population and with a
shifting towards those sources of food, that require more resources to be produced. We are now
in a situation where we are over consuming the resources.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:10)

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Now, if you consider the example of say a pond. Now, in a pond you have water and you have
several fishes; now, humans are taking out these fishes for food. Now, if we take out the fishes in
a sustainable manner; so if we do a sustainable harvesting, it would mean that we take out a few
fishes. And typically those fishes that have already grown in size, those fishes that have already
become very aged.

And if we take out those few fishes, if we consume those fishes; then the other fishes that remain
in the pond, they will be able to reproduce. And with this reproduction they will be reproducing
the next generation. Now, suppose this pond has say 500 fishes; out of 500 fishes we take out 50
and so the pond is left with 450. We give it time and then this population of 450 will again
bounce back to 500.

Once it has bounced back to 500, we can again take out 50; and this process can go on and on
and on for a very long period of time. Now, this is sustainable harvesting. But, on the other hand,
if we did an overharvesting; it would mean that from 500 we took out say 300 fishes, and now
only 200 remain. Now, we give it certain time; but then because the number of fishes is very
less.

So, there are less number of parents, with less number of parents, less number of offspring are
born. Because remember that at every stage there are also other organisms that are eating these
fishes. The fishes are also dying because of natural causes. So, if we bring them to a population
which is 200; then after some time the population increases and say it becomes 300.

Once it has become 300, we again take out a huge quantity; we again take out roughly 300
fishes. But, we were able to take out 290. And when we take out 290 fishes; now only 10 fishes
remain in this pond. And in a short period of time, this figure will go down to zero; so this is
overharvesting. We are taking out resources at a much faster pace than at which the nature can
replenish the resources.

And today we are overharvesting several resources. We are overharvesting the fishes in our
oceans because of which their numbers are going down. We are overharvesting the mammals
like whales; their numbers are also going down. We are overharvesting the trees in the forest;
because of which we are now observing huge scale of deforestation.

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We are overharvesting our groundwater resources; meaning that we are taking out groundwater
resources at a much faster pace that at which nature is able to replenish them. And in many areas
now the water levels are going down; so this is overharvest of resources over consumption. Next
we are also doing large scale habitat destruction. Now, habitat is the place which is a natural
abode or the natural home of an organism.

Habitat is the place that provides the organisms with the resources that they need. So, habitats
provide them with a place to live a shelter, some sort of a cover. They provide them with food,
with water and they are those places where the predators are not that many. And so the species
are able to survive in those areas.

Good examples of habitats include things like forests or grasslands. Now, we are doing a large
scale habitat destruction; now why we are doing habitat destruction? It has got to do with
overconsumption of resources; but it has also got to do a lot with faulty planning.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:50)

So, for example, if you consider a large sized forest; so if this is a forest. And this forest is
providing resources to several organisms. Now, what do we do? We construct a road through this
forest. Now, once you have constructed a road, now you have two small patches of forest that
remain; so, this is patch-1 and this is patch-2. Now, for the case of a large number of species like
elephants or tigers; they require larger share of resources.

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Why? Because an elephant is a mega herbivore; it needs to feed a lot. Because it has to sustain a
large sized mass; and so an elephant feeds for like 16 to 18 hours in a day. The elephant feeds on
leaves, branches or bark of different trees. Now, in a situation where you have a very small sized
forest and you have a herd of elephants; in no time they will finish off all the plants, and then
they will be no more trees that remain in that area.

And so nature has provided them with a mechanism to avoid this overharvesting of resources;
the elephants keep on moving. And so in a large size forest they will be eating up some parts of
plants here and then they will move. After few hours they will start to eat at some other place,
after some more hours they will start to eat at some other place; and so by the time they are able
to come back to the first position nature has had enough time for the plants and trees to replenish
themselves.

But, what happens if we convert the forest into small patches. Now, if we convert the forest into
smaller patches, then in both of these patches there will be an overuse of resources by the
elephants; because, the elephants are now no longer able to cross this road. Especially in those
cases where you have a very high amount of traffic load on this road; so the elephants will not be
able to cross.

Similarly, if we talk about animals like tigers, now tigers also require a large area; because they
have a requirement of prey. And if you have a small sized forest, then the tigers would be
overusing the prey resources; and in a short time there will no longer be sufficient prey available
in the forest. So, the tigers also need a larger area.

But, once we have divided the forest into smaller patches; then you may have a situation where
the first patch is no longer able to sustain tiger; the second patch is also no longer able to sustain
the tiger. And this situation is known as habitat fragmentation; and through the process of habitat
fragmentation, we are dividing or fragmenting the habitats into very small portions. Now, along
with habitat fragmentation we are also doing habitat degradation. Now, habitat degradation can
be explained through again the example of a pond.

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(Refer Slide Time: 22:12)

So, you have this pond with water and with several varieties of fishes. And these species are
living in the water, and say the pond is able to support 500 fishes. But, now what is happening is
that we have a town that has come up in the vicinity and the town is giving off sewage. And that
sewage is now being thrown into this pond; that is we are now polluting this pond. We will come
to this pond and near the pond they are throwing plastic waste.

Now, once we increase the pollutant load in the pond; then what do you think will happen to the
number of fishes? Currently, the pond is able to support 500 fishes, but with more and more
pollution - suppose, the number of fishes that the pond is able to support reduces; so now it is
able to support 430 fishes. This situation is known as habitat degradation; that is we are reducing
the quality of the habitat.

And we are reducing the quality of habitat through a number of ways, by dumping sewage, or by
dumping industrial effluents into our water bodies without properly treating them. Through the
exhaust of our automobiles, we are doing a lot of air pollution. Near our cities we are using so
much of light that now the animals are unable to sleep properly.

They are now facing disturbances in their natural patterns. So, for example, there are a large
number of animals that hunt in the night time. And if there is a sufficient amount of light that is
available; they will not be able to hunt that efficiently. Because their cloak of darkness, their
cover of darkness is now gone; so, light position is also becoming a major issue.

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Sound pollution again is a major issue. So, through all of these mechanisms we are not killing off
the animals; but, we are degrading their habitats. So that now the habitats are able to support
lesser and lesser number of organisms. Now, if habitat degradation and habitat fragmentation are
taken to their extremes; that is we spew out so much amount of pollutants into the habitat that
now the habitat is no longer able to support any animal.

Or we fragment the habitats into such small portions that now animals are unable to survive in
any of these portions. In those cases we will say that we have committed a habitat at loss, a
complete loss of the habitat. Also in certain cases we are observing habitat displacement.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:18)

Now, habitat displacement means that if you consider say a hilly area and a plain area. Now, in
the plain area you will be having lots of grasses; and in the hilly area you will probably be
having lots of trees. Now, there are a large number of animals that require both of these; because
the trees provide them with cover that is a protection and the grasses provide them with food.

But, now when humans enter into the scene, they bring their cattle here; and with the cattle they
are also bringing their dogs. And they are also bringing their sticks; they are also bringing their
weapons. Now, a large number of wildlife is unable to compete with the might of humans; and
so slowly and steadily we will find that all the wildlife are getting accumulated in these hilly
areas. And in the plain areas, you do not find a single wildlife.

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Now, this process is known as habitat displacement; that is you are displacing the wildlife from a
position here to a position here. Now, what will be the consequences? The forests are able to
support the wildlife; but, primarily in the form of a cover. So, they provide them with shade, they
provide them with protection; they provide them with hiding spaces.

But, probably these forests do not have that much amount of food or water, as would have been
available in the grasslands; because typically we have our rivers, our streams that flow in the
low-lying areas. And because of the presence or abundance of water you have lots of grasses
which the animal can use as food.

Upon the hills they will not be finding that huge amount of grasses. Now, if less food is
available, if less water is available; the population that can be supported will also go down. And
so habitat displacement is also leading to a loss of these habitats. So, through these four
processes of habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation, habitat loss and habitat displacement; we
are actually doing a destruction of the habitats. And because of that a large number of our species
are now on the brink of extinction. Another human impact on the environment is desertification.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:07)

Now, the desertification happens because in a natural situation; you have trees, you have shrubs
and you have grasses. And with all of these the soil is always covered; so you always have a
covered soil. That is when you consider the Sun which is giving out its Sun rays; the rays are
unable to desiccate the soil, so the soil does not become dry.

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But, with the coming of humans we are now cutting down the trees because we want timber, we
want lumber. We are cutting down these grasses for our cattle and we are cutting down these
shrubs; so that we can now make use of this space as an agricultural field. Now, if you consider
any agricultural field in your in your vicinity, you will find that agriculture moves in certain
seasons.

So, there will be certain seasons where the ground will be covered with plants; and in other
seasons once the crop has been harvested, the ground will be left bare. Now, when this ground is
left bare; you will have a situation where the rays of the Sun are able to desiccate the soil. Also
we are overharvesting our groundwater resources; we are overharvesting our river resources, we
are overharvesting our pond resources.

So, with the water gone from the soil, with the water gone from the water table, with the water
gone from the ponds and lakes and rivers; what will be the situation? We will have a situation of
dryness or a situation of desertification. And we are observing that in most of our deserts, the
deserts are actually expanding; because near the deserts as well we are having an over use of
resources.

We have large cattle population, goat population, sheep population, which are rapidly denuding
whatever ground cover is left of plants. And this is another major human impact on the
environment. We are leading to acidification of oceans. Why? Because we are spewing out so
much amount of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere; when we are burning coal or petroleum or
natural gas that now the concentration of carbon dioxide has increased a lot.

It has roughly increased by 30 percent in the last 400 years. And so now so much amount of
carbon dioxide is available that when it rains, a large amount of carbon dioxide comes down into
the oceans in the form of carbonic acid. And with more and more carbonic acid in our oceans,
the oceans are now having a situation where the pH is going down; they are now becoming more
and more acidic.

Now, why should that be an issue? That becomes an issue primarily for two reasons. One:
similar to the spewing of pollutants; the pollutants degrade the habitat and they reduce the
quality of the habitat. Now, similarly if you talk about many of the marine organisms; they
require a certain pH. They are not able to survive in very acidic or very alkaline situations.

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So, when you make the oceans more and more acidic; you are degrading their habitats. Now, at
the same time the second reason is that a large number of ocean or dwelling organisms have their
shells that are made out of calcium carbonate. So, when you think about a large number of shell
organisms or when you think about corals; their bodies are made out of calcium carbonate.

And calcium carbonate dissolves in acidic conditions; and with more and more acidification of
the oceans, now the organisms are finding it more difficult to create their calcareous shells, and
whatever shell remains is now slowly and slowly dissolving away. Now, without the protection
of these shells, these organisms will not be able to survive. And especially in the case of
organisms like corals - the corals are keystone species meaning that they support a large number
of other organisms; because a large number of fishes use corals for protection. A large number of
fishes use corals for laying their eggs and with the coral stone. There will be no more laying of
eggs; because the fishes will not find a suitable place to lay their eggs.

And with the corals gone, we are rapidly observing a very large scale destruction of a large
number of species. So that is ocean acidification, another human impact on the environment. We
are observing a depletion of the ozone layer; because we are spewing out chemicals like
chlorofluorocarbons or hydro fluorocarbons. And these chemicals reduce the concentration of
ozone in our upper atmosphere.

Now, ozone is a layer of gas, ozone is O3; so that is 3 oxygen atoms combined together. And
once you have this layer, it protects the organisms on this planet from the ultraviolet rays of the
Sun; because the formation of ozone requires ultraviolet light. And so when the ozone layer is
getting formed, you have less amount of ultraviolet light that is coming to the surface of the
planet.

