Population Growth, Urbanization and Landuse Pattern in Gondia District of Maharashtra State, India

Abstract

Population is an important resource for development. Present work attempts to assess the correlation between population growth, urbanization and general landuse change over two decades (1990-91 to 2010-11) in Gondia district of Maharashtra state and suggest the possible ways and remedies to improve the future landuse of the study are. Gondia are the highly concentrated towns of the study area. It is has been observed that the growth of population increased 10.14 Times while urbanization increased 57.52 Per cent during 2001 to 2011. Increasing population, industrial development and trade is bringing about a great pressure on land. The environmental conditions are favorable for agriculture in the study region. Forest area has decreased while Cultivable waste land fallow land increased during 2000-01 to 2010-11. Land put non-agricultural use, barren and non cultivable land and net sown area has also subsequently declined during the span of two decades. Thus landuse is a dynamic phenomenon in the study area. While In Vidarbha region Gondia District is rich in forest resources. The largest land use category in the district is that of agriculre. Precarious forest constitutes 90% of total are under forest which is maximum in south east and central parts. The total area under forest in the district was 2833 sq. kms. out of 5641 sq. kms total geographical area in 2011. It has been observed that the district having 50.22 per cent area still remain under forest. Forest resources contribute significantly to the economy of the district. This district shows the better condition of forest Resources. In 1981 25.04% of the total geographical area was under forest. It has increased to 32.72% in 2011.The socio-economic characteristics of the study area population growth, industrialization, nearness to daily markets and developments of road network have caused the general landuse changes in the area.