Survey of India

The national survey and mapping organization of the country, Survey of India is the oldest scientific department under the Government of India set up in 1967. It has been assigned the role of India as principal mapping agency and has the special responsibility to ensure that India's domain is explored and mapped properly for providing basemaps for experience and integrated development.

• It has prepared maps for the civilian and defence purposes and its maps are considered as a standard reference for the geographic features of the country.
• It has mapped almost each and every part of the country and these maps have played an important and pivotal role in nation building and developmental activities.
• It scrutinizes and certified the external boundaries of India and coastlines on maps produced by other agencies and private publishers.
• It has the responsibility of surveying topographical, geophysical, geological features in India such as forests, army cantonments, large-scale cities etc.
• It has the responsibility of demarcation of borders and external boundaries of India etc.

History of the Survey of India

The foundation of the survey of India was laid on 10th April 1802, with The Great Trigonometric Survey (GTS) by Col Lambton and Sir George Everest. The tapestry of unknown Indian terrain was surveyed by the surveyors and forerunners of the army of East India Company. In 1950, it was organized into 5 directorates to look after the mapping needs of defence forces in northwest and northeast. Presently there are 18 directorates in all the parts of the country for providing the basic map coverage needed for the development of the nation.

The technology used for serving has been oriented for fulfilling the new requirements of Defence forces, scientists, planners in the field of geosciences, land and resource management. During the late 80s, 3 digital centers were created to generate the digital typographical database for the entire country and the geographic information system was created.

 Vision and Mission of the survey of India

• The vision of Survey of India is to take a leadership role to provide user-focused, reliable cost-effective and quality geospatial data information and intelligence for fulfilling the requirements of national security, new information markets, and national development.
• It is dedicated to the advancement of theory, practice, collection and the application of Geospatial data and for the promotion of an active exchange of information, technological innovations and ideas among the users and data producers at the highest possible resolution in near real-time environment at an affordable cost.