<p>This review paper systematically examines forty studies published between 2019 and 2023 on land use and land cover (LULC) changes in Southern India, addressing the absence of a comprehensive review of LULC dynamics in the region. Twenty-eight studies were evaluated using the ICA framework, with data extracted from Clarivate Analytica’s Web of Science, supplemented by twelve additional recent studies from Google Scholar to broaden the scope and address methodological limitations. Text analysis and co-word mapping were conducted using VOSviewer software. Key themes explored include primary land use classes (LUC), methodologies employed, significant drivers of change, and the dynamics of major land classes and environmental implications. The majority of the studies identified built-up areas, agriculture/cropland, vegetation, and forests as the primary LUC classes. Most of the articles utilized maximum likelihood and supervised classification techniques for the generation of LULC maps, with accuracy assessments commonly incorporated to validate results. Population growth, urbanization, economic factors and climate change were found as the primary drivers of LULC changes. The findings reveal a significant reduction in agricultural land and water bodies across most of the study area, alongside a rapid expansion of built-up areas. Environmental ramifications of these LULC changes such as increased land surface temperatures (LST), soil erosion, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, flooding, desertification risks, and deforestation were commonly observed. This study underscores the urgent need for sustainable land-use policies and stricter regulations to mitigate the unchecked and haphazard LULC changes in the region, ensuring long-term environmental and socio-economic stability.</p>