Harappa: Who were Indus people and how they lived?

Pashupati Seal of Indus Valley Civilisation at the National Museum, New Delhi. (Photo: Sindhustan/Prabhash K Dutta)

Prabhash K Dutta

New Delhi

The quest to establish the identity of the people who made one of the greatest civilisations on the earth along the Indian rivers from the Indus to the Saraswati (Ghaggar-Hakra) and up to the Narmada is an ongoing exercise. The fact is we don't yet know. But we know partly how they might have evolved their civilisation and how they lived based on evidence excavated in the regions of India and Pakistan.

First, let's dig their background a bit. Nothing happens without a background and context. Let's see what was there before the magnificent people of the Indus Valley Civilisation made their advent.

THE OLDER PEOPLE

These older people were not actually old. They might not have had the chance of getting old as we perceive oldness today. Most probably, they were dying young. But we are not sure. We are not sure because they did not leave behind something in the language or signs that we understand fully. We depend on materials that we find during actual digging.

The oldest archaeological evidence of human habitation in India comes from Palaeolithic Age in Soan Valley, now in Pakistan and in South India chiefly in and around Chennai. Evidence of human habitation from Paleolithic Age is also found in the Belan Valley in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, deserts of Didwana, and caves and rocks of Bhimbetka near Bhopal.

Mesolithic sites of human occupancy has been found in Chhotanagpur Plateau region in Central India, and also south of the Krishna, Birbhanpur in West Bengal, Timmeveli in Tamil Nadu, Bogor in Rajasthan, Langhraj in Gujarat, Bhimbetka and Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Sarai Nahar Rai in Uttar Pradesh.

IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURS IN HISTORY

Neolithic sites of humans are mostly found in the northwest region and the Deccan. Neolithic settlements at Mehargarh in Baluchistan seem to be the oldest dating around 7,000 BC. 

Humans began to domesticate animals and cultivate plants during Neolithic period. Dogs, goats and sheep were probably the first to be domesticated. Among plants, wheat and barley were the earliest cereals grown.

Neolithic people used ochre-coloured pottery. Wheel was an important invention.

Chalcolithic settlements are dated 1800-1000 BC. This period is defined by the use of copper by humans in India. Chalcolithic cultures seem to have existed over a wide area extending from the Chhotanagpur Plateau to the Upper Gangetic basin. Some of the other Chalcolithic sites are Brahmapuri near Mysorer and Navada Toli on the Narmada. But bronze tools were almost absent in India unlike Crete, Egypt and Mesopotamia.

From the Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites emerged the settlements of Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation. This civilisation came to notice through the works of excavators such as Daya Ram Sahni, Marshall and his colleague RD Bannerji in 1920s. More excavations were carried out during 1960s under Sir Mortimer Wheeler.

Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro at Baroda Museum. (Photo taken in 2018: Sindhustan/Prabhash K Dutta)

THE WINGS OF INDUS

Prominent sites excavated are Ropar near Chandigarh, Lothal near Ahmedabad, Kalibangan in Rajasthan, Kot Diji and Chanhu Dao in Sindh, Dholavira in Kutch district, Banawali in Hisar district and Sutkagendor near the Makran coast.

Archaeological research has established the gradual evolution of Harappan civilisation from indigenous sources. The earliest evidence of the beginning of agricultural communities comes from a place called Mehargarh near Bolan Pass. It is a Neolithic settlement estimated to have been there by 7000 BC. People of this area grew wheat and barley. They tendered sheep and goats as early as fifth millennium BC.

In the Quetta Valley at the site of Damb Sadaal, large structures with brick walls dating from the beginning of the third millennium BC have been found. These people were also using clay seals and copper objects.

In the western Indus plains, a place called Rehman Dheri has an early Indus township that was excavated. All these sites show evidence of contact with Persian Gulf towns and those of Central Asia.

The transition from pre-Harappan to the mature Harappan culture is best evidenced at Amri, to the south-east of Baluchistan. A distinctive culture appeared here at the beginning of the third millennium BC. Here, people lived in houses of stone or mud-brick. They constructed some kind of a granary. They painted animal motifs such as humped bull on their pottery.

After a series of evolving stages, it gave way to what is known as the Harappan civilisation.

BUT WHERE ACTUALLY?

