RURAL SETTLEMENT: FACTORS AND TYPES AND Pattern

Human Settlement means cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live. For this purpose, people may erect houses and other structures and command some area or territory as their economic support-base. Thus, the process of settlement inherently involves grouping of people and apportioning of territory as their resource base. Settlements vary in size and type. They range from a hamlet to metropolitan cities. With size, the economic character and social structure of settlements changes and so do its ecology and technology. Settlements could be small and sparsely spaced; they may also be large and closely spaced. The sparsely located small settlements are called villages, specializing in agriculture or other primary activities. On the other hand, there are fewer but larger settlements which are termed as urban settlements specializing in secondary and tertiary activities.

FACATORS AFFECTING THE TYPES OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS

There are two factors, physical and cultural, responsible for various settlement types in rural areas. They are also known as agglomerating factors or deglomerating factors. In physical factors relief, fertility of soil, amount of rainfall, dry land and defense are included, while in cultural factors landuse, land tenure, cropping pattern, clan and caste system, social relationships and means of transportation are included.

Types of Rural Settlement

Types of the settlement are determined by the extent of the built-up area and inter-house distance. In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is a rather universal feature, particularly in the northern plains. However, there are several areas, which have other forms of rural settlements. There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India.

These include:

(i) physical features – nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water

(ii) cultural and ethenic factors – social structure, caste and religion

(iii) security factors – defence against thefts and robberies.

Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types:

• Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,

• Semi-clustered or fragmented,

• Hamleted, and

• Dispersed or isolated.

Clustered Settlements

The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses.
In this type of village the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures.
The closely built-up area and its intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc. Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states.
Sometimes, people live in compact village for security or defence reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagaland.
In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resources.

Semi-Clustered Settlements

Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement.
More often such a pattern may also result from segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village.
In this case, one or more sections of the village society choose or is forced to live a little away from the main cluster or village.
In such cases, 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.
Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan.

Hamleted Settlements

Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name. These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc. in various parts of the country. This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors. Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas.

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 extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas. Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.

Rural Settlement Patterns

Patterns of rural settlements reflect the way the houses are sited in relation to each other. The site of the village, the surrounding topography and terrain influence the shape and size of a village. Rural settlements may be classified on the basis of a number of criteria:

1) On the basis of setting: The main types are plain villages, plateau villages, coastal villages, forest villages and desert villages.

2) On the basis of functions: There may be farming villages, fishermen's villages, lumberjack villages, pastora villages etc.

3) On the basis of forms or shapes of the settlements: These may be a number of geometrical forms and shapes such as Linear rectangular, circular star like, T-shaped village, double village, cross-shaped village etc.

a) Linear pattern

In such settlements houses are located along a road, railway line, and river, canal edge of a valley or along a levee. Linear pattern is the other most important design of settlements. In the linear settlements, houses are arranged along either side of a road, railway line, river or canal. Such settlements also evolve along the edge of a valley, especially in the mountainous areas, above flood level or along the coast. The development of linear settlements in the hilly areas is largely controlled by terrain and topography. Along the river banks and the sea shore, the flood and water level influence linear settlements.

b) Rectangular pattern

Such patterns of rural settlements are found in plain areas or wide inter montane valleys. The roads are rectangular and cut each other at right angles. Over 50 per cent of the world population lives in rural settlements, and most of the people inhabit the settlements of rectangular pattern. Rectangular settlements mainly develop in productive alluvial plains and wide intermontane valleys. The lanes in the rectangular settlements are almost straight, meeting each other at right angles. The rural settlements of the Sutlej-Ganga plains, especially those which developed on the cross-roads, fall in this category.

c) Circular pattern

Circular villages develop around lakes, tanks and sometimes the village is planned in such a way that the central part remains open and is used for keeping the animals to protect them from wild animals

d) Star like pattern

Where several roads converge, star shaped settlements develop by the houses built along the roads. The star-like settlements develop on the sites and places where several metalled or unhealed roads converge. In the star-shaped settlements, houses spread out along the sides of roads in all direction. This pattern is common to both villages and towns, and is caused mostly by new development, spreading out along the major roads. This type of settlements is the characteristic of the countryside's of North-West Europe, plains of Yangtzekiang, Punjab province of Pakistan and the Sutlej-Yamuna plains.

e) Square Patterns

The square pattern of villages is normally found in agricultural region. In such type of villages houses are arranged in two or more rows with streets running parallel to each other. Such villages are found having strong agglomeration. Sometime villages are protected by walls. The entire village is divided into Small Square of houses occupying the people of different castes. In the study area Jat, Sangole and Mangalvedhe, Pandharpur and Atpadi Talukas have square pattern of villages, of which Shegaon, Hunnar.

f) T-shaped, Y-shaped, Cross-shaped or cruciform settlements

T-shaped settlements develop at trijunctions of the roads (T) while (Y) shaped settlements emerge as the places where two roads converge on the third one and houses are built along these roads. Cruciform settlements develop on the cross- roads and houses extend in all the four direction.