भारत राष्ट्रीय एटलस

Summary

The available opening and closing materials describe the National Atlas of India (Preliminary Edition), edited by S. P. Chatterjee, prepared by the National Atlas Organisation under the Government of India’s Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, and printed by the Survey of India. Presented as the first outcome of the National Atlas Project under the Second Five-Year Plan, it comprises 26 plates depicting India’s physical, economic and social conditions, principally at scales of 1:5,000,000 and 1:10,000,000, supplemented by world, hemispheric and regional maps and two additional lithological plates. Maps of India use Lambert’s Conical Orthomorphic projection. Features include metric units, multicolour printing, English translations of legends and explanatory notes, a separate map of reorganised state boundaries, and loose-leaf binding. The introductory notice states that the maps use the latest information available from central and state governments and are intended for planning, education, administration, industry and commerce. The visible contents cover relief, geology, drainage, climate, minerals, soils, land use, irrigation and crops. Closing legends detail rural and urban populations, tribal populations, education and scientific research, health, archaeology and tourism. Their temporal coverage includes population changes during 1901–1951, tribal population data for 1931 and 1951, malaria-control areas for 1953–1956, and health expenditure under the Second Five-Year Plan. These excerpts document the atlas’s coverage, data definitions and cartographic presentation; they do not present analytical conclusions derived from its maps.