Madhya Pradesh District wise Resource Atlas Programme India is a land of extraordinary natural and human endowments. Nature has provided almost every part of India with abundant resources for the sustenance of a rich human civilisation; and, the people of India, over millennia of intense interaction with their immediate environment, have learnt the most effective ways of gratefully accepting the nature’s bounty. Notwithstanding the uninterrupted richness and a certain uniformity of natural endowments over almost the whole of Indian land, the detailed hues of nature, of course, differ in different parts. People in different parts seem to appreciate the special endowments of their niche in the world; in every part, they have developed agronomic practices, irrigation techniques, technologies and crafts, architectural styles, social customs and festivals, and much else, to make a world of their own within the larger Indian physical and civilisational ambience. It is gratifying to observe the special natural endowments, and social, cultural and technological practices of different parts of India. There is indeed poetry in the way nature expresses itself in different parts, and in the way the people mould their life in consonance with it. It is important in itself to learn the details of the geography, geology, climate, demography, landuse, animals, irrigation, agriculture, crafts, industry, culture and religion of different parts of India. It is essential to learn such details, if we want to make any effective and sensitive developmental intervention in their life and environment. M.P. District Resource Atlas Programme is designed to collect such technical details for every district, and also to capture the poetry of the interaction between nature and civilisation, as far as possible. We have already collected detailed data on all these aspects for all the districts of Madhya Pradesh. The data is also being continuously updated. Work on this programme has resulted in the publication of several Resource Atlases, as mentioned in the list of publications.DR. J. K. BAJAJ