Abstract
A country’s socioeconomic priorities at any given time shape the drivers of the land-use change. There have been land-use changes in India owing to the rapid economic developments of the past decades. This chapter gives an overview of trends in land-use changes over the years. The chapter does this by looking at land-use statistics at the national level and in major metropolitan regions to assess the direction and scale of these changes. The chapter concludes with tentative policy options to address contemporary issues and concerns these changes have thrown up.
Research Fellow, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, Sonipat, India; http://grathee@jgu.edu.in the author acknowledges feedback and inputs from Professor Rajeev Malhotra and the reviewers. This chapter was conceptualized as a B. Tech project for partial fulfillment of author’s undergraduate degree under the guidance of Professor B. Behera (IIT, Kharagpur).
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), an attached office of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, collects, disseminates, and publishes statistics on diverse facets of agriculture and related sectors required for policy formulation by the government.
- 3.
Arable land area was calculated from the sum total of land under miscellaneous tree crops, arable wasteland, total fallow land (summation of fallow land other than current fallow and current fallow) and net sown area. Note: Permanent pasture and other grazing land which are also known as commons are not studied in this chapter. Therefore, the total sum of the percentages of land area under four studied categories will be less than or equal to 100.
- 4.
Despite economic benefits of the forests, it is usually acknowledged for its socioecological importance.
- 5.
The country marked the inception of 12th five-year plan in 2012. Timeline for the 11 five-year plansis: first (1951–1956), second (1956–1961), third (1961–1966), fourth (1969–1974), fifth (1974–1979), sixth (1980–1985), seventh (1985–1990), eighth (1992–1997), ninth (1997–2002), tenth (2002–2007), and eleventh (2007–2012).
- 6.
Three irrigation projects (Mettur Dam, Hirakud Dam, and Bhakra Dam) were started during this period.
- 7.
The two major land development programs were launched during this period. Drought-prone Areas Program was launched in 1972–1973 and Desert Development Program in 1977–1978.
- 8.
Refer appendix.
- 9.
The adjoining districts of Kochi also received investments.
- 10.
NCR conceptualization is discussed in detail at the end of this section.
- 11.
Paupers & Princes of Realty Deals. The Economics Times Magazine, February 17–23, 2013.
- 12.
Alan Bertaud has critiqued Indian metropolitan cities’ low FAR/FSI ratios (2010).
- 13.
Madan (2005) discusses the government strategy to provide sustainable urban and economic growth at the prospect of the availability of cheap agricultural land availability for building around NCR. Kumar (2009) highlights that despite being aware of the fact that the agriculture land around NCR is fertile and productive, much land has been acquired for urban construction purposes.
- 14.
The paper comments that international wheat prices swelled up when India entered the market as importer.
- 15.
Chen (2007) studies threats upon soil protection and food security due to urbanization in China.
- 16.
China has witnessed that urbanization led to an overall shift in grain production from traditional “grain bowls” to other regions (You et al. 2011).
- 17.
The scale of unauthorized dwellings is so high in Delhi that a notice dispatched by the government of Delhi in 2011 declared regularization of 733 unauthorized colonies. There are 72 nonmunicipal areas within Kolkata metropolitan region. Shaw in her book “Making of Navi Mumbai” also discusses unauthorized colonies with shamed administrative law and order in Mumbai metropolitan region.
- 18.
Shaw presents two case studies (from Bangalore and Kolkata) that discuss the issue of administration conflict resulting in poor service delivery.
- 19.
This points to failure of urban service delivery (in this case drainage system) in keeping pace with lateral expansion rate.
- 20.
Unlike any other metropolitan city in the country, Mumbai had vertical growth at the urban core region apart from the lateral expansion. Mumbai had topographical constraints of being an island that provided it a thrust for vertical growth. This growth was further favored by higher FAR/FSI ratio permits at the core of the city. However, soon enough while charting the master plan for Navi Mumbai the land-use regulation was revisited and reduced to match other metropolitan city regulations. Since then it has been laterally expanding like all other metropolitan cities. Mumbai has started sprawling toward the east under the master plan for building Navi Mumbai region.
- 21.
For example, Delhi could bear higher FAR/FSI ratio regulation; however, Mumbai faces issue of higher density that crosses benefits yielded of higher FAR/FSI ratios.
- 22.
The failure to predict and act in tandem with shift in employment demand from agrarian to service sector among farmers participating in urban policy-driven land-use changes has led to much distress in these transient regions (Paupers & Princes of Realty Deals. The Economics Times Magazine, February 17–23, 2013).
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Rathee, G. (2014). Trends of Land-Use Change in India. In: Sridhar, K., Wan, G. (eds) Urbanization in Asia. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1638-4_13
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