But, with these chemicals, the ozone layer is now not getting formed; the ozone layer is getting
thinner and thinner. And when the ozone layer becomes thinner, you have more amount of
ultraviolet light that comes to the planet’s surface. And so now the organisms are getting exposed
to more amount of ultraviolet light; now, that leads to situations like cataracts.

So, the eyes become - the lenses in the eyes they become whitish in color; the organisms lose
their eyesight. They increase the frequency of skin cancers and these are some things that we are

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already observing in many populations. So, the depletion of ozone is another human impact on
the environment.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:40)

We are making large scale changes in biogeochemical cycles or nutrient cycles; such as the
nitrogen cycles. Now, the biogeochemical cycles are cycles through which nutrients move
through the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere and biosphere. So, they ensure that at all
points of time organisms have access to different nutrients.

But, what we have done is that we have generated so much amount of fertilizers that now we are
playing with this cycle. That is now we are putting so much amount of nitrogenous fertilizers in
our croplands; that now a large amount of these nitrogenous fertilizers are making their way into
the water bodies.

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(Refer Slide Time: 35:31)

So, what is happening is that you have this cropland, where you are putting large amount of
nitrogenous fertilizers; and with the rains these nitrogenous fertilizers are able to make their way
into the ponds. So, when whenever it rains, you have some amount of nitrogenous fertilizer that
is coming into these ponds.

Now, the fertilizer is helping the plants to grow fast and similarly when you have the fertilizer in
the water body; the plants that are there in this water body typically the algae. They will bloom
like anything and the aquatic plants will bloom like anything. And so you will have situation
where you have lots of organic matter in the water.

So, the amount of organic matter goes up, which is good in the short term; because we are also
taking out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But, in the medium term what happens is that so
much amount of plants are there or algae is there in the water bodies that now the fishes have
less and less habitat. So, this is acting to degrade the habitat and so the fish population will go
down; and after a while you will have a situation where so many plants are now dying.

Because you have a large amount of organic matter; now, that has to be decomposed. When that
is decomposed by the microorganisms, you will have a situation where the oxygen concentration
in water will go down. So, you are converting the lake into an anoxic lake; so now the lake has
no oxygen. And when the oxygen is not there, all the plants and animals in the lake will die off.

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So, because of these impacts, because of these changes through excessive use of fertilizers we
are now killing off our lakes and ponds. That is another huge human impact on the environment.
Because of all of these we are seeing losses of biodiversity and extinction. We are observing
changes in the distribution of organisms and changes in biodiversity; especially because of things
like climate change.

A large portion of climate change is occurring because we are overusing the fossil fuels. So, we
are using so much amount of coal or petroleum or natural gas that the concentration of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere is now going up. Now, carbon dioxide happens to be a greenhouse
gas, which means that it traps the Sun’s heat on the planet.

Now, that is an important part for the survival of life; because in the absence of greenhouse gases
we will have a situation, where the planet will cool down very quickly when there is the night
time. And so it will literally freeze in the night time and the organisms will die off. And so the
Earth actually requires some amount of carbon dioxide to maintain the climate.

But, with the concentration of carbon dioxide that is increasing; now we are having a situation
where more and more amount of Sun’s heat is getting trapped in the planet. And so the
temperatures are now going up. We are not only increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide,
but our activities have also increased the concentration of greenhouse gases like methane.

Now, methane is getting released when we do agriculture where the land is completely inundates
with water. So, if you think about say a paddy field, then a paddy field will release lots of
methane; because there is an anoxic condition that gets created and that leads to the emission of
methane. Huge quantities of methane are also getting emitted because we now are maintaining a
very large cattle population. Now, with an increase in the greenhouse gases with an increase in
global warming; what is happening is that the planet is warming up and how does that matter.

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(Refer Slide Time: 39:57)

Consider a hill. Now, we know that the temperatures reduce when we go up that is near the
Earth’s surface; it is much hotter or let us say much warmer. So, this place is warmer and on the
top it is cooler. Now, consider a species that requires a temperature of somewhere here; so it
cannot survive in very hot conditions, it cannot survive in very cold conditions.

But, now you are increasing the temperature of the Earth and so with the increase in the
temperature, this point is now warming up. So, what will these organisms do? They will shift
their range; that is they will start to move upwards. So, this is a shift in the range where the
organisms are found. So, in an organism that lives here will shift here, an organism with which
lives here will shift here; an organism which lives here will shift here and so on.

But, the question is what will the organism that lives here do? This organism lives in a very cold
condition; and now you are warming up its habitat. It has got nowhere else to go; and so this
organism will become extinct. And this process in which the organisms are moving up the
mountains towards their extinction is known as the escalator to extinction.

So, the organisms are moving up the escalator towards their extinction. And during this process
we are observing that there are huge amounts of extinctions, and we are observing huge changes
in the ranges of different species. So that is a change in the distribution of organisms and changes
in biodiversity. Not only that we are also observing changes in the behavioral patterns of
organisms, changes in the phenology of organisms.

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So, for example, if there is a plant that blooms in late spring; now we are observing that it is
blooming in early spring. Those plants that bloomed in early spring, they are now blooming in
the late winters. So, the timing is changing; now that timing also has a huge repercussion on
different organisms; because after blooming you will have the production of fruits, and these
fruits are the food of other organisms.

So, if you have a situation where there is a bird that feeds on the fruits of a particular tree; then
the bird will lay its eggs to coincide with this fruiting season. So that when the young ones come
out of the eggs, then they have sufficient food that is available. But, now we are getting a
situation where there is a loss of synchrony between both of these activities.

So, when the chicks hatch out, they are now facing a situation of food shortage; that again is
leading to the extinction of large number of species. So, we are observing these human impacts
on the environment; another impact is the soil erosion and changes in geomorphology. Because
we are denuding the soil cover, we are removing all the trees and plants.

So, now it is much easier for the soil to get eroded. So, we are now observing that in many
places, we no longer have the soils; and the soils that have been eroded, they move to other
places and they get sedimented in other places. Now, how does that impact us.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:15)

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Consider a delta; so in a delta you have a river that is breaking into its distributaries. And it is
depositing the sediments; so the sediments that this river was bringing, they are now getting
deposited here when it is reaching the sea. Now, when you have a situation where more amount
of sediments come into this area.

Then that changes the geomorphology; because, now the delta will spread. On the other hand, we
are also constructing dams in certain locations. So, if you constructed a dam, then all of this silt
will get accumulated here, and less amount of silt will reach into the deltas; which would mean
that the deltas would start to shrink.

So, we are observing changes in the geomorphology of the planet. We are now observing that
deposits that are derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material outside the
cave environments. Earlier we used to find these calcareous deposits on the land only in the
caves. But, now we are finding these everywhere because we are extracting these minerals; we
are using them to make concrete and using them to make our homes.

And once the homes have finished their active life; then the houses get demolished and now we
are getting an excess of calculus deposits everywhere. Now, that is also changing the habitats of
several organisms.

24
(Refer Slide Time: 45:59)

We are also observing changes in stratigraphy due to increased sediment load and deposition.
We are observing changes in elements in the atmosphere; we are observing changes in the
carbon-12, carbon-14 ratios. We are observing those radionuclides that were never observed
before in the history of the planet; because we are now making atomic weapons.

We are now making atomic reactors. And so now, those radionuclides are being created and
released that never existed before; that is also a huge impact on the environment. We are
observing changes in the soil. Water logging in those areas where we are doing excessive
irrigation, so especially in the desert areas if you bring lots of water by digging a canal.

And you put lots of water then your soil becomes oversaturated with water; because you have a
layer of conquered nodules down below the soil. And once you put lots of water, the soil will
become completely saturated. In a completely saturated soil, plants cannot thrive; because the
roots of plants they require water, but they also require access to some amount of air. So, we
observe things like the rotting of roots in those areas.

So, we are observing water logging, we are observing desertification, we are observing a build
up of pesticides and other chemicals; and in a large number of cases, these pesticides also
bioaccumulate and biomagnify. What is that mean?

25
(Refer Slide Time: 47:36)

Again if we consider a pond environment; so in the pond you have algae. And these algae are
eaten up or these planktons are eaten up by small fishes. Which in turn are eaten up by larger
sized fishes, which in turn are eaten up by even larger sized fishes, which in turn are eaten up by
birds. Now, when you have a concentration of pesticides that has come into this environment;
then these pesticides reach into the bodies of these algae and the phytoplanktons.

From there they move into the bodies of the smaller fishes; then into the bodies of the larger
fishes, then even larger fishes; and then to the bodies of birds. But, what happens in this process
is that one fish is not going to eat just a single algae, or just a single plankton. It is going to eat a
large number of planktons and so the pesticides that were there in the bodies of so many
planktons.

They now get accumulated in the bodies of these fishes; and so the concentration has gone up.
Here the concentration was low; now the concentration is high. Now, these fishes will eat a large
number of these small fishes for food and so the concentration would increase even further. Then
these fishes would be eating a large of red fishes and so the concentration goes up even more.

And then in the birds because they eat a large number of these large fishes; the concentration is
so huge that now we are observing large scale changes. Huge amount of toxicity, as we move up
the food chain; now, this process is known as bio magnification, because we are observing a
magnification in all of these biological organisms. There is also bio accumulation that is

26
happening; because once the pesticides have reached into the bodies of these organisms. Now,
the pesticides cannot be removed from the bodies.

The pesticides get accumulated in the fat tissues of the body, and so now they cannot be taken
out of the body. So, once an organism has been exposed to these pesticides; these pesticides are
going to remain in the body of this organism for a very long period of time. Probably till its death
and with bio magnification at higher echelons of the food chain; we are now observing huge
toxicities.

A large number of birds are now disappearing because of this bio magnification of pesticides; so
that is another human impact on the environment. We are observing introductions and invasive
species. Now, invasive species are those species that we have taken out of their natural habitats,
and we have brought to some other areas. A very good example is the plant called Lantana
camara which was brought from Africa into our country.

Because, the flowers look beautiful and so people thought we are going to use them for
horticultural purposes; we are going to plant them in gardens. But, then Lantana camara is an
invasive species in the Indian context. Why? Because the plant is toxic and so many animals do
not eat up this plant; so, it has less number of predators.

But, then it produces a large number of seeds and the fruits are sugary in nature; they are sweet
in nature. And so the birds will come, they will eat up the fruits, and then they will take the seeds
with their bodies; and once the birds give out their droppings, the seeds are spread to very large
areas. The seeds are extremely hardy. So, even if there is a forest fire, after the forest fire you
will find that the seeds will be able to germinate.

They are extremely resistant and they are slowly replacing our native flora in the forest. So, the
native plants are not able to compete with Lantana camara. Now, this would not have happened,
if humans had not brought this plant from Africa into India. So, we are now observing
introductions of organisms into newer habitats, we are now observing invasive species that are
spreading into different areas destroying the habitats.

27
(Refer Slide Time: 52:32)

Another impact is pollution, including light pollution; we are observing coral bleaching and
death of corals; and we are observing large scale habitat destructions because of wars.

(Refer Slide Time: 52:44)

Now, these human impacts on the environment can be quantified by this equation: I is equal to P
into A into T. Essentially it says that the impact of humans on the environment is determined by
the population in the area. If there is an increase in population, there is an increase in impact;
because there are more number of people who can put on an impact on the environment.

