Survey of India

Abstract

THE General Report of the Survey of India for 1935 directs attention to the need for quicker revision of the maps of India. It was in 1905 that the Survey embarked on a scheme of 1 inch to 1 mile maps of India, which was to be completed in twenty-five years and then- revised every thirty years. Subsequent events led to a modification of the scheme. In 1913 it was realized that the allotted time was too short, and a smaller scale of map was sanctioned for the less populous areas. But the Great War and subsequent financial stringency still further curtailed the plan. By 1935 only two-thirds of the programme had been completed. Surveys are being carried out at the rate of about thirty-nine thousand square rniles a year, and if this can be maintained the programme will be completed in about sixteen years. Meantime, the maps of a large part of India, except on a small scale, are much out of date and printed mostly in black only. The Report contains a key map showing the degree of obsolescence of various sheets. Maps of India, Burma and adjacent countries on the ‘one million’ scale are now practically complete and the sheets of the Carte Internationale are approaching completion. A separate publication of the Survey of India is an Index to Annual Reports, 1904-5 to 1926-27.