Numerous activities undertaken by human beings, on day to day basis, causes severe damages to the environment as a whole, particularly to the country's land resource base. These activities include construction of residential and office buildings, construction of physical infrastructure like roads, highways, bridges, etc. and creation of social infrastructures like schools, hospitals, etc. Although these activities are of utmost importance for the sound growth of any economy, but all these necessitates cutting of trees (deforestation) for space, destruction of water bodies, etc. which in turn causes soil erosion and land degradation. Thus, it is right to say that in the wake of globalisation and urbanisation, people are misusing available land resources by not fully utilising them and as a result, causing scarcity of productive land.

Secondly, due to lack of proper implementation of Acts and Rules relating to land acquisition as well as difficulty in approaching the concerned Department / Ministry/ Organisation at the right time, it becomes difficult to acquire required land. Further, given the population density and the type of land use in the country, there is more problem in land acquisition in India. Thus, it is a big challenge for Government, both Central and State, to generate greater access of land to the people at large, including landless rural poor and foreign investors/ non-resident Indians.

For setting up huge industrial projects, dams, factories, refineries, etc., more and more land is being used. As a result, the people/ community residing there face many problems. They are forced to leave their resident place and move to other places. First, there is problem in searching proper place to live in. Secondly, land acquisition for industrialization and related projects highlight the issues of adequate compensation that need to be given to the displaced people for protecting their living standards. This is one of the common problem in land acquisition and resettlement.

Further, there is need to rehabilitate the lost productivity of available lands so that they can be effectively put in use for various purposes like agricultural, industrial, residential, office buildings, etc. as land is scarce resource. The Government is also running its various policies and schemes for this purpose. Also, efforts are being made not only to restore fertility of the land or to provide shelter to displaced people, but also to create conditions so as to bring in focus the land resources which are not yet tapped and utilised.

Hence, there are many such and other related issues and problems relating to land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation in India, both in rural and urban areas. They need to be dealt with great care for future availability and use of land/ properties.