At around 1 pm on Thursday, Konge village in Abujhmad was unusually quiet. Nestled amid forested hills in a region that for decades served as a Maoist stronghold, the village showed little sign of activity under the harsh afternoon sun. But on one side of a hillock, a small crowd had gathered around a group of revenue officials and survey staff.
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Men and women watched closely as officials marked coordinates and recorded details on their mobile devices. For many villagers, it was the first time they had witnessed a formal revenue survey of their land since Independence. In a region long beyond the reach of regular revenue administration, the exercise marks the beginning of a process that could eventually give thousands of residents officially recorded land holdings and place large parts of Abujhmad on the state’s revenue map for the first time.
In land records, Abujhmad has no demarcation of private land. To determine this, the government is conducting a survey to map the area and providing unique identification number for land parcels known as Khasra number. Once that is done, a tribal will be able to buy or sell his land.
“After independence, as far as I know, attempts were made to conduct a land survey first in 1991 and then in 2013 and 2017. It was not successful because of Maoist presence. In 2019, the state government decided with IIT Roorkee to conduct the survey, but it could not be carried out because of Maoist violence. Now, we are carrying out that survey,” said a senior administrative official.
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. 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 file objections if land has been omitted, ownership details are disputed, or land has been incorrectly classified as government or private property. After objections are resolved, a second publication is issued before the final records are uploaded to the Bhuiyan land records portal, officials said.
THE CHALLENGES
According to officials, the survey in Konge is part of a broader effort by the revenue department to include a larger part of Abujhmad in Narayanpur district. Of the total 419 revenue villages, 173 villages are being surveyed while residents in 246 villages have been informed that the survey will be conducted soon. Officials said once the survey maps are prepared, there will be a verification and community consultation process after which the land records will be published.
Revenue officials said conducting the survey in Abujhmad requires more than technical expertise. “The support of local representatives and traditional leaders is crucial as members of the tribal community listen to them and they help us explain the process and its benefits to villagers,” said Ejaz Hashmi, tehsildar and nodal in-charge of the survey.
Hashmi said that some villagers agree to participate after two or three meetings, while others seek a month or more to discuss the proposal among themselves. “They are apprehensive about losing their land and right to cultivate. Some fear their land will be taken over for mining,” said a senior revenue official.
Ramji Dhruv, sarpanch of Konge village who spent nearly 15 years in Narayanpur after being driven out by Maoists, said villagers were initially sceptical about the revenue survey but have gradually come around.
“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. That fear still exists in some villages, but things are changing,” Dhruv said.
“In Konge and several nearby villages, people are now willingly participating in the survey. They have begun to understand that the exercise is meant to establish their land rights, not take away their land,” he added.
According to Dhruv, the growing participation reflects a broader change in perception. “People here have started believing that the government is for the people and that the administration is working in their interest,” he said.
Kathiya Ram Nureti, a resident of Konge whose land was being surveyed, said he is confident the exercise will benefit villagers.
“Earlier, this was a Maoist-dominated area and most people were opposed to any kind of survey. But now we have understood that things can change for the better once the survey is completed,” Nureti said.
“There are still some villages deeper inside Abujhmad where people remain sceptical about the exercise. However, as they see the benefits and understand its purpose, they too will eventually come around,” he added.
Nureti said the survey has given many villagers hope that they will finally receive formal recognition of the land they have cultivated for generations.
However, the administration is seeing a demonstration effect, with villages becoming more willing to participate after seeing neighbouring settlements complete the exercise.
Despite the challenges, surveyors say villagers’ participation has improved as tribals have realised they would get government benefits linked to land records.
“As information spreads that the survey could help them access government schemes, participation is increasing,” he said.
Hashmi said they hire surveyors from the same village to build confidence. “We also train them to use mobile based applications,” he said.
