Restrictions on Survey of India Maps: Logic and Rationale

S. M. Mathur

The fault does not lie only with the SOI top brass but also with the Government which has put all kinds of restrictions on sale and publication of maps.

Gridded maps are ordinarily available freely in shops all over the world, and are standard, for example, the British toposheets. I wonder whether the IRA is using them to bomb British installations!

Publication of maps of India in any form, even in text books of geography, needs the permission of the Surveyor General of India. Matters become complicated if the shore line or international boundary is to be depicted.

I would like to preface this article, lest I am misunderstood, by stating that the Survey of India maps are of very high quality and can compete in accuracy with any in the world. The competence and capabilities of its surveyors and cartographers are not in question. The problem discussed here is about the irrational policies followed by the government and the Survey which put all kinds of hurdles in making their products available to the general public and largely negate the purpose for which the maps are produced. The following is written with the honest intention of reaching the Government and the Survey to reconsider the restrictions that it has placed on the distribution and availability of its maps and publications which need to be accessible freely and widely as they are an important tool in scientific research and developmental work.

The Survey of India (SOI) was established 232 years back in 1767 by the East India Company for mapping the territories it had acquired for developing them for commercial exploitation. Over the time, activities of the Survey were extended to cover more territories as they were annexed to the British Indian Empire (present India. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma) but also same of the adjoining lands like parts of Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, etc. Since most senior officers of the company belonged to the military, the Survey too was headed by an army officer. In those times there was need to maintain secrecy about maps because other European powers were also trying to get a foot hold in India which was considered by them as the ‘Land of Gold’, and if fallen in their hands would have been of immense help to them. This arrangement has continued to this day, and may perhaps explain the excessive concern for secrecy by an administration, particularly the military, obsessed or paranoid about keeping secrets and still not be able to come to terms with modern realities.

The Surveyor General’s post is reserved for an officer of the rank of Brigadier or above. There was, however, an ‘aberration’ when Dr. Hari Narain, an eminent geophysist, headed the organisation for some time. The hold of the army is all-pervasive as most senior officers of the Survey belong to the armed forces. This could possibly be the reason for its penchant for secrecy. For most of its existence it has remained in its own cocoon, but lately it has tried to reach the general public by publishing a couple of free-sale booklets for school children and others to teach them about maps. This is a good development, but I sincerely wish that they could be better written.

The hold of the army is reflected on each map and publication of SOI by the pompous declaration printed on them: "Published by the Order of (rank, name and a string of degrees), Surveyor General of India" (emphasis mine). This is possibly a legacy of the centuries old tradition handed down from the times of the East India Company and no body has given a thought to its incongruity and need for change. And since it panders to the ego of the incumbent Surveyor General why change it? Any way, does this signify that the Survey of India is a government within government? It may be noted that publications of all other ministries and departments of the government bear the simple legend: "Printed by the Order of the Government of India"_ which is perfectly justified as it is only the government that can issue such an order according to international norms.

Now the SOI is under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, but things do not appear to have changed much. The fault does not lie only with the SOI top brass but also with the Government which has put all kinds of restrictions on sale and publication of maps. The DST is manned by highly capable and rational scientists who must be helpless in changing the set-up for I can not believe that they are unaware of the antediluvian laws and problems with which the Survey of India is saddled. It may be mentioned in passing that the government is fully cognizant of the fact that the Indian statue books are full of laws and rules that have no modern relevance and have become outdated and anachroic. There is talk in some quarters to review such laws and to repel them, but the law makers are much too busy in politics to bother much about the matter. It, therefore, devolves on thinking bureaucrats and scientists to take the initiative in having such laws examined thoroughly and getting them repealed or amended as required -the sooner the better. But I am afraid that nobody wants to take an initiative in the matter perhaps because of the adages "let the sleeping dogs lie" and "who is going to bell the cat".

All topographical and geographical maps of the Survey of India (and maps derived from them) on the scale of one-million or larger of areas roughly 80 km wide inland along the coast and along the international borders, the whole of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and all the islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are put in "Restricted" category. This means that they are not available to the general public but only to certain categories of people and institutions, particularly government departments as the procedure to obtain them is long-drawn; one has to go through the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of External Affairs and/or the Ministry of Home. The loss or even disclosure of these maps to unauthorised persons attract penal action under Section 5 of the Official Secret Act, 1923.

Restriction of Survey Maps
The aerial photographs of the entire country too are highly restricted and not available to the general public when orbiting satellites of several countries record data and information more detailed than the aerial photographs.

