Source: Press Information Bureau
Realizing the importance of the availability of reliable database on the wastelands of the country, the Union Minister for Rural Development released the Wastelands Atlas – 2019 with robust geospatial information; Atlas to effectively assist in rolling back wastelands for productive use through various land development schemes & programs
Previous Atlas
The Department of Land Resources in collaboration with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Department of Space has published Wastelands Atlases of India – 2000, 2005, 2010 & 2011 editions.
Need for the Atlas
India with 2.4% of the total land area of the World is supporting 18% of the World’s population. The per capita availability of agriculture land in India is 0.12 ha whereas World per capita agriculture land is 0.29 ha. Unprecedented pressure on the land beyond its carrying capacity is resulting in the degradation of lands in the Country. Therefore, robust geospatial information on wastelands assumes significance and effectively helpful in rolling back the wastelands for productive use through various land development programmes/schemes.
About Wastelands Atlas – 2019
- The new wastelands mapping exercise, carried out by NRSC using the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data is brought out as the fifth edition of Wastelands Atlas – 2019.
- This Wastelands Atlas-2019 provides district and state-wise distribution of different categories of wastelands area including mapping of about 12.08 Mha hitherto unmapped area of Jammu & Kashmir.
- The changes in wastelands between 2008-09 and 2015-16 have been presented in the Atlas.
