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Chapter 1: Administrative Boundaries & Maps

The foundation of any spatial analysis — finding the right map of India.

Why Start Here?

Every geospatial analysis begins with the same question: "Where is my study area, and what are its boundaries?" This chapter gives you all the boundary data you need — from country level down to village level — with the easiest datasets first.

What Is in This Chapter?

Administrative boundaries are the skeleton of any geospatial dataset. They define:

  • Where one state ends and another begins
  • Which villages fall within a district
  • Where election constituencies are drawn
  • How roads connect settlements

Without good boundary data, you cannot join your CSV data to a map. This chapter is therefore the most important starting point for anyone working with Indian spatial data.

Chapter Overview

# Dataset Provider Format Access Level
1 Open Government Data Portal MeitY CSV, Shapefile, JSON No Login 🟢
2 OpenStreetMap India OSM Community GeoJSON, Shapefile No Login 🟢
3 GADM Boundaries GADM Shapefile, GeoJSON No Login 🟢
4 Bhuvan Basemaps ISRO/NRSC WMS, Shapefile Login 🟡
5 Election Commission Boundaries ECI Shapefile, PDF Login 🟡
6 Survey of India SOI Topo Maps, PDF Login 🟡

What Level of Detail Is Available?

India's administrative hierarchy goes from national to household level:

India (National)
 └── States & Union Territories (36)
      └── Districts (~800)
           └── Sub-Districts / Talukas / Blocks (~6,600)
                └── Towns & Cities / Villages (~6,40,000)
                     └── Wards / Hamlets

Different datasets cover different levels:

Dataset National State District Taluka/Block Village
GADM ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
OSM ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
data.gov.in ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Bhuvan ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
ECI ✅ ✅ ✅ (constituency) ✅ ❌

🗺️ Coordinate Systems in India

Before you download boundaries, you need to understand coordinate systems — how locations are expressed.

Most Indian data uses one of two systems:

CRS Code Description Use When
WGS84 EPSG:4326 Global latitude/longitude Web maps, Google Earth
UTM Zone 44N EPSG:32644 Metric (metres) for central India Measuring distances/areas

Quick Rule

When in doubt, use EPSG:4326 (WGS84). Most Indian datasets come in this system and it works with Google Maps, Leaflet, and MapLibre.

✏️ Chapter Exercise: Build Your First India Map

Exercise 1.0 — India District Map in QGIS

Goal: Download district boundaries and display them in QGIS.

Time needed: 30 minutes

Steps:

  1. Download GADM Level 2 (District) data for India from gadm.org
  2. Open QGIS → Drag the downloaded .shp file into the canvas
  3. In the Layers panel, right-click → Properties → Symbology
  4. Change fill colour to show district names
  5. Add labels: Properties → Labels → Single Labels → Field: NAME_2

What to explore: - [ ] How many districts does your home state have? - [ ] Can you colour each state differently? (Use "Categorized" symbology by NAME_1) - [ ] Can you find your own village or town on the map?

Start with the easiest dataset: Open Government Data Portal →