The Class 8 Social Science book Resource and Development, the Geography volume of the Class 8 NCERT Social Science set, has 5 chapters across 54 printed pages — and the official NCERT PDF for every chapter is on this page.
This page adds what the PDF alone does not: a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what the book actually teaches, with its figures, activities and exercises counted from the textbook itself. You can find where a topic sits — soil, crops, industries, population — before opening a single chapter file.
Class 8 Social Science book Resource and Development: official PDF downloads
| Ch. | Chapter | Pages | Official PDF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resources | 6 | |
| 2 | Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources | 15 | |
| 3 | Agriculture | 10 | |
| 4 | Industries | 12 | |
| 5 | Human Resources | 11 |
Official files, directly from NCERT. These five files are NCERT’s own PDFs, hosted on ncert.nic.in and free to download — the official edition, not a scan or a third-party copy. Each row lists the chapter, its title, the printed page count and the official PDF link.
Class 8 SST book PDF at a glance: five chapters, 54 pages, 49 figures
The numbers below are the ones a student actually needs before opening the book, and each is shown in the tables on this page.
- 5 chapters, each with its official PDF linked in the download table above.
- 54 printed pages across the five chapters.
- 49 verified numbered figures indexed from the textbook and listed in the figure index below.
- 13 activities across Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5; Chapter 3 sets none.
- End-of-chapter exercises in Chapter 3 only — 5 questions with 23 parts.
- Chapter study-page status is shown in the Chapter pages section below.
What each chapter actually teaches
The table below lists what each chapter carries — pages, activities, figures and exercises — counted from the book itself.
| Ch. | Chapter | Sections | Activities | Figures | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resources | — | 2 | — | — |
| 2 | Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources | — | 5 | 15 | — |
| 3 | Agriculture | — | — | 16 | 5 |
| 4 | Industries | — | 4 | 9 | — |
| 5 | Human Resources | — | 2 | 9 | — |
Reading the columns: an ‘activity’ is a printed Let’s do or Activity box on the chapter’s pages, a ‘figure’ is a numbered figure the book prints, and a ‘question’ is an end-of-chapter exercise.
A ‘section’ would be a numbered heading NCERT prints; this book prints none, so that column reads 0.
Chapter 1: Resources (6 pages)
This is the vocabulary chapter of the book: it establishes why something counts as a resource, sorts resources into natural resources, human made resources and human resources, and explains what a stock of a resource means. Read it first — every later chapter assumes these terms.
- Amma’s List
- Types of Resources
- Natural Resources
- Human Made Resources
- Human Resources
- Stock of Resource
Chapter 1 runs 6 pages with 2 activities, no numbered figures and no end-of-chapter exercises. Open the official NCERT PDF of Chapter 1 (hess401.pdf) to read the volume’s shortest chapter directly.
Chapter 2: Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources (15 pages)
This is the conservation core of the volume. The chapter treats land use as the starting point, explains the soil profile and how soil forms, moves through soil conservation techniques such as terrace farming, contour ploughing and shelter belts, and ends with water availability and its conservation.
- Land Use
- Conservation of Land Resource
- A Case Study
- Mitigation Mechanism
- Factors of Soil Formation
- Degradation of Soil and Conservation Measures
- Problems of Water Availability
- Conservation of Water Resources
At 15 pages this is the book’s longest chapter and its most activity-heavy: 5 activities and 15 of the book’s 49 figures, with no end-of-chapter exercises. The chapter PDF is hess402.pdf.
Chapter 3: Agriculture (10 pages)
This chapter explains how a farm works as a farm system, contrasts subsistence farming, organic farming and commercial farming, then runs through the major crops — rice, wheat, bajra, maize, cotton, coffee, tea — and what agricultural development means.
- Word Origin
- Farm System
- Types of Farming
- Subsistence Farming
- Organic Farming
- Commercial Farming
- Major Crops
- Agricultural Development
- A Farm in India
Chapter 3 is the most figure-dense chapter in the book — 16 of its 49 figures — and the only one with end-of-chapter exercises: 5 questions with 23 parts. The chapter PDF is hess403.pdf.
