What is the land utilisation pattern in India? Let us have a look and understand the sources of information for some key categories. This chapter is part of a series on Hierarchical Spatial Planning Framework

This chapter is specific to Indian scenario. Still, some sections might be relevant to other regions and countries as well.

Various ministries and departments at the National as well as the State Government maintain information on existing land use statistics for their own planning purposes. It is important to understand how these statistics look together at various levels of governance. Such a collation of land use statistics and envisaged/proposed plans is expected to give an interesting insight into the land use scenario for the state as well as the challenges ahead.

Currently, it is difficult to collate all the information as maintained by different departments into a single unified structure. As we have seen different, departments have different definitions of land uses suitable for focussed and sectoral planning. Hence, this section does not attempt to converge the land use statistics as maintained by different departments.

Land Utilisation Pattern

Availability of timely and reliable statistics of land utilisation plays an important role in policy formulation. The Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), an attached office of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Government of India, is entrusted with the task of collecting and disseminating land use statistics by district and state. The DES receives land use statistics by state and district in three different parts, viz. classification of land, area under irrigation (by source and crop) and area under crops in the prescribed format from State Agricultural Statistics Authorities (SASA). The SASAs comprises the following bodies designated to collect land use statistics in each state and union territory in the country:

• Directorate of Economics & Statistics/Bureau of Statistics/Planning (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Puducherry (19);
• Office of the Land Record & Revenues (Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh (7); and
• Directorate of Agriculture (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, Delhi, Lakshadweep 10).

Land use statistics, as maintained by DES are presently available as per the nine-fold classification of land use, which includes

• Forest area
• Area under non-agricultural use
• Barren and un-culturable land
• Permanent pasture and other grazing land
• Land under miscellaneous tree crops, etc.
• Culturable waste land
• Fallow lands other than current fallows
• Current fallows
• Net area sown

Sr. No.	Particular/Year	2004-15 (Thousand Hectares)	Percentage
1	Total Geographical Area	328726.00
2	Reporting Area for Land Utilisation Pattern (3+4+5+6+7)	307817.51	100.00%
3	Forests	71793.63	23.32%
4	Not available for cultivation	43879.68	14.26%
4 (a)	Area under non-agricultural uses	26883.30	8.73%
4 (b)	Barren & un-culturable land	16996.38	5.52%
5	Other uncultivated land excluding Fallow Land	25831.71	8.39%
5 (a)	Permanent pastures & other grazing lands	10258.12	3.33%
5 (b)	Land under misc. tree crops & groves (not included in net area sown)	3104.11	1.01%
5 (c)	Culturable waste land	12469.48	4.05%
6	Fallow Lands	26182.46	8.51%
6 (a)	Fallow lands other than current fallows	11091.65	3.60%
6 (b)	Current fallows	15090.81	4.90%
7	Net area Sown	140130.02	45.52%
8	Total Cropped Area	198359.90	64.44%
9	Area sown more than once (8 – 7)	58229.88	18.92%
10	Agri. Land/Cultivable land/Culturable land/Arable land (5b+5c+6+7)	181886.07	59.09%
11	Cultivated land (6b+7)	155220.83	50.43%
12	Un-cultivable land (2 – 10)	125931.44	40.91%
13	Un-cultivated land (2 – 11)	152596.68	49.57%
14	Cropping Intensity (percentage of 8 over 7)	141.55%

The reporting area for land utilisation pattern is 93.64 per cent of total geographic area of India. Note that India has the potential to cultivate 59.09 per cent of its total reported area, where it is already cultivating 50.43 per cent of its total reported area. Furthermore, India has an overall cropping intensity of 141.55 per cent.

Agricultural land consists of net area sown, current fallows, fallow lands other than current fallows, land under miscellaneous tree crops and culturable waste land. Non-agricultural land includes forest area, area under non-agricultural use, barren and unculturable land and permanent pasture and other grazing land.

One can find the latest Land Use Pattern as well as Land Utilisation by different crops here, here and here.

Land Utilisation related to Agriculture

Agriculture comprises the bulk of land utilisation in India. Hence it is important to understand the cropping pattern and the variations thereof in terms of production pattern and yield patterns. It would also be important to understand the pattern of land under irrigation and micro-irrigation.

