Read the given paragraph carefully and answer the following question.
The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses. In this type of village the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures. The closely built-up area and its intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc. Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. Sometimes, people live in compact village for security or defence reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagaland. In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resources. Fragmented settlement type may result from segregation of a large compact village or from the tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlements.
Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas. Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.
The tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement results into formation of which one of the following types of rural settlement?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Semi-Clustered
The passage states: “Fragmented settlement type may result from segregation of a large compact village or from the tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlements.”
Fragmented and semi-clustered are two names for the same type of settlement.
Option (1) Nucleated — Incorrect. Nucleated is another name for clustered settlements, where all the houses are packed close together.
Option (2) Semi-Clustered — Correct. Clustering in a small part of a dispersed area gives a settlement that is only partly clustered.
Option (3) Isolated — Incorrect. Isolated is another name for dispersed settlements: lonely huts or a few huts far apart.
Option (4) Dispersed — Incorrect. Dispersed is the starting pattern here. Once the houses come together, the settlement is no longer dispersed.
NCERT (2026-27): “Semi-Clustered Settlements … Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement. More often such a pattern may also result from segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village.” |