The Harappan cultue was spread over the whole of Sindh, Baluchistan, almost whole of Punjab, northern Rajasthan, Kathiawar and Gujarat. It was not just confined to the Indus Valley. Scholars generally believe that the civilisation could be better represented by a Harappa-Ghaggar (Kalibangan)-Mohanjodaro axis as its heartland. 

However, they also occupied such faraway places as Shatughai in Northeast Afghanistan or Surkotada in Gujarat. They probably settled in these places for trade. These settlements possibly formed the wide trade network and gave economic independence to each Harappan region.

Recent C-14 datings indicate the period of the mature Harappan civilisation could be around 2900/2800-1800 BC.

LET'S GO WINDOW SHOPPING

Harappa

It was located on the bank of River Ravi. Harappa was the first site to have been excavated in united India. That is why this civilization was named so. It is still not known what the people of this civilization called themselves or which name they identified with. A substantial section of the Hrappan population was engaged in activities other than food production such as administration, trade, craft work and religion.

Mohenjodaro

It was located on the bank of River Indus. Mohenjodaro was the largest Harappan city. It had a population of about 35,000. It was an unusually high number for people living in one city in those times. 

Another standout feature of Mohenjodaro was that the height of its buildings was more than 75 feet. This has been found in the remains and debris of the buildings. How much more was the height of those buildings is not known.

Kalibangan

Its remains have been found the dried-up bed of River Ghaggar. It was excavated in 1960 under the guidance of BK Thapar. This area had the largest concentration of the Harappan settlements. The area has yielded evidence of early Harappan period.

Lothal

Along with Rangapur and Surkotada, Lothal was an important centre of the Harappan civilization. Remains of Harappan Lothal city have been found in the coastal flat plains of the Gulf of Cambay. This place seems to have been an outpost for sea-trade with the contemporary West Asian societies. Its excavator SS Rao claimed to have discovered a dockyard here.

Sutkagendor

It was located near the Makran coast which is near the Pakistan-Iran border. It is now a dry inhospitable plain. The town had a citadel surrounded by a stone-wall built for defence. This place was probably used for sea-route trade.

Gilgamesh Seat at the National Museum, New Delhi. (Photo taken in 2016: Sindhustan/Prabhash K Dutta)

THEY BUILT TOWNS WITH A PLAN

Each city was divided into a high citadel area and a low residential area. The citadel area had essential institutions of civil and religious life. The residential area had urban population living there. In Mohanjodaro and Harappa, the citadel was surrounded by a brick-wall. At Kalibanga, both citadel and the lower city were surrounded by a wall.

Citadel areas of different cities have been found to have some remarkable structures. For example, Mohenjodaro had the Great Bath, large granary and an assembly hall. Harappa had a number of granaries arranged in two rows of six rooms each with a central passage separating them. Kalibangan and Lothal had fire altars as their most significant discoveries.

The houses were constructed with kiln-made and also unbaked bricks but not of stones. The bathrooms and drains were invariably built with kiln-made or pucca bricks made waterproof by adding gypsum.

Their city roads met one another at 90-degree angles. They had broader main roads and narrower link roads. Their roads were broad enough to let two vehicles pass at a time with ease.

Their roads did not possibly have water-logging problem. They built a network of drains to make sure water did not log or left unattended. Their drains connected every house to main drainage system. Their roadside drains had man-hole and also hand-holes fitted with clay grills that worked as filters. These grills filtered garbage if somebody threw it deliberately or accidentally. The holes were meant for cleaning the drains allowing it carry waste water without getting choked unlike present-day municipal drains in Indian cities.

THEY GREW THEIR OWN FOOD 

The Harappan people cultivated wheat and barley, peas and dates, and sesame and mustard. The last two were used for oil. People cultivated paddy as early as 1800 BC in Lothal. Evidence of paddy cultivation has been found in Rangapur as well. The Harappans were the first people in the world to grow cotton.

They irrigated their crops. Irrigation depended on irregular flooding of the rivers of Punjab and Sindh. Evidence of canal irrigation practice has not been found.

Farmers probably used wooden plough for preparing their fields for cropping. Evidence of furrowed field has been found at Kalibangan. Wood of the plough could not have survived so long. They probably used a toothed harrow.

