Too Little Space?

You are in luck because this blog will be short and I will not bore you with a multi-page blog. India is an overpopulated country. We have no doubts about that. But let’s look at it from a different angle. May be, it is not as populated as we think.
Japan is densely populated. Its population density is 338 per Sq Km. India’s density is 364 per Sq Km. But when you look more closely, about 75% of Japan’s land is either mountainous or dense forests with uneven slope thus making this area uninhabitable. This means that the actual population density in habitable area is 4 to 5 times higher than the official one. In contrast, barring the Himalayan region and Rajasthan’s desert, all of India is quite habitable.
China has a population that is little more than India’s. But China’s size is three times that of India. The official population density is 140 per Sq Km. But 70% of China’s land area is covered with mountains and hills thus making these places uninhabitable. So the effective density is perhaps little more than India’s.
India has a population of nearly 1.2 Billion. I have talked about need for urbanization before. But we do not want the extremely high population density of major Indian cities that makes living uncomfortable. The three major cities, New Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay all have a population density of roughly 25000/Sq Km. If we design urban areas that have a density of a fifths of these cities, i.e. 5000/Sq Km, people will have comfortable living.

How much space will be needed if we theoretically create one urban megalopolis which will house all 1.2 Billion Indians?
It is 1200 Million/ 5000 = 240000 Sq Km
How much space is that? Well, the state of Madhya Pradesh has an area of 308252 Sq Km. In other words, theoretically all 1.2 Billion Indians can be accommodated in Madhya Pradesh alone and yet the population density of the state will be only 1/5 of the three major cities. You can use the rest of India for farming, Industry and everything else.

Water

In urban areas, an Indian consumes only 135 liters of water per day compared to 700 to 750 Liters used in the developed nations. We need to increase water supply so that the average Indian can use sufficient water. I have proposed before to create cities and towns with average population of 600000. We can provide sufficient water to the urban dwellers, if for the city 600000 strong we excavate an artificial lake of 25 Sq Km (5 Km X 5Km square or 12 Km X 2 Km rectangular) few Kilometers away from the city. Besides water, the lake can also supply sweet water fish and recreational activities like boating. The lake will get replenished by rain water.