Question

What is meant by transhumance?
A. Seasonal movement of people with their livestock
B. Permanent migration
C. Cattle rearing
D. None of these

Answer 1

Hint: Transhumance is an old tradition followed in Switzerland at the time of summer and winter seasons in order to take advantage of the seasonal variations.

Complete answer:
Option A, ‘seasonal movement of people with their livestock’ is termed as transhumance where people seasonally move, i.e. in winters they move to valleys and in summers to mountains or mid altitudes. Transhumance is Latin word and comes from French where ‘trans’ means across and ‘humus’ means ground. It is practiced by those countries where the weather conditions are too extreme like in winters it is extremely cold for a balanced survival due to which people with their livestock travel to other countries of better weather conditions. Thus, it is the correct answer.
Option B, ‘Permanent migration’ means an individual moves from one place to another which is not limited by time and does not have any guarantee of returning to their original area. Thus, it is not the correct answer.
Option C, ‘Cattle rearing’ refers to the management of animals which is basically two types of animals – first the animals which are used for the purpose of dairy products like cow, buffalo, goats etc. and the other type is of those animals which are used for the purpose of ploughing, irrigation or labour purpose which are also known as draught animals, for example horse, elephants, dogs etc. Thus, it is not the appropriate answer.
Option D is an invalid option.

Hence, the correct answer is option (A)

Note: Using animals for the purpose of labour or making them work is actually cruelty to animals. Today, humans do not realize that there exists a life in animals too which is at the end going to dismantle the entire ecological system. Thus, animal abuse should be stopped because it is ultimately going to harm each and every individual as well as the environment.