Burnt wheat, dates and shilajit from Indus Valley Civilisation at National Museum. (Photo taken in 2016: Sindhustan/Prabhash K Dutta)

AND BRED THEIR STOCK TOO 

Besides sheep and goat, people of this civilization domesticated humped cattle, buffaloes and elephants. Bones of camel have been found at Kalibangan. Historians believe camel could have been a rare animal for the Harappans. Evidence is limited.

Some historians believe that horse was unknown to Harappans. Some others deny this assumption pointing out to horse jaw found at Rana Ghundai, remains at Surkotada, more evidence from a superficial level in Mohenjodaro and a doubtful terracotta figurine from Lothal.

Several varieties of deer were used as game by the Harappans.

A single instance of Indian rhinoceros has been found from Amri, southeast of Baluchistan.

TRADE AND BUSINESS IN BLOOD 

Trade might have been both overland and maritime as indicated by the occurrence of small terracotta boats and above all a big brick-built dock at Lothal as excavated by SR Rao’s team.

The system of weights and measures was excellent. For weighing goods, small as well as large, perfectly made cubes of agate were employed. The weights followed a binary system in the lower denominations such as 1,2,4,8—64 and then going to 160 and beyond that in the decimal multiples of 16 such as 320, 640, 1,600, 3,200 etc.

For length measurements, strips of shell were used. These strips were non-shrinkable in heat and cold. The measurement of length was based upon a unit of foot, 37.6 cm and a unit of cubit of 51.8 to 53.6 cm.

They imported or brought from outside their region a lot of goods. Copper was brought from South India, Baluchistan and Arabia. There was a copper mine at Khetri in Rajasthan and also in Baluchistan.

Gold was brought from South India, where Kolar fields were productive till recently, Afghanistan and Persia or Iran. Silver was brought from Afghanistan and Iran.

Clay figurines made by Indus people. (Photo taken in 2018 at Baroda Museum: Sindhustan/Prabhash K Dutta)

Lapis Lazuli, a deep blue precious stone, was brought from Badakshan in Northeast Afghanistan. Turquoise (blue to green mineral) was brought from Kashmir and Iran. Jade was brought from Central Asia. Agate (variety of colours), chalcedony (multiple colours) and carnelian (brownish red) were brought from Saurashtra and other parts of West India.

The Harappans used seal and other small objects for stamping their goods, which have been found in Mesopotamian centres. Mesopotamian literature speak of merchants of Ur (a local city) as carrying on trade with foreign countries. Among these foreign countries, the most frequently mentioned are Tilmun, Magan and Meluhha.

Historians have identified Tilmun or Dilmun with the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, Magan as Makan with Oman or if not, some other part of Saudi Arabia. Meluhha or Meluha is now generally believed to mean India known to Mesopotamian traders from Indus region and Saurashtra.

THEY WERE CRAFTY. WILL YOU CALL THEM ENGINEERS TOO?

Spinning and weaving cotton and wool were important craft practices in the Harappan centres. Bead-making might have been a profitable business. Beads of gold, silver, copper, faience, steatite, semi-precious stones, shells and ivory were made.

Seal-making was another flourishing craft of the time and place. Square or oblong seals of ivory, faience, steatite were common. Seals were beautifully glazed and carved with motifs of animals, birds, men and gods.

Terracotta manufacture included a large number of small figurines such as children’s toys. Some of the designs that have continued till recent times included string-climbing monkey and head-moving bull.

Bricklaying appears to have been yet another profitable venture. Harappan people used bricks on mass scaled. Their structures and roads used different types of bricks.

Pottery making was developed. Potteries were made chiefly of red clay which was turned on a fast lathe, glazed and ornamented with black bands and/or occasionally with figures of birds, animals and geometrical designs.

Metal working was highly skilled craft of the Indus people. They made fine gold jewelleries, bronze implements, copper beakers, chisels, saws and knives of different metals. They used cire perdue method (also called lost wax method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a mould that has been created using a wax model) for casting bronze. The famous figurine of the dancing girl recovered from Mohenjodaro was made by this method.

Stone sculpture was rare and the craft appears to have been underdeveloped. The bearded man-head found at Mohenjodaro is, however, a famous piece of stone sculpture.

THEIR SCIENCE

The Harappans knew mining. They were also adept at manufacturing gypsum cement which was used to join stones and even metals. They knew how to make long-lasting paints and dyes. Mohenjodaro had a public bath worked by an ingenious hydraulic system..

