Urban expansion and loss of Agriculture land -A case of Bengaluru city

The cultivated land across India has fragmented significantly resulting in change in landuse. The agricultural land has continued to shrink due to rapid urbanization. Nearly 45% land across India is cultivated area and 22% of the landuse area is forestland. The study using Remote Sensing data for the metropolitan fringe of Bengaluru reveals the expansion of built up to 446.55 sq. km by 2014. The increase in built up has reduced the agriculture land by 212.49 square kilometers. The agriculture land comprised of 27.57 square kilometers of agriculture plantation and 184.91 square kilometers of cropland. 96.29 square kilometers of agriculture land has been converted to “to-be built up” area. The 50.57% of the combined land area of built up and to-be built up is from agriculture land and the rest 49.43% from other land category. Over the years, the urban expansion to the fringes has declined the agricultural land by 16.31%. With the increase in requirement of both land and food security, it becomes imperative to protect and conserve the farmlands by policy and guidelines.