Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 6: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday said though India had voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution aimed at correcting the world map to promote a more accurate representation of continental landmasses, India would not accept any “inaccurate” or “misleading” representation of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Any UN-initiated proposed world map must depict Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories in accordance with the country’s official map and any inaccurate and misleading depictions would be “unacceptable,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
The resolution titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Equitable Representation of the World’s Regions, Particularly Africa” was adopted on September 4 and India voted in favour. Mr Jaiswal said India voted in favour because the resolution aimed at correcting the world map to promote a more accurate representation of continental landmasses.
Mr Jaiswal said India highlighted that the resolution did not constitute endorsement of any specific map, projection or depiction of national boundaries. “India voted in favour of the resolution and also made an explanation of vote, stressing on the underlying principle of promoting equal-area cartographic representation,” he said.
Mr Jaiswal was responding to a media query on the issue. “India’s sovereign territory, including the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, must be depicted in accordance with India’s official map. Any inaccurate or misleading depiction is unacceptable,” he said. “Our position on India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is clear, consistent and non-negotiable,” he noted.
Jaiswal said the purpose of the UN resolution was “to encourage the use of equal-area map projections that preserve the relative sizes of continental landmasses.” “The resolution neither adopts nor authenticates any particular world map, nor does it address political cartography, including international boundaries, disputed territories or place names,” he said.
The resolution, sponsored by Togo, received 164 votes in favour in the 193-member UN General Assembly with abstentions from Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, and a lone vote against from the United States. The resolution stated that the Equal Earth map projection provided a more accurate representation of the relative sizes of continental landmasses.
The UN has backed a move to replace the widely used Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection, which gives a more accurate picture of the size of continents and countries. The difference becomes clear when Africa is compared with Greenland. On the Mercator map, the two can look almost similar in size. But in reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
The Earth is round, but a world map is flat. That means it is impossible to show the entire planet on a flat surface without changing something. The Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, was mainly designed for navigation. It made it easier for sailors to plot routes because lines showing a constant compass direction could be drawn as straight lines.
So, the map stretches areas as they get closer to the North and South Poles. Countries in higher latitudes therefore appear much larger than they really are. The same distortion affects other parts of the world. Russia, Canada, Europe, and North America can appear much larger because of their location at higher latitudes, while Africa, South America, and other areas closer to the equator can appear smaller than their actual size. India also appears slightly larger when it is shown on the Equal Earth projection.
The Equal Earth projection was developed by a team of cartographers in 2018. Its main aim was different from Mercator’s. Instead of focusing on navigation, Equal Earth tries to show the relative size of landmasses more accurately. When the two maps are placed side by side, the difference is easy to see, as Africa appears much larger on Equal Earth. North America and Europe appear smaller than they do on Mercator. South America also gets closer to its actual size, while the exaggerated appearance of areas near the poles is reduced. India appears slightly larger as well.
The new projection gives a better idea of how much land different parts of the world actually occupy. The Equal Earth projection was also adopted by African Union members in February. But Equal Earth is not perfect either. It gives up some of the features that made Mercator useful for navigation.
Straight lines on the Earth do not work in the same way as they do on Mercator. It also cannot be used to measure the true distance between different places perfectly. This is because there is no flat map that can preserve everything at once. As UCL cartography professor James Cheshire explained, “A map can preserve area, shape, distance and direction to different degrees but it cannot preserve all of them perfectly.”
The Peters projection is another attempt to solve the problem of countries appearing larger or smaller than they really are. It was designed by German historian Arno Peters in the early 1970s, although it is based on a projection first described by Scottish cartographer James Gall in 1855.
Like Equal Earth, the Peters map gives a fairer idea of the actual area of different countries and continents. But it did this by changing their shapes. Polar Regions are squeezed, while areas closer to the equator are stretched. Russia, for example, appears much smaller. There is no single perfect world map. Every projection involves some compromise because a round Earth cannot be completely flattened without distortion.
The Mercator map gets direction and navigation right but distorts size. The Peters map gets area closer to reality but distorts shape. Equal Earth aims to give a more balanced and accurate picture of the size of landmasses, although it cannot preserve every feature perfectly.