Land is a finite resource and put to many competing uses. It comprises soils,minerals, water and biota. In India land is a source of livelihood for 60 % of the population through agriculture and related activities. Population growth and the consequent demand for land, water and biological resources has put tremendous
pressure on land.
Agenda 21 recognizes the need to allocate land for sustainable uses and promote the integrated planning and management of land resources.
The condition of land resources in India, along with policies, programmes and technologies adopted.
Institutional set-up
Land is a subject within the legislative and administrative jurisdiction of the states as per the VIIth Schedule of the Constitution, empowering the states to develop policies and enact laws.
In India, the 3 Ministries responsible for the conservation and management of land resources are the Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Environment and Forests.
At the national level, the Department of Land Resources under Ministry of Rural Development is the nodal agency for coordinating different land resource development and management programmes.
Land use
Of India’s reporting area for land use statistics, about 46.6% is under agriculture, 22.6% is forested, and 13. 6 % is not available for cultivation. Roughly 41 million hectares of land are considered totally unfit (snow cover, desert) or not available (urban use, rivers) for vegetation. The per capita
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availability of land declined from 0.89 hectare in 1951 to 0.3 hectares in 2001; the
per capita availability of agricultured land declined from 0.48 hectare in 1951 to
0.14 hectares in 2001.
Besides the pressure of human population, there are about
500 million cattle and other livestock living off the biomass from the land (Bali,
2000).
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