Click here and here to access the latest details of cropping pattern and irrigation pattern.

Livestock

Livestock sector plays a significant role in welfare of rural population in India. It is an important part of agricultural diversification and income enhancement along with being crucial for nutritional value. A regularly updated database is essential for making plans and policies related to livestock sector. Rearing livestock is extensively dependent of land. The Government of India undertakes periodic Livestock Census with the latest survey conduction between October 01, 2018 to September 20, 2019. The census covers the entire country for about 660 thousand villages and nearly 89 thousand urban wards. The total livestock population is estimated at 536.75 million showing an increase of 4.8 per cent since 2012.

Click here to access the latest livestock census of India.

Availability of adequate quantity of feed and fodder for livestock is essential for improving the livestock productivity.

The Government of India has formulated a centrally sponsored scheme – National Livestock Mission for various components of fodder development both for production and post-harvest management. The mission intends to assist the States in their endeavour to augment the availability of quality feed and fodder. The States also have access to funds and autonomy, to undertake development of feed and fodder besides other agricultural and allied activities, under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). Further, as per the latest guidelines, MNREGA Scheme funds can also be utilized for improving availability of fodder.

The availability of feed and fodder has improved over the last decade. However, there exists a substantial gap between the demand and availability of fodder, particularly during the lean periods and at the times of natural calamities including droughts/floods.

A leading concern is the diminishing grazing land due to pressure on land for agricultural and non-agricultural uses. Most of the demarcated grazing lands (village commons) are either degraded or encroached upon, restricting their availability for grazing. The area under fodder cultivation is limited to about 4 per cent of the total cropped area, and it has remained static for the past four decades. Owing to the importance of food crops and other cash crops, it is unlikely that the area under fodder cultivation would increase substantially.

The Government of India believes that adopting the practice of land use with multiple crops in a sustainable manner, through area specific silvi-pastoral and horti-pastoral models can substantially enhance forage availability for the growing livestock. Furthermore, open forests (with canopy density of less than 0.4) and horticulture orchards are being explored to be utilised for growing fodder as an under-storey on the partially shaded ground without affecting standing trees.

Emphasis is also being laid on non-cropped areas in the agricultural land which are not cultivated viz. bunds, pond embankments, slopes of nala course, basins of plantation and horticultural crops, hedges with fodder crops etc.

Click here to read Advisory on Measures to be taken for Increasing Availability of Fodder to Mitigate the Effect of Natural Calamities (May 13, 2019).

Forests

Forest Survey of India conducts a biennial assessment of India’s forest resources. Some of the key findings from the Indian State of Forest Report 2019 (click here for more details) indicate following:

• The forest cover of India is 712,249 square kilometres (21.67 per cent) and the tree cover outside forest is estimated at 95,027 square kilometres (2.89 per cent) making the total forest and tree cover of 807,276 square kilometres (24.56 per cent of the total geographical area of India).
• It is estimated that there was an increase of 3976 square kilometres (0.56 per cent) of forest cover, 1212 square kilometres (1.29 per cent) of tree cover and a total of 5188 square kilometres (0.65 per cent) of forest and tree cover put together at the national level as compared to the previous assessment in 2017.
• Furthermore, the forest cover within the reserved forest area has shown a slight decrease of 0.05 per cent (330 square kilometres) as compared to previous assessment of 2017. The mangrove cover in has increased by 54 square kilometres (1.10 per cent) as compared to the previous assessment. However, 21.40 per cent of the forest cover of the country is classified as highly to extremely fire prone as per severity.

Forest and Tree Cover of India in 2019

Class	Area (Sq. Km.)	Percentage
Very Dense Forest (VDF)	99,278	3.02%
Moderately Dense Forest (MDF)	308,472	9.38%
Open Forest (OF)	304,499	9.26%
Total Forest Cover	712,249	21.67%
Tree Cover	95,027	2.89%
Total Forest & Tree Cover	807,276	24.56%
Scrub	46,297	1.41%
Non-Forest	2,528,923	76.92%
Total Geographic Area of India	3,287,469	100.00%

Protected Areas

India is one of the 17 mega diverse countries of the world in terms of biodiversity. With only 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area, 16.7 per cent of the world’s human population and 18 per cent livestock, India contributes about 8 per cent of the known global biodiversity, thereby, putting enormous demands on our natural resources.

