BharatNotes What is Land Use Land Cover Change?
Land Use Land Cover Change (LULCC) is the transformation, over time, of the Earth's surface in two linked senses. Land cover is the physical material on the surface — forest, grassland, water bodies, snow, bare rock or built-up area — that interacts with electromagnetic radiation and can be observed directly by aerial photography or satellite sensors. Land use is the human arrangement, activity and input applied to a land cover type — cropland, settlement, mining, recreation. The crucial distinction (per FAO) is that land cover can be read directly off an image, whereas land use requires socio-economic interpretation: "grassland" is land cover, but a "golf course" or "pasture" on it is land use.
How LULCC is studied
LULCC is detected by comparing multi-temporal satellite imagery using remote sensing and GIS. Classic datasets include the Landsat series (Thematic Mapper, ETM+, Operational Land Imager). In India, the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under ISRO has produced annual national LULC maps at 1:250,000 scale using multi-temporal AWiFS data since 2005-06, under ISRO's Natural Resources Census programme; the NRSC LULC Atlas (latest published March 2024) had completed 17 annual cycles up to 2022-23. The Bhuvan geoportal disseminates this data publicly.
Land use classification in India
India's land-use records follow a nine-fold classification maintained by the Department of Agriculture (Land Use Statistics at a Glance). The broad categories are:
| Category | Indicative share of reporting area |
|---|---|
| Net sown area | ~43% |
| Forests | ~22-23% |
| Land put to non-agricultural uses | ~9% |
| Barren and unculturable land | ~5% |
| Permanent pastures and grazing land | ~3% |
| Culturable wasteland, fallows, tree crops, etc. | remainder |
(Approximate shares; refer to Land Use Statistics at a Glance 2022-23 for exact figures.)
Current status
Per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 (Forest Survey of India, released December 2024), the country's forest and tree cover stands at 8,27,357 sq km — 25.17% of the geographical area, comprising 21.76% forest cover and 3.41% tree cover, a net rise of 1,445 sq km over 2021. Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover (~77,073 sq km, ISFR 2023), while Lakshadweep has the highest percentage cover (91.33%). Such trends reveal LULCC in action — afforestation gains alongside losses from urban sprawl and cropland conversion.
Significance and UPSC angle
LULCC drives climate change (altered carbon sinks and albedo), biodiversity loss, soil erosion, desertification and disruption of the water cycle, making it central to sustainable land management and the SDGs (notably SDG 15, land degradation neutrality). For UPSC, master the land-cover/land-use distinction, the nine-fold classification, the agencies (NRSC, Bhuvan, FSI/ISFR) and the drivers and consequences of change — these recur across GS1 (geography of resources, urbanisation) and GS3 (environmental degradation, conservation).