The sheets of Geological Quadrangle Map Series on the scale of 1:250,000 and Geological and Mineral Atlas of India on one million scale published by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) based on the SOI restricted sheets are also ‘Restricted’. These sheets cover some of the most important geological areas and the restriction hampers research. In this connection I have a story to tell. A friend in Australia wanted one of the restricted geological sheets (not knowing anything about their restriction) and wrote to the Indian High Commission, who promptly obtained a copy and supplied to him. When he came to India in connection with his research he showed the map to me and I asked him how he could get the map when I could not. And he told me. So, It is evident that even Indian diplomatic missions abroad do not know about this rule.

The same restrictions are applicable to maps of the unrestricted category which have grid lines printed on them. I understand that SOI gridded maps are meant mostly for the armed forces. Its rationale is incomprehensible. Could it be that since grid lines are used for accurate locations, any unauthorised person should be prevented from knowing exactly where he is? And, prey, how the national security is going to be jeopardised if that chap knows the location? Surely he is not going to fire a Bofors gun! Gridded maps are ordinarily available freely in shops all over the world, and are standard, for example, the British toposheets. I wonder whether the IRA is using them to bomb British installations!

Another unreasonable restriction is on the depiction of coordinates, particularly on maps published by private agencies. This antediluvian restriction indicates that the powers are entirely unaware of modern technology. The hand held GPS instrument, hardly larger than an amateur 35-mm camera, gives the position of the holder in latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes correct to the third place of decimal, or 1/1000th part, of a minute. It means that the position is correct to half a metre at the Equator. The GPS instrument works on a system of triangulation; it locks on four or more satellites of the hundreds orbiting the earth to give the exact position. This instrument is in wide use not only by surveyors, geologists and other scientists abroad but also by the general public such as sailors and motorists who use it to chalk out their route and locate themselves on the high seas.

Constrains in depiction of contours is another restriction in publication of maps. The authorities perhaps are not aware that the height of any object either vis-a-vis ground level or MSL can easily be computed from aerial photographs and satellite imageries.

All SOI toposheets come stamped with the injunction "NOT FOR EXPORT". This ridiculous rule is meaningless in view of the above stated fact that these sheets published by foreign agencies are freely sold abroad. Also any one can put a sheet in an envelope and post it abroad as every piece of mail is not opened for inspection. In this connection I will recount another experience. I had gone to the Map Sales office of SOI in Connaught Place, Delhi, to buy some sheets. A foreigner also bought some maps, and after he left, I asked the salesman "what if the foreigner took away the maps even after the endorsement `Not for Export.’ The salesman shrugged his shoulders and said that it was no concern of his as it was the responsibility of the Customs Department to check this. Government of India Notification No. 227 Customs F.No.405/3/80-Cus.III, dated 29.13.1980 prohibits the export of these maps. I asked a very senior retired officer of the Customs Department about this. He was not aware of the notification and it is also evident that most customs inspectors are also unaware of it. He remarked that it is impossible to check thoroughly the baggage of every departing passenger and admitted that rarely the inspector bothers to check printed papers. So, how is the government going to enforce this rule?

Coming to the matter of enforcement of these rules in the country itself. Knowing the standard of integrity of a government employee, it is just possible that you borrow just for a little while a restricted map from the custodian of maps in a government office by paying a tip, take it to the nearest photocopying shop and have a copy made! I will not be surprised if somebody tells me that it has already been done.

The futility of all the above restrictions is brought home forcefully when you find that topographic sheets of all parts of India, including Himalayan regions, are available from several shops and agencies all over the World. One such agency, the Stanford Map Centre of London supplies any map that you may want. The U.S. Army Service publishes for sale gridded toposheets of not only India, including Himalayan areas, but of the whole world on 1:250,000 scale and contour interval of 500 feet. This is not at all shocking; what is shocking is the myopic vision of the Survey of India and the government in imposing all sorts of restrictions which are senseless and absurd on all counts. A thought occurs to me that map producing agencies abroad must have had access to Survey of India maps for they themselves did no ground surveys. Of course they must have heavily relied on the vast amount of remote sensing data that hundreds of orbiting satellites provide.

