Topic directory
Land
Verified datasets, public-interest software, research publications and organisations addressing land.
- Agriculture Census of India
Five-yearly statistics on operational holdings, holding size, land use, irrigation, tenancy and farmer characteristics
Data source AgricultureLand India
Go straight to Agriculture Census of India - ATREE
Environmental research, conservation, and socially just development across key landscapes.
Organisation EnvironmentClimate India, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana
Go straight to ATREE - BAIF Development Research Foundation
Rural development institution pioneering tribal wadi agroforestry, sustainable livestock management, and watershed regeneration across India
Organisation AgricultureLand India
Go straight to BAIF Development Research Foundation - bharatlas
Open atlas for viewing, filtering, downloading and contributing Indian geospatial layers, from boundaries and wards to rivers and roads
Data source LandCities India
Go straight to bharatlas - Bhukosh
Geological Survey of India's map and geoscience portal for geology, minerals, geochemistry and exploration layers
Data source LandEnvironment India
Go straight to Bhukosh - Bhuvan
ISRO's geoportal — satellite imagery, thematic map layers and administrative boundaries for India
Data source LandCities India
Go straight to Bhuvan - Community Conserved Areas Portal
Participatory portal documenting community conserved areas across South Asia, with locations, ecosystems, areas and legal status
Data source LandEnvironment India
Go straight to Community Conserved Areas Portal - Copernicus Browser
ESA's visual browser for Sentinel satellite imagery — optical, radar, and atmospheric data from the Copernicus constellation, with on-the-fly visualisation
Data source LandEnvironment Global, India
Go straight to Copernicus Browser - CoRE Stack (CommonsTech Foundation)
Community-based digital public infrastructure for natural-resource planning, resilience, and landscape stewardship.
Organisation CitiesGovernance India, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan
Go straight to CoRE Stack (CommonsTech Foundation) - District-level satellite measures of the Indian economy
District-level building volume and monthly nighttime lights for tracking physical capital and economic activity across India
Data source EconomyCities India
Go straight to District-level satellite measures of the Indian economy - Documentaries on Labour, Capitalism, and Development
Curated directory of documentaries on labour, caste, land dispossession, agrarian movements, and climate justice across India and the world
Directory LabourCaste India, Global
Go straight to Documentaries on Labour, Capitalism, and Development - ERA5-Land
Enhanced-resolution land-surface reanalysis — temperature, rainfall, soil moisture, and evaporation at 9 km, from 1950 to near-present, complementary to ERA5
Data source ClimateLand Global, India
Go straight to ERA5-Land - Fields of View
Tools and simulations to understand complexity in policy landscapes.
Organisation CitiesGovernance India, Karnataka
Go straight to Fields of View - Forest Survey of India
The India State of Forest Report — biennial satellite assessment of forest and tree cover, state by state and district by district
Publication LandEnvironment India
Go straight to Forest Survey of India - Foundation for Ecological Security
Non-profit working to restore and protect common land, community pastures, and water bodies through village-level governance across India
Organisation LandEnvironment India
Go straight to Foundation for Ecological Security - GDAL
The foundational library for geospatial data conversion — translate between any GIS format, reproject coordinates, and process raster/vector data at scale
Tool TechnologyLand Global, India
Go straight to GDAL - GeoLibre
Free, private-by-design GIS for visualising, editing, and analysing geospatial data across browsers, desktops, mobile, and Jupyter
Tool TechnologyLand Global
Go straight to GeoLibre - Global Forest Watch
Near-real-time satellite monitoring of forest loss, with alerts you can subscribe to for a specific area
Dashboard LandClimate Global
Go straight to Global Forest Watch - Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL)
Maps built-up areas, settlement types, and population density over four decades — essential for studying how cities expand through time
Data source CitiesHousing Global, India
Go straight to Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) - Google Agricultural Understanding Platform
Google platform using satellite imagery and ML to delineate farm field boundaries and monitor crop seasons at individual field level
Data source AgricultureTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Google Agricultural Understanding Platform - Google Earth Engine
Planetary-scale cloud computing platform pairing a 90+ petabyte Earth observation catalog with parallel geospatial analysis APIs
Tool EnvironmentTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Google Earth Engine - Google Earth Engine Data Catalog
Google's multi-petabyte catalog of geospatial datasets — satellite imagery, climate, terrain, land cover, and population data — queryable at planetary scale
Data source ClimateEnvironment Global, India
Go straight to Google Earth Engine Data Catalog - Gram Manchitra
Spatial planning for Panchayati Raj — maps existing infrastructure, plans new facilities, and links to eGramSwaraj financial data at the Gram Panchayat level
Dashboard GovernanceCities India
Go straight to Gram Manchitra - Housing and Land Rights Network
Non-profit organisation monitoring forced evictions, homelessness, and advancing the human right to adequate housing and land tenure across India
Organisation HousingCities India
Go straight to Housing and Land Rights Network - HydroGNSS
Global satellite observations of soil moisture, freeze-thaw state, inundation, forest biomass, ocean winds and sea ice