28
It increases with affluence; affluence is the average consumption of each person in the
population; we can represent it through GDP per capita. And it is influenced by the technological
advancement; meaning how much resource intensive the production of affluence is. Now, if you
look at our populations we find that the impact has been increasing; because our population sizes
have gone up. We are now more and more on this planet, our affluence has gone up; because we
now have more and more money.

We now have more and more things, we have more and more wants. And the technology has
gone up, which now enables us to extract these resources from the nature to feed our population
and our affluence. And because of that the impact of humans has gone up like anything; and
because of that we have observed huge large scale habitat destructions, large number of
organisms getting extinct.

And because of that now conservation has become more and more important. So, conservation is
important because we have already had huge impacts on the environment. And now we are also
facing the music, we are suffering the consequences. Our crops are failing; we are getting more
and more diseased; our ecosystem services are now failing and so on. So, we need conservation
if we need to survive.

(Refer Slide Time: 54:50)

29
So, in this course we are going to look at all of these topics; we have looked at the need for
conservation. We are going to explore what is the field of geography, how is it related to
conservation; and we are going to look at biogeography, which is the distribution of different
organisms on this planet. In the second module, we will explore the Earth; we will look at the
origin and evolution of the Earth from its very beginnings.

We will look at the structure of the Earth, what is the Earth from the inside. We will look at the
features on the Earth or the geomorphology of the planet. Then in the third module, we will look
at lithosphere and landforms; where we will look at rocks and minerals, which form the

30
lithosphere. We will look at geomorphology and processes that result in the evolution of various
different landforms on this planet.

Now, this is important because different organisms are found in different landforms. You have
very different organisms that are found in the plains as compared to those that are found in the
hills. Then we will look at the atmosphere the structure composition, circulation, weather climate
and climate change; and how that is playing a role in the survival of different species.

In the fifth module we will look at hydrosphere, structure and composition of the water bodies,
oceans and water movement, and hydrological cycle. And we will sum up all of these in the sixth
module, which is physical geography in the Indian context. Where, we will look at the structure
and physiography of India, climate and habitats of India, and the drainage systems.

So that is more about the physical geography part; then we will move on to the biogeography
portion and conservation. So, in the seventh module, we will look at biosphere; how are soils
formed because soils support all life on this planet, life on Earth, biodiversity. And then we will
look at conservation of this biodiversity; what are the threats to different species. And with the
threats we will also make an estimate of the rate of loss of these species.

Then we will look at the options that we have to conserve these species; they are ex-situ, which
is off-site conservation; and in-situ or on-site conservation. And why do we need to do this
conservation? Because we get certain benefits from this conservation; so, we will explore the
benefits in the next lecture. In the ninth module, we will look at human geography.

So, we will look at human population and its relation with conservation, population and
population growth, human development and sustainable development. Then the tenth module is
resources and conservation; where we will look at land resources, agriculture, water resources,
minerals and energy resources; and how these are related with the topics of conservation.

The eleventh module is economic geography and conservation; where we will look at transport
and communication networks, trades and settlements. And what are the options available with us
to reduce our impacts on the environment. So, even in the case of things like settlements, we will
explore how can we make our dwellings more environment friendly.

31
In the twelfth module, we will look at special topics in geography and conservation; things like
remote sensing and GIS, which are now providing us with data to be used foe conservation. We
will look at disasters, and we will look at valuation of natural resources; and this will be followed
by a summing up and discussion module.

So, basically in this course we are going to explore topics and conservation, topics in geography.
And both of these are related because geography plays a role in determining where different
organisms are found. And what are the processes that provide them with their own resources;
things like food and water and shelter are being provided because of the phenomena of
geography.

And when we are altering the phenomena of geography on this planet, we are creating a huge
threat for different species. So, that is all for today; thank you for your attention. Jai Hind!

32
 Conservation Geography
Dr. Ankur Awadhiya, IFS
Indian Forest Service
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Module – 1
Introduction to Conservation Geography
Lecture - 2
Geography and Conservation

(Refer Slide Time: 00:13)

Namaste! We carry forward our discussion on the introduction to the course. And in this lecture
we shall have a look at Geography and Conservation. In the last lecture, we observed that
conservation means to keep something together and conservation has become very important,
because we have now realized that our impacts on the various ecosystems on this planet have
been a bit too much.

That is we have over exploited the resources, we have polluted nature, we have grown in our
population to such a large extent that now we are causing a rampant loss of habitat, destruction
of habitat and things like introductions of various invasive species which are wreaking havoc to
the planet. Now, if we do not do something quickly then we will lose out on a large number of
our ecosystems.

And with those gone, the ecosystem benefits that we received from them, things like protection
of soil, protection of our water resources, the provisioning of clean air and water they will all be

33
gone. And so, now, it has become very important to conserve the resources, protect whatever is
left, otherwise, we will lose them forever. Now, the question is how is Geography related to
conservation and that is the topic of the current lecture, Geography and conservation.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:52)

So, what is Geography mean? The word Geography has come from two word roots. So, when we
write Geography, geo means Earth and graphy is to write. So, Geography is essentially the
science of writing about the Earth or describing the earth. So, this is a science of Earth
description. This term was coined by Eratosthenese, who lived between 276 and 194 B.C.

34
So, this is a very old term. And we can define it as the field of science concerning with
description of the Earth and the processes and phenomena involved in forming the features on
the Earth. That is, we are trying to describe Earth. When you describe earth you ask or you write
things like there are mountains, here there are planes here, there are oceans here, there are rivers
at such in such locations and so on.

But once you make that description, the next question that arises is why do we have rivers in
these particular locations? Why do we have mountains in these particular locations? And what
determines what would be the shape of the river? What determines what would be the sediment
load in the river? So, once we begin describing different things, the next question is why do they
arise in those particular locations?

What governs them? So, we not only describe the Earth, but we also describe the processes and
phenomena that are involved in forming the features of the Earth. So, Geography or the science
of Earth description is the field of science concerning with the description of the Earth and the
processes and phenomena involved in forming the features of the Earth.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:56)

Now, we can also write it as Geography being the study of areal differentiation. That is, if we
look over a large area, what are the different things that we find? So, when we are describing the
Earth, when we are describing that we have mountains here and planes here, what are we doing.

35
We are just looking at a last sized area and we are looking at the different features that are
present in those different locations.

So, we can write it as Geography being the study of areal differentiation, differentiation over an
area or variations in phenomena in different regions and the causal relationship between the
variations and the areas involved. So, this is just another way of saying that we are describing the
different places on the Earth and we are describing the processes and phenomena that are
involved.

So, this is just another way of putting the same thing that Geography is the study of areal
differentiation. Richard Hartshorne also said that Geography is concerned with the description
and explanation of areal differentiation of the Earth's surface. So, we are describing the areal
differentiation and we are explaining why do we have a particular set of areal differentiation so
that is Geography.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:24)

And Geography has become very important in the current geological time period of
anthropocene. Now, anthropocene comes from the word anthropos, which means humans and
cene is a period of time. So, this is a period of time that is dominated by humans. A proposed
epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth’s geology and
ecosystems, including but not limited to anthropogenic climate change.

36
Meaning that, in the current geological time period of anthropocene, the humans or the anthropos
are the dominant factors. They are regulating and they are impacting most of the processes on
this planet, including processes such as the climate of this planet. So, when we talk about things
like global warming or global climatic change, this is what we are talking about.

So, this is a proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact. Before
anthropocene, we did not have a significant human impact, but now we say that there is a very
high human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:49)

So, what kinds of human impacts, things like the detonation of atomic weapons. So, traditionally,
we take the Trinity explosion of 1945 as the beginning of anthropocene, because we can divide
all the time into the time of the nuclear age and the time before the nuclear or the atomic age and
the atomic weapons are now taken to be a representation of the significant human impacts. So,
from 1945 onwards, we say that this is the anthropocene time period.

37
(Refer Slide Time: 07:25)

And in the anthropocene, we can write that Geography is the study of relationship between
humanized nature and naturalized human beings. Why, because we have had so much of impact
so high an impact that now nature is no longer a natural thing. It has become humanized. If you
look around yourself, you will find that whether you are living in a town or whether you are
living in a city or whether you are living in a village, you will find that the majority of the
structures that you see around you are built by the humans.

Now, before, if you went somewhere, you would have observed things like hills or valleys or
mountains or rivers, but now we are finding that there is a distinctive impact of human beings on
all of these. So, if you go to a hill or a mountain, you will find that in a large number of areas,
there will be mining or there will be roads, and for that we are cutting up the hills, we are cutting
up the mountains.

If you look at a river, we will find that there will be huge damps that have been built on various
rivers. If you look at the river banks, you will find that there is a regular extraction of minerals
like sand from the riverbeds or from the river banks. So, anywhere you go or wherever you go,
you will find that there is a huge impact of human beings.

And so, now the nature itself has become humanized. That is there is a large amount of impact of
human beings on nature. So, nature is no longer the primitive natural nature that we had before

38
the anthropocene. And when we say that we are looking at the relationship between nature and
humans, nature has become humanized and the humans have become a bit naturalized.

That is, if you look at different places, you will find that the costumes of human beings, the kinds
of dresses that we wear, the kinds of houses that we build, the kinds of infrastructure that we
build, are somewhat dependent on the kind of Geography that we have in those locations. So, for
example, if the area is very cold, you will find that people are wearing very warm dresses. People
are wearing things like fur or things like wool.

Whereas, if you go to warmer areas, you will find that people are wearing cotton. And so, there
is an impact of nature on human beings, which means that human beings are also naturalized and
nature has become more and more humanized. And Geography in the anthropocene concerns
itself with the study of relationship between humanized nature and naturalized human beings.

So, we are looking at the relationship between humans and nature, because in the anthropocene,
the impact of the humans is so large that we are the dominant forces on the nature. And so, when
we have to study about Geography, a very big subtopic of Geography today concerns the various
varied impacts of humans on different areas on the planet. And so, in the anthropocene
Geography is the study of relationship between humanized nature and naturalized human beings.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:03)

39
Now, when we do a study in Geography, we are trying to discern the spatial organization that is
organization over the space or organization over a large area and we are trying to look at spatial
integration, how different things are integrated over a large area. And in studying both of these,
we asked these questions; what patterns in features natural and cultural are found in different
regions of the Earth.

So, when we see that we are describing the Earth, Geography being the science of description of
Earth, we are asking what are the different patterns that are found in different regions of the
Earth? And these different patterns concern the natural patterns or the patterns in natural features
and the patterns in the cultural features, and by cultural features we mean the humanized
features.

So, we are asking what are the differences in different locations, not just in nature, because
nature also has become humanized, but also in the human beings. So, in describing the Earth we
are looking at various patterns in different areas. Now, once you have found out a pattern, the
next question is where are features located on the Earth?

That is, suppose you are looking at our country India and you ask the question what are the
various features in the naturalized landscape of various places in India. Now, in that case you
will say that we have a mountain the Himalayas on the north, then to the south of the Himalayas,
we have the northern plains which are very plain areas, then towards the south we have the
plateau area, the Deccan plateau, we have the coasts on both the flanks and we have Thar desert.

Now, if you only look at these patterns, then the next question is we have Himalayas which are
mountains, what are the other locations on Earth where you have such mountains? Or if you look
at planes, the next question will be, where are the other locations where we have planes on this
planet? So, the first thing was what patterns are found in different regions?

