Economic Development and Planning in India

As the world community moves into the 21st century and mankind is really concerned about sustainable human settlements, the Sundarban Delta provides a unique case of fragile balance between man, environment and his habitat- Till recent past Sundarban was thought to be a fearful land comprising of innumerable islands, creeks, tidal forests, wild animals and natural calamities, that have played havoc time and again and had wiped off traces of ancient civilizations and famous ports. It is a lesser region of the country, irrespective of its natural resource base, and it's close proximity with the Calcutta metropolis. Against such a backdrop, the book provides an all-comprehensive view of this deltaic littoral, the peculiar a environment, popu settlements based on a detailed data base of both secondary sources and an extensive field work. Latest analytical tools and cartographic methods have been adopted for analysing human settlements. The book is organised into six chapter Chapter One introduces the concepts, the region. the research design and methodology. Chapter Two focuses on the natural environment of the region. Chapter Three portrays the population profile of the region. Chapter Four deals with the settlement pattern of the region. Chapter Five focuses on the inter-regional pattern and characteristics of human settlements, based on the 200 surveyed villages. The quality of human settlements have been measured at the end. Chapter Six is based on population and settlements, a micro-level analysis of 400 households. The author also investigates the quality of housing at the end of this section. Finally, to conclude, the author recommends 14 points of improvement. The goal of sustainability and peoples participation has been called for.