Detailed descriptions of the Himalayan glaciers and their printed maps have been published on various scales, including fairly large scales, abroad. Some examples can be given here. "Map of the Western Karakoram Glaciers" on the scale of 1:500,000 published by Institute of Geology, University of Milan, Italy (1964); "‘Orographic Map of Northwest Karakoram" on the scale of 1:450, 000, Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, Zurich (1901). Why go so far? Kenneth Mason published glacier maps of the Karakoram in GSI publications: "The Representation of Glaciated Regions on Maps of the Survey of India" (Professional Paper No.25, 1929); "The Glaciers of the Karakoram and Neighbourhood" (Records vol. 63, pt.2, 1930).

The depiction of the coast lines of India and island territories is considered so sacrosanct that publication of maps of India on even the smallest scale, as in geography test book, after the approval of the Surveyor General requires a printed statement under each map thus: "The territorial waters of India extend into the sea to a distance of twelve nautical miles measured from the appropriate base-line". This may perhaps be an international requirement, but consider this. Admiralty maps essential for navigation and prepared by an international organisation are freely sold at all port cities by establishments dealing in nautical supplies. They are on large scale to aid in navigation and show not only the coast lines but full bathymetric details of the continental shelf and beyond. And, apparently the foreign publisher has not bothered to take the permission of the Surveyor General. The Geological Survey of India has also published some marine maps showing bottom sediments on 1:500,000 scale.

Publication of maps depicting inaccurate external boundaries and coast-line of India is tantamount to questioning the territorial integrity of India, and is a cognisable offence under Section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1961. But the Government of India or the Survey of India have no control on the international publishers of maps and atlases. Such publications on import in India are stamped on the relevant pages with the legend " The External Boundaries of India as Depicted in the Maps are Neither Correct nor Authentic ". No prosecution here!

Publication of maps of India in any form, even in text books of geography, needs the permission of the Surveyor General of India. Matters become complicated if the shore line or international boundary is to be depicted. As pointed out earlier, the maps of such areas fall under ‘Restricted’ category. There are other hassles in publishing maps. Defence installations or vital civil areas, features like dams and reservoirs, etc., may not be shown on maps of scales larger than one million without prior permission of the Ministry of Defence. These restrictions only show government paranoia because satellite imageries make a mockery of such restrictions as discussed in this article and should be known even to the military brass.

I come to another point here. One can see a board on small reservoirs and practically on every bridge, however small, on public highways which says: PHOTOGRAPHY PROHIBITED. Pray, who is there to ensure that a camera-toting passer-by does not click a picture of the feature? These boards are a subject of derision by everyone. Foreign geologists in the field when they come across such boards hastily conceal their camera, but soon realise that these are harmless idiosyncrasies of the powers that be. Are they the product of bureaucratic paranoia?

NRSA
Now I come to the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, another government organisation carrying out similar work, but with the most modern outlook, proving that saying that ‘the right hand does not know what the left is doing" because NRSA is as different from SOI as cheese from chalk.

Among the goals of the Indian space programme is of harnessing space technology for applications in the areas interalia of remote sensing. Among the several satellites launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) we may consider here two, IRS-1C and IRS-1D, for our purpose. In striking contrast to SoI the NRSA has published full details of these satellites and the facilities they offer in beautifully produced handbooks.

The cameras mounted on them are capable of photographing the Earth in several spectral bands, and their spatial resolution is 5.8 metres (IRS-1C) and 5.2-5.8 metres (IRS-LD) at nadir. This means that objects as small as a truck on the ground can be identified. Incidentally, some of the American satellite cameras are reputed as capable of resolution as small as 10 cm, which means that the number plate of the truck can be made out. Contrast this with the largest SOI maps on scale 1:25,000, which at best can identify a small village with a dot! Among the promotional material that NRSA freely distributes in India and abroad is a satellite view of Varanasi on the scale of 1:50,000 on which the main features of the holy city are clearly visible. Another view of Bombay on 5.8 metres resolution mocks at the restriction on coastal areas by SOI..

While the SOI prohibits public sale of its ‘Restricted’ maps and export of all its topo. sheets, satellite photographs of the whole country, and of areas beyond our borders, are freely sold in India and abroad by NRSA. From its basic data NRSA can provide any one print from the scale of one million to the scale of 1:12,500. So, where does SOI stand? Since it covers territories of’ many other lands its products are in demand from all over the world, and in this NRSA gives a healthy competition to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America. Moreover, the NRSA imageries make a nonsense of the SOI restrictions on depiction of strategic and other sensitive installations, simply because the imageries do not make any distinction between installations of any kind, sensitive or otherwise.

Conclusion
From the foregoing there is just one conclusion possible: The Survey of India should make all its maps freely available and should get rid of all restrictions on their sale and publication.