Chapter 4: Industries (12 pages)
The book now moves from the farm to the factory. This chapter explains the classification of industries, the locational factors that decide where industry sits, the industrial system and industrial regions, and follows the iron and steel industry from iron ore to finished steel.
- Classification of Industries
- Factors Affecting Location of Industries
- Industrial System
- Industrial Regions
- Industrial Disaster
- Risk Reduction Measures
- Distribution of Major Industries
- Iron and Steel Industry
Across its 12 pages the chapter carries 9 indexed figures and 4 activities, with no end-of-chapter exercises. Figure 4.6, from iron ore to steel in a blast furnace, is the chapter’s best diagram for revision; the chapter PDF is hess404.pdf.
Chapter 5: Human Resources (11 pages)
The book closes with people as the resource. The chapter studies the distribution of population and density of population, why population changes over time, and how population composition is read through population pyramids.
- Distribution of Population
- Density of Population
- Factors Affecting Distribution of Population
- Geographical Factors
- Social, Cultural and Economic Factors
- Population Change
- Patterns of Population Change
- Population Composition
Its 11 pages carry 9 indexed figures — including the population pyramids of Kenya, India and Japan at Figures 5.7-5.9 — and 2 activities, with no end-of-chapter exercises. The chapter PDF is hess405.pdf.
All 49 figure captions in the book, indexed by chapter
If you remember a diagram but not the chapter it belongs to, find it here. The table lists the 49 figure captions NCERT prints across Chapters 2-5, in the order they appear in the book; Chapter 1 prints no figures.
Captions are quoted exactly as printed in the NCERT textbook.
| Figure | Printed caption (quoted from NCERT) | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Salzburg in Austria | Chapter 2 |
| 2.2 | Change in land use over time | |
| 2.3 | Soil Profile | |
| 2.4 | Factors affecting soil formation | |
| 2.5 | Terrace Farming | |
| 2.6 | Contour Ploughing | |
| 2.7 | Shelter Belts | |
| 2.8 | River Yamuna is getting polluted due to sewage, industrial effluents and garbage | |
| 2.10 | Silk Worms | |
| 2.11 | Brahma Kamal a Medicinal Herb | |
| 2.13 | Grassland and Forest | |
| 2.14 | A Python in a forest | |
| 2.15 | A collage of a forest made by school students | |
| 2.16 | Loss of rainforest in Great Nicobar after Tsunami | |
| 2.17 | Black buck also needs protection | |
| 3.1 | World Distribution of Arable Land | Chapter 3 |
| 3.2 | The farm system of an arable farm | |
| 3.3 | Physical and human farm inputs | |
| 3.4 | Nomadic Herders with their camels | |
| 3.7 | Rice Cultivation | |
| 3.8 | Wheat Harvesting | |
| 3.9 | Bajra Cultivation | |
| 3.10 | Maize Cultivation | |
| 3.11 | Cotton Cultivation | |
| 3.12 | Coffee Plantation | |
| 3.13 | Tea Plantation | |
| 3.14 | Farmers ploughing a field | |
| 3.15 | An Agricultural Field in India | |
| 3.16 | A Farm in the USA | |
| 3.17 | Spray of Pesticides | |
| 3.18 | Mechanised Harvesting in the USA | |
| 4.1 | Stages in food processing of Gorgon nut (makhana) | Chapter 4 |
| 4.2 | Sudha dairy in Co-operative sector | |
| 4.3 | Locational factors for industries | |
| 4.4 | World’s Industrial Regions | |
| 4.5 | Manufacturing of steel | |
| 4.6 | From iron ore to steel in a blast furnace | |
| 4.7 | The changing location of the iron and steel industry | |
| 4.8 | World: Major Iron Ore Producing Areas* | |
| 4.9 | Location of iron and steel industry in Jamshedpur* | |
| 5.1 | World population by continents | Chapter 5 |
| 5.2 | World’s most populous countries | |
| 5.3 | World Population Growth | |
| 5.4 | Balance of Population | |
| 5.5 | World: Differing rates of population growth | |
| 5.6 | Population Pyramid | |
| 5.7 | Population Pyramid of Kenya | |
| 5.8 | Population Pyramid of India | |
| 5.9 | Population Pyramid of Japan |
A note on numbering: the figure numbering in the NCERT PDF skips a few labels — 2.9, 2.12, 3.5 and 3.6 are not present — so a citation to one of those numbers will not be found here. Do not hunt for a missing figure; the next printed label picks up the sequence.
