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post by Chandra Ravikumar in HasiruUsiru, maybe someone wants to
create a visualization of this and allow manipulation and mashup of
data ... ---------------------- Dear All, During the past few years I had begun to wonder just how much land for food would each Indian get as his/her share, if the land that is India, is apportioned out evenly and equally among every citizen. The strain that the growing population - legal and illegal, and the criminally stupid policies of the Governments, are asserting on the rigidly fixed resource that is Land, and knowing that just a little more, and the snapping point will be reached, has been making me very uncomfortable and even seriously disturbed. The recent posts of Leo on the per capita availability of open spaces prompted me to resort to some statistics to answer my initial question. I am posting the results of the little study I did on this. I have also given the sources of the information, for verification. I am just a simple addition/subtraction mathematician. I have done my best, rather I have allowed my calculator to do its best, to get the numbers right. If anyone notices a mistake or discrepancy, please feel free to correct it for the sake of truth and verity. Anyone who is interested in using this information in any other place or forum is free to do so. HOW MUCH LAND FOR FOOD DOES EACH CITIZEN OF INDIA REALLY HAVE? The Conversion Table: 1 square kilometer = 100 hectares OR 1hectare = 0.01 square kilometers. 1 hectare = 10000 square meters. 1 hectare = 2.41 acres OR 11664.4 square yards OR 104979.6 square feet. 1 acre = 4840 square yards OR 43560 square feet. 1 meter = 3.28 feet. Some Definitions: (From Trading Economics) 1. The SURFACE AREA of a country is its total area, including areas under inland bodies of water and some coastal waterways. 2. The LAND AREA of a country is its total area, excluding area under inland water bodies (major rivers, lakes, coastal waterways), national claims to continental shelf and exclusive economic zones. 3. AGRICULTURAL LAND refers to the share of the land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and permanent pastures. 4. ARABLE LAND refers to (FAO definition) as land under temporary crops, (double cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market or kitchen garden, and land temporarily fallow. 5. PERMANENT CROPS refers to land placed under cultivation of crops that occupy the land for long periods of time and need not be replanted after each harvest, such as cocoa, coffee, tea, rubber. It also includes flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes trees grown for wood or timber. 6. PERMANENT PASTURE is land used for 5 or more years for forage including natural and cultivated crops. 7. FOREST AREA is land under natural or planted stands of trees of at least 5 meters in situ, whether productive or not, (? question mark is mine) and excludes tree stands in agricultural productive systems Eg. Plantation, Agro-forestry systems, and trees in Urban Parks and Gardens. Statistics for India: 1. The Surface Area (Geo-geographical area) including area under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China = 3287240 sq.kms. 2. Area under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China = 120849 sq.kms. 3. The Land Area of India = 2973190 sq.kms. 4. The Forest Area in India = 677598 sq. kms. 5. The Forest Area of India as a % of the Land Area = 22.8% 6. The Agricultural Land Area of India = 1797080 sq.kms. OR 179708000 ha. 7. The Agricultural Land Area in % = 60.4% (I calculated it as 1795806.7sq.kms.) 8. The Arable Land Area of India = 1580300 sq.kms. OR 158030000 hectares 9. The Arable Land Area in % = 53.2% (I calculated this to be 1581737 sq. kms.) 10. Area of land under permanent crops in % = 3.8% 11. Length of Roadways in India, including both pucca and kutcha= 17,00000 kms. (Seventeen lakh kms.) 12. Length of metal led roadways in India = 700000 kms. (seven lakh kms.) 13. Area required by 17,00000 kms. of roads with an average width of 10 mts. = 17,000 sq. kms. 14. The Population of India by the census of 2011 = 1210193422 persons. 15. The Agricultural Land per person in India = 0.14 ha. OR 1400 sq mts. OR 15069.474 sft. 16. The Arable Land per person in India = 0.1 ha. OR 1000sq.mts. OR 10763.910 sft. 17. On the Global Hunger Index, we are placed at place 67 out of 81 rated countries. Even Rwanda is better than us at rank 60! III. What does all the above statistics REALLY mean for the Indian citizen? 1. The amount of land available to each person for production of all that he consumes from organic sources, is about 15000 sft. This includes i.) his food - cereals, pulses, oils, vegetables, fruit, spices, condiments, sugars, milk and all milk products, medicinal and other herbs, tea, coffee, cocoa and other beverages, and everything else ii) his cleaning agents and toiletries iii) his clothing, bedding, furnishings, and such like iv) his furniture, paper, books and all stationery, and everything made of plantation products v) And a thousand things that have not occurred to me. Minus from that, land that is left fallow; or crops destroyed due to flooding, drought, salination, lack of labour, erosion of topsoil, destructive agricultural practices et al - and what does one have left? Less than 10000 sft. each. 10000 sft. is just a 100ft x 100ft site. 10000 sft. is about just 1/18th part of a cricket pitch. 10000 sft. is about the area a child can run across in 50 steps. 2. Every site that we carve out of agricultural land is taking the food out of the mouth of one person in India. 3. Every acre of agricultural land that we convert to non- agricultural purposes, we are driving to total destitution and poverty 4 adults and 1 child. 4. In the last decade Uttar Pradesh alone has lost 6 million (YES!) hectares of land to the development of the National Capital Region (NPR). The Yamuna Super Highway project includes plans for a high-tech city that will take away 45000 hectares of land that is being cultivated by 1191 villages. This is RICH agricultural land, maybe one of the best in the world, the legendary DOAB, that easily produces 3 crops and many intercroppings every year. This Yamuna Highway alone will take the last morsel away from the mouths of at least 484376 adults and double that many children. 5. Every kilometer of a 10 meter width road that is built, will take away 1 ha. OR 10000 sq. mts. OR 107639 sft. of land, AND condemn to starvation at least 11 adults or 22 children. 6. Every illegal immigrant into our country will displace one citizen to a nowhere land, for there is no land to feed even one person more. 7. Every child born, before one person dies, or to put it another way, every one person who does not die for one child born eats into the sparse land resource available to grow our food. So every inch of good crop land that is diverted to other uses such as an investment alternative in the form of sites; or mindless urban expansion, or a flamboyant race track that is obscene in its sheer waste; or SEC blocks; or 8 lane highways to accommodate the 'car-pulation' bomb and the speedniks who want to reach everywhere in no time; they all condemn more and more to hunger, malnutrition, deprivation and even death. I have not been comprehensive enough. There is much more to say. So please feel welcome to speak. There are many of us listening. Thank you. Chandra Sources for reference : http://cpsindia.org/index.php/art/123-articles-by-jk-bajaj-and-md-srinivas/food-consumption-in-india-and-the-world http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/area_and_population.aspx http://faostat.fao.org/site/339/default.aspx http://makanaka.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/the-cost-of-indias-urban-land-grab/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_India http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php http://www.agricoop.nic.in/Nrm/STATNRM.pdf http://www.indiastat.com/agriculture/2/agriculturalarealanduse/152/stats.aspx http://www.worldwatch.org/node/554 -- For more details about this list http://datameet.org/discussions/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "datameet" group. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. |
- [datameet] So how much land does each Indian REALLY have? Rajesh Shah
