Question

Discuss the features of different types of rural settlements. What are the factors responsible for the settlement patterns in different physical environments?

Answer 1

In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is common, particularly in the northern plains. But, there are areas, with other forms of rural settlements. There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India. These include:

• physical features – nature of terrain, altitude, climate, and availability of water
• cultural and ethnic factors – social structure, caste, and religion
• security factors – defense against thefts and robberies. Guided by these factors rural settlements in India can broadly

be put into four types:

• Clustered, agglomerated, or nucleated,
• Semi-clustered or fragmented,
• Hamleted, and
• Dispersed or isolated.

1. Clustered Settlements: The clustered rural settlement is compact or closely built. up area of houses. Here the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns, and pastures. The closely built-up area and its intervening streets give rise to patterns or geometric shapes, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc. These are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. People live in the compact villages for security or defense reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagaland. In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilization of available water resources.
2. Semi-Clustered Settlements: Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from a tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement. In this case, one or more sections of the village society choose or are forced to live a little away from the main cluster or village. Generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the main village, whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks of the village.
3. Hamleted Settlements: This settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name. These units are locally called Panna, para, Palli, angle, Dhani, etc. in various parts of the country. This segmentation of a large village is often due to social and ethnic factors.
4. Dispersed Settlements: Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by the extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.