For revision, start with the figures that carry the most meaning: the soil-conservation group in Chapter 2 (Soil Profile, Terrace Farming, Contour Ploughing, Shelter Belts), and the farm-inputs diagram with the crop cultivation series in Chapter 3.
The blast-furnace steel sequence and the Jamshedpur location map in Chapter 4, plus the Kenya-India-Japan population pyramid trio in Chapter 5, complete the visual core of the book.
Chapter pages for this book
The chapters below have their own study pages where they exist; the list shows the current status.
| Ch. | Chapter page |
|---|---|
| 1 | Resources (coming soon) |
| 2 | Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources (coming soon) |
| 3 | Agriculture (coming soon) |
| 4 | Industries (coming soon) |
| 5 | Human Resources (coming soon) |
How to use the Class 8 NCERT book for Social Science (Resource and Development)
This order follows the book’s own logic — resource, then land, then the crops grown on it, then the industries that process them, then the people who use them.
- Read Chapter 1 (Resources) first. It defines resource, stock, and the natural / human-made / human split that every later chapter assumes.
- Read Chapters 2 and 3 as a pair. Both work on land, but from different sides: Chapter 2 is conservation (soil, water, vegetation), while Chapter 3 is production (crops, farming types).
- Move to Chapter 4 (Industries) and Chapter 5 (Human Resources). They complete the journey from land to people.
- Use Chapter 3’s exercises as a revision test. It is the book’s only end-of-chapter set — 5 questions with 23 parts — so after Chapters 1-3, attempt them with the PDF closed.
- Revise visually through the figure index above: the soil-conservation group in Chapter 2, the cultivation series in Chapter 3, and the Kenya-India-Japan pyramid trio in Chapter 5.
If you are revising the whole year, the Class 8 hub collects the rest of the NCERT books at this stage.
Related NCERT book pages on this site
This page covers one volume of the Class 8 Social Science set.
- The NCERT books collection — browse by class and subject across the site.
- The Class 8 hub — all NCERT books listed for Class 8.
The other two volumes of Class 8 Social Science — History (Our Pasts III) and Civics (Social and Political Life III) — are separate NCERT books, not covered on this page.
Sources and data verification
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
- The chapter counts, figure captions and activity totals on this page describe NCERT’s Class 8 Social Science Geography textbook, Resource and Development — the official PDFs hess401 to hess405 on ncert.nic.in.
- This page lists this Geography volume only. Class 8 Social Science also has a History volume (Our Pasts III) and a Civics volume (Social and Political Life III), which are not listed here.
- The listing is maintained for the current academic session, using the NCERT PDFs NCERT has published.
- NCERT settles textbooks, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles curriculum, syllabus and examinations. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus.
Reference: NCERT Class 8 Social Science textbook (Resource and Development), official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; chapter references are to the official PDF.
Common questions about this book
How many chapters are in the Class 8 Social Science book Resource and Development?
Five chapters across 54 printed pages: Resources; Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources; Agriculture; Industries; and Human Resources. Chapter 2 is the longest at 15 pages.
Is the Class 8 Social Science book PDF on this page the official NCERT file?
Yes. Every chapter links to the official PDF on ncert.nic.in — files hess401.pdf to hess405.pdf, the same free downloads NCERT publishes.
Which chapter covers soil, land and water conservation?
Chapter 2, Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources. It carries the soil profile, terrace farming, contour ploughing and shelter belts, and ends with conservation of water resources.
Where are the exercise questions in the Class 8 Social Science book?
Only Chapter 3 (Agriculture) has end-of-chapter exercises — 5 questions with 23 parts. The other four chapters build understanding through activities instead.
Is Resource and Development the whole Class 8 Social Science book?
No — it is the Geography volume of a three-book set. History (Our Pasts III) and Civics (Social and Political Life III) are separate NCERT books.