Smart Notes on Indian (Human) Geography Part - 13

HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

1.      Human Settlement means cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live.

2.      Settlements could be small and sparsely spaced; they may also be large and closely spaced.  

3.      It can be divided into rural settlement and urban settlement.

Types of Rural Settlement

1.       There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India. These include

·         Physical features – nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water

·         Cultural and ethnic factors – social structure, caste and religion

·         Security factors – defence against thefts and robberies.

Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types

1.       Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated

2.       Semi-clustered or fragmented

3.       Hamleted

4.       Dispersed or isolated

Clustered Settlements

1.       The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses.

2.       In this type of village the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures.

3.       Intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape.

4.       Rectangular, radial, linear, etc.

5.       Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the north eastern states

6.       In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resources

Semi-Clustered Settlements

1.       Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement

2.       Fragmentation of a large compact village.

3.       In such cases, generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the main village

4.       Whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks of the village

5.       Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan

Hamleted  Settlements

1.       Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name

2.       These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc.

3.       This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors.

4.       Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas.

5.       Reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagaland. In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resources.etc. In various parts of the country. This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors. Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas.

Dispersed Settlements

1.       Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles

2.       Pasture on the slopes

3.       Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain

4.       Land resource base of habitable areas

Urban Settlements

On the basis of evolution in different periods Indian towns may be classified as:

•        Ancient towns

•        Medieval towns

•        Modern towns

Ancient Towns

1.       Historical background spanning over 2000 years

2.       Most of them developed as religious and cultural centres

3.       Varanasi is one of the important towns among these

4.       Prayag (Allahabad), Pataliputra (Patna), Madurai are some other examples of ancient towns in the country

Medieval Towns

1.       About 100 of the existing towns have their roots in the medieval period

2.       Most of them developed as headquarters of principalities and kingdoms

3.       These are fort towns which came up on the ruins of ancient towns

4.       Important among them are Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra and Nagpur

Modern Towns

1.       The British and other Europeans have developed a number of towns in India

2.       The British and other Europeans have developed a number of towns in India

3.       Surat, Daman, Goa, Pondicherry, etc.

4.       The British later consolidated their hold around three principal nodes

5.       Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), and Kolkata (Calcutta)

Urbanisation in India

·         The level of urbanisation is measured in terms of percentage of urban population to total population.

Definitions of town

For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is as follows;

1.  All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or Notified town area committee, etc.

2.    All other places which satisfied the following criteria:

i)   A minimum population of 5,000

ii)   At  least  75  per  cent  of  the  male  main  working  population  engaged in non-agricultural pursuits

iii)   A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.

The first category of urban units is known as Statutory Towns.

The second category of Towns (as in item 2 above) is known as Census Town. These were identified on the basis of Census 2001 data.

Number of UAs/Towns and Out Growths (OGs)

At the Census 2011 there are 7,935 towns in the country. The number of towns has

Increased by 2,774 since last Census. Many of these towns are part of UAs and the

rest are  independent  towns.  The total number of Urban Agglomerations/Towns,

This constitutes the urban frame, is 6166 in the country.

Classification of Towns on the basis of Population Size

1.       Census of India classifies urban centres into six classes

2.       Urban centre with population of more than one lakh is called a city or class I town

3.       Cities accommodating population size between one to five million are called metropolitan cities

4.       More than five million are mega cities

5.       Majority of metropolitan and mega cities are urban agglomerations

(Note – Data under updation, full updates will be available in PDF version )

Functional Classification of Towns

Administrative towns and cities

·         Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as

·         Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur Chennai, etc.

Industrial towns

·         Industries constitute prime motive force of these cities such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.

Transport Cities

·         They may be ports primarily engaged in export and import activities

·         Kandla, Kochchi, Kozhikode, Vishakhapatnam, etc.

·         Hubs of inland transport such as

·         Agra, Dhulia, Mughal Sarai, Itarsi, Katni,

Commercial towns

·         Towns and cities specialising in trade and commerce are kept in this class.

·         Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna, etc.

Mining towns

·         These towns have developed in mineral rich areas such as

·         Raniganj

·         Jharia

·         Digboi

·         Ankaleshwar

·         Singrauli

Garrisson Cantonment towns

·         These towns emerged as garrisson towns such as

·         Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina, Udhampur, etc.

Educational towns

·         Starting as centres of education, some of the towns have grown into major campus towns

·         Such as Roorki,

·         Varanasi, Aligarh, Pilani, Allahabad etc.

Religious and cultural towns

·         Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Puri, Ajmer, Pushkar, Tirupati, Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Ujjain came to prominence due to their religious/cultural significance

·         Tourist towns

·         Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udagamandalam (Ooty), Mount Abu are some of the tourist destinations

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