NCERT Class 12 Geography of India Chapter 4 Human Settlements YouTube Lecture Handouts

Get unlimited access to the best preparation resource for CBSE/Class-12 : get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of CBSE/Class-12.

NCERT Class 12 Geography of India Chapter 4: Human Settlements|English|CBSE

NCERT Class 12 Geography of India Chapter 4 Human Settlements

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

Settlements

Involves grouping of people and apportioning of territory as their resource base. Settlements vary in size and type. They range from a hamlet to metropolitan cities

Variations in Settlements

Illustration: Variations in Settlements

Rural vs. Urban Settlements

Illustration: Rural vs. Urban Settlements

Rural Settlements

Illustration: Rural Settlements

Determined by built-up area and interhouse distance

North India – compact and clustered villages

Basis: 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.
  • Clustered - rectangular, radial, linear in fertile area of northern plains & NE India; security in Bundelkhand & Nagaland; scarcity of water in Rajasthan
  • Semi-clustered – land owning and dominant community occupy center of village; lower strata people on outer flanks – Gujarat & Rajasthan
  • Hamleted – physically separated unit with common names - Panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani – by social and ethnic factors -middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas
  • Dispersed – in Jungles, small hills, pastures on slopes - Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala

Urban Settlements

Illustration: Urban Settlements

Cities are functionally linked to rural areas around them.

  • Ancient - Prayag (Allahabad) , Pataliputra (Patna) , Madurai, Varanasi – cultural centers – around 2000 years old
  • Medieval – fort towns - Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra and Nagpur (Mughal period)
  • Modern - Surat, Daman, Goa, Pondicherry (trading ports) – British period – summer resorts, civil areas, military areas; industrial towns after 1850s – Jamshedpur
  • Administrative headquarters, e. g. Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Dispur, etc. and industrial centres such as Durgapur, Bhilai, Sindri, Barauni.

Urbanization

The level of urbanization in India in 2001 was 28 per cent, which is quite low in comparison to developed countries. Total urban population has increased eleven fold during twentieth century. Enlargement of urban centres and emergence of new towns have played a significant role in the growth of urban population and urbanization

Cities are dynamic and not static

Even specialized cities, as they grow into metropolises become multifunctional wherein industry, business, administration, transport, etc. become important. The functions are so intertwined that the city cannot be categorized in a particular functional class

What is Urban?

Europe
  • France – Communes containing an agglomeration of more than 2000 inhabitants living in contiguous houses or with not more than 200 metres between houses.
  • Netherlands – Municipalities with a population of 2000 or more inhabitants.
Africa
  • Bostwana – Agglomerations of 5000 or more inhabitants where 75 per cent of the economic activity is of the non – agricultural type.
  • Ethiopia – Localities of 2000 or more dwellings
North America
  • USA – Places of 2500 or more inhabitants and urbanized areas
  • Canada – Places of 1000 or more inhabitants having a population density of 400 or more per square kilometre.
South America
  • Argentina – Populated centres with 2000 or more inhabitants.
  • Peru – Populated centres with 100 or more dwellings

Urbanization

Illustration: Urbanization

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

  • All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc. (Statutory Towns) . These towns are notified under law by the concerned State/UT Government and have local bodies like municipal corporations, municipalities, municipal committees, etc. , irrespective of their demographic characteristics as reckoned on 31st December 2009. Examples: Vadodara (M Corp.) , Shimla (M Corp.) etc.
  • All other places which satisfied the following criteria:
    • A minimum population of 5,000;
    • At least 75 per cent of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and
    • A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km. (Census Town. These were identified on the basis of Census 2001 data)
  • Cities accommodating population size between one to five million are called metropolitan cities and more than five million are mega cities (th population like greater Mumbai, Kolkata) . Majority of metropolitan and mega cities are urban agglomerations.
  • Urban Agglomeration (UA) : An urban agglomeration is a continuous urban spread constituting a town and its adjoining outgrowths (OGs) , or two or more physically contiguous towns together with or without outgrowths of such towns or city and one or more adjoining towns with their outgrowths together forming a contiguous spread. An Urban Agglomeration must consist of at least a statutory town and its total population (i.e.. all the constituents put together) should not be less than 20,000 as per the 2001 Census.
  • Out Growths (OG) : An Out Growth (OG) is a viable unit such as a village or a hamlet or an enumeration block made up of such village or hamlet and clearly identifiable in terms of its boundaries and location. Some of the examples are railway colony, university campus, port area, military camps, etc. , which have come up near a statutory town outside its statutory limits but within the revenue limits of a village or villages contiguous to the town.

Functional Classification

Illustration: Functional Classification

Administrative towns and cities: Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur Chennai, etc.

  • Industrial towns: Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.
  • Transport Cities: Kandla, Kochi, Kozhikode, Vishakhapatnam, etc. or hubs of inland transport such as Agra, Dhulia, Mughal Sarai, Itarsi, Katni, etc.
  • Commercial towns: Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna, etc. are some examples.
  • Mining towns: Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi, Ankaleshwar, Singrauli, etc.
  • Garrison Cantonment towns: Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina, Udhampur, etc.
  • Educational towns: Roorkee, Varanasi, Aligarh, Pilani, Allahabad etc.
  • Religious and cultural towns: Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Puri, Ajmer, Pushkar, Tirupati, Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Ujjain
  • Tourist towns: Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udagamandalam (Ooty) , Mount Abu

Manishika