Class - 12 NCERT Geography part -2 Chapter - 4

Human Settlement 

Human settlement

" Its mean cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live . "

The basic differences between rural and urban settlements are as follows .

• The rural settlements derive their life support or basic economic needs from land based primary economic activities whereas, urban settlements , depend on processing of raw materials and manufacturing of finished goods on the one hand and a variety of services on the other. 
• Rural and Urban settlements different in terms of social relationship , attitude and outlook . Rural people are less mobile and therefore , social relations among them are intimate .

Types of Rural Settlements 

• Types of the settlements are determined by the extent of the built - up area and inter - house distance.
• In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is a rather universal feature , particularly in the northern plains .
• There are various factors and condition responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India.

These include:

1. Physical features - nature of terrain , altitude, climate and availability of water 
2. Cultural and ethenic factors - social structure , caste and religion .
3. Security factors - defence against thefts and robberies .

Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types :

1. Clustered , agglomerated or nucleated 
2. Semi - clustered or fragmented 
3. Hamleted, and 
4. Dispersed or isolated .

Clustered Settlements 

• The clustered rural settlements is a compact or closely built up area of houses .
• In this type of village the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures .
• The closely built - up area and its intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape , such as rectangular, radial , linear ,etc.
• Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states .

Semi - Clustered Settlements 

• Semi - clustered or fragmented settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlements .
• Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan .

 Hamleted Settlements 

• Sometimes settlements is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name .
• These units are locally called Panna, Para , Palli , nagla , dhani etc . in various parts of the country .
• This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors. 

Dispersed Settlements 

• Dispersed settlements pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts of few huts in remote jungles , or  on small hills with or pasture on the slopes .
• Extreme dispersion of settlements is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas .
• Many areas of Meghalays, Uttaranchal , Himachal, Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.

Urban Settlements 

• Urban settlements are generally compact and large in size .
• They are engaged in a variety of non - agricultural , economic and administrative functions .
• Cities are connected directly as well as indirectly with the village and also with each other .

Evolution of Towns in India 

• Towns flourished since prehistoric times in India.
• Even at the time of Indus valley civilisation , towns like Harappa and Mohanjodaro were in existence .

On the basis of their evolution in different periods , Indian towns may be classified as :

1. Ancient towns 
2. Medieval towns 
3. Modern towns 

Ancient Towns 

• There are number of towns in India having historical background spanning over 200 years.
• Most of them developed as religious and cultural centres .
• Varanasi is one of the important town among of these .

Medieval Towns 

• About 100 of the existing towns have their roots in the medieval period .
• Most of them developed as headquarters of principalities and kingdom .
• Important among them are Delhi , Hyderabad , Jaipur , Lucknow , Agra and Nagpur.

Modern towns 

• The British and other Europeans have developed a number of towns in India .
• They first developed some trading ports such as Surat , Daman ,Goa , Pondicherry , etc.
• The British later consolidated their hold around three principal nodes - Mumbai , Chennai and Kolkata and built them in the British style .
• Town based on modern industries also evolved after 1850. 
• After independence , a large number of towns have been developed as administrative headquarters , eg. Chandigarh , Bhubaneswar , Gandhinagar , Dispur etc.

Urbanization in India 

• The level of urbanisation is measured in terms of % of urban population to total population .
• The level of urbanisation in India in 2011 was 31.16 percent , which is quite low in comparison to developed countries . 
• Total urban population has increased eleven fold during twentieth century .

Classification of town on the basis of population size 

• Urban centre with population of more than one lakh is called city or class I town .
• Cities accommodating population size between one to five million are called metropolitan cities and more than five million are mega cities .
• Majority of metropolitan and mega cities are urban agglomerations .

An urban agglomeration may consist of any one of the following three combinations .

1. A town and its adjoining urban outgrowths 
2. Two or more contiguous towns with or without their outgrowths 
3. A city and one or more adjoining towns with their outgrowths together forming a contiguous spread .

Examples Of Urban outgrowths are railway colonies , university campus , port area , military cantonment , etc. located within the revenue limits of a village or villages contiguous to the town or city .

Functional Classification of Towns 

• Apart from their role as central or nodal places , many towns and cities perform specialised services .

On the basis of dominant or specialised functions , India cities and towns can be broadly classified as follows :

Administrative towns and cities 

• Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as Chandigarh , New Delhi , Bhopal , Shillong , Guwahati , Imphal etc.

Industrial towns 

• Industries constitute prime motive force of these cities such as Mumbai , Salem , Coimbatore Modinagar Hugli etc .

Transport Cities 

• They may be ports primarily engaged in export and import activities such as Kandla , Kochchi , Kozhikode etc.

Commercial towns 

• Towns and cities specializing in trade and commerce are kept in this class .

Example : Kolkata , Saharnpur , Satna , etc

Mining towns 

• These towns have developed in mineral rich areas such as Raniganj , Jharia , Digbol Ankaleshwar , Singrauli etc . 

Garrison Cantonment towns 

• These towns emerged as garrison towns such as Ambala , Jalamdhar , Mhow , Babina , Udhampur etc .

Educational towns 

• Starting as centres of education , some of the towns have grown into major campus towns such as Roorki , Varanasi , aligarh , pilani Allahabad etc.