And once you have found out a pattern where are features located on the Earth, what are the
other locations where do you find such similar features? And once you have found out both of
these, the next question is why? Why are these features formed in the places where they are
located? That is, if we have the Himalayas to the north of our country, why do we have the
Himalayas in the north of the country?

40
So, you are asking these three questions; what is found? Where are things found? And why are
they found where they are found? Now, in one of the later lectures, we will see that the
Himalayas were found, were formed when the Indian plate moved and collided with the Eurasian
plate. And in that case, there was a collision and because of collision of tectonic plates there was
an uplift, and this uplift resulted in the formation of Himalayas.

So, we are looking at various features various phenomena and we are also looking at the causal
factors of that particular features or phenomena. So, in Geography, we asked three questions,
what is formed? Where is it formed? And why is it formed where it is formed? So, these are the
kinds of studies that we do in Geography.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:58)

Now, when we look at features on the earth, we can find features that comprise several different
disciplines. So, for example, we began by asking the question, what are the different kinds of
landforms that are found in India, where we said that in the north we have the Himalayas, then
the northern plains, then the Deccan plateau and so on. But you could also ask the question, what
are the different kinds of vegetations that are found in India?

Now, in this case, we are looking at the areal distribution of various vegetations. So, we are
asking the question, what vegetations are found in India. Now, in this case, if you look to the
north of the country, you will find that the areas are very cold. And there you find things like
alpine grasslands, you find things like alpine forests.

41
Then moving towards the lower areas or lower altitudes, you will find that we have, now the
forests, we will have broadleaf forests or we will have the moist deciduous forests and the dry
deciduous forests. Then in the desert areas, we will find this scrub forests. In the northern plains
we will find different kinds of grasslands.

Now, here again you are asking the same thing, what vegetations are found in India. Then the
next thing would be, if you find the alpine vegetation in the Himalayas, where are the other
locations where they are found? Now, in that case, you will find that, we also find some amount
of alpine kind of vegetation in the other high altitudes in our country and also in the world. So,
where would give us the same kinds of answers?

And the third question is, why are they found there? And then we can see that, the coniferous
trees are found in high altitudes, because this is an adaptation against snowfall, because if you
have the leaves in the form of needles, then the snow is able to come down from the trees, the
snow does not accumulate on top of the trees. And if the snow were to accumulate then the
weight of the trees would increase on the top and the trees would break down.

So, to avoid the breakage of trees, we find coniferous trees in the cold areas. So, here again, we
are asking the same thing; what is found? Where is it found? And why is it found where it is
found? But now, we are looking at the differences in vegetation. Now, similarly, you could ask
the question, what are the different animals that are found in different areas?

So, here we will ask the question, what are the animals found in India? Where are they found?
And why are they found where they are found? Similarly, you can ask things about culture, you
can ask things about languages, you can ask things about climate of different areas. Now, in all
of these cases we are asking about or we are studying the areal differentiation of different
phenomena that are primarily the topics of different disciplines.

So, when we ask what vegetations are found in different areas, we are talking about say botany.
When we are asking the question, what animals are found in different locations, we are talking
about zoology. When we ask things like what are the different cultures in different areas, we are
asking things like anthropology.

42
And so we can correlate different areal patterns of different fields. And so, Geography has a very
close relationship with several other disciplines, because several disciplines of scientific
knowledge have elements that vary over space. And if you have anything that varies over space,
you can study that in Geography.

So, we can include the disciplines of botany, zoology, geology, hydrology, pedology, which is
the soil science, climatology, oceanography, sociology, art, history, political science, economics,
demography. Demography is the science of demos which is people.

So, for, in each and every of these disciplines, if they have elements that vary over space, then
we can study them in Geography. And thus these different disciplines have a geographical
integration that may be analyzed by the field of Geography.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:59)

And because of that, we have several disciplines in Geography. So, when you study botany,
when you study the elements of botany that vary over space, we have the geographical discipline
of phytogeography, phyto means plant. So, we are asking about plant Geography. What plants
are found in various locations? Where are a particular species or a particular kind of plants
found? And why are they found there?

If you take the discipline of zoology, which is the study of animals, we have zoogeography.
Now, zoo is animal. So, here we have animal Geography. What different animals are found on

43
this planet? So, in this case, you will say that, animals like polar bears are found in the polar
areas, animals like camels are found in the desert areas.

So, here we are asking what animals are found where? The next question is, where are they
found? What are the other locations where you will find polar bears? And the third thing is, why
are they found where they are found? What are the kinds of adaptations that these animals have
that make them suitable for those specific locations.

And so we have the discipline of zoogeography. If you take the discipline of environmental
science, we have the discipline of environmental Geography. Similarly, anthropology can be
studied in cultural Geography, elements of anthropology, which is the study of human beings
that are spread over different areas. And these elements show themselves up in the form of
cultures have different areas.

So, here again, the same three questions, what different cultures are found? Where are they
found? And why are they found where they are found. In the case of philosophy, we have a
geographical discipline of geographical thought. So, we take the elements of philosophy,
combine them with Geography, and we ask these three questions. Sociology is related to social
Geography. History is related to historical Geography.

Political science is related to political Geography. So, we can ask questions like, what different
policies are found in different areas? Where are they found? Which are the areas where you find
things like democracy? Which are the places where you find monarchy? And why are they found
where they are found? So, that is political Geography. Then with demography, we have
population Geography.

Economics is related to Economic Geography. What is the level of income that is found in
different areas? What are the means of production that are found in different areas? Where are
certain means of production found? Where do you have industries in India? Where do you have
say mines in India? Where do you have ports in India? Again, the same thing. Now, things like
industries or mines or ports are a part of the discipline of economics.

Thinks like the amount of income that people have, GDP per capita that is a field of economics.
But in Geography we can ask the question, what is the variation in GDP per capita in different

44
areas of India? Where are those locations where we have a high GDP per capita? And why are
those locations having a high GDP per capita? So, we are asking the questions of economics, but
in a geographical context. So, this becomes the field of Economic Geography.

Similarly, if we take the field of geology, the geology is the science of the Earth, which studies
what are the different processes that happen on Earth. Now, if we combine this field with
Geography, we get the discipline of geomorphology, geo is Earth, morpho is form and logy is
study, which is the study of the earth forms. Now, here we ask the question, what are the
different features that are found on the earth?

Now, we will get the answer we find hills, we find mountains, we find plateaus, we have hills,
and so on. The next question is, where are a particular feature found? Where do we find hills?
And then the third question is, why do we find hills where they are found? So, here again, we are
talking about these three questions of areal differentiation, but in the context of geology. So, this
is the discipline of geomorphology.

Then we have the discipline of meteorology, which studies the science of the atmosphere, the
kinds of processes that happen on or in the atmosphere. And if you look at the geographical or
the areal differentiation part, we get the science of climateology. So, this is the discipline which
asks the question, what are the different kinds of climates that are found? Where is a particular
kind of climate found?

So, for example, if we take the Mediterranean climate, it will ask the question, which are the
places or where do we have the Mediterranean type of climate? And the third question is why do
we have a Mediterranean type of climate in these locations? So, that is the science of
climateology. Hydrology, hydro is water.

So, this is the science of water. And the geographical discipline becomes oceanography, writing
about the oceans or describing the oceans. Pedology is soil science and here we have the related
sub-discipline of soil Geography. What are the soils that are found in India or in the world?
Where is a particular kind of soil found?

For example, where is black soil found or where is forest soil found or where is arid soil found?
And the third question is why is it found there? Why do we have arid soil in Rajasthan? Why do

45
we have black soil in Gujarat? So, here we are asking about the areal differentiation related to the
science of soils and so we have soil Geography. So, we have a large number of geographical
disciplines that are related to several other disciplines of study.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:11)

Now, there are two approaches to study Geography. We have the systematic approach and we
have the regional approach. Both have their origins in German geographers. Now, systematic
approach is a phenomena is studied world over as a whole and then identification of spatial
patterns is done.

So, in this case, you study a phenomenon all over the world and then you identify which spatial
patterns are found in which areas. So, you are studying the phenomena in a worldwide manner,
not in a particular region of Earth, whereas in regional approach, the world is divided into
regions hierarchically and all the geographical phenomena in a particular region are studied.

The systematic approach was developed by Alexander von Humboldt, who was a German
geographer and the regional approach was developed by Karl Ritter, again, a German
geographer. And you can see that both of them lived nearly at the same time. So, these are two
different approaches to study Geography.

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(Refer Slide Time: 28:25)

And based on these approaches, we have different branches of Geography. So, in the systematic
approach, we have branches like physical Geography. We have branches like Human
Geography. We have a branch of principles or philosophy of Geography. We have a branch of
methods and techniques of Geography. And we have an interface branch, which is
Biogeography, which is a combination of physical Geography and Human Geography.

Now, in this case, when we study physical Geography, we study the patterns that are found all
over the world. We are not studying physical Geography in a very specific region. We are asking
about the processes that result in various different landforms or geographical phenomena in

47
various parts of the world. So, for example, if we study earthquakes, earthquakes are the same
whether we studied them in India or we study them in Germany or we study them in Canada.

So, the earthquakes are the same. And in the case of the systematic approach, we take the
phenomenon and we take the readings or we take the studies all over the world to synthesize the
workings of the earthquakes. When we study things like Human Geography, if we study things
like settlements, so here again we will ask the same question, what are the different kinds of
settlements that are found all over the world?

So, we are studying the patterns of settlements all over the world which makes it a systematic
Geography or a systematic approach to Geography. When we ask about the principles of
philosophy of Geography, here again we are asking a worldwide question.

If you look at methods and techniques of Geography, if we take things such as the use of
geographical information systems, then they are the same anywhere in the world. If we take the
interface things like Biogeography, again, we have the same principles that apply all over the
world. So, this is systematic approach. And in the case of systematic approach a phenomenon
studied world over as a whole and then this identification of spatial patterns is done.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:02)

Now, if you look at each of these branches, we will have certain sub-branches or sub-fields of
study. So, in physical Geography, we study things like geomorphology, which is the study of the

48
earth forms, we have the field of climatology, which is the study of climates, we have hydrology,
the study of water, we have soil Geography, the study of areal differentiation in soil.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:34)

In Human Geography, we have the sub-disciplines of social and cultural Geography. We have
the sub-discipline of population and settlements, where we can look at rural settlements and
urban settlements. We ask things about historical Geography. So, that is also a sub-part of
Human Geography. We have political Geography. We have Economic Geography.

And in the case of Economic Geography, we have several sub sub-disciplines like agricultural
Geography, Geography of industries, Geography of tourism, Geography of trade and
transportation, Geography of infrastructures, Geography of services. Now, in the case of any of
these, we will ask the question, what are the different kinds of infrastructures that humans have
built? Where are a particular form of infrastructure found?

And why are those infrastructures found in those areas where they are found? So, in the case of
infrastructure, we can ask same questions, but this is a sub-discipline of Human Geography.

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(Refer Slide Time: 32:44)

In the case of principles of Philosophical Geography, we have the subfields of geographical

thought. How did the geographical thought evolve over time, because in the beginning there was
no Geography. How did somebody think that we should study about areal differentiation? How
did we come to know or how did we come to arrive at two different approaches that is systematic
Geography and Regional Geography. So, things like these are studied in geographical thought.
Then we have human ecology, which is the interaction between land and humans.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:24)

50
In methods and techniques, we have the sciences of Cartography. Now, Cartography is the
science of making maps, so making maps is a method and technique in Geography. We have
quantitative methods. How do we analyze things in a numerical form? We have methods of field
survey. We have geoinformatics, which is the informatics applied to the Earth, where we make
use of things like global positioning system or geographical information systems.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:01)

In the case of Biogeography, we have things like plant Geography, animal Geography or zoo
Geography. We can study ecology or the elements of ecology in a geographical context. We can
study environmental Geography.

