Transportation

        The earliest people in India did not even have horses to use for their transportation.  These animals were brought into India from the north probably by the Aryans who entered through the Hindu Kush in the northwest.  Teams of oxen were used in later times to help with the farming and this practice is still used extensively throughout India today.

          If you visit a modern city like Mumbai (the old name of Bombay) on the west coast of India, you will find an international airport, bustling taxi cabs as well as horse-drawn carts and rickshaws (human or bicycle-powered carts).  India’s network of transportation is as diverse as its people—from ancient to modern. 

          Below are some of the different modes of transportation used in India. 

  Airplanes  
  Trains         
  Motorized Vehicles: taxi cabs, motorcycles, buses, motor bikes, scooters, cars
  Human-powered transportation: bicycles, rickshaws
  Animal-powered transportation: ox-drawn carts, horse-drawn wagons, camels, elephants
  Water transportation: ships, small skiffs, shikaras (small canoe-like boats)

Essay Activity: Choose one of the two topics below and write your response in your Social Studies notebook.

1.  There are many accidents every day in the cities of India in which people are hurt or injured because of all the different kinds of transportation.  The people also believe in the sacredness of cows so these animals often roam freely in the streets and it is against the law to harm them in any way. 

If you were Transportation Director of a city in India, what ideas do you have as to how to manage all these different modes of transportation?  Should there be laws or rules?  What would you suggest?  Remember the population of India is over one billion people and a city like Mumbai has 18 million and Kolkata has 5 million people.  Waldwick has 10,000 people.  Think BIG!

2. Choose one of the categories of transportation listed above.  Do some research and present the facts you find in a pictorial way.  You might make a graph showing what you find out about animal powered transportation or perhaps a chart listing the numbers of motorized vehicles used or maybe a map showing the train routes in India.  Be creative but be sure to back up your research with documentation.