There was unusual peace in Konge village of Abujhmad at around 1 pm on Thursday afternoon. The village, nestled amid wooded hills in an area that has been a Maoist stronghold for decades, showed little sign of activity in the scorching afternoon sun. But on one side of a hill, a small crowd had gathered around a group of revenue officials and survey staff.
The men and women watched closely as the officers marked coordinates and recorded details on their mobile devices. For many villagers, this was the first time they had seen a formal revenue survey of their land since independence. In an area far beyond the reach of regular revenue administration, this exercise marks the beginning of a process that could eventually give officially recorded land holdings to thousands of residents and put large parts of Abujhmad on the state revenue map for the first time.
There is no demarcation of private land in Abujhmad in the land records. To determine this, the government is conducting a survey to map the area and assign unique identification numbers to land parcels known as Khasra numbers. Once this is done, a tribal will be able to buy or sell his land.
A senior administrative official said, “After Independence, as far as I know, an attempt was made to conduct a land survey first in 1991 and then in 2013 and 2017. It was not successful because of the presence of Maoists. In 2019, the state government decided to conduct the survey with IIT Roorkee, but it could not happen due to Maoist violence. Now, we are conducting that survey.”
While the surveyors will provide ground data through a mobile application developed by IIT Roorkee, which will provide cadastral maps based on the data to the revenue department. The survey teams prepare KML files containing village boundaries and individual land parcel data for IIT Roorkee.
Once the maps are received, revenue officials conduct a cross-verification and publish them for public scrutiny. Villagers can lodge objections if the land has been abandoned, ownership details are disputed, or the land has been wrongly classified as government or private property. Officials said that after the objections are resolved, a second publication is issued before the final records are uploaded on the Bhuiyan land records portal.
Challenges
According to officials, the survey in Konge is part of a broader effort by the revenue department to cover a large part of Abujhmad in Narayanpur district. Out of total 419 revenue villages, 173 villages are being surveyed while residents of 246 villages have been informed that the survey will be conducted soon. Officials said once the survey map is ready, there will be a verification and community consultation process after which the land records will be published.
Revenue officials said conducting surveys in Abujhmad requires more than technical expertise. “The support of local representatives and traditional leaders is important because tribal community members listen to them and they help us explain the process and its benefits to the villagers,” said Ijaz Hashmi, tehsildar and nodal in-charge of the survey.
Hashmi said some villagers agree to participate after two or three meetings, while others ask for a month or more to discuss the proposal among themselves. “They fear losing their land and farming rights. Some fear their land will be taken over for mining,” said a senior revenue official.
Konge village sarpanch Ramji Dhruv, who spent about 15 years in Narayanpur after being driven out by Maoists, said villagers were initially skeptical about the revenue survey, but this has gradually improved.
Dhruv said, “Many people feared that the survey was a precursor to mining activities and that their land would eventually be taken away. Maoists had long propagated the idea that the government wanted to grab tribal land. This fear still exists in some villages, but things are changing.”
“In many villages in and around Konge, people are now voluntarily participating in the survey. They have started to understand that this exercise is to establish their land rights, and not to take away their land,” he said.
According to Dhruv, the increasing participation reflects a broader change in perception. He said, “People here have started believing that the government is for the people and the administration is working in their interest.”
Kathia Ram Nureti, a resident of Konge, whose land was being surveyed, said he was confident the villagers would benefit from the exercise.
“Earlier, this was an area dominated by Maoists and most people were opposed to any kind of survey. But now we have understood that things may change for the better once the survey is completed,” Nuretti said.
He further added, “There are still some villages inside Abujhmad where people are skeptical about the practice. However, as they see the benefits and understand its purpose, they too will eventually join in.”
Nureti said the survey has given many villagers hope that they will finally get formal recognition of the land they have been farming for generations.
However, the administration is seeing a demonstration effect, with villages becoming more willing to participate after neighboring settlements completed the exercise.
Despite the challenges, surveyors say villager participation has improved as tribals realize they will get government benefits linked to land records.
“As information spreads that the survey can help them access government schemes, participation is increasing,” he said.
Hashmi said they appoint surveyors from the same village to build trust. “We also train them to use mobile-based applications,” he said.
