Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography

Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography The answer to each chapter is provided in the list so that you can easily browse throughout different chapters SCERT Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography and select need one.

Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography

Join Telegram channel

Follow us:

Also, you can read the SCERT book online in these sections Solutions by Expert Teachers as per SCERT (CBSE) Book guidelines. These solutions are part of SCERT All Subject Solutions. Here we have given Assam Board/NCERT Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography Solutions for All Subject, You can practice these here…

POPULATION STRUCTURE

Q.1. Why is the female population less in the Dima Hasao district?

Ans :- The number of women or woman population is found to be very less in Dima Hasao district. Of all the districts of Assam, Dima Hasao has the least sex ratio. It has been seen that the total local population is very less. The male workers, labourers, business and service holders are also from outside the district. The two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North cachar are sparsely populated because of their hilly topography with limited cultivable land and underdeveloped transport and communication system.

Q.2. Give an account on the literacy rate in Assam.

Ans :- Literacy and educational attainment are considered to be the basic ingredients of socio-economic development of any society. But unfortunately, Assam is logging much behind in respect of literacy and education than any other parts of the country. According to the 1991 Census, the literacy rate in Assam is found to be 52.88% as against the country’s 52.21%. Although the literacy rate in Assam appears to be slightly higher than that of the national average, it is notably lower than the states like kerala (89.91%), Mizoram (82.27%) Goa (75.5%) and so on.

In fact like many other parts of the country the progress of literacy in Assam was slow prior to independence. Increase in literacy in Assam had attained a momentum after independence. During a period of four decades the literacy rate increased from 21.73% to 52.89%. Satisfactorily. As a result of the rise in literacy rate the prevailing male-female differential in this respect has also come down to a great extent.

Q.3. Write the importance of Silk industry in Assam.

Ans :- Silk Industry is the only identity of Assam. Silk Industry is a traditional and the largest cottage industry in Assam which occupies a place next to agriculture. It has both cultural and economical impact on the people of Assam. About 8 lakh persons both male and female are engaged in this industry. This is practiced as both part time and full time activity.

There are about 7 lakh of looms of different kinds in Assam. The looms may be of Hat Sal’. (Hand operated loom), Tat Sal (Hand-Auto operated loom) and power loom (Auto-electrical loom). Though this industry is

distributed is almost all parts of the state, undivided Kamrup district occupies the top position in number of weavers as well as the production of fabrics. The Soalkuchi is called the thickly populated village and also called as Manchester of Assam for the silk Industry.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY

Q.1. Give an account on the pattern of urbanization in Assam in the recent years.

Ans :- Urbanisation has been very slow in Assam. There has been very slow progress in the first half of the 20th century. In 1901 there were only 10 towns in the state with 2.34% of the population living in them. In 1951, the number of towns doubled and the urban population accounted for only 4.29%. 

It was immediately after independence that the number of towns rose from 24 in 1951 to 52 in 1961 and the urban population increased by 126.57% during that decade to account for 7.16% of the states total. The post independence developmental activities and the influx of refugees from the then East Pakistan who settled in the Suburban areas, commercial centres and railway stations, junctions etc. 

From 1961 onward, there has been a slow but steady progress of urbanization. Between 1961 and 2001, the total number of towns more than doubled and few towns emerged as large ones. Between 1971 and 2001. The urban population increased by more than 4 times from 7.8 lakhs to 33.89 lakhs, while the total population grew by only 2.6 times during the corresponding time period of all the districts, Kamrup with 7 towns and a city is the most urbanised with 35 81% urban population followed by N.C. Hills (31.19%), Tinsukia (19.49%), Dibrugarh (18.77%) & Jorhat (16.99%)

The least urbanised district of Assam are Nalbari (2.41%), Morigaon (4.91%), Darrang (4.91%), Kokrajhar (6.84%) and Dhemaji (6.91%) 

Q.2. Give an account on the settlement pattern of the Brahmaputra plain.

Ans :- The settlement pattern in the Brahmaputra plain is of linear type.

Settlements are found by the side of the roads and rivers. In the urban areas of this plain people are mostly engaged in manufacturing and service sectors. But the settlements of the rural areas are mostly engaged in primary activities specially in agriculture.

