Revision sheet · night-before

Diversity in the Living World

Read top to bottom — it follows the order of the chapter. Tick each section off as you finish it.

1 · Biodiversity and the nature walk

Guides: Dr Raghu (scientist) and Maniram chacha (mimics bird calls); teacher Madam Sulekha.
Each bird has a unique chirp → diversity in nature.
Biodiversity = variety of plants and animals in a particular region. Plants and animals depend on each other (shelter, food, seed spreading).
Rule of the walk: observe without disturbing; don't pluck leaves or flowers.

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Learn this table by heartIt is asked almost every time.

	Herb	Shrub	Tree
Height	Short	Medium	Tall
Stem	Soft, green, tender	Hard, woody, brown — many stems, not thick	Hard, thick, brown, woody
Branching	—	Close to the ground	Higher up the stem
Example	Tomato	Rose	Mango

Climbers need support (weak stems); creepers spread along the ground.

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	Dicot	Monocot
Cotyledons	2	1
Venation	Reticulate (net-like)	Parallel
Roots	Taproot (main root + side roots)	Fibrous (bunch of thin roots)
Examples	Chickpea, mustard, hibiscus, sadabahar, kidney bean	Maize, wheat, grass, lemongrass, banana

ShortcutSee one feature and you can predict the other two.

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Cactus: fleshy stem stores water (hot desert).
Deodar: conical shape + sloping, flexible branches → snow slides off (Himalayas).
Rhododendron: short with small leaves in windy Nilgiris; taller in Sikkim.
Hot-desert camel: long legs, wide hooves (no sinking), one hump.
Cold-desert camel: shorter legs (mountains), two humps (shrink in late winter), long hair head-to-neck.
All camels: little urine, dry dung, no sweat → many days without water.

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Habitat = where a living thing lives; gives food, water, air, shelter.
Terrestrial: forests, deserts, grasslands, mountains. Aquatic: ponds, lakes, rivers, oceans.
Amphibians (frogs) live in both.

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Numbers to memoriseThese dates and places are favourite one-mark questions.

Item	Key fact
Project Tiger	1973 — Bengal Tiger
Cheetah Reintroduction Project	2022
Great Indian Bustard	Protected Areas in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra
Silent Valley	Palakkad, Kerala · dam on Kunthipuzha river · 10-year movement
Janaki Ammal	1897–1984 · botanist · Save Silent Valley · head of Botanical Survey of India
Salim Ali	1896–1987 · 'Birdman of India' · Keoladeo (Bharatpur) & Ranganathittu (Mandya) · 10 books · Padma Vibhushan 1976
Sacred groves	Community-protected forest patches all over India

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Biodiversity = variety of plants and animals in a region.
Tree / shrub / herb — mango / rose / tomato.
Reticulate venation — hibiscus; parallel — banana, grass.
Taproot — mustard; fibrous — grass.
Dicot = 2 cotyledons (chickpea); monocot = 1 (maize).
Dicot → reticulate + taproot; monocot → parallel + fibrous.
Adaptation = special feature to survive in a region.
Habitat = where a plant/animal lives; terrestrial vs aquatic; frogs are amphibians.
Cold-desert camel: two humps, shorter legs, long hair. Hot-desert: one hump, long legs, wide hooves.
Project Tiger 1973; Cheetah project 2022; Salim Ali = Birdman of India.

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Don't lose marks here

Calling a shrub a "small tree" — shrubs have many stems branching near the ground; trees have one thick trunk with branches high up.
Mixing up the pairs: reticulate goes with taproot, parallel goes with fibrous — never the other way round.
Saying dicots have "two seeds" — they have two cotyledons in one seed.
Saying camels store water in their humps — the chapter says they store food.
Giving the cold-desert camel one hump — it has two; the hot-desert camel has one.
Confusing adaptation (a feature) with habitat (a place).
Writing Salim Ali as the "Tiger Man" or Janaki Ammal as a bird expert — Ali = birds; Ammal = plants (botanist).