Dynamics of land use pattern in uttar dinajpur district of West Bengal

Land use pattern simply means the layout or arrangement of uses of land. The land may be used for agriculture, forest, settlement, pastures etc. The nature of land use pattern depicts the mode of transformations and sophistication of human civilization with the advancement of science and technology. Keeping in mind the significance of land use studies, this paper aims to analysis the changes in land use pattern in Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal during 2000-01 and 2014-15. The study is completely based on secondary sources of data. The data has been analysed through simple statistical techniques. The study reveals that, in the last fourteen years the scenario of land use pattern in the district were significantly changed. There has been an increase of 2210 hectares area under land put to non-agricultural uses, which constitutes about 10.6 per cent of the total area. A positive trend has been noticed for net sown area, which is about 88.2 per cent out of the total geographical area and considered as the highest in the entire West Bengal. The study highlights that there has been a conversion of barren and uncultivable land to non-agricultural use as well as transformation of the current fallow land and unculturable waste land to cultivated land. Hence, the change in the land use pattern in the district is the outcome of rapid population growth.