The proportion of population engaged in economic activities and the occupational structure of the workers indicate to a great extent the overall economic development scenario of the plain.

Q.3. Give an account on the rural settlement pattern in Assam. 

Ans :- Assam is still a region largely of agricultural economy. The rural population constitutes 87.28% of the total population of the state (2001). There are, in Assam, new 26.247 villages. The villages are generally small. In fact, about 4/5# the total number of villages have less than 1000 population in each.

The rural settlements of the state like anywhere else in the developing countries across the world vary in form and pattern from place to place. The settlement factors influencing the rural settlement pattern of Assam are the following :

(a) Physiography of the village site.

(b) Alignment of the river flowing near a village.

(c) Alignment of road or railway running near a village.

(d) Density of population of the area in which the village is situated.

(e) Socio-cultural factors like religion, caste etc.

(f) Availability of perennial source of water in the Hills etc.

Write short notes on :

Q.4. Causes of uneven distribution of population in Assam. 

Ans :- The distribution of population is not uniform throughout Assam. The variation in physical condition, economic advancement and degree of transport accessibility is largely responsible for population distribution in the state.

The built up plain areas are considerably densely populated and the hill areas sparsely populated. Availability of productive land and better transport and communication facilities combined with ongoing process of urbanisation and Industrialization have been greatly associated with high concentration of population in the Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys of the state.

With an area of about 72% and 9% of the state they represent 85.30% and 11.10% of the state’s population. The narrow terai belt of Brahmaputra valleys are thinly populated. Again, due to better mode of transportation and communication, high rate of immigration, the districts of lower Brahmaputra valley are densely populated.

Q.5. Lower development of urban areas in Assam.

Ans :- After about 5 decades of independence Assam still remains as one of the least urbanized states in the country. On the other hand, Assam is well endowed with mineral and forest resources, fertile soil, high potential for hydel power development and extensive cultivation of tea and Jute. It is discouraging to note that only Kamrup district is the state which has the higher proportion of urban population (32.4%), Guwahati, the state capital of Assam and the Headquarters of Kamrup district, alone accounts for 23.4% of the total urban population of Assam. The least urbanized district (Dhemaji, has the urban population of only 1.88%.

So far the level of urbanization is concerned, it is found unequal, uneven across the state. It varies from least urbanization level i.e. 1.88 in Dhemaji to the highest urbanization level i.e 23.4% in Kamrup district.

Q.6. Types of rural settlement in Assam.

Ans :- Based on the layout of the village the rural settlement pattern of the state can be divided into the following categories : 

(a) Linear pattern : The pattern of settlement in which the homesteads are laid out one after another in one or two parallel rows is known as linear. Such a pattern may be affected by various physical and socio economic factors.

(b) Rectangular pattern : In this type of settlement, the homesteads of a village are so arranged that the overall pattern of the village appears to be rectangular. Such settlements are seen in the thickly populated areas of the plains of the Brahmaputra and the Barak.

(c) Isolated pattern : In the hills and foothills plains of Assam, one comes across habitations with only one two or few homesteads. Such a settlement grows up near a perennial source of water. Surrounded by forested or desolate areas lacking means of transport and communications.

(d) Amorphous settlement : In the flood plains and the riverine islands of the middle and lower Brahmaputra Valley, there are settlements of the immigrants from east Bengal (Now Bangladesh). Their homesteads are often situated in low lying areas amidst crop fields.

(e) Estate Settlement : The tea gardens of Assam which number more than 850 support more than half a million labourers and their families and the members of supervisory and managerial staff.

Q.7. Urbanization in Assam.

Ans :- From the view point of urbanization Assam is one of the backward states of India. Because of lakh of Industrial and commercial activities and because of underdeveloped transport and communication, the state has remained less urbanised. 

In fact there emerged only nine towns in the later part of the nineteenth century. These are Dhubri, Goalpara, Barpeta, Guwahati, Tezpur, Nagaon, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Silchar with the turn of the century now towns like Jorhat. Nazira, Tinsukia, Digboi, Lakhimpur, Golaghat ete came up. In 1901 urban population in the state accounted

for 2.34% of the total population. It rose to 7.21% in 1961 and further 12.72% in 2001. In 1991 Assam had 85 towns but in 2001 the number rose to 109.

