Administrative Geography

There has been world over, a significant increase in the expression of concern for the neglect of policy-relevant research in human geography. Only a few geographers in India have evinced interest in this vitally important area in which geographers should contribute significantly with their skills of understanding the ‘natural’ and ‘human’ in synthesis rather than in isolation.

Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System

During the last decade urgency has been shown by geographers for an increased application of remote sensing techniques and GIS not only as part of the curriculum butalso in the researches conducted mostly confined, though not restricted to physical geography. Such techniques are crucially dependent on computer as a tool. Only a fewelitist centres have been able to introduce such courses and are increasingly using these techniques in their researches.

State of the Art


Indian geography claims a substantial segment of the national academic space. If one goes by the numerical strength of the geographical community in terms of students admitted to various geography programmed in different universities and colleges and the strength of the faculty, Indian geography has certainly made impressive gains during the
past eight decades. More geographers now attend summits, workshops, semiprofessional and conferences in geography both at national and international level. Yet,
Indian Geography does not feature prominently in the international arena. This is despite attempts to include every possible change in the development of the subject into the geography curriculum. Geographers in India have been alive to every new tool and
technique that has appeared on its door step. Yet, the geographical enterprise has failed to
reap dividends nationally or internationally.

Teaching and research in Geography is channelized through a large number of geography departments spread all over the country. The period under review has
witnessed establishment of many new departments of geography particularly in the North-Eastern region of India. But the inherent dichotomy in nature of geography continues to affect its position in the highly structured university system that treats the subject either as a natural science or as a social science. The placement of geography in the university system continues to baffle generations of students. Geography continues to
be placed under the faculty of sciences in many universities enabling them to procure funds and projects from funding agencies as well as to establish laboratories. On the other hand departments which are placed under arts/social sciences continue to be eternally starved of funds for their minimal needs. This has created not only inequality between
departments of geography, but also affects the quality of teaching and research. Private universities which have come up in large numbers in recent years have largely ignored
geography as a serious area of teaching and research. Even some of the traditional
departments of geography which have made significant contribution in geography teaching and research have (or are in the process of) begun to cultivate new techniques such as ego-informatics on the wake of advances made in GIS and Remote Sensing technology. A number of geography departments now proudly display on their websites courses on GIS, Remote Sensing and Geo-informatics. There is nothing wrong in this trend except that an impression has gathered about a new image of geography as
cultivation of these techniques. Many researchers now find it prestigious to add suffix-
using GIS techniques- to the title of their research papers. Geography teaching and
research is transforming in many departments to aggressively accommodate itself to this new trend. Yet there are many geography departments in universities and colleges which
lack even computers to do word processing. Such is the state of affairs in geography that occupies a substantial segment of the national academic space.

Table 1-3 give an idea of the organizational set-up of Indian geography. There are many associations of geographers in the country-some very old and some relatively new-
but there is no national council of geographers to coordinate their affairs. There are
equally large numbers of journals published in geography, but few publish refereed
research. This has seriously hampered maintenance of quality. The University Grants Commission made some effort in developing a Geography curriculum but it has not met

with much success. There is an urgent need to reorient the curricular programmer in
geography keeping in view the spirit of the changing times.