Mapped every village in country from space, says Isro; satellite data to help in better rollout of rural projects | India News
New Delhi: In a major development for India, ISRO has mapped every village in the country from space and the satellite data will go a long way in helping village panchayats in decentralized planning, resource monitoring and improving grassroots governance.ISRO announced on National Panchayati Raj Day on Friday that it has completed high-resolution land use and land cover mapping for the entire country at a scale of 1:10,000 — meaning 1 cm of soil on the map represents just 100 meters, sharp enough to distinguish a paddy field from a pond. As of 2011 census, there were 649,481 villages in India.ISRO has made this satellite data available to government agencies. “This dataset supports gram panchayat development planning and is integrated as one of the data layers on the Panchayati Raj Ministry’s Grammanchachitra (Village Map) web portal, enabling stronger, data-driven governance at the grassroots,” ISRO posted on Friday X. The Gramchitra web portal is a tool designed to help local organizations make data-driven development decisions.Village mapping will help in the effective preparation of village panchayat development plans, enable data-driven decision making and identify land resources and use patterns. Overall, it will improve transparency and accountability in implementation of government schemes in rural India.This effort is part of a larger initiative to use satellite imagery along with data from ISRO’s Bhuban Geoportal for disaster management, agricultural planning, and infrastructure development across rural and remote areas. ISRO’s mapping of all villages in the country will go a long way in strengthening grassroots democracy.
