The paper uses Markov chain analysis to examine the growth and transition in various land use categories from taluk and district-level data representing urban, peri-urban and rural gradients towards Bengaluru north. The area under non-agricultural use has increased significantly across all gradients, but its growth is relatively high in the urban and peri-urban gradients. In urban gradients, the net sown area has decreased significantly. In rural gradients, permanent pastures and cultivable waste categories have seen a significant decline in growth due to their nature of property right, i.e. commons.