During surveying, a surveyor marks a point on the mobile application and walks around the boundary of the land parcel. The application automatically records the area and geospatial coordinates. Ownership details, including the landholder’s name, father’s name and other identifying information, are entered into the system at the same time.
Hashmi said community assets such as pasture lands and common use structures are recorded separately rather than being assigned to an individual owner. However, he said the task is particularly challenging in the rugged terrain of Abujhmad, where land holdings are often scattered across hills and forests rather than concentrated in one place.
Santosh Kumar Maurya, a surveyor working in the area, said the plots of a single farmer may be spread across multiple locations, forcing survey teams to cover long distances.
Maurya said, “One ground could be here, another on the hill top and the third somewhere else. This is not a quick process and it has to be done carefully.”
Yogendra Bhandari, another surveyor, said that sometimes it takes an hour or two to reach a field. “A lot of time is spent just traveling,” Bhandari said.
Regarding the risks, Bhandari said his fear was the blast of a landmine or an improvised explosive device that the Maoists might have left behind.
“Initially, we requested that some areas be mined before entering because we had no way of knowing where explosives might have been planted,” he said. As a precaution they used routes used by local people.
survey vs tree cutting
Revenue department officials said they have observed an increase in tree felling in several villages of Abujhmad due to the return of residents, efforts to establish land tenure and the continued practice of shifting cultivation.
According to revenue officials, many villagers who left their native settlements during the years of Maoist dominance are now returning after almost two decades. In many cases, they are clearing patches of forest near villages to demonstrate possession of land they hope will eventually be surveyed and registered in their names.
Officials said this trend has been reported in several villages of Abujhmad, with trees being cut in large numbers in some areas. The continued practice of jhum or shifting cultivation has also contributed to the clearing of forest areas for agricultural use.
A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the situation reflected both historical circumstances and emerging challenges associated with the survey process.
“For almost three decades, very few trees were cut because of the Maoists. Now people need land for farming and many are clearing areas for farming,” the official said. “Once the survey is completed, there will be clear demarcation between revenue land and forest land and then any action can be taken as per law,” said a forest department official.
The forest officer quoted above said that efforts were being made to stop illegal tree cutting. “The survey is to identify legitimate landholdings, not to encourage encroachment. We are sending teams to ask villagers not to cut trees,” he said.
Revenue officials said the issue highlights the complex transformation underway in Abujhmad, where competing claims to land, changing settlement patterns and long-standing agricultural practices as well as expanding formal land administration are taking place.
Narayanpur Collector Namrata Jain said that the ongoing revenue survey in Abujhmad is aimed at providing legal recognition of land rights to local residents.
“Upon completion, revenue land occupants will receive formal land ownership records/pattas and title documents, while eligible forest dwellers will be provided Individual Forest Rights Titles, Community Forest Rights and Community Forest Resource Rights under the Forest Rights Act,” she said.
The Collector said that the claims of families returning after years of displacement will be verified through a transparent process based on the recommendations of Gram Sabhas, thereby ensuring that genuine claimants receive their rights and preventing encroachment or land grab by outsiders.
“By integrating revenue records with recognition of forest rights, the survey seeks to establish clarity of ownership, ensure proper documentation of land holdings and reduce future disputes. For the people of Abujhmad, this initiative will bring land ownership security and greater access to government schemes and institutional support, including PM-Kisan, Kisan Credit Cards, agricultural loans and other development benefits. With legally recognized land records, residents will be able to participate in agriculture and livelihoods more confidently.”
Back at Konge, as the survey team packed their bags just before dusk, motorcycles were parked near the banks of Konge as the surveyors prepared to head back to Narayanpur. Some people had spent the day wandering over the hills to map the miles of fields. Others spoke of relying on village footpaths in areas where concerns remain about buried explosives.
For residents watching from the hill, it is the first time the state has attempted to depict its farms on an official map. “Let’s see what happens,” said an elderly villager, who had seen Maoists coming to the village regularly. He expressed hope that this exercise will improve the lives of the villagers and they will get government benefits. He asked the pollsters to fulfill their promise of development, saying, “I hope that we will be treated equally with other Indians.”
