Impact of brick kilns on land use/landcover changes around Aligarh city, India

Bricks are one of the most important building materials used in India. The Indian brick kiln industry, which is the second largest producer in the world, second only to China, has more than 100,00 operating units, producing about 140 billion bricks annually. Brick making is a traditional, unorganized industry generally confined to rural and peri-urban areas. The Gangetic plain of North India accounts for about 65% of the total brick production. Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are the major brick producing states in this region. The availability of good fertile alluvium soils in North India makes the fringe areas of North Indian cities be dotted with brick kilns and consequently this has become one of the major forces in bringing about land use/landcover changes around cities. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the impact of brick kilns on the landuse/landcover changes, and to evaluate the forces, which have compelled the villagers to bring about these changes around a North Indian city of Aligarh.