The axes, chisels, knives, spearheads etc made of stone and bronze seem to have been produced on a mass scale at places such as Sukkur, in Sindh on the western bank of the Indus. 

THEY WERE WOMEN OF LETTERS. DID YOU ACTUALLY ASK ABOUT THEIR LITERACY RATE? 

The people of Indus Valley Civilisation knew how to write. But what they wrote is not known. Their script has not been deciphered. However, overlaps of letters on some of the potsherds found from Kalibangan show that the writing was boustrophedon, from right to the left and then from left to the write in alternate lines. It has been referred to as proto-Dravidian though their connection with Dravidian languages or scripts has not been established.

Bearded Man of Indus at Baroda Museum. (Photo taken in 2018: Sindhustan/Prabhash K Dutta)

AN ARTICLE OF FAITH, OR RELIGION? 

Not much is known about the belief system of the Indus Valley Civilisation people but they seem to have practised some form of it. Whether their belief system was organised like later religions is not known. However, there have been figurines, structures and findings that suggest they believed in some forms of gods.

Mother goddess appears to be an important deity of worship. She was possibly worshipped as a symbol of fertility. Clay figures have been found of mother goddess. In one such example, a goddess is shown growing a plant from her vagina.

Proto-Shiva could have been the most important male god. Figure resembling the traditional Pashupati Mahadeva has been found. A seated figure surrounded by various animals carved on a small stone has been found.

Numerous symbols of phallus and woman’s sex organs made of stone have been found. They might have been the objects of worship. Shakti and Shiva are often considered as the two pre-Aryan gods in the line with the theory that Aryans came to India from Central Asia and brought a new range of gods and goddesses along with a different belief system with them.

Peepal (sacred fig) appears to have been sacred and so was the bull. Peepal continues to be a sacred tree to a large number of Indians.

THEY WERE EMOTIONAL IN DEATHS FOR SURE

Evidence found in excavation suggests that some Indus Valley Civilisation people buried their dead in graves. It is evident from the discovery of a large cemetery in Harappa. Some others buried their dead ones in urn – urn-burial was practised.

They might have preferred cremation for the evidence of burials for large population over more than a thousand years during the peak of their civilisation is meagre.

The Indus people probably believed in life after death. Their graves contained household pottery, ornaments and interestingly mirrors. These items might have originally belonged to the deceased. The basic idea still continues. The family of the deceased often gives away the items that were on the body of the deceased in her final moments. These include clothes and ornaments, and at times bed in which she was breathed her last. This practice is also seen in the form of daan (gift) that is given to the priests performing funeral rituals for the deceased. All articles of daily use are given to the priests believing that these items would be of use for the deceased in the after-life.

The bodies were buried fully extended. The head of the deceased person was generally kept pointing towards the north. This practice still continues among a large number of Indian communities.

This is not all about the Indus people. But I had only this much of time today.

 

 

Let's understand flood, in Indian context

A flooded area in Bihar. (Photo credit: Facebook/WHO Bihar Region)

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), flood is a meteorological situation when water of a river begins to flow above the danger mark. The danger mark is fixed on the basis of average flow of the river over 25 to 50 years during monsoon period.

Drought is the situation, according to the IMD, having less than 5 cm rainfall for four continuous week any time between mid-May and mid-October. If the rainfall is less than 5 cm for any month (four continuous weeks), it is meteorological drought situation.

Flood prone areas are located practically in all parts of the country excluding the internal plateau regions. However, there has been varying tenure of flood and from that point of view, eastern India, northeastern India and eastern coastal plains are the worst affected areas as far as flood is concerned.

The IMD has divided flood into four tenures of flood and affected geographical regions:

Six-week flood region: Assam valley

4-6-week flood region: Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar plain, West Bengal and isolated plain areas of the Northeast – Loktak basin and Tripura basin.

1-4-week flood region: Eastern coastal plain, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi Union Territory, South Gujarat especially Narmada and Tapi basins, and Kashmir Valley.

Less than one-week flood region: Central and northern Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and peripheral parts of peninsular plateau.

There are some rivers, which are highly flood prone. Brahmaputra and Ganga cover about 60 per cent of flood prone areas of the country. Some flood prone rivers are Teesta, Kapoli (a tributary of Brahmaputra), Dihang and Burhi Dihang (known for flash floods).

