Important Comprehension Set – 54

D.1-8): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

Agitations over the distribution of water in the Cauvery river are not new or surprising given the extreme dependence on agricultural and economic activity in the river basin. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are fighting over water in a drying river, paying little attention to framing long-term solutions. South India has always been highly dependent on the monsoon, which is uncertain and risky. Over the past few decades, the south-west monsoon has become unpredictable and has reduced in intensity. What does this mean for the Cauvery? The amount of water the river receives during the summer rains is becoming increasingly unreliable. In good years, when the river receives enough rainfall, there is no discord between the two States. In bad years, like the one we are facing now, it turns into a gargantuan political crisis. Unfortunately, the number of bad years is only going to worsen. The Cauvery river’s fertile basin has encouraged the growth of forests, agriculture and industry, all of which coexist in an uneasy manner and are now threatened. We need to pay attention to land use at the regional level. Dense forest cover once helped reduce the likelihood of flash flooding, retaining water on hill slopes to enable slow percolation and recharge of the tributaries. Deforestation across the basin has contributed to reduction in rainfall, soil erosion, and flooding, with hundreds of thousands of trees being decimated to make way for plantations, urban construction, and agriculture. In the place of forests, plantations of water-hungry trees such as eucalyptus and acacia are further reducing the water table. In Coorg, local groups have agitated against the felling of lakhs of trees for the construction of a new railway line from Mysuru, and a high-tension power line. They have received little support from the local and national administration despite warning of the effect on the river. These are not isolated incidents; deforestation is widespread along the length and breadth of the river. Tree clearing is now threatening even previously protected sites on mountain heights and steep slopes, sensitive zones where soil erosion further impacts river recharge. Rapid urbanisation has converted fertile agriculture, forests and wetlands into concreted areas that are unable to retain rainwater or channel them into tributary streams that feed the Cauvery. Urbanisation demands concrete; concrete requires sand. In the districts surrounding the Cauvery, rampant sand mining has altered the natural topography of the river, eroding its banks, widening the river, and altering water flow patterns. Despite warnings from environmentalist groups and farmer coalitions, and interventions by the court, this practice continues unchecked. It is no surprise that the wells that replenish farms across the basin are running dry — or that desperate farmers are reduced to abandoning agriculture and renting their farms to sand contractors for sand storage, thus becoming complicit in their own destruction. The large number of dams across the river contribute to a significant decrease in the river’s capacity for water storage. Siltation in dams and connecting river channels has reached alarming proportions. Industries along the Cauvery and its tributaries send large volumes of polluted water that, far from being of use to farmers, destroy their land beyond redemption. There is no farming activity for kilometres on the side of tributaries such as the Noyyal, polluted by Tiruppur’s textile industry. The toxic sludge from industrial effluents builds up on the river bed, further reducing its capacity for storage.

1) What is the main problem that exists in Cauvery river basin?

a) Afforestation

b) Deforestation

c) Urbanisation

d) Both (b) and (c)

e) None of the above.

2) What are the after effects of deforestation in Cauvery basin?

a) Soil erosion

b) Reduction in rainfall

c) Killing of birds

d) Both (b) and (c).

e) Both (a) and (b).

3) The local group in which region has agitated for the railway line construction which involved massive destruction of trees by the government?

a) Palakkad

b) Coorg

c) Kochi

d) Thanjavur

e) None of the above.

4) What are the various issues that resulted in drying up of Cauvery river?

a) Sand mining

b) Urbanisation

c) Poor monsoon

d) All of the above.

e) None of the above.

5) What are the activities carried out by humans which resulted in lessening of ground water levels in the delta region?

a) Sand mining

b) Fishing

c) Industrialisation

d) Both (a) and (b).

e) Both (a) and (c).

6) On the basis of your reading, choose an appropriate title for the passage.

a) When the river weeps.

b) Give us back our river.

c) Indus river.

d) Ganges in Hinduism.

e) Interlinking of rivers.

7) Choose the word/group of words which is MOST SIMILAR in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.

REPLENISH

a) Corrode

b) Inflate

c) Annihilate

d) Deplete

e) Decimate

8) Choose the word/group of words which is MOST SIMILAR in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.

REDEMPTION

a) Salvation

b) Condemnation

c) Capitulation

d) Perception

e) Perturbation