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(Refer Slide Time: 34:20)

So, these are various branches based on the systematic approach. Now, in the regional approach,
what we do is that we take a region. So, in the regional approach, the world is divided into
regions hierarchically, and all the geographical phenomena in a particular region are studied.

That is, we can divide the world into say continents, and we can study all the geographical
phenomena in a particular continent or looking at a more finer level we can look at all the
geographical phenomena in a particular country or in a particular state or in a particular district
or in a particular city or town or village.

52
Now, in this case we are not looking at phenomena in a worldwide manner, but the first thing
that we have done is to constrain ourselves in terms of the region that we are going to study. So,
for example, in the case of renal Geography, if we take the Geography of Mumbai, then we will
ask the question that in Mumbai what all different geographical phenomena are found?

What are the Economic Geography aspects that are found in Mumbai, what are the cultural
geographical aspects that are found in Mumbai, what are the physical geographical aspects that
are found in Mumbai. So, we are studying all the phenomena, but putting our concentration in
the city of Mumbai. So, that is Regional Geography.

And in the case of Regional Geography, we have several branches. So, in the regional approach,
we have things like regional studies or area studies. That is we do a study of the whole area or
the region which can be of a macro region that is a large sized region, mezo region that is a
middle sized region or a micro region which is a small sized region. So, these are regional
studies.

Then we can look at regional development or regional analysis or we can look at regional
planning. In the case of regional planning, we can look at rural planning or country planning, and
we can look at urban planning or town planning. So, this is a regional approach. The first thing
that we do is to constrain ourselves to a particular region and then we study that region in total.
So, that is the regional approach.

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(Refer Slide Time: 36:57)

54
55
Now, talking about conservation, how is Geography related to conservation? So, when we look
at conservation and looking at the questions in Geography, we can ask the question, what are the
issues of conservation? So, the first question is what. Second is where are these issues of
conservation concentrated, why are they found where they are found? And then looking at the
planning aspect we can ask the question, how can these issues be resolved?

So, when we talk about Conservation Geography, we are asking the same questions but in the
context of conservation, what are the issues, where are they found, why are they found where
they are found. And once we understand these, then only we can solve the question of how to
solve these issues or how to abrogate these issues.

So, in this case, if you look at the issues of conservation, there are several issues of conservation,
things like loss of biodiversity, that is a large number of plants and animals and insects and
microorganisms, they are all becoming extinct. So, loss of biodiversity is a factor in
conservation. So, this is an issue in conservation. We have loss of habitats, more number of
species getting endangered or extinct, pollution, overuse of resources.

So, there are several issues of conservation. And we can ask the question, what are these issues
and where are they located? So, if you look at the locations where you can get the answer that a
large number of these are located near human habitations, near roadways, near industries,
because when you have a human habitation nearby, then people would require certain resources.

56
To get those resources, they will get the resources from the nature. If the population size is large,
if the affluence is large, if they have the requisite technology, then they will overuse the
resources. They will over exploit the resources. So, near human habitations we find large number
of conservation issues. Similarly, we find large number of conservation issues near roadways,
near railways or things like linear infrastructure.

Now, if you think about a road, then roads kill organisms in a large number of ways. There can
be a direct hit of a vehicle with the road or it can fragment the habitat into smaller portions and
each of those smaller portions might not be suitable for the species or it may hamper the
movement of species, making them constrained in a small area, which would lead to inbreeding
and genetic diseases.

Or once you have the roads, then you make access to people so people can enter into your area
and they can kill the animals, they can poach the animals or the roads can increase access for
diseases, because the people who are getting into the forest they might be having certain diseases
like tuberculosis, that can be spread to the animals or the roads can bring in the exotic and
invasive species.

Because we can have the seeds of a particular invasive species that come into the area, because
they are sticking with the tire of a vehicle or they can increase access to pollution. So, we can
have large number of things that are associated with roads. Similarly, every year we hear the
news that so many elephants got into accident with trains and they died.

So, there are a number of conservation issues that are related with railways. In the case of power
lines, a large number of birds when they are flying, they are unable to judge the power lines and
they just bump into the power lines and they die out of this coalition, because when they are
moving at a very fastest speed and they bump with a power line, then that results in fracture, that
results in a breakage of things, that results in concussion.

And once the birds have fallen to the ground, they might very easily be eaten by certain other
animals like dogs. So, we have line number of issues that are related with these linear
infrastructures. Similarly, when we talk about industries, industries are often associated with
pollution. So, you will have air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and so on.

57
So, when we ask the question, where are these issues of conservation concentrated we can find
several answers. Some of these issues may be concentrated near human habitations, some may be
concentrated near roadways, some may be concentrated near industries and so on. So, now we
are doing a study of the areal differentiation of these issues of conservation.

Then the next question is why are the issues of conservation found where they are found? Now,
in this case, we can look at the causal relationships, such as the HIPPO factors. Now, HIPPO, H-
I-P-P-O stands for habitat loss, I stands for invasive species, P stands for pollution, the next P
stands for human overpopulation and O is related to the over exploitation of resources.

So, when we have any of these things, when we ask the question, why are the conservation issues
located near human habitations? They are located near human habitations, because the human
habitations in most cases lead to a loss of the habitats, because the humans have cut the forests,
they have destroyed the grasslands to make way for themselves.

So, when you look at a city or a town or a village, when the city or town or village did not exist,
we would probably have had a forest in the area or a grassland in the area. Now, the human
habitation is closely correlated with the loss of habitats. In a large number of cases we also find
that the cities and towns they have been expanding with time.

If you look at your town or city or village and if you ask your parents and grandparents, they will
tell you that sometime back this was a small town, now it has expanded because the human
population has been increasing. So, in the case of human habitation we have a human
overpopulation. Now, if you have an overpopulation the population size is increasing then people
require more resources, they require more food, they require more water, they require more fuel
wood and so on. And so this will lead to an overexploitation of resources.

Overexploitation of resources will also lead to pollution in the area. Why, because there are so
many humans and so there is a large amount of sewage that is getting generated. When you have
so many humans that are there in the area, there will be a large amount of plastic waste that is
getting generated. So, many living means that they will be having vehicles which would result in
air population or sound pollution or light pollution.

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So, with the increase in the population size, the amount of pollution is also increasing. And at the
same time, we are also getting invasive species, because the humans have this tendency to get
beautiful plants and animals from other areas and grow them in their own homes or in their
localities. Or in certain other cases when people are moving from one place to another place then
even without knowing they can be carrying certain organisms from one place to another place.

And so when we ask the question why are the issues of conservation found near human
habitations we are getting that because of all five of these factors. If you ask the question why
are the issues of conservation found near the roadways. Now, near the roadways what do you
find? Do you have a loss of habitat near the roadways? Yes, because to make the roads you had
to cut down certain trees. So, there is a loss of habitat.

There is also a fragmentation of the habitat because of the road. Now, do roads result in
pollution? Yes, they do result in pollution, especially air pollution and noise pollution. Do roads
bring in invasive species? Yes, they bring in invasive species. Do roads result in an
overexploitation of resources? Yes, they result in an overexploitation of resources because they
allow people an access to the forest.

Before the roads existed, people could not have entered into the forest areas. They would not
have dare to enter because of a threat of the wild animals. And even if somebody entered and say
cut down a tree, how would that person take that tree out of the forest. It is very difficult. But
once you have a road, it permits the overexploitation of resources, because now anybody can
come through this road, enter into the vary interiors of the forest, cut a few trees, load them into
the vehicle and take them away.

Get into the forest, perform poaching, take a few animal carcasses away from the area. So, it
facilitates the overexploitation of resources. And if you ask about human overpopulation does a
road lead to human overpopulation. Well, it is questionable, but in some parts, yes, because the
roads permit us to bring more resources to people and once you have resources the population
size is tend to increase.

At the same time, when roads provide access to people then people can start a small settlement
somewhere inside the forest and slowly the population will start to grow. So, it can facilitate the

59
human overpopulation though not directly but in certain ways, yes. If you ask about the why the
issues of conservation are found near industries, then do industries lead to a loss of habitat?

Well, in some cases yes, but not always, but we can put a take, because for a large number of
industries you need land and this land can only come through the loss of certain habitats. Do
industries result in more number of invasive species? Not always, certain industries do increase
the invasive species, for example, an industry that is concerned about importing organisms from
other areas, say importing things like dates or other fruits from other countries or say vegetables
from other countries.

Now, along with the fruits and vegetables it can also import the insects of those countries,
because those insects that are, have bared themselves inside the fruits they will also come with
the fruits. But in a large number of cases they do not increase the invasive species load,
especially when we talk about the manufacturing industries.

Do industries lead to pollution? Yes, they do lead to pollution. Do industries lead to

overpopulation of humans? Not always, but yes they do facilitate the overpopulation in a
regional fashion, because if you have industries in an area, people will have more incentives to
be in the area, because industries provide jobs, industries provide a better living standard to
people and so the human population in the vicinity will tend to grow.

Do industries lead to an overexploitation of resources? Yes, most of the industries, because

industries require things like electricity, industries require water, industries require raw materials
and with the industries you will have an overexploitation of resources. So, we can study these
causal relationships and get the answer of why are the issues of conservation found, where they
are found. The fourth question is how can these issues be resolved?

Now, the resolution of these issues can be done in several ways. So, for example, if we know that
near the roadways we have the problem of the loss of biodiversity so we can now put up certain
solutions to this problem. We can say that on this road the speed limit will be set so that you do
not have animals getting into accidents. So, we can set up things like road breakers or speed
breakers so that the speed of the vehicle is reduce.

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We can put up sign or we can say put up a rule or regulation that any vehicle that is tying on this
road is not permitted to honk in the forest area so that there is less amount of sound pollution or
we can install sound barriers in the area so that the sound gets absorbed and the animals are not
that disturbed or we can go about making certain other interventions like underpasses.

Now, in the case of underpasses what happens is that, if you have the road, in certain locations
the road is elevated and the area that is beneath this road is put on pillars so that the animals can
move beneath the road, so this becomes an underpass. If you think about the bridge, you get the
idea of an underpass.

So, in the case of a bridge, suppose you have a river that is flowing and you have a road, now to
cross this river there will be a bridge that gets constructed and then you have the road on the
other side and these are the pillars. Now, the vehicles can move over the bridge and the animals
can move under the bridge. So, in this case, the habitat fragmentation is avoided, because
animals can move from one place to another place.

In certain other cases, we go with overpasses, meaning that if you have this road, then we can
have a construction of an overpass which would be a structure like this. So, in this case, we have
created a bridge over the road and in this case the animals can move over this bridge to cross to
the other areas. So, once we know the kinds of issues that are there, we can suggest certain
solutions. So, we can resolve these issues by certain interventions.

When we know that there is a large amount of loss of biodiversity, loss of habitats that has been
happening we can create protected areas that is we can set up areas like national parks or wild
life sanctuaries or conservation reserves or community reserves. Now, these are areas where the
habitats are protected and are conserved for the wild animals.