In the Ganga system of the Himalayan rivers, the main flood causing rivers are, Mahananda, Kosi, Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Kamla Balan, Saryu, Ghaghra, Gomati, Ramganga and Yamuna. Kosi was once called the sorrow of Bihar.

In the peninsular India, the main flood causing rivers are, Son, Punpun, Ajay and Damodar, which was known as the sorrow of West Bengal once. At present, both Kosi and Damodar rivers have been managed and controlled to some extent but others continue to play the same role.

Among the East Coast river, Mahanadi, Godawari, Krishna, Cauvery and Brahmi are highly flood prone. Among west flowing peninsular rivers, Tapi and Sabarmati are highly flood prone.

In the Punjab plains, Sutlej and Beas are highly flood prone while in Haryana Ghaggar and Yamuna bring floods. The Jhelum is flood prone in the Kashmir Valley.

Besides these rivers, there are several short-distance rives, which flow on high slope and create flash flood during monsoon season.

Total area under flood-prone category, according to the Seventh Five-Year Plan papers is 320 lakh hectares where flood happens every year. Total flood-affected area is 2.42 crore hectares where flood occurs but not every year.

Causes of flood:

Flood is the manifestation of many geographical factors and, to many geographers and geologists it has become an ecological factor. This does mean that flood is bound to come in this part of the world every year. It is a flood-ecology region.

Factors:

1. Erratic behaviour of monsoon -- Sometimes the catchment area receives very high rainfall and then flood arrives. In the western India – Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana –torrential rain brings sudden outburst of rain which leads to flashfloods. In contrast, in the North-East, even the regular rainfall brings heavy rainfall and that is responsible for flood situation in the region.

2. Geomorphology -- Flood occurs due to geomorphological profile of central plain of India. Brahmaputra Valley is a narrow ramp valley. Similarly, the Ganga basin is sandwiched between the Himalayas and the peninsular plateaus. Both river valleys are bordered by steep rising slopes while the plains are among the flattest ones in the world.

This topographical feature brings rapid run-off from the catchment areas while the run-off in the plain moves at a slow speed. Consequently, these river basins overflow bringing flood over large areas during monsoon season.

3. Deforestation -- Deforestation in the Siwalik Himalaya has increased the volume of the run-off and therefore frequency and tenure of floods in many of Himalayan rivers.

Several peninsular rivers including small ones have become flood prone in recent years due to loss of trees in the past few decades, e.g. Ajay river has become flood-prone due to deforestation in the catchment area. Jhelum was not flood-prone earlier.

Mahananda was not so acute in bring floods. But at present all these rivers bring flood almost every year and that is related to deforestation. Several plateau districts of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have fallen under flood due to deforestation and rapid run-off in these areas.

4. Soil Erosion and Siltation -- These are responsible for increased flood-frequency mainly in the central plain of the country. According to the UNEP, River Kosi is the second-most affected siltation affected river in the world, only after Hwang-ho of China.

Bed siltation occurs due to soil erosion in the catchment area and the deposition of silt in the plains owing to rivers’ inability to carry the load any further. It makes the valley shallow and whenever there is voluminous flow of water, it brings flood and water spreads in the surrounding areas.

5. Drainage Pattern -- It is responsible for the flood in the central plain. Most of the rivers make meandering courses. So, overflow brings waters of different rivers close and vast areas, thus, get inundated.

Punjab does not witness spread of water because of parallel, man-made, drainage of rivers. Although, the rivers often flow over danger mark during flood season but water does not spread. In Punjab, the doab line is always free from flood due to parallel pattern of drainage but the meandering courses of rivers in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and braided courses in all delta regions create floods.

Most of the rivers have wide V-shaped valleys. So, the depth of the valley is not great and any increase in the volume of water leads to overflowing and inundation of the neighbouring areas.

Again some of the rivers have created natural levee which protects one side of the valley from flooding but the other bank is flooded and cause flood over low lying areas adjacent to that bank. Bihar plain is noted for this type of flood. Western banks of rivers in Darbhanga have natural levee.

