Class 8 Science Chapter 12, How Nature Works in Harmony, begins with elephant corridors in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam and Chhattisgarh to explore habitats, biotic and abiotic components, food chains, food webs, decomposers and ecosystem balance.
What Class 8 Science Chapter 12 Covers
12.1 to 12.4 Organisms, Communities, and Interactions trace populations and communities in nature, biotic and abiotic factors, and relationships such as predation, competition, mutualism, commensalism and parasitism (Activities 12.1 to 12.5).
12.5 Who Eats Whom? and 12.6 What Happens to Waste in Nature? build food chains, trophic levels and food webs (Activities 12.6 to 12.8), and show how decomposers (fungi and bacteria) recycle nutrients back to the soil.
12.7 to 12.9 Ecosystem Balance and Benefits examine how one change cascades through an ecosystem, why biodiversity maintains stability, and how communities conserve habitats (Activities 12.9 and 12.10).
Exercises in Chapter 12
- Keep the curiosity alive end-of-chapter questions and reasoning exercises.
- Discover, design, and debate and Projects for hands-on investigation.
Read Class 8 Science Chapter 12 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 11: Keeping Time with the Skies
- Next: Chapter 13: Our Home: Earth, a Unique Life Sustaining Planet
- Hindi medium: Class 8 Science Chapter 12 PDF in Hindi (Jigyasa)
- All Science chapters and the other Class 8 books: Class 8 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
FAQ
What happens to waste in nature according to Chapter 12?
Decomposers such as fungi and bacteria break down dead plants, animals and waste into simple nutrients that return to the soil.
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain is a single linear path of who eats whom; a food web is an interconnected network of many food chains in an ecosystem.