NATURAL CONDITIONS
The tropical humid lands broadly include the areas lying between Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. They include three climatic regions : (a) Tropical Rainforest, (b) Monsoon, and (c) Savanna which together cover nearly 25 per cent area of the carth's surface. Of they vary greatly in amount and monthly distribution of rainfall, Course are basically hot and humid regions with long summers and but winters, prevailing trade winds and intense cyclonic activity (often Testructive in nature). It is popularly believed that 'nights are winters in equatorial region' where conventional rainfall ordinarily occurs every afternoon.
The combination of high temperature and high humidity is highly favourable for luxuriant vegetation growth. The tropical rainforest, Selva characteristic of the Amazon Basin in South America, the Congo Basin IS Africa and South-East Asia where annual rainfall is abundant (more in than 200 cms). Trees vie for sunlight by growing great heights (60-70 m) and form a complete canopy of foliage. Vines and creepers grow on tree trunks and lianos hang like ropes from branches. But where rainfall alternates with seasonal drought, the tropical rainforest is replaced by the monsoon deciduous forests in India the Savanna in Africa, Campos in Brazil and Lianos in Venezuela.
The tropical regions have mostly yellow or red soils with humus. Laterites belong to these groups of high temperature and hos rainfall. Soils are greatly leached and are infertile, excepting lava saly in Java and the Deccan Trap (India).
The tropical rainforests abound in faunal life-animals, birds on insects. In the dense forest only the clephant can find its way, but i open forest and Savanna the number of terrestrial animals increase most of which are herbivorous but some like lions and tigers beine carnivorous. The Savanna is well suited to animals like the giraffe, the zebra or the deer.
ECONOMIC PATTERN
The economic patterns in the tropical humid regions are highly varied. There are several hunting and gathering tribes like the Pygmies in Central Africa, the Semangs in Malaysia and Peninsular Thailand, the Papunas in New Guinea and the Actas in Philippines. As nature is bountiful, it is easy to procure food. Their daily round is a constant for search In the open forest and Savanna, shifting cultivation is practised. It is called jhooming in N.E. India, Fang in Gabon, Milpa in Central America and Caingin in Philippines. It is essentially slash and burn cultivation, The land is cleared and is used for crops for 2-3 years and then left as fallow for natural regeneration of forest for 20-25 years. In most cases following depends on population pressure. Inter-cropping is a distinctive feature as evidenced by the Maya Indians of Guatemala or the Kukis in Nagaland. The main food crops grown are rice, sweet potato, maize, yams, bananas , and peas.
The most dominant humid land is the subsistence agriculture in India, China, Bangla Desh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other countries of South-East Asia: They are the world's oldest agricultural lands where agriculture is essentially a way of life. There contrasted with extensive commercial farming in the U.S.A, or Australia.
Its main features are multiple cropping, inter-cropping, croP rotation, intensive labour input and intensive tillage, irrigation and fertilization. The main crops are rice, wheat, maize, pulses, oil-seeds, sugarcane, potato, tobacco, vegetables and fruits. Animal husbandry plays an important role in their agrarian economy. In recent decades the character of subsistence agriculture has changed due to Green Revolution and White Revolution as well as use of farm machinery.
The tropical humid lands are well suited to plantation, agriculture e.g, sugarcane plantation in Cuba and Java, banana plantations, tea and coffee plantations in India and Sri Lanka and rubber plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are examples of commercial farming which was earlier started by the Euopean colonists, but now all these crops are grown on small farms. Pastoral economies are also practised in warm and humid Savanna regions. Today India is the largest producer of milk in the world out-excelling the U.S.A. In recent decades industrial development has lso gained momentum in certain pockets. Industrics are basically consumer industries or resource-based industrics (agro-industries, forest-based industries, mineral industries.)
SOCIAL PATTERN
No doubt the tropics have bcen the craddle of humanity as evidenced by the fossils of the Java Man or the Rhodesian Man and nurtured the ancient civilizations of India and China in Asia and the Maya and Inca civilizations pattern of the tropical humid lands is highly differentiated from primitive tribal societies to modern industrial-urban societies.
There are several primitive tribes living in the dense tropical forests like the Semangs of Malaysia whose daily round is constant search for food, collecting berries, tubers (yams) young shoots of plants or wild game hunting. They still use crude weapons like bows and arrows. A few groups have borrowed the blow pipe from their neighbours of Senoi (Sakai). The bamboo is their main resource used for making knives, baskets, mats, drums or blow-pipes. Here ownership and inheritance rights relate to trees like durian and mangosteen. Their social organization is most primitive restricted to a clan whose population is determined by diseases and natural hazards. It is rarely that a few groups join a feast when plentiful food is available, but no larger social organization exists there. Tom Stacey has aptly observed, ""They are the human race preserved by the jungle in its state of childhood."
Tribes engaged in shifting cultivation live in semi-permanent, dispersed settlements on family farms. The Papuan tribes of New Guinea provide an example. Their primitive life is well-adjusted to the physical Central America. Today the societal environment.
Subsistence agriculture is associated with rural settlements. In Asia most of these regions are densely populated. Here social organisation is basically agrarian and well-organised. "The societies are intricately organised with specialists in many arcas of human activity."
Plantations have owner/manager lives in a spacious well-equipped house with modern amenities while the workers live apart in tenements. The relationships between the owner/manager and the workers is that of the master and the servant. distinctive settlement paltern. The a Surely machine civilization already invaded the tropics and market economy is replacing the subsistance economy with commercial crops and plantations. Industrialization has gained momentum. Many societies have also experienced urbanization for a long time. Hausar has observed: "In the feudal and semi-feudal setting of several Asian countries, the pressure on land resulted in a gradual pauperization of the peasantry and growth of an agricultural labouring class which started looking for an alternative employment in cities and towns."
The Asian citics prior to 20th century were traditional, pre-industrial and colonial. But the situation has drastically changed with the emerging industrial-urban economy. Today India and China have the largest urban populations. A large number of mega-cities of the world are in the tropical humid region.
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