In the central Bihar, there is also flood due to overflow of the main consequent river. Its overflow prevents the inflow of tributary water channels. In fact, the water of the main river, Ganga, begins to enter the course of the tributaries and the tributaries’ water is pushed back and water spreads over vast areas, e.g. Tal area flood in South Bihar and Jharkhand, Chaur area flood in West Bihar and West Bengal. Chaurs are the floodplains situated in the abandoned courses of rivers. They form ox-bow lakes during floods.

6. Shifting Course of Rivers -- Such flooding is mainly important in regions where river have a history of shifting their course. Rivers like Kosi, Teesta, Gomati and Mahananda are facing this problem.

Kosi is now believed to have settled in its course but others are still active. All these rivers have westward shifting courses. These rivers have a tendency to migrate to west. Hence, the west banks of these rivers are constantly being eroded and the east bank extends to a huge low lying floodplain. These rivers cause phenomenal spread of water beyond eastern banks onto the vast plain.

Rotation of the earth is held indirectly responsible for the westward shifting of these rivers and the associated floodplains. Rotational impact brings westward shift of rivers. The eastern banks become low lying and vulnerable to floods.

Eastern coastal plains receive floods not simply due to deforestation and rapid run-off but also because of cyclonic rainfall and greater havoc is caused by the combination of these factors. If there is high tide situation along with cyclone, rainfall causes great damage.

Cyclone brings rainfall and high tide water on the coastal plains as well as increases the velocity of the sea waves. Tidal water enters the mouth of the rivers pushing back the river water. The water level of the river increases. The river goes in a spate. The flow of the river is reversed and low lying floodplain is taken over by the floodwater. Such tidal flooding is seen in the Mahanadi and the Godawari.

Western coastal rivers generally receive flash floods. The duration of such floods is about one week. The situation mainly occurs due to deforestation along the Western Ghats. Loss of vegetation means less obstruction to run-off.

Rapid run-off leads to greater water volume in the river valleys than the channel is capable of carrying off to the sea. This pushes the water level up in the river valleys leading overflow and inundation in the neighbouring areas.

7. Human Factors -- Floods are also caused by human factors. Ironically, flood control programmes and some other developmental programmes have indirectly contributed in greater spreading of flood. Although, multi-purpose vally projects and other power generation projects have controlled floods in the basins of some of the rivers and regions. But the problem has emerged in a different way.

Due to siltation on the beds, the reservoirs’ capacity has reduced and whenever excess water is released from that reservoir through canals and other outlets, flood is caused. Flood water even enters the areas where flood had never come previously.

The canals also face siltation problems, which get compounded by the seepage of river water from the sides of the canals into neighbouring agricultural lands. These agricultural fields become unproductive due to excess of water and behave like marshy land and are waterlogged at times even if water is not pulled from these canals. The excessive wet lands are not conducive for agriculture.

This type of flood brings greater loss as this is relatively new phenomenon and people dependent on such lands are neither prepared nor equipped to deal with such a situation. In 1995, Banka district of Bihar turned into a wasteland due to opening of two reservoirs – Chandan and Orhni.

Governmental approach to construct embankments for the protection of settlement and agricultural lands has also deteriorated the situation in many parts of the country. Now, the approach is being modified. Such programmes are now being called flood protection programmes instead of flood control programme.

Thus, several new regions, e.g. in northeastern towns of Bihar, many new settlements have fallen in the trap of flood. Flood control measures have brought new dimensions in floods in India.

Notes on agricultural land use policy in India

Picture for representation. (Source: ITM University)

The National Land Use and Conservation Board is mainly concerned for the framing of national land use policy. And, agricultural land use policy is, in fact, the part of this policy. India’s first land use policy was declared in 1988 – titled, Prospective Plan for Conservation, Management and Development of Land Resource.

Within the policy, agricultural land use was emphasized under the following heads –

1.  The policy did not propose to increase acreage under agricultural land use. It was already 54 per cent including the fallow lands. So, the basic aim was to improve agricultural productivity of the existing agricultural land. More emphasis was given over the improvement of degrading agricultural lands and the fallow lands which were about 95 million hectare of agricultural land.

2.  Introduction of crop rotation. Crop rotation is essential to maintain the health of land resource. For example, for dry zones of India having no canal irrigation, cultivation of coarse grain or millets is suggested as the main crop. It is to be followed by gram or masoor (lentil) cropping. This crop rotation would maintain the nutrient level of the land. Rajasthan implemented such scheme at block level to maintain the crop rotation.