So, the wild animals are able to live in these areas. And so we ensure that the biodiversity is not
completely loss. There are at least some areas where the biodiversity gets conserved. There are at
least some habitats that are getting conserved. But once we have decided that we are going to
create protected areas the next question is at which locations, because our funds are limited, our
resources are limited and so we will have to optimize on the funds are resources.

61
We will have to choose those areas where we can have the biggest bank for the buck. So, in that
case again we will have to look at the features of Geography. We will have to take lessons from
Geography. Which are those locations where in a very small area you can have more and more
number of habitats? You can support a large amount of biodiversity.

How are these areas connected with other areas so that your habitats are not getting fragmented?
So, these kinds of answers will again be provided by Geography. So, essentially, Geography is
very intricately related with conservation. So, in this lecture we looked at the discipline of
Geography. We looked at two approaches to study geographical problems, the systematic
approach and the regional approach.

We look at the various disciplines of Geography and how they are related with other disciplines
of study. And we also looked at how geographies very closely related with conservation, because
the issues of conservation are localized and because they are localized we can perform
interventions in the most optimal mannered in those particular locations so that we can perform
our task of conservation in very optimum manner.

So, that is all for today. Thank you for your attention. Jai Hind!

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 Conservation Geography
Dr. Ankur Awadhiya, IFS
Indian Forest Service
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Module - 1
Introduction to Conservation Geography
Lecture - 3
Biogeography

(Refer Slide Time: 00:13)

Namaste! We carry forward our discussion and in this lecture we shall have a look at
Biogeography.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

63
Biogeography is the study of geographical distribution of life on earth and the reasons for the
patterns one observes on different continents, islands and oceans. So, basically when we use the
term Biogeography, we are interested in the geography of bio. Bio means living. So, when we
talk about bio, we are talking about living things, like plants and animals.

So, in the case of Biogeography, we asked the questions, what are the different plants and
animals that are found in different locations of the earth? To, if you consider a particular plant or
animal or a type of plant or animal, where are they found? For example, where do we find
coniferous trees or where do we find cacti or where do we find the dry deciduous trees?

64
So, the second question is where. And the third question is why. Why do we find certain plants
and animals and types of plants and animals in certain locations? So, that is when we are talking
about Biogeography, we are asking the same three questions. What is found in different
locations? Where are things found? And why are they found where they are found?

So, in this case, we are looking at the geographical distribution of life on earth and the reasons
for the patterns. Reasons is the answer for why are they found. The reasons for the patterns one
observes on different continents, islands and oceans, meaning, the reasons for patterns one
observes in different locations. And in this context we define range or distribution of species as
the geographical area within which that species can be found.

So, the range of a species is the area in which that species is found. That is, if we say that polar
bears are found in polar areas, then polar areas are the range for polar bears. When we say that
camels are found in deserts, then deserts are the range for camels. So, range is the distribution of
a species, the geographical area within which that species is found.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:02)

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And for most of the organisms, the distribution is limited. That is, the range of organisms is
limited. When we talk about the range or distribution of a species, such as the polar bear, we are
alluding to the fact that these organisms have certain adaptations that make it possible for them
to live in those areas. And they have or they lack those adaptations that would have enabled them
to live in other areas.

So, for example, when we look at a polar bear, then you can look at certain adaptations that this
animal has. If you look at the background, the background is white in color, because this is polar
area, it is full of snow, and the animal also is white in color. Now, this white color enables it to
merge with the background and provides it with a certain amount of cover which is known as a
camouflage.

Now, camouflage is the property of an organism to blend with its surroundings. So, the polar
bear is white in color, so it is able to blend with the white colored background. And so when it
has to hunt, it can hunt without giving its prey an indication that it is there. And we find
camouflage in a large number of organisms.

If you look at a tiger, the tiger would have stripes on its body so the color of a tiger is brown with
black colored stripes, which makes it possible for the tiger to blend with its surroundings. And
tiger mostly lives in those areas where there are grasses. So, it blends very well with the grasses
and so the prey will not know that there is a tiger in the vicinity.

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Similarly, in the case of a large number of prey species as well, they have a camouflage that
enables them to blend with the surroundings, so that their predators do not know that there is a
prey lurking there. And so they are saved. So, camouflage is when adaptation. Similarly, if you
look at the body of the polar bear, it is having lots of fur. Now, this fur provides it with insulation
to withstand the cold weather in the polar areas. It also has lots of fat in its body.

And this adipose tissue also provides it with a certain amount of insulation. There are also a large
number of behavioral adaptations that the animal has. So, for example, in the winter seasons,
because it is a very peak winter, so the animal would go into sleep. This is a process known as
hibernation. And this hibernation enables the animal to survive through the very harsh winters in
the polar areas.

Because it is not awake, it is not moving so it requires very less amount of energy. So, right
before the hibernation season, right before the winter season, it would eat up like anything, it
would add to its fat reserves in its body, and then it would go into sleep and it will wake up again
in the spring season. Now, this is an adaptation to conserve energy.

Similarly, if you look at the feet of the animal, you will find that it has got claws. Now, these
claws enable it to hunt. It has got very sharp teeth, which again enable it to hunt. It has a very
good sense of smell. Now, all of these things enable the polar bear to survive in the polar areas.
So, it is very well suited to the polar areas with cold conditions, lots of ice and snow.

But then, if you take this polar bear into, say, a desert area, then it would not be able to blend
with the surroundings. The same feet which enable the polar bear to walk in the snow, to swim in
the waters, they would be completely useless to walk in the hot desert sand. It would not be able
to catch its prey, because the kinds of organisms that we find in a desert area are very different
from the kinds of organisms that we find in the polar areas.

But then again, the desert also has a large number of animals. And those animals are adapted to a
life in the desert. So, if you look at a camel, the camel would have certain adaptations that enable
it to survive in the desert conditions. So, it would have very padded feet that enable it to walk on
hot sand. It would be having long eyelashes to protect it from sand. It has a hump where it stores
its energy and so on.

67
It has the ability to drink several liters of water in one go so that it can have a storage of water in
its body. It is able to survive lots of dehydration. The polar bear would not be able to survive
dehydration. Now, when we talk about the distribution of a range of organisms, the primary thing
is that there is a one to one correspondence between an organism and its environment.

Now, the environment is governed by geography, the environment is governed by the kinds of
rocks that are there in that area, the kind of soil that is there in that area, the amount of insulation
that the area receives or the amount of sunlight that the area receives, whether it is having an
energy surplus or an energy deficit would depend on the location on the earth.

So, areas near the equator would have a surplus amount of energy, areas near the poles would
have a deficit of energy. Now, here when we talk about areas, we are talking about geography.
So, there is a very close relationship between the distribution or range of organisms and the
geography of the area.

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(Refer Slide Time: 09:21)

Another example is the altitudinal zonation. So, for example, if you have a location that is at a
lower latitude, that is near the equator, and also at a low altitude, which means that the location is
having a low height above the sea level. It is not a very high mountain area. Now, in such
conditions we find tropical forests. Not tropical forests are those forests that are characterized by
very tall trees that do not shed their leaves and a very dense canopy.

Because in these tropical areas, we have lots of sunshine, so there is lots of energy that is
available for the growth of plants and there is lots of rainfall. Now, in these areas we will find
tropical forests. But if we move upwards that is if there is a hill or a mountain and in the same

69
low latitude that is near the equator, if we go high up the mountain, we will find a subtropical
forest.

That is what we are saying here is that, if there is a forest, if there is a mountain near the equator,
so at the bottom we are getting the tropical forest. But at some more height, we are getting
subtropical forests. Now, why the name subtropical, because we find the same forests at an
altitude of 0 meters, but away from the equator.

So, we find these forests in the subtropics. And the kinds of plants and animals that we will find
here is the same as the kind of plants and animals that we will find here. Now, if we move up
even further, we will find warm temperate forests. That is here we have warm temperate forests.
Now, we find the same warm temperate forests, if you go to even higher latitudes.

So, we are finding that whether we go up or whether we move towards the poles, we find a very
similar distribution of organisms, a very similar distribution of forests. So, we have tropical
forests followed by subtropical followed by warm temperate, then cold temperate, and then
subarctic and Arctic. And the same thing we find here.

Now, if we take a position that is towards the poles, then again we will find the same altitudinal
zonation, but we will lack the tropical forests. Then if we move even further towards the poles,
we will lack the tropical and subtropical forests. So, at the sea level, we will have warm
temperate forests followed by cold temperate followed by subarctic, arctic, and so on.

Now, this altitudinal zonation is telling us that the primary characteristic of a forest is determined
by the climate. Because the only thing that is common between both of these areas is the climate.
If you go from the equator towards the poles, it becomes colder and colder. Whereas at the
equator, if you go higher and higher, it again becomes colder and colder.

And so the climate is determining the kind of forests that you will have in that area. So, this
example tells us that there is a very close relationship between geography and the distribution of
organisms, which is our premise of Biogeography. So, if you want to conserve these organisms,
you will have to ensure that they are kept in those areas where the conditions are appropriate.

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(Refer Slide Time: 13:23)

Now, when we talk about appropriate conditions, we can talk about push and pull factors. Now,
pull factors are those conditions that attract organisms to an area, such as availability of food or
amiable climate. On the other hand, push factors are conditions that drive organisms away from
an area, such as scarcity of food or inhospitable climate.

That is, if we considered that animals are moving from place A to place B, then there must be
something in place B to attract the animals towards place B and such conditions could include
things like a good climate or plenty of food or water or we can have an absence of predators.

71
Now, all of these factors are known as the pull factors, because they are pulling the animals
towards site B.

Whereas, if animals are leaving site A then there should be something that is pushing the animals
away from site A, which are known as the push factors. And push factors are literally the
opposite of these. So, if good climate is a pull factor, then we will be having a bad climate and a
bad climate meaning say, very hot or very cold or very dry or very wet.

Now, all of these will push the animals away from site A. If we have plenty of food and water in
site B as a pull factor, push factor would be, say, a shortage of food or water that will push the
animals away. If in site B we have an absence of predators, here we will have lots of predators.
And with predators we can also have things like parasites or we can also have things like
diseases and so on.

So, essentially, the push factors are those factors that make life miserable for the animals. They
create conditions where the animals cannot survive well. Whereas the pull factors create those
conditions where the animals are able to survive, they are able to reproduce, they are able to
thrive. Now, this is on a short temporal scale, but if you look at a larger temporal scale, the push
and pull factors would determine where an organism will be found.

So, if we say that tigers are found in Madhya Pradesh, then that means that Madhya Pradesh is
having certain pull factors that have permitted tigers to survive and thrive in the forest of
Madhya Pradesh. So, this is a pull factor. So, the push and pull factors govern why things are
where they are. So, if we say that camels are found in deserts, this is because there are certain
pull factors in desert that make the camel able to survive and reproduce and thrive in the deserts.

Whereas, a camel is not found in say an equatorial forest or say a temperate forest, because there
are certain push factors, because the camel will be outcompeted by other organisms that are
found in those climates and so very soon the camel population will become locally extinct. It will
be hunted out. But in the desert conditions, it does not have those predators. And so, push and
pull factors govern why things are where they are.

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(Refer Slide Time: 17:55)

Now, we can look at this example from Shivalik Hills. And if we look at this mountain, we find
that we have lots of vegetation on these slopes, but very less vegetation on these slopes. Now,
why is that so? Here again you can start to think on lines of push and pull factors. What are the
conditions here that are pushing these plants away from the area?

Now, when we say push, it does not mean literally pushing the animals away, because the plants
are not motile organisms, but they are creating conditions where the plants are unable to survive.
Now, what can those conditions be? If you look at these slopes, then we find that these slopes are
very well lit, meaning that there is lots of sunshine that is falling on these slopes.