Data source WaterClimate Global, India
Go straight to HydroGNSS - India Constituency Maps
Pre-delimitation Indian assembly and Lok Sabha constituency shapefiles, standardised to WGS84 — essential GIS layers for electoral and political mapping
Data source ElectionsGovernance India
Go straight to India Constituency Maps - India District Nighttime Lights (VIIRS)
District-level nighttime lights panel for India (641 districts, 2012–2024) from VIIRS satellite data, with annual radiance statistics and an automated pipeline
Data source EconomyCities India
Go straight to India District Nighttime Lights (VIIRS) - India Geodata
Unified repository of open geospatial data for India, covering administrative boundaries, transport, hydrology, environment, and an in-browser map maker
Data source LandGovernance India
Go straight to India Geodata - India Under Construction
Maps India's infrastructure projects against protected areas and forest fragmentation, so you can see what is being built through what
Dashboard LandEnvironment India
Go straight to India Under Construction - janapada
Interactive map and toolkit tracing how India's districts split, merged and were renamed from 1951 to 2024
Tool GovernanceDemography India
Go straight to janapada - Kalpavriksh
Environmental action group working on conservation, livelihoods, ecological justice, education and alternative development
Organisation EnvironmentRights India
Go straight to Kalpavriksh - Kepler.gl
Powerful open-source geospatial visualisation tool — drag-and-drop millions of points and create beautiful interactive maps in the browser, no code required
Tool CitiesTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Kepler.gl - Land Conflict Watch
A researcher-built database of ongoing land conflicts across India, mapped and documented district by district
Data source LandLaw & policing India
Go straight to Land Conflict Watch - Landsat Data Access (USGS)
Decades of free satellite imagery from the Landsat programme — the longest continuous Earth observation record, essential for studying change over time
Data source LandEnvironment Global, India
Go straight to Landsat Data Access (USGS) - Landscape Explorer
Interactive dashboard for social-ecological indicators across Indian landscapes to support climate resilience planning.
Dashboard EnvironmentClimate India
Go straight to Landscape Explorer - Mapeo
Free offline-first mapping toolset designed with Indigenous communities for locally controlled territorial documentation
Tool TechnologyLand Global
Go straight to Mapeo - Movebank
Repository of animal tracking data where researchers archive, share and analyse studies, hosted by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Data source EnvironmentLand Global
Go straight to Movebank - NASA Earthdata
NASA's gateway to Earth observation data — fires, vegetation, rainfall, temperature, oceans, ice, and 1,000+ imagery layers through Worldview
Data source ClimateEnvironment Global, India
Go straight to NASA Earthdata - NWDP Village Boundaries
Free village boundary shapefiles for all Indian states and UTs — downloadable in GeoJSON, KML, and SHP formats from the National Water Data Portal
Data source LandGovernance India
Go straight to NWDP Village Boundaries - Overpass Turbo
Web-based query tool for OpenStreetMap — run spatial queries like 'all hospitals in Bangalore' or 'all water bodies in this district' and export as GeoJSON
Tool CitiesTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Overpass Turbo - Palar Guttahalli Eco-restoration Program
Eco-restoration of the upper Palar River basin through riverine afforestation, groundwater recharge, and community-led landscape recovery.
Organisation EnvironmentClimate India, Karnataka
Go straight to Palar Guttahalli Eco-restoration Program - PARIVESH
Environmental, forest and wildlife clearance applications and decisions for Indian projects, with the documents attached
Data source EnvironmentLand India
Go straight to PARIVESH - QGIS
The standard open-source desktop GIS — full-featured spatial analysis, map-making, and geodata processing, free and cross-platform, with a vast plugin ecosystem
Tool LandCities Global, India
Go straight to QGIS - Restor
Open data platform mapping restoration and conservation sites worldwide, with ecological and land-cover data attached to each
Dashboard LandEnvironment Global
Go straight to Restor - The Shola Trust
Nature conservation in the Nilgiri region, focused on shola-grassland ecosystems.
Organisation EnvironmentClimate India, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka
Go straight to The Shola Trust - Survey of India Online Maps Portal
Official administrative boundaries, topographic maps, roads, railways, hydrology, terrain and village boundary products
Data source LandGovernance India
Go straight to Survey of India Online Maps Portal - SwaYYam
Permaculture and agroecology collective regenerating degraded farmland through farmer collectives, tree-planting, and food sovereignty.
Organisation AgricultureLabour India, Karnataka
Go straight to SwaYYam - uMap
Create custom interactive maps with OpenStreetMap layers in minutes — no coding, just drop data, style, and embed anywhere
Tool CitiesTechnology Global, India
Go straight to uMap - Western Ghats ESA Atlas
Interactive atlas and open data mapping 4,331 village polygons across 6 states for the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area notification
Data source EnvironmentLand Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, India
Go straight to Western Ghats ESA Atlas - Wetlands International
Conservation and management of wetlands in South Asia.
Organisation CitiesGovernance India
Go straight to Wetlands International - Wildlife Conservation Society India
Conservation science, communities, and biodiversity protection across key landscapes.
Organisation EnvironmentClimate India, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland
Go straight to Wildlife Conservation Society India