Land Resources

Land Resources

IMPORTANCE:

Land is a natural resource of utmost importance. It supports natural vegetation, wild life, human life, economic activities, transport and communication systems. It is important to use the available land for various purposes with careful planning.

INDIA'S VAST AND DIVERSE SIZE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RESOURCE:

• 43% of the total land is plain providing opportunities for agriculture & comfortable living.
• 30% is mountainous, provides forest, wildlife & Perennial Rivers.
• 27% is plateau, providing mineral resources, forests & arable lands.
• (Mountains & plateaus contain river valleys that offer favorable locations for human habitation.
• Monsoonal climate has made our land more valuable from agriculture & vegetation point of view.

LAND UTILISATION:

Land resources are used for the following purposes:

Forests

Land not available for cultivation

• Barren and waste land
• Land put to non-agricultural uses, e.g. buildings, roads, factories, etc.

Other uncultivated land (excluding fallow land)

• Permanent pastures and grazing land,
• Land under miscellaneous tree crops groves (not included in net sown area),
• Cultruable waste land (left uncultivated for more than 5 agricultural years).

Fallow lands

• Current fallow-(left without cultivation for one or less than one agricultural year),
• Other than current fallow-(left uncultivated for the past 1 to 5 agricultural years).

Related Topics

• Soil Resources
• Classification of Soil

Net sown area

LAND USE PATTERN IN INDIA:

The use of land is determined both by physical factors such as topography, climate, soil types as well as human factors such as population density, technological capability and culture and traditions etc.

Total geographical area of India is 3.28 million sq km Land use data, however, is available only for 93 per cent of the total area because the land use reporting for most of the north-east states except Assam has not been done fully.

LAND RESOURCES:

Plain 43% Net Sown Area (NSA) 0pt% of Plain
Mountains 30%
Plateau 27%

land resources

LAND DEGRADATION AND CONSERVATION MEASURES:
Continuous use of land over a long period of time without taking appropriate measures to conserve and manage it, has resulted in land degradation.

INDIA’S DEGRADED LAND

• At present there are about 130 million hectares degraded land.
• About 28% of it belongs to the category of forest degraded area.
• 56% of it is water eroded area.
• The rest is affected by saline and alkaline deposits
• Some human activities such as deforestation, over grazing mining and quarrying have also contributed significantly in land degradation.

Water eroded area-56%
Forests degraded area-28%
Saline and Alkaline land-6%
Wind eroded area- 6%

CAUSES OF LAND DEGRADATION:

• Mining sites are abandoned after excavation work is complete leaving deep scars and traces of overburdening. For example in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, M.P. and Orissa.
• In state like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra over grazing is one of the main reasons for land degradation.
• In the states of Punjab, Haryana, western Utter Pradesh over irrigation is responsible for land degradation due to water logging leading to increase in salinity and alkalinity in the soil.
• The mineral processing like grinding of limestone for cement industry and calcite & soap stone for ceramic industry generate huge quantity of dust in the atmosphere, which settles down on the surface.
• In recent years industrial effluents as waste have become a major source of land & water pollution in many parts of the country.

WAYS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF LAND DEGRADATION:

• Afforestation and proper management of grazing.
• Planting of shelter belts of plants
• Control on overgrazing
• Stabilization of sand dunes by growing thorny bushes.
• Proper management of waste land
• Control of mining activities
• Proper discharge and disposal of industrial effluents and wastes after treatment.