3.  Emphasis was given over to improve the intensity of crops in India.

4.  To work for diffusion of agricultural infrastructure for improving the productivity and efficiency of the agricultural land of India.

5.  Big landholders are now being persuaded not to leave thin lands unused. Land reform is taken as part of the agricultural land use policy. Landlords have not been using the land scientifically. Vast lands of the landlords remain unused creating land-degradation. Despite all these only three per cent of landlords have 20 per cent agricultural land and 59 per cent farmers have only 14 per cent of agricultural land. This is the cause of rural distress in India. In some parts of the country, this problem has taken the form of maoist violence or naxalism. It is emphasized to bring land reform in these areas.

6.  Levelling and bunding of degraded agricultural land. The programme was suggested for the Himalayan states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and South-West part of Uttar Pradesh.

7.  Land use development was suggested to be carried out on the basis of agro-climatic regionalization of India. India is divided into 15 agro-climatic regions. For every region, sustainable agricultural land use map was to be prepared at state and district level.

8.  Sustainable agricultural land development was emphasized where programmes like greater use of bio-fertilizers are promoted for green revolution belts of India including the command areas in particular, and agricultural land in general.

9.  Some other programme is watershed management programme under which land resource units of micro-level is to be developed on drainage lines.

10. National land use and conservation board has suggested the state governments to prepare micro-level watershed units and to take 5,000 hectare-size land as the standard unit for the purpose of development of land resource. Rajasthan was one state which framed policy in accordance with this suggestion.

11. Crop diversity is to be promoted in the tribal regions. Tribals have the tradition of crop-association and diversity. In such regions, economically viable association of crops was suggested to tribal farmers.

At the turn of the century, the then government brought some changes in the existing agricultural land use policy and now apart from target areas, target years were also fixed. Emphasis was given on economic and ecological management of land resource.

In 2013, a new land use policy was formulated.  The goal of the National Land Utilisation Policy was defined as to achieve improvement of livelihood, food and water security, and best possible realization of various developmental targets so as to ensure sustainable development of India. (Draft of Policy: http://dolr.nic.in/dolr/downloads/PDFs/Draft%20National%20Land%20Utilisation%20Policy%20(July%202013).pdf)

The specific objectives of the policy were set out as under:

Objectives related to social concerns

1. Protection of agricultural lands from land use conversions so as to ensure food security and to meet consumption needs of a growing population and to meet livelihood needs of the dependent population.

2. To identify and protect lands that are required to promote and support social development, particularly of tribal communities and poor section of society for their livelihood.

3. To preserve historic and cultural heritage by protecting, places/sites of religious, archaeological, scenic and tourist importance.

Objectives related to environmental concerns

4. To preserve and conserve lands under important environmental functions such as those declared as National Parks, Wild Life Sanctuaries, Reserved Forests, Eco Sensitive Zones, etc and guide land uses around such preserved and conserved areas so as not to have land use conflicts or negative environmental impacts.

5. To preserve the areas of natural environment and its resources that provide ecosystem services.

Objectives related to developmental/economic concerns

6. To promote properly guided and coordinated development in a sustainable manner of all developmental sectors including agriculture, urban, industrial, infrastructure and mining so as to minimise land use conflicts or negative environmental impacts.

Objectives related to enforcement and implementation of the policy

7. To suggest a general implementation framework for implementing land utilisation policy by all concerned at different levels, viz, national, state, regional and local, and undertaking capacity building.

The following six types of Land Utilisation Zones (LUZs) are to be identified on the basis of predominant land use:

a) Predominantly Rural and Agricultural Areas

b) Areas Under Transformation

c) Predominantly Urban Areas

d) Predominantly Industrial Areas

e) Predominantly Ecological Areas, Landscape Conservation and Tourism Areas. Heritage Areas

f) Major Hazard Vulnerable Areas

Besides, the “Land-use Management Areas” (LMAs) are to be identified within the identified Land Utilisation Zones, during the planning process, so as to ensure proper management of various land uses.

For the purpose of ensuring proper management of lands, the Land-use Management Zones are categorised into:

a) Protected Areas;

b) Regulatory Areas;

c) Reserved Areas; and

d) Guided Development Areas

The implementation and success of the agricultural land use policies depend on politico-administrative commitment, people’s participation and cooperation of NGOs.