During the survey, a surveyor marks a point on the mobile application and walks around the boundary of a 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 grazing ground and common-use structures are recorded separately rather than being assigned to an individual owner. He, however, added that the work is particularly challenging in Abujhmad’s rugged terrain, where landholdings are often scattered across hills and forests rather than concentrated in a single location.
Santosh Kumar Maurya, a surveyor working in the region, said a single farmer’s plots can be spread across multiple locations, requiring survey teams to walk long distances.
“One field may be here, another on top of a hill and a third somewhere else. It is not a quick process, and it has to be done carefully,” said Maurya.
Yogendra Bhandari, another surveyor, said sometimes it takes one or two hours just to reach a field. “A lot of time is spent simply travelling,” Bhandari said.
On the risks, Bhandari said their fear is the explosion of a landmine or improvised explosive device which Maoists may have left behind.
“At the beginning, we requested that demining be carried out before we entered some areas because we have no way of knowing where explosives may have been planted,” he said. As a precaution they used routes used by locals.
SURVEY VS TREE FELLING
Revenue department officials said they have observed a rise in tree felling across several villages in Abujhmad, driven by a combination of returning residents, efforts to establish possession over land and the continued practice of shifting cultivation.
According to revenue officials, many villagers who had left their native settlements during years of Maoist dominance are now returning after nearly two decades. In several cases, they are clearing patches of forest near villages to demonstrate possession over land that they hope will eventually be surveyed and recorded in their names.
Officials said the trend has been reported in multiple villages across Abujhmad, with large numbers of trees being cut in some areas. The continued practice of jhoom, or shifting cultivation, has also contributed to the clearing of forest patches for agricultural use.
A senior government officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the situation reflects both historical circumstances and emerging challenges linked to the survey process.
“For almost three decades, very few trees were cut because of the Maoists. Now people need land for cultivation and many are clearing areas for agriculture,” the officer said. “Once the survey is completed, there will be a clear demarcation between revenue land and forest land, and any action can then be taken according to law,” a forest department official said.
The forest official quoted above said that efforts are being made to stop illegal tree felling. “The survey is meant to recognise legitimate holdings, not encourage encroachment. We are sending teams to tell villagers not to cut trees,” he said.
Revenue officials said the issue highlights the complex transition underway in Abujhmad, where the extension of formal land administration is occurring alongside competing claims over land, changing settlement patterns and long-standing agricultural practices.
Collector Narayanpur, Namrata Jain said that the ongoing revenue survey in Abujhmad aims to provide legal recognition of land rights to local residents.
“Upon completion, occupants of revenue land will receive formal land ownership records / patta and title documents, while eligible forest dwellers will be granted Individual Forest Rights titles, Community Forest Rights, and Community Forest Re
Claims by families returning after years of displacement will be verified through a transparent process based on the recommendations of Gram Sabhas, ensuring that genuine claimants receive their rights while preventing encroachment or land grabbing by outsiders, the collector said.
“By integrating revenue records with the recognition of forest rights, the survey seeks to establish clarity of ownership, ensure proper documentation of land holdings, and minimize future disputes. For the people of Abujhmad, this initiative will bring land tenure security and greater access to government schemes and institutional support, including PM-Kisan, Kisan ith legally recognized land records, residents will be able to participate more confidently in agriculture and livelihoods,” she added.
Back in Konge, as the survey team packed up shortly before dusk, motorcycles stood parked near the edge of Konge while surveyors prepared for the ride back to Narayanpur. Some had spent the day walking across hills to map fields scattered miles apart. Others spoke of relying on village footpaths in areas where concerns about buried explosives still linger.
For the residents watching from the hillside, it is the first time the state has attempted to draw their fields onto an official map. “Let’s see what happens,” said an elderly villager, who had seen Maoists frequenting the village regularly. He hoped that the exercise will improve life for villagers and extend government benefits to them. “I hope we will be treated as equal to other Indians,” he said, while asking the surveyors to deliver on their promise of development.
