"Climate is extreme, rainfall is scanty and the people used to be nomadic herders." The above statements best describe which of the following regions?

Answer: (b) Central Asian Steppe

The Central Asian steppe is far from the sea: very hot summers, very cold winters, 25–50 cm rain, and Kazakh and Mongol herders who move with their animals.

The idea

The clue is “extreme”. Land heats and cools much faster than sea. A place deep inside a continent, far from any ocean, has very hot summers and very cold winters, and the rain-bearing winds are nearly dry by the time they arrive. This effect is called continentality.

Far from the sea → No moderating influence → extreme temperatures → Little moisture reaches → scanty rain → Grass, not forest → People moved with their herds

Why the others are wrong

(a) The African savannah is warm all year — not an “extreme” climate.

(c) The prairies are now farmed (wheat belt); the herders there were not the classic example.

(d) The tundra is too cold for grassland herding of this kind; its people herd reindeer.

The trap

The prairie is also an extreme temperate grassland. “Nomadic herders” points to Central Asia.

Also know

The Kirghiz and Kazakh herders lived in portable round tents and moved between summer and winter pastures. The steppe’s black soil (chernozem) is among the most fertile in the world, and large parts were later ploughed for wheat.