Pack animals
Also called: Beasts of burden · Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"
Meaning
Pack animals carry loads on their backs or pull carts and sledges. They were one of the earliest forms of land transport. People first carried loads themselves as porters, then used animals, and later used the wheel. Different animals suit different lands:
- horses as draught animals (animals that pull loads), even in the West;
- dogs and reindeer pulling sledges in North America, northern Europe and Siberia;
- mules in the mountains;
- camels for desert caravans;
- bullocks pulling carts in India.
Porters, pack animals and carts have the highest cost per unit of load carried. Even so, they still serve remote interiors and crowded districts of India and China.
Example
In the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, camels still carry people and goods across the sand. Across rural India, bullock carts still carry farm produce to local markets.
Related concepts
- Ropeways and cableways
- Road transport
- Metalled and unmetalled roads
- Motorways
- Traffic congestion
- Mass rapid transit