There are 4 categories of the Protected Areas viz, National Parks, Sanctuaries, Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves.

Protected Areas of India (July 2019)

Type	Count	Area (Sq. Km.)	Percentage
National Parks	104	40,501.13	1.23%
Wildlife Sanctuaries	551	119,775.80	3.64%
Conservation Reserves	88	4,356.49	0.13%
Community Reserves	127	525.22	0.02
Total Protected Area Network	870	165,158.54	5.02%
Total Forest & Tree Cover		807,276	24.56%
Total Geographic Area of India		3,287,469	100.00%

In addition to above there are nine Marine National Parks accounting for a total area of 1153.94 square kilometres and 97 Marine Sanctuaries accounting for a total area of 415.69 square kilometres.

Click here to read details of Indian Protected Area Network.

Important Conservation Sites

Furthermore, there are sites of conservation importance, whose boundaries may or may not overlap with each other or the protected area network of India.

Important conservation sites in India (as on February 2019)

Type	Count	Area (Sq. Km.)
Tiger Reserves	50	71,027.10
Elephant Reserves	32	69,582.80
Biosphere Reserves	18	87,491.60
RAMSAR Wetland Sites	27	11,121.31
Natural World Heritage Sites	07	11,755.84
Cultural World Heritage Sites	28	–
Mixed World Heritage Sites	01	1,784.00
Important Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Areas	107	10,773.07
Marine Protected Areas	131	9,801.13
Important Bird Areas	467	–
Potential Important Bird Areas	96	–
Key Biodiversity Areas	531	–
Biodiversity Heritage Sites	9	–

Click here to read details of Sites of Conservation Importance.

Geo Spatial Portal

Indian Space Research Organisation and ENVIS Centre on Wildlife and Protected Areas have jointly mapped the above-mentioned areas on the geospatial platform ‘Bhuvan’. Click here to access the same.

Wetlands

Wetlands are one of the crucial natural resources. Wetlands are areas of land that are either temporarily or permanently covered by water. This means that a wetland is neither truly aquatic nor terrestrial; it is possible that wetlands can be both at the same time depending on seasonal variability. Thus, wetlands exhibit enormous diversity according to their genesis, geographical location, water regime and chemistry, dominant plants and soil or sediment characteristics. Because of their transitional nature, the boundaries of wetlands are often difficult to define. Wetlands do, however, share a few attributes common to all forms. Of these, hydrological structure (the dynamics of water supply, throughput, storage and loss) is most fundamental to the nature of a wetland system. It is the presence of water for a significant period, which is principally responsible for the development of a wetland.

One of the first widely used classifications systems, devised by Cowardin et al (1979), was associated to its hydrological, ecological and geological aspects, such as: marine (coastal wetlands including rock shores and coral reefs, estuarine (including deltas, tidal marshes, and mangrove swamps), lacustrine (lakes), riverine (along rivers and streams), palustrine (‘marshy’- marshes, swamps and bogs). Given these characteristics, wetlands support a large variety of plant and animal species adapted to fluctuating water levels, making the wetlands of critical ecological significance.

Utility wise, wetlands directly and indirectly support millions of people in providing services such as food, fibre and raw materials, storm and flood control, clean water supply, scenic beauty and educational and recreational benefits.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimates conservatively that wetlands cover seven per cent of the earth’s surface and deliver 45% of the world’s natural productivity and ecosystem services of which the benefits are estimated at $20 trillion a year (Source: www.MAweb.org).

The Millennium Assessment (MA) uses the following typology to categorise ecosystem services:

• Provisioning services: The resources or products provided by ecosystems, such as food, raw materials (wood), genetic resources, medicinal resources, ornamental resources (skin, shells, flowers).
• Regulating services: Ecosystems maintain the essential ecological processes and life support systems, like gas and climate regulation, water supply and regulation, waste treatment, pollination, etc.
• Cultural and Amenity Services Ecosystems are a source of inspiration to human culture and education throughout recreation, cultural, artistic, spiritual and historic information, science and education.
• Supporting services: Ecosystems provide habitat for flora and fauna in order to maintain biological and genetic diversity.

