Landforms and Life

About this chapter

This Class 6 Geography chapter explains how the surface of the Earth takes many shapes called landforms, and how human life adapts to each. It introduces three major landforms — mountains, plateaus and plains — plus the desert as a fourth type. Students learn that mountains have a broad base, steep slopes and narrow summits, with montane forests, mosses and lichen; great peaks like Everest, Kanchenjunga, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc and Anamudi; and ranges such as the Himalayas, Alps and Andes. Plateaus rise with flat tops and are 'storehouses of minerals' — the Tibetan Plateau is the 'Roof of the World', the Deccan the oldest. Plains lie below 300 metres, are fertile floodplains ideal for farming, and host most of the world's population, like the Ganga plain. The chapter also covers altitude, precipitation, terrace farming, mountain hazards, waterfalls, the Tamil tinais and human resilience. CTET tests definitions, peak-range matching, place facts, life-and-livelihood links, and cause-effect reasoning.