NEW DELHI: In a big development for India, Isro has mapped every village in the country from space and the satellite data will go a long way to support gram panchayats in decentralized planning, monitoring of assets, and improving grassroots governance.Isro, on National Panchayati Raj Day on Friday, announced that it has completed high-resolution land use and land cover mapping for the entire country at a scale of 1:10000 — this means 1cm on the map represents just 100 meters on the ground, sharp enough to distinguish a paddy field from a pond. According to the 2011 Census, there were 649,481 villages in India.ISRO has made this satellite data available to government organizations. “This dataset supports gram panchayat development plans and is integrated as one of the information layers on the Grammanchitra (village map) web portal of the ministry of panchayati raj, enabling stronger, data-driven governance at the grassroots,” Isro posted on X on Friday. Grammanchitra web portal is a tool designed to help local bodies make data-driven development decisions.The mapping of villages will help in effective preparations of gram panchayat development plans, will enable data-driven decision-making and will aid in identifying land resources and usage patterns. Overall, it will improve transparency and accountability in implementation of government projects in rural India.This effort is part of a larger initiative to use satellite imagery, including data from Isro’s Bhuvan geoportal, for disaster management, agricultural planning, and infrastructure development across rural and remote areas. Isro’s mapping of all villages in the country will go a long way in strengthening grassroots democracy.