Despite these benefits, wetlands are the first target of human interference and are among the most threatened of all-natural resources.

Around 50% of the earth’s wetlands are estimated to already have disappeared worldwide over the last hundred years through conversion to industrial, agricultural and residential developments.

Even in current scenario, when the ecosystem services provided by wetlands are better understood – degradation and conversion of wetlands continues. This is largely because the ‘full value’ of ecosystem functions is often ignored in policymaking, plans and corporate evaluations of development projects.

Wetland Statistics for India

As part of a joint exercise of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Government of India) and Space Application Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (Government of India), a national Wetland Inventory and Assessment Atlas, has been prepared. Click here and here to access the National compilation and detailed state wise atlas.

Entire country including the islands territories were considered for inventory and assessment of wetlands. Mapping was carried out on 1:50,000 scale. Area estimates of various wetland categories for India have been carried out using GIS layers of wetland boundary, water-spread, aquatic vegetation and turbidity.

A total of 201,503 wetlands were identified and mapped at 1:50,000 scale in the country. In addition, 555,557 wetlands (< 2.25 ha) were also identified. Total wetland area is estimated to be about 15.26 million hectares, (about 4.63 per cent of the geographic area of India).

Wetlands were categorised in to two major categories, 4 sub-categories and 19 classes. Area under inland wetlands is 10.56 million hectares and area under coastal wetlands is 4.14 million hectares. Analysis of wetland status in terms of open water shows that out of the total wetland area, the extent of open water is 58.5 per cent in post-monsoon and 39.4 per cent in pre-monsoon seasons. There is a significant reduction in the extent of open water (about 32.5 per cent) from post monsoon to pre-monsoon (8.60 million hectares to 5.80 million hectares) seasons. It is reflected in all the Inland wetland types.

The aquatic vegetation in India accounts for about 9 per cent and 14 per cent of total wetland area in post-monsoon (1.32 million hectares) and pre-monsoon (2.06 million hectares) seasons, respectively.

Click here to access the National Wetland and Inventory Assessment Atlas of India and check page number 48 for type wise area estimates of wetlands in India.

Wastelands

Land is a finite resource. With escalating population pressures, the tendency of overexploitation has robbed it of its resilience, making it turn into wastelands. In order to increase the biomass production and restore the environmental health, preventive and curative measures need to be employed for rehabilitation of wastelands / degraded lands. The wastelands which are unutilized and have potential to produce food grain and provide vegetation cover, can contribute to food security. Hence, it is important to map the wastelands.

National assessment of wastelands in India began in 1984, by identification and mapping of wastelands at a scale of 1:1 million. Thereafter National Remote Sensing Agency/Centre (Indian Space Research Organisation) has become the principal organisation to provide national level geospatial information on wastelands at the behest of the Department of Land Resources, Government of India.

This was followed by two efforts to map Wastelands at 1:50,000 scale at national level for use in treating such wastelands through various programs. All these three efforts were made using satellite data acquired during single season (Rabi). However, from 2005-06 onwards, satellite data acquired during Three seasons viz., Kharif, Rabi and Zaid were used to harness its potential for understanding the temporal behaviour of wastelands for their improved delineation and value-addition to the final output.

The total area classified as wastelands in India is estimated to be 557,665.51 square kilometres (16.96 per cent of total geographic area of India) in 2015-16, while it was 566,070.36 square kilometres in 2008-09 (17.22 per cent). During this period 14,536 square kilometres of wastelands were converted to non-wastelands categories. There is a net conversion of 8,404.86 square kilometres (0.26 per cent) of different wasteland categories in the country during 2008-09 to 2015-16. A reduction in wastelands area was observed in the categories of Land with Dense Scrub, Waterlogged and Marshy land, Sandy areas, Degraded pastures/grazing land and Gullied and/or ravinous land.

Click here to access the latest Wasteland Atlas of India.

We have understood the stakeholders / actors, the land use categories and the land use statistics. Let us have a look at the sectoral policies and the land acquisition process. Click here to continue to next chapter.