In India, clustered village settlements are generally found in which of the following areas?

Northern Plains

Types of the settlement are determined by the extent of the built-up area and inter-house distance. In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is a rather universal feature particularly in the northern plains. However, there are several areas, which have other forms of rural settlements. There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements 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 – defence against thefts and robberies. Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types:
• Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,
• Semi-clustered or fragmented,
• Hamleted, and
• Dispersed or isolated.