Time Line
1903
Smart maps of Calcutta are published in 856 sheets.
1905
The Survey of India gets engaged in survey beyond the Indian territory.Revenue Survey is transferred from the Survey of India to the state authorities.
1906
The Imperial Forest Research Institute is established, which evolved as the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.
1908
Wilbur Wright’s passenger, L. P. Bonvillian takes the first photographs from an aircraft on a demonstration flight in France.
1909
The first aerial motion pictures are taken in Italy.
1910
The International Society of Photogrammetry (ISP) is founded under the leadership of its first President, Eduard Dolezal from Austria.
1914
During the First World War (1914-1918), the value of complete aerial photographic reconnaissance is recognised by both sides: Germany acquires nearly 4000 photos a day as part of the planning for their last great offensive (1918), and the US Army has made over one million prints during the last four months of the war.
1916
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) is established.
1921
The International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) is formed in Monaco and starts working to bring uniformity and standardisation in hydrographic database creations.
1922
The International Geographical Union is established in Brussels.
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The Royal Geographical Society publishes ‘The Times Atlas of the World’, with the characteristic layer coloured maps.
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OGS Crawford from England is the inventor of the scientific aerial-archaeology with his photograph on the "Celtic fields", old soil marked field boundaries at Windmill Hill.
1923
The Official Secrets Act is enacted in India.
1930
The British Survey of India maps on 1:63,360 scale are published.
1931
Maps on the Environs of Calcutta in the Imperial Gazetteer of India are published.
1936
The ‘Atlas of American Agriculture’ prepared by O. E. Baker is published.
1937
The first volume of the ‘Atlas Bolshoi’, one of the earliest atlases made by the Soviet cartographers, is published between 1937 and 1939.
1939
Military Survey is set up during the Second World War (1939-45) by the SOI.
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The American Geographical Society on the initiative of its former Director, Isaiah Bowman, produces the ‘Million Map of Hispanic America’.
1943
Last ordnance survey of India is carried out.
Geodetic and research branch is split by the formation of the War Survey Research Institute.
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Wars and Maps
In the early 20th century, the half-inch and ten-mile maps followed the method of preparing Quarter Inch Maps. In the third edition of the One-Inch map, completed in 1912, known as the ‘fully coloured’, relief was shown in brown and contours in red. In the years before 1914, experiments in the best methods of showing relief were carried on vigorously. Before 1917, cartography was well advanced in the former Soviet Union and the daunting task of mapping its Asian territories had been tackled. By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, of the approximate total of 975 sheets required to cover the land surface, 405 were published, but of these, only 232 conformed to the international pattern. Partly because of the insufficiency of material available for mapping, the Geographical section, General Staff under the British Government, between 1919 and 1939, produced a series of large scale maps such as of Africa, 1:2 million and Asia at 1:4 million. In the years since 1945, the science and art of cartography has advanced to an extent comparable to that achieved in any other great period of the past.
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Swami Pranavananda
The exploration work in the Himalayas and Tibet by Swami Pranavananda, a Telugu Sanyasi explorer, of Holy Kailas and Manasarovar was a great task in unfolding the mystery and beauty of the Himalayas. He discovered the true sources of four great Himalayan rivers, the Indus, the Sutlej, the Brahmaputra and the Karnali. The Royal Geographical Society of London and the Survey of India accepted his findings; the SOI has incorporated them in the maps published since 1941. His thrilling book on ‘Exploration in Tibet’ was published by the University of Calcutta in 1950.
During this period, attempts were made by some private publishers and the Survey of India to produce atlases. The most significant contribution in this direction was by Prof. S. P. Chatterjee and Economic Atlas of Andhra Desa (now Andhra Pradesh) prepared by V. L. S. Prakasa Rao and V. V. Ramanadhan.
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