In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is common, particularly in the northern plains. But there are areas, with other forms of rural settlements. There are various factors and conditions respensible for having different types of rural sttlements in India. These include : (i) Physical features - nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water (ii) cultural and ethnic factors - social structure, caste and religion (iii) security factors - defense against thefts and robberies. Guided by these factors rural settlements in India can broadly be into four types :
• Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,
• Semi - clustered or fragmented,
• Hamleted, and
• Dispersed or isolated.
Clustered Settlements : The clustered rural settlement is compact or closely built up area of houses. Here the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures. Tge closely nuilt - up area and its intervening streets give rise to pattern or geometric shape, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc. These are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. People live in found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. People live in compact village for security or defence reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagalan. In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resoirces.
Semi - Clustered Settlements : Semi - Clustered or fragmented settlements may this result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement. 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. Generally, the land - owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the of the main village village, whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks of the village.
Hamleted Settlements : This settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name. These units are locally called panna, para, palli, magla, dhani, etc. in various parts of the country. This segmentation of a large willage is often due to social and ethnic factors.
Disperaed Settlements : Dispersed Settlements : Disperased or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the from of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme disperasion of settlement is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.
