NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Geography Chapter 4 Human Settlement

Ans : (i) (b) Bhopal
(ii) (c) More than 75% of the population engaged in primary sector.
(iii) (a) Alluvial plains of Ganga
(iv) (d) Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai 

Ans : (i) Garrison towns are basically towns where military troops permanently stationed.
Functions of garrison towns are:
It helps in maintaining peace and stability.
It includes important settlements like training centre, offices and residences of military.


(ii) Anyone can identify an urban agglomeration by following three combinations:
(a) a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths
(b) two or more contiguous towns with or without their outgrowths
(c) a city and one or more adjoining towns with their outgrowths together forming a contiguous spread.


(iii) Availability of water is the main factor for the location of villages in desert regions as it is most important for human survival. Others factors are relief and climate.


(iv) Cities accommodating population size between one to five million are called metropolitan cities. Urban agglomeration differs from metropolitan cities as it a continuous urban spread constituting a town and it's adjoining outgrowths. 

Ans : (i) There are four types of rural settlements:
Clustered: It is a compact or closely built up area of houses. The general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures. These settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states.
Semi-clustered: These settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement. These pattern may also result from segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village. In this case, one or more sections of the village society choose or is forced to live a little away from the main cluster or village.
Hamleted: Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name. This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors.
Dispersed: These settlements pattern appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.
The factors responsible for the settlement patterns in different physical environments are:
Physical features include nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water
Cultural and ethnic factors include social structure, caste and religion
Security factors include defence against thefts and robberies.


(ii) No, one cannot imagine the presence of only one-function town. A town cannot grow on one function. Certain towns and cities perform specialised services and functions and they are known for some specific activities, products or services such as Ambala and Jalandhar are cantonment towns. But this does not mean they does not perform other function. These towns have universities, offices and many other institutions which have another functions. Thus, these town are mufti-functional towns. The cities are not static in their function. The functions change due to their dynamic nature. Even specialised cities, as they grow into metropolises become multifunctional wherein industry, business, administration, transport, etc. become important. The functions get so intertwined that the city cannot be categorised in a particular functional class.