Answer: Physiography (relief, slope, landforms) decides how easily land can be used for agriculture, settlement, transport and industry, so it influences the level of development of a region.
- Plains and river valleys have level land and fertile soil; they support intensive agriculture, dense settlements, easy construction of roads and railways and growth of industries and cities. Such regions develop faster (e.g. the Ganga plain, coastal plains).
- Mountains and rugged plateaus have steep slopes, thin soils and difficult access. Agriculture, transport and industry are hard and costly to develop, so such regions often remain less developed (e.g. parts of the Himalaya, North-East India).
- However, some plateaus are rich in minerals and some mountains in forests, hydel power and tourism, so physiography also decides the kind of development possible. Hence regional development depends on the physiography of a region.
