TechnicalGIS

India GIS data sources

Region
Southern Asia
ISO 3166
IN · IND
Sources
20
Themes
15
Last verified

Where to download GIS data for India: 20 sources across 15 themes, led by National Remote Sensing Centre and Survey of India. 3 offer vector downloads such as Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoJSON, 4 cover elevation. 3 are under an open licence. Every link was last checked on 18 Oct 2026.

Country atlases

National and OpenStreetMap sources for India

Boundaries & admin 4

Administrative boundary data for every country

  • Survey of India (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Mixed

    Survey of India

    National mapping agency; topographic Open Series Maps are distributed via the Nakshe portal.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    surveyofindia.gov.in

    Verified

  • Nakshe – Open Series Maps (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Survey of India

    Free 1:50,000 Open Series topographic map sheets after registration with an Aadhaar-linked account.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Elevation / DEM
    • Transport
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    PDF, GeoTIFF
    Link
    onlinemaps.surveyofindia.gov.in

    Verified

  • Local Government Directory (LGD) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Ministry of Panchayati Raj

    Authoritative codes and hierarchy for states, districts, sub-districts, blocks and villages.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    CSV, API
    Link
    lgdirectory.gov.in

    Verified

  • geoBoundaries administrative boundaries (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    William & Mary geoLab

    JSON API listing every available admin level with direct download links.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    Varies (open; see metadata)
    Formats
    GeoJSON, Shapefile, TopoJSON
    Link
    geoboundaries.org

    Verified

Elevation / DEM 1

Free DEM, LiDAR and elevation data for every country

  • Bhuvan Open Data Archive (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO)

    Free CartoDEM 30 m, Resourcesat AWiFS/LISS-III and derived products; registration required.

    • Elevation / DEM
    • Imagery
    • Land cover
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    bhuvan-app3.nrsc.gov.in

    Verified

Imagery 2

Satellite and aerial imagery for every country

  • Bhoonidhi (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Mixed

    National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO)

    NRSC Earth observation data hub: Resourcesat, Cartosat and other IRS imagery; free registration, some products paid.

    • Imagery
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    bhoonidhi.nrsc.gov.in

    Verified

  • Bhuvan (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO)

    CartoDEM, Resourcesat imagery and thematic maps.

    • Imagery
    • Land cover
    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, WMS
    Link
    bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in

    Verified

Land cover 2

Land cover datasets for every country

  • Bhuvan thematic services (LULC 1:50k) (opens in a new tab)

    Web viewer Cost: Free

    National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO)

    National 1:50,000 land use/land cover, wasteland, geomorphology and erosion maps with WMS.

    • Land cover
    • Geology
    • Natural hazards
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    WMS
    Link
    bhuvan-app1.nrsc.gov.in

    Verified

  • Forest Survey of India (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Forest Survey of India

    Biennial India State of Forest Report with forest cover maps by state and district.

    • Land cover
    • Environment
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    PDF
    Link
    fsi.nic.in

    Verified

Buildings 1

Building footprint data for every country

  • Buildings of India (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HDX)

    OpenStreetMap building footprints exported by HOT and refreshed regularly.

    • Buildings
    Licence
    ODbL 1.0
    Formats
    GeoPackage, GeoParquet, Shapefile, GeoJSON, PMTiles
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

Population 1

Gridded population data for every country

  • WorldPop population data – India (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    WorldPop, University of Southampton

    100 m and 1 km gridded population counts, age/sex structure and related layers.

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    hub.worldpop.org

    Verified

Census & statistics 3

Census and statistics data for every country

  • Census of India (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Office of the Registrar General

    Census 2011 tables, village directory and district census handbooks with maps.

    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    censusindia.gov.in

    Not verified (site blocks automated checks) · 18 Oct 2026 (TLS certificate could not be verified)

  • National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP) (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    NITI Aayog

    Harmonised government datasets down to district and village level with LGD codes for joining to boundaries.

    • Census & statistics
    • Open data portal
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    CSV, API
    Link
    ndap.niti.gov.in

    Verified

  • Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

    National statistical office (from the UN Statistics Division directory).

    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    mospi.gov.in

    Verified

Transport 1

Road, rail and transport data for every country

Climate & weather 3

Climate and weather data for every country

  • IMD gridded rainfall (0.25°) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    India Meteorological Department

    Daily 0.25° gridded rainfall from 1901 onwards; companion pages offer temperature grids.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    Binary, NetCDF
    Link
    imdpune.gov.in

    Verified

  • IMD Data Supply Portal (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Mixed

    India Meteorological Department

    Station climate data on request; some data free for research, other products charged.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    dsp.imdpune.gov.in

    Verified

  • MOSDAC (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Space Applications Centre (ISRO)

    INSAT/Oceansat meteorological and oceanographic satellite products; free registration.

    • Climate & weather
    • Marine & coastal
    • Imagery
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    HDF5, NetCDF
    Link
    mosdac.gov.in

    Verified

Natural hazards 1

Natural hazard data for every country

Marine & coastal 1

Marine, coastal and bathymetry data for every country

  • INCOIS ocean data (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services

    Ocean state forecasts, Argo and buoy data, potential fishing zones and the tsunami warning centre.

    • Marine & coastal
    • Natural hazards
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    NetCDF, CSV
    Link
    incois.gov.in

    Verified

Global datasets that cover India

Worldwide and continental layers that include India, useful where national data is missing, restricted or inconsistent across borders.

Boundaries & admin
Elevation / DEM
Imagery
Land cover
Buildings
Population
Census & statistics
Transport
Hydrology
Climate & weather
Natural hazards
Geology
Marine & coastal
Environment
Open data portal

Browse all 127 global datasets

Tutorials that use this kind of data

Neighbouring countries