Chapter 10 — Earth — Our Shared Home

Chapter 10 of the Class 5 The World Around Us NCERT textbook (Our Wondrous World), "Earth — Our Shared Home", explores how people, animals, plants, and ideas travel across the world and connect us all — download the PDF and read a summary of stories about migratory birds, yoga, chillies, sugar, marigolds, and Indian cows that reveal how deeply every nation shares this one planet.

• Nature Has No Boundaries — From space, no borders or lines are visible between countries. Air, water, clouds, seeds, and animals move freely across the world, showing that nature itself is borderless and connects all living things.
• India's Contributions to the World — Yoga has been practised in India for more than 3,000 years and is now practised in almost every country. Sugar — made by turning sugarcane juice into jaggery and then into sugar — was first developed in India before spreading through trade and travel. Indian spices like pepper and cardamom were so prized that traders called them 'black gold'.
• Things That Travelled to India — Chillies came from South America to India around 400 to 500 years ago when Portuguese travellers brought them. Marigolds originated in Mexico and arrived in India where they became central to festivals like Diwali. Paper came to India from China through trade.
• Animals Crossing Borders — Rosy starlings fly thousands of kilometres every winter from Russia and Mongolia to India, feeding on locusts and grasshoppers and helping farmers by eating crop pests. Indian cow breeds — Gir, Kankrej, and Ongole — were taken to Brazil by Portuguese traders; today more than three-fourths of Brazil's milk comes from these three Indian breeds.
• Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — One Earth, One Family — An ancient Indian saying, 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', means 'the world is one family.' The chapter closes with the idea that Earth is the only planet known to have life, and caring for the Earth means caring for all people, animals, and plants that share it.

1. 01Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to reach the International Space Station, noted that from space no borders are visible — Earth looks completely one.
2. 02Rosy starlings migrate each winter from Russia and Mongolia to India, traveling thousands of kilometres and helping farmers by eating locusts and grasshoppers.
3. 03Yoga has been practised in India for more than 3,000 years; the United Nations declared 21 June as the International Day of Yoga in 2014.
4. 04Chillies are native to South America and reached India only 400 to 500 years ago, brought by Portuguese travellers; before chillies, Indians used black pepper to spice food.
5. 05The method of making jaggery from sugarcane juice, and then refining it into sugar, was first discovered in India and spread to the rest of the world through trade.
6. 06The marigold flower originally came from Mexico but is now used across India in temples, weddings, and festivals like Diwali.
7. 07Three Indian cow breeds — Gir, Kankrej, and Ongole — provide more than three-fourths of Brazil's milk today, taken there long ago by Portuguese traders.