Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context

Sectoral and regional planning, target area programmes for hill and drought-prone areas, the Bharmaur tribal region, sustainable development and the Indira Gandhi Canal command area.

Key ideas

Sectoral planning develops sectors such as agriculture, industry and power; regional planning reduces imbalances between areas.
Target area programmes include command area, drought-prone area, desert and hill area development; target group programmes help small and marginal farmers.
Bharmaur, in Chamba district, is a high, cold region where people traditionally herded sheep and goats with transhumance; area development brought roads, schools, health care and higher literacy.
Sustainable development meets present needs without compromising future generations; the idea spread through the Brundtland Report of 1987.
The Indira Gandhi Canal, from the Harike barrage, irrigates the Thar desert; it raised the cultivated area and changed crops, but intensive irrigation caused waterlogging and salinity.
Sustainability measures include strict water management, avoiding water-intensive crops, lining channels, warabandi and shelterbelts.

Remember

Per cent irrigated	irrigated area ÷ net sown area × 100 (in 1972, under 30% meant drought-prone)
Backward hill areas (1981)	above 600 m
Indira Gandhi Canal	9,060 km planned; command area 19.63 lakh ha (Stage I 5.53, Stage II 14.10); about 70% by flow
Lift irrigation	command area × (100 − flow %) ÷ 100
Annual range	July − January (Bharmaur about 4 °C and 26 °C)
Warabandi	equal sharing of canal water in an outlet’s command area

Watch out

Mixing up sectoral planning (sectors) and regional planning (areas).
Treating an area with more than 30% irrigation as drought-prone under the 1972 test.
Forgetting the downside of canal irrigation: waterlogging and soil salinity.

Worked example

Suppose a canal’s Stage I command area is 560 thousand ha and Stage II 1,620 thousand ha. What is the total, and how much larger is Stage II? (Indira Gandhi Canal: 5.53 and 14.10 lakh ha.)

Working: 560 + 1,620; 1,620 − 560

Answer: 2,180 thousand ha; 1,060 thousand ha larger