Chapter 6 — Some Unique Places

Chapter 6 of the Class 5 The World Around Us NCERT textbook (Our Wondrous World), "Some Unique Places", takes students on a journey from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands through the Sundarbans and Northeast India to the Western Ghats — download the PDF and read a summary of each region's special plants, animals, and the people who depend on them.

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands — The Andaman and Nicobar Islands form a long chain of over a thousand islands at the southernmost tip of India. Their forests shelter unique trees with wide buttress roots, and birds like the Andaman wood pigeon and Andaman hornbill that are found nowhere else on Earth.
• Sundarbans and Mangrove Forests — The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world, located where the river Ganga meets the sea on muddy, salty land. Mangrove roots grow above the water to help the trees breathe, and they hold the soil together to protect the coast from waves.
• Northeast India: Seven Sisters and Living Root Bridges — Northeast India comprises the seven states called the Seven Sisters plus Sikkim, covered in lush forests and flowing rivers. People here live closely with nature, and their traditions include weaving, music, dance, and protecting birds like the Greater Adjutant Stork (Hargila).
• Western Ghats: Nature's Hotspot — The Western Ghats is a long chain of forested hills running through six states, home to animals like the lion-tailed macaque found only in this region. Several major Indian rivers begin here, and the hills contain plants used in traditional medicine, with over 50 protected areas including wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves.

1. 01India has around 75 per cent of the world's wild tigers, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are home to birds like the Andaman wood pigeon and Andaman hornbill found nowhere else.
2. 02The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world; mangrove roots that stick out of the water help the trees breathe in muddy, salty soil.
3. 03The people of North Sentinel Island in the Andamans live as hunter-gatherers and may have survived the 2004 tsunami by reading natural signs like changes in wind, sea, and animal behaviour.
4. 04Northeast India is known for the living root bridges in Meghalaya, where tree roots across streams have grown strong enough to walk on, and for Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper), one of the hottest chillies in the world.
5. 05The Western Ghats has over 50 protected areas, and a community survey of the region recorded over 200 types of mangoes growing there.
6. 06The Silent Valley in Kerala is a rare silent rainforest — unlike most rainforests, it lacks the buzzing of cicada insects — saved from a dam by the Save Silent Valley Movement.
7. 07Every region the chapter visits shows how local people, animals, and plants are deeply connected to each other and to the land they share.