Explanation:

Land is the most important natural resource on which various developmental and environmental conservation activities are based. The land use pattern in the state as per revenue records has already been discussed in this chapter (Fig. 2.9). However, as per remote sensing data, 2004, provided by Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), Ludhiana, 87.1% of total area of state is under agriculture including horticulture and agroforestry plantation (against land record of 84.4%) and 5.88% is under built up land category (Map. 2.16). The area recorded under forest is only 3.1% (only notified/reserve forest area). Besides, area under agroforestry plantation including orchards is 0.37%. However as per Forest Department this amounts to 5.9%, probably due to the fact that the forest department includes areas under strip plantation along canals and roads also into forest area. The water bodies and wetlands comprise an area of 1.59% and 0.30% respectively. The wastelands occupy 2.01%
area of the state.District wise data reveals that Bathinda district has maximum (95.22%) area under agriculture followed by Sangrur (93.37%), Mukatsar (93.28%), Faridkot (92.93%) and Firozpur (92.89%), whereas Rupnagar has least area under agriculture( 55.19%) followed by Hoshiarpur (69.41%) and Nawanshehar (80.36%). Ludhiana district leads in the state with 10.5 % of its area under built up land as compared to other districts like, Patiala (9.7%), Jalandhar (9.5%) and Fatehgarh Sahib (7.24%).The districts of Hoshiarpur (4.51%), Gurdaspur( 3.41%) and Nawanshehar (3.38%) have the highest area under water bodies in state. In forest category, Rupnagar has 23.42% of its total area under
forest closely followed by Hoshiarpur (20.46%).