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NATURAL RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
NATURAL RESOURCES
Natural resources include land, water resources, fisheries, mineral resources, forests, marine
resources, climate, rainfall and topography. But nature possess more in its bosom and in order to
discover what it hides, man is required to develop techniques of knowing the undiscovered
resources. Sometimes the discovery of the use of a resource can immediately increase its use value.
When we talk about the natural resources of a country, we have obviously in mind the extent of
the known or discovered natural resources with their present uses. With the growth of the
knowledge about the unknown resources and their use, the natural endowment of a country will
be materially altered.
Another consideration regarding the nature of natural resources is that some resources; e.g., land,
water, fisheries and forests are renewable and there are others like minerals and mineral oils which
are exhaustible and can be used only once. Consequently, careful use of the exhaustible resources
and maintenance of the quality of renewable resources like land are a sine qua non in the process
of development.
PRINCIPLES OF RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
The principal objective of resource development is to maximize Gross Domestic Output (GDP)
and for this purpose there should be optimum utilization of resources not only in the short period
but, in a sustained manner, over the long period. Various guiding principles for resource
development are:
• Economic use of resources to achieve minimum waste
• Sustained use of economic resources through conservation of renewable resources and
economic use of exhaustible resources
• Multi-purpose use of resources: if a certain resource has a number of uses, it is necessary
to have all the uses
• Integrated planning in the use of natural resources
• Location of industries with a view to reducing transport costs to the minimum
• Abundant supply of energy resources, especially electric power so as to utilize other
resources in the best possible manner
LAND RESOURCES
The total geographical area of India is about 329 million hectares of which 42 million hectares or
14% of the total reporting area in India is classified as:
• Barren land, such as mountains, deserts, etc. which cannot be brought under cultivation
• Area under non-agricultural uses, that is, lands occupied by buildings, roads and railways,
rivers and canals, and other lands put to uses other than agricultural.
• The rest of the land is put under three major uses, viz., forests, pastures and agriculture.
FOREST RESOURCES
Forests are important natural resources of India. They help control floods and thus they protect the
soil against erosion. They supply timber, fuel wood, fodder and a wide range of non-wood
products. They are the natural habitat for bio diversity and repository of genetic wealth. Forests,
thus, play an important role in environmental and economic sustainability. Under land utilization
pattern, the Government of India estimated the total area under forests as 68 million hectares or 22
% of the total geographical area. In India, forests have generally been undervalued in economic
and social terms.
The contribution of the forest sector to GDP was put as 1% in 1996 – 97 (measured at 1980 – 81
prices). A recent estimate puts the gross value of goods and services provided by the forest sector
at 2.4% GDP. There is concentration of forests in a few states in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa
and a few union territories. Northern India is particularly deficient in forests. There is a need to
increase forest areas in the entire country as also to develop them in deficient states.
Forest policy, 1952
Appreciating the necessity of developing forests, the government of India declared its first forest
policy in 1952. According to this policy, it was decided to raise steadily the area under forests to
100 million hectares or 33 % for the country as a whole. The target area was to provide green cover
over two thirds of the land area in the hills and mountains. The main objectives of forest policy
under the Five-Year Plans were:
• To increase the productivity of forests
• To link up forest-development with various forest-based industries and
• To develop forests as a support to rural economy.
New forest policy, 1988
The 1952 forest policy had failed to stop the serious depletion of forest wealth over the years.
Accordingly, it became imperative to evolve a new strategy of forest conservation. The
government of India announced its new forest policy in December 1988. The important features
of this policy are:
• Role of tribal in forests recognized