Urbanization develops on the basis of one or two social, cultural and economic functions. The towns of Assam have given up on the basis of Administrative activities (Guwahati) , communicable transport (Tinsukia), Education (Tezpur, Jorhat). Paper Industry (Jagiroad), Ply industry (Margherita), oil industry (Digboi, Duliajan, Numaligarh, Noonmati. Bongaigaon), Tea industry (Doomdooma, Golaghat) Silk industry (Sualkuchi), Jute industry (Silghat) centre of pilgrimage (Bageribari, Kamakhya, Hazo, Bardewa, Tilinga mandir) etc.

Q.8. Latifundium settlement.

Ans :- The tea gardens of Assam which have more than 850 support more than half a million labourers and their families and the members of supervisory and managerial staff. A standard tea garden contains a large tea processing plant, an office, a warehouse, a primary school, a dispensary, bungalows for the managerial staff, residential quarters for the supervisory and office staff and rows of huts for the labourers, all included in the spacious tea estate. Such a compact and regulated arrangement of homesteads has given rise to a pattern, which is different from the ones stated above. These may be termed as the estate settlement or latifundia settlement.

Q.9. Density of population in Assam.

Ans :- The distribution and density of population is not even over the whole of Assam. The plains have a high density of population. As per census of 2001, Nagaon is the most densely populated district of Assam with a density 604 persons per km, followed by Dhubri (584), Kamrup (579) Karimganj (555), Barpeta (506), Nalbari (504), Morigaon (455), Goalpara (451) and Darrang (432). Each of these nine districts has a density of more than that of the state’s harm (340), while the remaining 14 districts have lower density of population. It may be noted that each of the above districts, except Karimganj has large immigrant population, while Karimganj has a large refugee population Kamrup’s higher density is partly explained by the rapid growth of Guwahati whose present population (2005) is estimated at 1.5 million. The least densely populated districts are Dhemaji (176) Karbi Anglong (78) and North Cachar Hills (38). Dhemaji is the only plain district where density is relatively low. This is because the district is ravaged by changing river channels (Like Gai, Jai Dhol etc) and frequent floods. Besides, transport and communication are poorly developed into it. The two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar are sparsely populated because of their hilly topography with limited cultivable land and underdeveloped transport and communication system.

Q.10. What are the main problems of urbanization in Assam? 

Ans :- Although the pace of urbanization has been quite slow in the state, the urban problems like shortage of housing, lack of adequate educational and health services, lack of proper drainage and sewage system, lack of adequate employment opportunity, traffic congestion, lack of proper garbage management and shrinking open and public spaces ete are not so uncommon in most of the urban centres.

As a matter of fact, a sizable amount of financial support and infrastructures are essential for minimum maintenance of the 87 urban centres in the state with a population of about 2.5 million. The maintenance of the urban roads drainage and garbage disposal becomes crucial in most of the large urban centres particularly during the summer monsoon season. Because of lack of proper planning and management, the living condition in the urban areas gets extremely deplorable.

The shortage of shelter and housing is another growing problem of the urban areas.

Q.11.Give an account on the characteristics of census towns of Assam.

Ans :- The census of Assam categories the towns of the state into six categories on the basis of population size. This growth helps to understand the development pattern in any area. The towns with population i lakh and above are grouped as Class-I, 50 thousand to 1 lakh as Class-II, 20 thousand to 50 thousand as Class-III, 10,000 to 20,000 as Class-IV 5000 to 10,000 as Class-V and below 5000 as Class-VI. It may be noted that the census of Assam recognizes the places with a minimum population 5000, population density of 400 person/km, 75% of male workers in non agricultural activities and municipal committee or town committee as towns or urban centres.

Dev Kirtonia

Hi, I’m Dev Kirtonia, Founder & CEO of Dev Library. A website that provides all SCERT, NCERT 3 to 12, and BA, B.com, B.Sc, and Computer Science with Post Graduate Notes & Suggestions, Novel, eBooks, Biography, Quotes, Study Materials, and more.