Which one of the following is not a land use category?
- (a)Forestland
- (b)Pasture land
- (c)Marginal land
- (d)Barren and wasteland
Correct — C, Marginal land. Indian land-use statistics come from the land revenue records, and they run to nine named heads: forests; barren and wastelands; land put to non-agricultural uses; area under permanent pastures and grazing lands; area under miscellaneous tree crops and groves; culturable wasteland; current fallow; fallow other than current fallow; and net area sown. Marginal land is not one of them. It is a real phrase in economic geography, used of land that only just repays cultivation and comes under the plough when pressure on land rises, but it is a description rather than a record head, and no revenue clerk enters anything under it. The other three options map onto the list — forestland to forests, pasture land to permanent pastures and grazing lands, and barren and wasteland to the category of that name.
- (a)Forestland — Forests is the first category in the records. Note the subtlety the textbook flags: the area classified as forest is what government has demarcated for forest growth, which can rise without any rise in actual forest cover.
- (b)Pasture land — The records carry area under permanent pastures and grazing lands. Most of it is owned by the village panchayat or the government, and the panchayat-owned share is part of what are called Common Property Resources.
- (d)Barren and wasteland — A category in its own right — barren hilly terrain, desert land, ravines and the like, which cannot normally be brought under cultivation with available technology. It is separate from culturable wasteland, which can.
The nine land-use heads add up to the reporting area, which is not the same as the geographical area. Geographical area is measured by the Survey of India and does not change; reporting area comes from the land revenue records and shifts a little with them. Because the total is more or less fixed, a fall in one category shows up as a rise in another, which is what makes the series useful for tracking change.
The way to answer this without memorising all nine is to notice that three options are concrete descriptions of what is physically on the ground, while marginal land is a judgement about economic return. Revenue records classify by use and condition, not by profitability. Three of the fallow and waste heads are separated only by time, and examiners lean on that: current fallow is left uncultivated for one agricultural year or less; fallow other than current fallow for more than one year but less than five; and beyond five years the land is reclassified as culturable wasteland.
- The nine land-use categories are forests; barren and wastelands; land put to non-agricultural uses; permanent pastures and grazing lands; miscellaneous tree crops and groves; culturable wasteland; current fallow; fallow other than current fallow; and net area sown.
- They sum to the reporting area, which differs from the geographical area measured by the Survey of India.
- Culturable wasteland is land left uncultivated for more than five years.
- Fallow other than current fallow is left uncultivated for more than one year but less than five.
- Net area sown is the physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested.
- Confusing barren and wasteland, which cannot be cultivated, with culturable wasteland, which can.
- Mixing up the fallow heads; the divide is one year and then five.
As an odd-one-out on the nine heads, or as a definition item on culturable wasteland and the fallow categories.
In India, a cultivable land which is left uncultivated for more than a year but less than five years is labelled as
- (a) cultivable wasteland
- (b) current fallow
- (c) fallow other than current fallow
- (d) barren and wasteland
Answer(c) fallow other than current fallow
The middle rung of the same ladder. Current fallow up to a year, fallow other than current fallow up to five, culturable wasteland beyond that — three heads separated only by how long the plough has stayed off.
What is culturable wasteland?
- (a) Land that has been left fallow in last four years
- (b) Land that has been left fallow between one and two years
- (c) Land that has been left fallow for less than one year
- (d) Land that has been left fallow for more than five years
Answer(d) Land that has been left fallow for more than five years
The same set of nine heads, tested from inside. Knowing that the fallow categories are separated at one year and again at five is what lets you rebuild the list rather than memorise it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Land left uncultivated for more than one year but less than five years is recorded as
- (a)current fallow
- (b)fallow other than current fallow
- (c)culturable wasteland
- (d)barren and wasteland
Answer(b) fallow other than current fallow — beyond five years the same land would be reclassified as culturable wasteland.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The land-use categories in Indian statistics add up to which one of the following?
- (a)The geographical area measured by the Survey of India
- (b)The reporting area of the land revenue records
- (c)The net sown area
- (d)The total cultivable area
Answer(b) The reporting area of the land revenue records — it differs somewhat from the fixed geographical area measured by the Survey of India.