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Now, in the hilly areas, if you have lots of sunshine on a particular slope, it would mean that the
soil here will get desiccated or dried in no time, because the rays of the sun are also going to heat
up this soil and all the water will be lost as water vapor.

So, probably there is a shortage of water in that area. Whereas on these slopes, they are not that
well lit and so there is a bit more amount of water, probably sufficient water as to permit the
survival and thriving of these plants in these areas. Similarly, if you look at these slopes, then we
find that these are very steep slopes. Now, if you have a slope that is very steep, like this, then
you would not find soil in this area, lots of soil, because any soil will slowly move down.

But if you have a more gentle slope then in those conditions you can have an accumulation of
soil to a very large depth. And so, it is also possible that in these slopes the amount of soil is
soulless as not to be able to support these trees. Whereas, on these slopes because these are a bit
less steep, so more amount of soil can accumulate in these areas. So, here again we can start to
think on push, on the lines of push and pull factors.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:29)

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And in fact, there are several physical and chemical factors that simultaneously govern tree lines
in the hills. Now, tree line refers to the fact that if you have a hill then you will find vegetation
only till a particular line. So, all of these areas will be having vegetation or trees specifically.
Whereas, above this line you will probably be having certain grasses or it is also possible that
these areas are completely denuded.

There is no plant that grows in these areas. Now, this line above which trees are not found and
below which we forget trees is known as the tree line. Now, the question is why do we have a
tree line, that is why do we have trees here and why do not we get trees here.

Now, in this case, there are several factors that simultaneously govern the location and the
presence of tree lines; things like lack of soil, because typically any soil that gets formed on the
upper slopes, it moves down. And so the upper slopes will be having less amount of soil and the
bottom areas will be having more amount of soil.

And if the soil is very less, then it will not be able to support trees. Things like drought that is
less amount of moisture that is available. Again, because if there is any water in this area, the
water will also move down because of gravity and so, the upper areas are much drier; or
desiccation of leaves in the cold winter. So, in the winter season, when you have the moment of
winds, then the plants get dissipated, the plants also get dried and then the plants die.

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Or we can have conditions like lack of snow exposing plants to winter drying or excessive snow
that lasts through the summer. Both are extreme conditions. If you have excessive snow
throughout the year, the plants do not get liquid water. So, they will not be able to survive.
Whereas, if you have certain locations where the amount of snow is a bit less that is you have
plants that are adapted to living in cold conditions, but the amount of snow is a bit too less.

Why, because the snow has just moved away from that area or probably the snowfall in the very
higher echelons is lesser than the snowfall in the lower areas. In that case, the plants get dried up
in the winters, because there is no snow cover to protect them and that again would govern the
presence and location of the tree line.

Or things like the length of the growing season, for how many months in a year do the plants
receive sunlight. If it is very less then probably the plants will not be able to survive. Or if you
have a condition that for many months, it is so cold, it is so dry that the plants do not get a
growing season then too probably they will not be able to survive and so we will have an absence
of trees.

Rapid loss of heat during the night, which is very true in the case of higher altitudes; excessive
soil temperatures in the day, because once an area is denuded, once the area does not have a
vegetation cover, then the sunlight will be able to heat that area very quickly. And so, there will
be excessive soil temperatures in the daytime, because there is no vegetation to protect it and that
will become a vicious cycle.

Because the soil temperatures are so high that they now do not permit the plants to grow which
again results in a very high soil temperature and so on. Mechanical aspect of high winds, at
higher altitudes we typically find faster winds. And so if there are any trees that are able to grow
and survive, they will rapidly be uprooted or these trees would break because of the pressure that
is being applied by the high winds.

And so all of these factors together govern whether there will be tree line are not, and if yes,
where that tree line will be. So, any of these push factors will result in an absence of trees and so
the creation of a tree line.

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(Refer Slide Time: 25:14)

And in this context, there are two laws of ecology. We have the Liebig’s law of the minimum.
The rate of any biological process is limited by that factor in least amount relative to requirement
so that there is a single limiting factor. Meaning that, if you take any organism and the organism
requires several nutrients.

So, you have nutrient A, B, C, D, and so on and the environment is able to provide a quantity of
A that fulfills 90 percent of needs of the organism. B is available in such quantities that it is able
to meet 50 percent of needs of organism. C is available in quantities that are able to meet 80
percent of needs. And D is suppose able to meet only 30 percent of needs of organism.

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Now, Liebig’s law of the minimum would state that, because D is able to meet the least quantity
relative to the requirement, so D will be the limiting factor. And there is only one limiting factor
that is if you wanted to increase the amount of nutrients, so if this is the condition and you add
more of A that is not going to help in the growth of the organism, because A is already available
in a quantity more than D.

If you add more of B that is not going to help, if you add more of C that is not going to help, but
if you add more of D then the organism will start to flourish more and this will increase till D
becomes greater than 50 percent. At that stage B will become the limiting factor. And so after
that stage you will have to add D and you will also have to add B.

So, that is the Liebig’s law of the minimum. The rate of any biological process is limited by that
factor in least amount relative to requirement so that there is a single limiting factor.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:02)

And a related rule is the Shelforld's law of tolerance. The geographical distribution of a species
will be controlled by that environmental factor for which the organism has the narrowest range
of tolerance. That is, if an organism is able to survive without air for two minutes and the
organism is able to survive without water for five hours and in the surroundings or in the habitat
there are certain locations that are anoxic locations that is they do not have sufficient oxygen or
sufficient air and there are other locations that do not have sufficient water.

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Now, in that case, the distribution of the organism will be governed by the presence or absence
of oxygen, because it has the narrowest range of tolerance for oxygen. In those locations where
you have oxygen, but the amount of water is less, it is possible that the organism will be shifting
from one place to another to get, to fulfill its requirements of water.

But in those locations where oxygen is not there, it will probably not be able to fulfill the
requirements. And so, the geographical distribution of the species will be controlled by that
environmental factor for which the organism has the narrowest range of tolerance. And when we
talk about the range of tolerance for environmental factors, there are several things.

So, the range of tolerance could be say for temperature, so an organism is able to tolerate a
temperature of say 30 degrees to 45 degrees or you can have a range of tolerance for humidity or
you can have a range of tolerance for say sunlight. So, for each and every environmental factors
you can have a certain range of tolerance.

And that environmental factor for which the organism has the narrowest range of tolerance, that
will govern the geographical distribution of the species. So, that is Shelford’s law of tolerance.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:17)

Now, we have a look at what are the different push and pull factors that govern the distribution
of different organisms. Now, we have seen that push factors are those factors that push the
organisms away that is they create a condition where the organism is unable to survive or

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reproduce or flourish. Whereas pull factors are good conditions, suitable conditions that pull
organisms towards them and they permit the organism to survive to reproduce and to flourish.

So, now we are going to have a look at certain push and pull factors. And the first one is a
biological factor that is allelopathy. Now, allelopathy is a condition in which an organism
secretes certain chemicals or exudes certain chemicals that do not permit other organisms to
thrive in that area. A very good example is antibiotics.

Now, in the case of antibiotics, we know that penicillin is derived from a fungus of the
Penicillium genus, say Penicillium notatum. Now, in this case, the Penicillium notatum will
secrete penicillin into its surroundings to kill off the bacteria in its surroundings. And we extract
penicillin and we produce penicillin and that can be used as an antibacterial drug, but its natural
function is also the same to kill off bacteria in the surroundings of the fungal colony.

Similarly, if we look at, say, a teak forest, now, this is a teak forest in Harda forest division, so
Harda forest division is in Madhya Pradesh. And in this forest division we have large swaths of
teak forests. And in the case of teak, it is a dry deciduous species. Deciduous meaning that it
sheds off its leaves in a certain season to conserve moisture.

Now, that is because the leaves have pores known as stomata, and these pores are playing a role
in releasing water through the process of transpiration. Now, in the summer seasons or in those
seasons where the plant needs to conserve moisture, it will shade the leaves, so that there are no
more stomata and so there is no more transpiration or loss of water.

Now, it is observed that when the leaves fall down, together with the leaves, there are also
certain chemicals that are shed together with the leaves. So, these leaves have certain chemicals
that prevent the growth of other plants. So, here if you look at the forest floor, you will find that
there is hardly any plant growth.

You do not find any herbs, you do not find any shrubs or in any case you will find them in very
low numbers. Now, that is because of a chemical that the teak trees are releasing together with
their dried leaves. So, that is allelopathy. Now, allelopathy acts as a push factor, because it
creates conditions here on the ground that do not permit the other plants to grow in this area, to
survive in this area, to thrive in this area. So, that is a push factor.

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(Refer Slide Time: 33:58)

Now, how do we know that there is allelopathy? We do certain experiments. And so, for
example, in this case, we are looking at whether grass is doing an allelopathy on these plants. So,
what will we do? We will take two cultures, one is the culture of grass in the soil and the second
is a culture of the plants that we are trying to test and we put water in the grass and we take the
water away. We put water in the plants and we take the water away.

Any excess that has moved through the pot is then drained away. Now, in this case, both of these
are getting fresh water and the grass is showing a good growth and these plants are also showing
a good growth. So, that is the first set of experiments. The second set of experiments is that we

81
put fresh water on the grass and the water that overflows or the water that has passed through
these grasses and the soil that water is now put to the plants that are growing in the pot.

And in this case, we find that the plants die out, which means that there is something in this
medium, there is something in this water that is killing off the plants. So, there should be some
chemical that is killing of the plants here. But then is that chemical coming from the grass or is
that chemical coming from the soil.

To test that we do a third experiment, in which case we do not grow the grass we just take soil,
put water through it, and we put that water to these plants. And in this case the plants are able to
survive and grow. Now, that would tell us that if the water is moving through the soil, it is not
getting any such chemical that would kill off the plant.

But if the water is moving through the roots of the grass or if the water is moving through the
grasses then it gets certain chemicals that kill off the plants. So, that means that the grass must be
giving out something, because the only difference between this experiment and this experiment
is the presence of grass here and the absence of grass here. So, you add grass and the plants die.
So, the grass must be producing something. And the first experiment is a control experiment.

Now, similarly, when we have to show that these leaves are putting an allelopathic impact on the
growth of other plants, we take these leaves, we create an extract of these leaves and put that to a
medium where the other plants are growing. And if those plants die out, then that would mean
that there is certain chemical in these leaves that is killing off the plants. So, allelopathy is one
push factor and this is a biological push factor.

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(Refer Slide Time: 37:04)

Another biological push factor is predation. And in this case, we can look at this example of sea
urchins and algae. Now, experimentally, it was found that if an area has more sea urchin or if
you add sea urchin to an area, then the amount of its prey, that is the algae goes down. Now, this
is very similar to the case of say tigers and deer. If an area has more tigers then the deer
population would go down.

If in an area you have deer population and you bring in tigers from outside then to the deer
population would go down. On the other hand, when you had less sea urchin there was more
algae. So, similarly, if you have less number of tigers, then the deer population would grow
faster. Now, in such cases the predator can govern the amount or the numbers of the prey.

So, the tiger can regulate the deer population and similarly the sea urchin can regulate the algae
population. And if an area has too many sea urchins, then you will not find algae in that area,
because the sea urchins would finish off all the algae. Similarly, if an area has too many tigers,
then probably you will not find any deer in that area, because off over hunting.

