Land area mismatch may hit drone survey project in Karnataka

Karnataka’s ambitious drone-based revenue survey, the first since the last British mapping in 1935, could be rendered futile with authorities grappling with massive mismatch in the size of land parcels and the extent of their possession on ground.

Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda described this as “one of the most painful problems” that he has encountered since assuming office more than a month ago.

Findings of the drone survey will be correlated with manual maps available with the government. Gowda has discovered that doing so would be pointless without first fixing a more fundamental problem. “There’s a mismatch between the actual area and the total area on paper,” he said.

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Gowda cited the example of one survey number measuring 50 acres. “Over a period of time, it got divided into eight plots. What was originally 50 acres has become 55 acres. While doing a survey, how do you fit a 55-acre paper into an actual property of 50 acres?” Gowda said.

Rampant sub-division of plots without authentic delineation of boundaries (Phodi) has created lakhs of make-do records known as P-numbers or Pyki numbers.

“For example, there is a land measuring 30 acres divided into nine parcels. If one of the owners had to apply for a loan, then all the other eight had to sign an affidavit. To make things easy, a Pyki number was allotted without delineating boundaries. Now, when all nine parcels are added up, the land is measuring 35 acres against the original 30 acres. How do we set this right?” Gowda said. The problem is similar on government land. “If there are 150 acres, a total of 200 acres have been granted under Darkhast Phodis,” Gowda said.

One way of fixing it is to work backwards and identify when and how the deviation happened. “But people have to accept that their land does not measure up to their claim. While one person will claim ownership based on records, another will assert based on possession,” Gowda said. “Whose area do we reduce? This is leading to disputes.”

Gowda said he is still racking his head. “It’s not an easy problem to solve.”

The revenue department is already under pressure with at least 97,289 land-related disputes pending in the offices of tahsildars, assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the minister asked officials to start compiling data on all land mismatch cases.

Karnataka’s drone-based revenue survey will cover 1.91 lakh sq km of the state’s geographical extent. “I can do a table-top exercise. But when I go to the ground to implement it, people will oppose it,” Gowda said. “I have to convince farmers that their plot is what it is. I will have to work out all that for the drone survey to be finally effective.”