🌿 Environmental Balance 🌍
Class 5 - Environmental Studies - Chapter 4
Maharashtra State Board
🌿 Some plants like neem or their extract repel insects. Insects run away from these substances.
🍃 If we place dried leaves of neem with the grains, the insects will go away as they cannot tolerate the smell.
🌾 Similarly, applying canola oil to the grains removes insects as canola oil is also an insect repellent.
✅ These are natural, safe methods that don't harm our health or the environment!
Grass → Worm → Frog → Snake → Kite
🌱 Grass is eaten by the worm
🐛 Worm is eaten by the frog
🐸 Frog is eaten by the snake
🐍 Snake is eaten by the kite
🔗 A food chain is a biological chain that shows how living things are connected to each other for their food.
🌿 In nature, plants are food for small animals
🐛 These smaller animals are food for larger animals
🦅 Which in turn are food for another larger animal
Example:
Each living thing in this chain is food for the next one!
Environmental balance is maintained through several natural cycles:
🌱 Nutrient Cycle: Plants use substances from soil for growth. When plants and animals die, microorganisms decompose them and return substances to the soil.
💧 Water Cycle: Maintains continuous water supply for all living things through evaporation, condensation, and rainfall.
🌬️ Oxygen-Carbon Dioxide Cycle: Living things take in oxygen and give out CO₂. Plants take in CO₂ and give out oxygen during photosynthesis.
🔄 When these cycles go on uninterrupted, they help maintain food chains and environmental balance!
💧 The Water Cycle 💧
🌬️ The Oxygen-Carbon Dioxide Cycle 🌬️
Plants use the following substances from the soil for their growth:
💧 Water - Essential for all plant processes
⚗️ Minerals - Like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium for nutrition
🍂 Organic matter - Decomposed plant and animal remains
✅ True
✅ True
❌ False
(Grasshoppers eat plants, not birds!)
A food chain shows how energy and nutrients pass from one living thing to another. Each living thing is a "link" in the chain.
When multiple food chains connect together, they form a food web. One animal can be part of many different food chains!
Biodiversity means the variety of all living things (plants, animals, microorganisms) in a particular area.
When all natural cycles work properly without interruption, the environment stays balanced. This helps all living things survive!
🌱 Plants make their own food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide
🐄 Many animals eat only plants (herbivores)
🦁 Some animals eat plant-eating animals (carnivores)
✅ Since plants don't depend on other living things for food, they are the foundation of every food chain!
🔄 Environmental balance maintains all natural cycles (water cycle, oxygen cycle, nutrient cycle)
🔗 These cycles help maintain food chains
⚠️ If balance is disturbed, food chains break and animals may die due to food shortage
🌍 Without environmental balance, nature and all living things will be destroyed
Therefore, we must protect environmental balance!
| Living Components | Non-Living Components |
|---|---|
| 🌱 Plants | ☀️ Sunlight |
| 🦁 Animals | 🌬️ Air |
| 🦠 Microorganisms | 💧 Water |
| 👨 Humans | 🏔️ Soil |
💧 Mosquito larvae grow in water
🚫 Don't allow water to accumulate anywhere
🧹 Keep surroundings clean and dry
🐟 Fishes like guppies, goldfish, and killifish eat mosquito larvae
✅ Growing these fish in ponds helps prevent mosquitoes naturally!
🍂 Use organic manure instead of chemical fertilizers
🌿 Organic manure is made by mixing plant remains, vegetables, and fruit peels with soil
🦠 Microorganisms decompose these materials into rich organic manure
✅ This natural fertilizer helps plants grow without harmful chemicals!
🌾 Deer feeds on various kinds of plants and grass
🍃 They eat leaves, twigs, and stems of plants
🦌 Deer are herbivores (plant-eaters)!
🦁 Tigers feed on plant-eating animals
🦌 They eat deer, cows, zebra, giraffe, goats, buffaloes, etc.
🥩 Tigers are carnivores (meat-eaters)!
Interaction: A particular way in which things affect one another 🔄
Component: Part of a larger whole 🧩
Biodiversity: Variety of living things in an area 🌈
Residues: A small amount that remains behind 🍂
Uninterrupted: Without break ⏱️
Organic: Derived from living matter 🌿
Decompose: To break down into simpler substances ♻️
Environment: Surroundings and conditions that affect life 🌍
✅ Everything in nature is connected through food chains
✅ Plants are the foundation of all food chains
✅ Microorganisms help recycle nutrients in nature
✅ Natural cycles maintain environmental balance
✅ We must protect biodiversity and the environment
✅ Use natural methods instead of harmful chemicals