So, in many cases predation can govern the distribution and abundance of organisms. Predation
is another push factor.

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(Refer Slide Time: 38:48)

But in certain other cases, there is just the opposite thing that happens that the prey governs the
distribution and abundance of the predator. And a very good example here is Drosophila pachea.
Now, this is a species of fruit fly that breeds in the stems of senita cactus. And when scientists
tried to rear this Drosophila in the laboratory, they found that the populations just died off.

And to maintain the population it was essential to put a piece of the senita cactus as a dietary
supplement. That is, if you take a vial of food of Drosophila and typically we rear Drosophila in
a medium that contains say corn flour together with glucose and yeast. So, this is typically the
culture medium that is used for various Drosophila.

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We typically also add certain bactericides and we also add certain fungicides so that the
population is kept free from bacteria and fungi, but the food is mostly this, corn flour, glucose
and yeast. We take all of these three together, add water, boil it and pour it into vials. And then
we put the flies inside and cover the top with cotton. So, in that case the flies are able to get
oxygen, they are getting food and so the flies are able to breed here inside.

Now, if we, and we normally do this in laboratories all over the world, because Drosophila is a
model organism. Model organism means that this is an organism that can be reared easily in the
laboratory, it can be reared cheaply in the laboratory and we can perform experiments on this
organism and we can gain certain insides that can be used for understanding other phenomenon
in other organisms.

So, for example, if you want to create a model of cancer, you cannot create a model of cancer in
a human being because of ethical issues that are involved. So, basically we create models of
cancers or models of developmental disorders in these primitive organisms like Drosophila. So,
Drosophila is reared in many biological laboratories all over the world.

But if we took the species Drosophila pachea and if we try to reared it in this laboratory medium,
then the population just tried off. And it required a piece of this senita cactus in the medium for it
to be able to survive. Meaning that the senita cactus was providing it with certain very essential
nutrients for its survival and in the absence of the cactus the larvae die.

And it was found that this sterol delta 7 Stigmasten 3 beta ol which is found in the cactus can
replace the cubes of cactus in the laboratory medium. That is if you take this sterol and if you put
that into this growth medium then your Drosophila will be able to survive. So, in this case, this
sterol which the cactus was generating in its body that is governing the distribution of the
Drosophila, meaning that in this case the prey is governing the abundance and distribution of the
predator. A similar example is, if in an area you have deer, you can have tigers.

But in an area where you do not have deer or other prey of tiger then you will not be able to have
tigers in those areas. So, not only does the predator govern the distribution and abundance of the
prey, but in certain cases the prey can also govern the distribution and abundance of the predator.
So, this is a pull factor. If you have prey, then only you will have the predator. So, this is the pull
factor and this is a biological pull factor.

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(Refer Slide Time: 43:31)

Now, a push factor is interspecific competition. That is if you consider an area that is occupied a
redwing bird and later on it was found that five days after this much of the area was occupied by
the blackbirds and the redwings were thrown into these outer periphery areas. Now, in this case
the example being told is that certain organisms show an aggressive behavior and they push
other organisms away.

So, if there is an organism that shows an aggressive behavior that can become a push factor. A
very good example in the case of humans is that, when we take our cattle into the wild life areas
for grazing, we normally take our dogs with the cattle, we also take things like lathi sticks or
even guns with us. And in that case we push the wild animals away in a process that is known as
habitat displacement.

So, we displace the wild animals away, so interspecific competition. In this case, there is a
competition between humans and the wild animals and the humans are displacing the wild
animals through aggression and through hunting. So, in this case, interspecific competition can
also govern the distribution. It will act as a push factor.

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(Refer Slide Time: 45:08)

In certain cases, there are behavioral factors that are involved such as habitat selection. It is a
hierarchical process of behavioral responses that may result in disproportionate use of habitats to
influence survival and fitness of individuals. So, what is habitat selection mean? It means that
while a bird for example can make a nest in different trees, but it will have a certain preference.

So, you can have a species of birds that prefers to lay its eggs in a nest that is build in a mango
tree and it does not prefer to make its nest in a peepal tree. Now, you may think that, even in the
case of a peepal tree the bird is getting sufficient amount of protection, it is getting a very good
amount of cover and the peepal tree is strong enough to hold the nest, but still the bird will have
certain behavioral preferences and these behavioral preferences are known as habitat selection.

So, if two or more different habitats are available, the organisms prefer something behaviorally
and that is habitat selection. So, habitat selection also acts as push and pull factor. So, those
habitats that are not selected they become push areas and those habitats that are selected through
behavioral responses they become pull areas.

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(Refer Slide Time: 46:36)

Other factors that govern the distribution are dispersal of organisms. Dispersal is the moment of
individuals away from their place of birth or hatching or seed production into a new habitat or
area to survive and reproduce. Now, what does that mean? If we consider a tree that is growing
on a piece of land, so this is our tree.

Now, the tree makes fruits, it makes seeds and if all of these seeds were to fall down here then
the next generation would come up here in the shed of the mother plant. So, in this case, the
young ones will not be getting sufficient sunlight. At the same time they will have to compete

88
with the mother plant for other resources because the mother plant is having an extensive root
system. So, in this case the plants do not get sufficient sunlight.

They do not get sufficient water. They do not get sufficient other nutrients. And in that case these
plants will not be able to show a good growth. It is also possible that in a short period of time
they will all die off. Now, to prevent such a sorry state of affairs we have the process of
dispersal. So, dispersal is the moment of organisms away.

So, if a seed falls here and if a young plant comes up here then it is not competing with the
mother plant. It is at a far off distance. So, it is able to survive better. It will be able to grow into
a tree and probably reproduce. So, dispersal is the moment of individuals away from their place
of birth or a hatching or seed production into a new habitat or area to survive and reproduce.

In the case of plants, this moment can occur because of wind. If certain seeds are small in size, if
they have say a cot nib all with them then they can move with wind or they can move with the
birds. In a large number of cases when the birds eat the fruits then the seed moves through their
intestines and it comes off with their droppings or it can move with say animals.

If there are certain seeds that are sticky so they can stick to the fur of animals and they can move
with the animals. So, we have n number of modes of dispersal. And similarly in the case of
animals as well, there is a dispersal into newer areas.

(Refer Slide Time: 49: 29)

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Now, in this case we are not talking about migration. There is a difference. Migration is the
regular seasonal moment of animals. Migration is regular. It is seasonal. It happens only in
certain seasons and often along fixed routes. But in this case we are not talking about a fixed
route. The seed can be dropped here or say the seed can be dropped here. There is no fixed route.
It is not seasonal. It is not regular. Migration happens to get better resources which are the pull
factors or to shift away from harsh climates which are the push factors.

(Refer Slide Time: 50:15)

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So, we normally see migration, say in the case of birds, these demoiselle cranes they spend the
winter seasons in our country, because our winters are not that cold and they spend the summer
season in other countries because our summers are very warm. So, you will normally find them
in huge flocks. So, this is the picture from Jodhpur, this is another flock from Jodhpur. And in
these cases you will find a large number of birds and they are moving regularly.

They are moving seasonally. So, they move at the start of summer and winter seasons. Often
along fixed routes, so their migration pathways are well determined. So, this is a regular
moment. So, this is migration.

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(Refer Slide Time: 51:05)

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But we are talking about dispersal. Now, dispersal can happen through three different modes. We
have diffusion, jump dispersal, and secular dispersal. Diffusion is gradual moment over several
generation often across hospitable terrain such as moment of lions across the Gir landscape. Or
in the case of this tree, we can say that there is a large span of land that is available.

You have one tree here. And say after 10 years you start to find trees here and here then after 20
more years this tree has spread to this much area. So, there is a gradual movement over several
generations and that is diffusion, gradual moment over several generations often across
hospitable terrain, because if you took the seeds of this tree and if you manually put it here then
you will have a tree that grows up here as well.

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But then because there is nobody to take the seeds to the other areas so the natural process will
happen very slowly so that is diffusion. Another is jump dispersal; quick moment over large
distances often across unsuitable terrain such as dispersal of zebra mussel through ballast water.
Now, in this case what happens is that the zebra mussel can survive in fresh water areas. So, you
have a fresh water lake here and you have a fresh water lake here.

But in between you have the salty ocean. Now, in this case the mussel if it went into the salty
waters it would die. So, what it does is that it hitches a ride that is if there is a ship that has to
move from this location to this location, then it would get into the ballast water of this ship and
together with the ship it would move through the ocean to this location.

And when the ballast water is taken out, then the mussel will be able to propagate in these areas.
So, in this case this is a very fast moment, because it is happening on a ship and through
inhospitable terrain, because here you have a saline water. So, that is jump dispersal, quick
moment over large distance often across unsuitable terrains.

And the third one is secular dispersal, which is diffusion but that is happening in evolutionary
time and in this case the migrants are divergent from the original population, such as the
dispersal of humans out of Africa. Or in the case of our tree example, if this diffusion were to
happen so slowly that by the time it reached to this spot, the tree had actually become very
different. So, it had started to show a very different kind of leaves.

And so now this tree looks very different from this tree which was there in the beginning,
because the process is so slow that evolution has happened in the mean time. In that case, we will
call it a secular dispersal. So, dispersal is another factor that governs the distribution and of
different organisms on this planet. It is possible that you have a good suitable habitat for an
organism, but the organism has not yet reached, because the dispersal has not yet happened. That
is also possible.

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(Refer Slide Time: 55:07)

Other factors include the anthropogenic factors. Anthropos, we have seen that, it means
mankind. So, anthropos plus genic, genesis is formation, so this is a factor that is produced by
the human beings, manmade factors, like clearing of forest or pollution.

(Refer Slide Time: 55:27)

Now, if you look at this image, this again is from the Shivalik Hills of the Himalayas, and here
we can observe that in this location the humans have cleared off the forest. They have made
certain homes. They have made certain other structures. Now, if the humans had not come into
this area then all of this would have been full of trees.

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Now, this area does not have trees because they have been artificially removed. They have been
removed by mankind. And we have observed that in the geological time period of anthropocene
the humans have become a very important factor. So, now when we talk about Biogeography we
cannot ignore the human factors, because humans have become one of the most dominant factors
when it comes to Biogeography.

We are moving organisms in the ships. We are creating pollution to act as a push factor. We are
clearing off forests. We are killing off animals. So, that has also become a very important push
factor.

(Refer Slide Time: 56:42)

Now, with all of these different factors, if we find an organism in a place or if we do not find an
organism in a place, what is the main cause of it being present or not. Now, that can be analyzed
through the analysis of various causal factors. In certain cases species are not present because the
area itself is inaccessible, which would mean that this species has not dispersed to that area.

So, dispersal can be a causal factor. If not, if the area is accessible but still species are not
coming, it could be because of behavioral factors. The species just do not prefer that area. If
behavioral factors are also ruled out then it is possible that there are certain biotech factors, there
is predation that is happening. There is lots of predators.

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There are can be parasitism, competition or disease that is allowing the species to live in that
area. If these also are ruled out then the absence can be explained because of certain physical and
chemical factors like light, temperature, soil structure, fire, currents, or chemical factors like
water, oxygen, salinity, pH, soil, nutrients and so on.

Now, these factors act as push and pull factors and govern the range and distribution of different
organisms. Now, if the habitat where these pull factors are found, if they are lost, the species will
also become extinct. And so the study of these push and pull factors or the study of
Biogeography is very important for the cause of conservation.

So, that is all for today. Thank you for your attention. Jai Hind!

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