UN-backed world map must depict J&K, Ladakh as per India's official map, says MEA

India on Sunday said a United Nations-initiated proposed world map must depict the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in accordance with the country's official map, and that any "inaccurate" or "misleading" representation will be unacceptable.

The assertion came two days after New Delhi voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution aimed at correcting the world map to promote a more accurate representation of continental landmasses.

Also read: India votes for UN resolution on more accurate world map


"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," External Affairs Ministry said in a press release, responding to a media query.

"Our position on India's sovereignty and territorial integrity is clear, consistent and non-negotiable," the statement added.

Jaiswal said India voted in favour of the resolution and also made an explanation of vote stressing the underlying principle of promoting equal-area cartographic representation. India also highlighted that the resolution does not constitute endorsement of any specific map, projection or depiction of national boundaries, he said.

The spokesperson said the purpose of the resolution is "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.

What the resolution says

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. Sponsored by Togo, it received 164 votes in favour, with abstentions from Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, and a lone vote against from the United States.

Circulated as draft resolution A/80/L.104 and moved by Togo on behalf of the African Group, the text is non-binding and encourages governments, education systems, media organisations and digital platforms to shift away from the 16th-century Mercator projection towards equal-area projections such as the Equal Earth map. The Correct the Map campaign has also been backed by the African Union and the Caribbean Community.

The Mercator projection, designed primarily for navigation, enlarges landmasses as they move away from the equator. As a result, classroom maps show Greenland and Africa at roughly the same visual size, although Africa covers about 30.3 million sq km against Greenland's 2.1 million sq km, making it roughly 14 times larger. The Equal Earth projection, devised in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson, retains the relative size of areas while drawing on the design of the Robinson projection.

India's explanation of vote

Explaining India's vote at the General Assembly, Raghoo Puri, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, said the country welcomed the resolution's objective of promoting more accurate and representative cartographic practices."We believe that the resolution should be understood as supporting the broader use and consideration of Equal Area map projections, and not as endorsing the Equal Earth projection or any other specific map projection," Puri said.

Also read: Africa’s push to redraw the world map to show its true size wins overwhelming UN support; India votes in favour

He said equal-area approaches could help address distortions in perceived landmass size that arise from projections designed primarily to preserve other geographic characteristics such as shape, direction or distance.

Different projections serve different cartographic purposes and no single projection is necessarily suitable for every application, he added.

(With inputs from PTI)