NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Social Science Geography Chapter 7 Life in the Deserts

The Sahara Desert covering a large part of North Africa. It is the world’s largest desert. It has an area of around 8.54 million sq. km. The Sahara Desert touches eleven countries. These are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.

The climate of the Sahara Desert is scorching hot and parch dry. It has a short rainy season. The sky is cloudless and clear. Here, the moisture evaporates faster than it accumulates. Days are unbelievably hot. The temperatures during the day may soar as high as 50°C, heating up the sand and the bare rocks, which in turn radiates heat making everything around hot. The nights may be freezing cold with temperatures nearing zero degrees.

Vegetation in the Sahara Desert includes cactus, date palms and acacia. In some places there are oasis – green islands with date palms surrounding them.

Camels, hyenas, jackals, foxes, scorpions, many varieties of snakes and lizards are the prominent animal species living there.

The Sahara Desert despite its harsh climate has been inhabited by various groups of people, who pursue different activities. Among them are the Bedouins and Tuaregs. These groups are nomadic tribes rearing livestock such as goats, sheep, camels and horses. These animals provide them with milk, hides from which they make leather for belts, slippers, water bottles; hair is used for mats, carpets, clothes and blankets. They wear heavy robes as protection against dust storms and hot winds.

Ladakh is a cold desert lying in the Great Himalayas, on the eastern side of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Karakoram Range in the north and the Zanskar mountains in the south enclose it. Several rivers flow through Ladakh, Indus being the most important among them. The rivers form deep valleys and gorges. Several glaciers are found in Ladakh, for example the Gangri glacier.

Due to its high altitude, the climate is extremely cold and dry. The air at this altitude is so thin that the heat of the sun can be felt intensely. The day temperatures in summer are just above zero degree and the night temperatures well below –30°C. It is freezing cold in the winters when the temperatures may remain below –40°C for most of the time.

Two types of deserts found in the world are: Cold Desert Hot Desert.

Sahara desert is located in Africa.

The climate of Ladakh is extremely cold and dry due to high altitude. The air at this altitude is so thin that the heat of the sun can be felt intensely.

The following things attracts tourists to Ladakh: Natural beauty The Gompas Meadows and glaciers Ceremonies and festivities to local people.

People of the Sahara desert wear heavy robes as protection against dust storms and hot winds.

The following trees grow in Ladakh: Willows Poplars Apples Apricots Walnuts.

There is scanty vegetation in the deserts due to unfavourable climatic conditions for the flora world to grow. The desert either have extreme heat or extreme cold climate and receives low rainfall which is not suitable for vegetation to grow.

People of the Sahara desert wear heavy robes as protection against dust storms and hot winds. Sahara is a hot desert therefore dust storms and hot winds of containing sands is common there. It also help them in protection from Sun.

Download NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Social Science Geography Chapter 9 Life in the Deserts in PDF form. This page of Tiwari Academy contains Class 7 Geography Chapter 9 Question-Answers, Map skills, Fill in the Blanks, Match the following, give reasons and true-false questions. Download in PDF or use it online, both options are given.