GIS@development Deember 2001; Maponomics: Bankura Resource Profile: A review

If you are looking for any information of spatial nature in planning and development or in decision making process, you must go through Bankura Resource Profile. This atlas is developed by National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization’s (NATMO), Kolkata and Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi under Natural Resource Data Management System (NRDMS) project.

NATMO must be congratulated for bringing out this atlas. It has taken under consideration not only the requirements of academicians and decision makers but also for a community as a whole, which wants to get acquainted with the available resources in its vicinity.

Bankura, today is not alien place if one has this atlas. One can easily plan to visit any Bankura’s village with its route map. If, the car he is driving fails, or the road he is taking is not in motorable condition, he can take a cart as the map even facilitates to use the cart route. If one falls sick on the way, the map shows him the nearest hospital. Feeling thirsty and your mineral water is over; one can find out the nearest tube well. Think of any information and you will find it there let it be related to crop, water table, geology, soil, etc. It is an outpouring of meticulous compilation and excellent presentation of very detailed information.

In the preface Dr. Prithvish Nag, Director, NATMO, highlights the objective of the atlas which is to develop district level profile on natural resources and other allied sectors using concepts of GIS by providing software support for data management, modeling and operational research. He also points out that the database collected were not only for agriculture but also for social development, biomass evaluation, energy assessment and landuse planning and a test of GRAM++ and related GIS softwares.

The atlas has three sections. The first section is a 32-page compilation of textual database. The section begins with a general profile of Bankura district with the database on the total area, caste-wise population, literacy, sex ratio, number of mouzas, forest areas, cultivated area, precise educational resources, detailed electrified mouzas, explicit post and telegraph services, police station, no of wells, banks, blocks, villages, municipalities, areas under major crop cultivation, sources of irrigation, agricultural infrastructure, pisciculture areas, different cooperatives, varied financial services, transport facilities and medical facilities with beds in respective centers. The section also includes the industrial profile; tourist scenario with special features of tourist plots, agricultural scenario, and district plan are elaborated for the Bankura.

It is followed by the explanation of some of the maps. However, it would have been better, had the maps been associated with the explanation there itself. In this section, one can also get explanatory text of a few maps, which follows in the next section. These maps are on geology with lineaments, micro and mini watershed maps (the codes used are also explained), blockwise groundwater potential maps (with pre-monsoon water table condition), irrigation by sources, cropping pattern distribution map, tourism scenario map.

The interface pictures of the ACT (Almanac Characterization Tool) are also presented in this section. ACT is customised GRAM++ GIS software, a packaged set of geo-referenced data and query tools targeted for use in agricultural and natural resource management activities. The GIS interface has been illustrated with certain examples such as on annual precipitation and population statistics. This in turn highlights the importance of need of the digital version of the atlas as in paper one can see only those maps that are printed.

Maps on population growth, distribution of SC/ST population density, sex ratio, literacy (male/ female, schedule caste/ schedule tribe) and workforce distribution are explained with some bar charts and explanatory texts but again not with respective maps in the adjacent pages.

The real colour of maps begins in the second section. There are in all 18 (A3) such maps taking district as a unit. The map section begins with administrative map showing 22 different blocks followed by many other maps as mentioned earlier. This section also contains superb set of 110 (A3 size) block maps. These are for all 22 individual blocks along with maps of soil, drainage and contour; rail, road and settlements, infrastructure I (Educational institutions, hospitals, health centres, veterinary centre, temples, mosque, tubewell, well) and infrastructure II map (village name, bank, market, SSI unit, police station, post office, telegraph office.

The third and concluding section has 10 A1 size maps. These are total different set of maps. Maps for only four blocks depicting key statistics and development activities, landuse (textual), density of population, occupational structure, slope, physiography, hydrogeology & rocktypes, livestock and yield of crops are presented here.

The atlas ends with four more A1 size maps of the entire district portraying administrative profile, physiography, geology & mineral resource and soil maps. These maps are real marvel in form of presentation with all required information in the same layout. However, there are certain aspects of the atlas that may need attention:

The bulky size of the Atlas is again not handy to use.
It is not clear why in certain maps instead of ‘Legend’ the term ‘Reference’ is used.
Geology with lineament map shows prime and minor lineaments but it is difficult to differentiate between them, as the colours are not contrasting and moreover it does not have scale. In depth to groundwater table, contour, flow direction and dynamic groundwater resource map the depth to water table isolines and water table contour nomenclature is not clear in the legend. Both the above-mentioned maps do not have scale bar and as the explanations for these map are not adjacent to them, it requires going back to the explanation of water table map to decipher the lines in the map.
Apparently, in the digitally delineated micro watershed and mini watershed map’s block boundaries, there is a mismatch with earlier administrative map boundaries, which has been overlaid here.
In the concluding section, maps for only four blocks depicting both key statistics and development activities, landuse (textual), density of population, occupational structure, slope, physiography, hydrogeology & rock types, livestock and yield of crops are presented here. There is a lack of similarity of some legends for the same constituents in these maps, like rock types representation. Though individually they look great compilation but had these maps been for all 22 blocks it would have better.

Overall, Bankura Resource Profile is a good effort, which is expected to reach out to a larger audience where the community can really benefit by utilising it to its maximum potential. However there is a long way still to be covered.