“India has undergone major changes within the economy over the last five decades and this has influenced the land-use changes in the country.” Support the statement with examples.

Land use is the purpose or way in which a particular stretch of land is used. It is the modification and changes that are brought into the natural environment for the development of built environment, settlements, agriculture or management of forests. It determines that pattern in which the land is used. The development of the country in the past decades has influenced land use patterns in the country.

The land use pattern has undergone changes in the economy because of the change in the size and composition of the economy. With the growing population in India, the demand for the increase in the area under cultivation is rising. Thus more land has to be brought under cultivation in the case of India. India is well-endowed with the natural resources and the climate that gives the country an edge in increasing its agricultural productivity. Also, the demands of the increasing population have resulted in the conversion of such areas to other residential and community areas.

With the changes in the land use pattern, different categories have shown increases and decreases. The share of forest area, the area under non-agricultural uses, fallow lands and the net area sown has increased. The major reasons for the increasing trends are:

• Land area under non-agricultural uses has shown the highest rate of increase. This can be attributed to the changing structure of the Indian economy, in which the contribution from the industrial and services sectors are expanding. The increase is also due to the extension of area under both urban and rural settlements. But this increase is at the cost of exploitation of wastelands and agricultural land.

• The increase in the area under forests is the increase in the defined area under forest rather than an actual increase in the forest cover.

• The increase in the fallow land is owed to the inconsistency of rainfall and cropping cycles.

• The increase in net sown area is the latest occurrence. It is mainly due to use of cultivable wasteland for cultivation.

The share of barren and wasteland, cultivable wasteland, area under pastures and tree crops and fallow lands have shown a decline. The main reasons for their decline are:

• With the increasing pressure on land, from both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, the wastelands and cultivable wastelands have declined with time.

• The pressure from agricultural land is responsible for the decline in land under pastures and grazing lands. This reduction is due to the unlawful intrusion by the expansion of cultivation on common pasture lands.