Economic and Human Geography
Economic and Human Geography examines how people use resources and where they live: cropping seasons, irrigation, industrial location, transport, and population attributes such as density, growth, sex ratio, literacy and urbanisation. Marks come from correct definitions, careful data reading and locational reasoning.
Core rules
- Kharif is sown with the monsoon (June–July) and harvested in autumn: rice, jute, maize, cotton. Rabi is sown October–November and harvested in spring: wheat, gram, mustard. Zaid is a short summer crop: watermelon, cucumber, moong.
- Industrial location factors: raw material, power, transport, labour, market, capital. Iron and steel clusters near coal and iron ore; cotton spinning prefers humid air; jute mills lined the Hooghly because of deltaic jute, soft water and port access.
- Population density = population ÷ area, in persons per sq km. Sex ratio = females per 1,000 males. Literacy counts literates aged 7 and above.
Worked example
A district has 2.4 million people over 4,800 sq km, with 1,176,000 females. Density = 2,400,000 ÷ 4,800 = 500 persons per sq km. Males = 2,400,000 − 1,176,000 = 1,224,000, so sex ratio = (1,176,000 ÷ 1,224,000) × 1,000 ≈ 961 females per 1,000 males. Density is multiplied by nothing; sex ratio by 1,000 - state that explicitly.
Traps
Jute is kharif, not rabi. Migration differs from commuting. Density cannot be negative, though growth rate can. Do not treat "literate" as "educated". Do not explain the Hooghly jute belt by the port alone; jute-growing hinterland and soft water mattered equally.