INDIA 8 
V. AERIAL PHOTO INTERPRETATION 
Aerial photo interpretation is an important and useful tool for the evalution and preparation 
of inventories of natural resources of a country. Realising the potentialities of the new and progres 
sive technique, some of the officers of the Survey of India devoted some time during their stay at 
the International Training Centre for Aerial Surveys at Delft, The Netherlands, to the study of the 
application of the aerial photo interpretation techniques to forestry, soil survey, urban area analysis, 
and regional planning. Though the Survey of India is not directly responsible for aerial photo-inter 
pretation for these different branches, yet it was felt that since the Survey of India has long ex 
perience in using aerial photographs, this Department was the most qualified to assist other sister 
departments in initiating them into aerial photo interpretation techniques. Accordingly, the Depart 
ment had to conduct courses for aerial photo interpretation for forestry for preinvestment surveys, 
for urban area analysis for the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization and for geological surveys. 
During the last few years, the departments of Geological Survey of India and the Oil and 
Natural Gas Commission have been using aerial photo interpretation techniques for geological purposes. 
The extent of use of aerial photo interpretation techniques in the different organizations in India is 
given in Table 6. 
Table 6.—Aerial Photo interpretation in India during 1960-64 
Serial 
No. 
Organization and purpose 
Use of photo interpretation technique 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
Forest Research Institute, for 
forestry. 
Chief Conservator of Forests, 
Punjab, for forestry. 
Indian Agricultural Research 
Institute, Delhi, for soil survey. 
Inter-State Soil Conservation 
Board, Punjab and Himachal 
Pradesh, for soil conservation 
survey. 
Central Arid Zone Research 
Institute, Jodhpur, for land 
use survey. 
Geological Survey of India, 
Calcutta, for geological inter - 
pretatation. 
Oil & Natural Gas Commission, 
Dehra Dün, for geological inter 
pretation. 
Not yet started. Expected to start shortly in 1964 or 
1965. 
Using since 1963, for photo interpretation for forestry by 
Canadian Forestry Expert Mr. G. A. Jones, for classifi 
cation of forest ranges into species, density and height 
classes from 1 : 15,000 scale aerial photographs. 
Training in the use of aerial photographs for soil survey 
was started in June, 1962. 
1 : 50,000 enlargements from 1 : 25,000 scale aerial photo 
graphs were used as base maps for locating the severely 
eroding areas under stereoscopic examination in Sirkhad 
Working Plan since 1962. 
Aerial photographs are being used for inventory of basic 
resources, e.g., land capability classification, geomorpho 
logy, soil survey, ground water, vegetation and waste 
land surveys, since 1962. 
The Geological Survey of India has been using the aerial 
photographs for geological investigations since the end 
of World War II mostly as base maps. The department 
used 25,571 aerial photographs on the scales of 1 : 25,000 
to 1 : 40,000 covering 2,67,355 sq. km spread all over 
India during the period under report. 
The Oil and Natural Gas Commission uses aerial photo 
graphs on 1 : 25,000 scale as base maps for oil explora 
tions and identification and marking of geological 
features. The department has used 8,610 aerial photo 
graphs covering an area of 78,218 sq. km during the 
period under report. 
A scheme is presently under way for the introduction of aerial photo interpretation techniques for 
forestry in the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun. A modest start has been made in the Indian 
Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi for training in aerial photo interpretation for soil