2019 – Posted in: Daily News

SURVEY OF INDIA

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: About the department of Survey of India.

The Survey of India (SoI), the country’s oldest scientific department, will be using drones to map the country for the first time in its history.

The Survey of India department will deploy 300 drones for mapping country. Apart from helping the organisation in creating high-resolution maps of the land in villages, the drone will also help by providing unprecedented details.
This will help in digitalisation of land titles in villages.
According to the report, the best SoI maps have a resolution of 1: 250000 currently. This means that 1 cm on the map represents 2500 cm on the ground.
The maps created with the help of drones, will have a 1:500 resolution, meaning 1 cm will represent 500 cm on the ground.
The mapping of forests, hills and deserts is likely to be left out.
This exercise will help residents get property cards and proper legal titles to their lands.

To provide good high-resolution foundation maps.
The aim of the survey is to map 75 percent of India’s geography, coming up to 2.4 million sq km of the overall 3.2 million sq km.

Earlier exercise involves aerial photography, conducted by taking pictures from planes, is more expensive and has its limitations.

Survey of India, The National Survey and Mapping Organisation of the country under the Department of Science & Technology, is the oldest scientific department of the government of India.
It was set up in 1767.
Survey of India bears a special responsibility to ensure that the country’s domain is explored and mapped suitably, provide base maps for expeditious and integrated development and ensure that all resources contribute with their full measure to the progress, prosperity and security of our country now and for generations to come.