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Raghav Sand

Mapping Land in Rural India

Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, in his brief message at the time of launching the SVAMITVA scheme emphasised that India rises if its villages witness development. Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) has broadly two aims:

  1. Facilitate households to use their immovable property as a financial asset for taking advances and other monetary benefits, and

  2. Improving rural infrastructure and demand assessment process. It will enable to institutionalise asset and Tax collection register.

Time line for implementation and Pilot


Government of India has earmarked ₹79.65 crores in the pilot phase, which will run through FY 2020-21. The survey shall be completed over four years i.e. 2020 – 2024.


Rationale for the scheme


Record of holding rights is the most important objective that will be achieved from electronically mapping the properties in rural areas. Issuance of property cards will help in clear determination of tax which will be a source of revenue for Gram Panchayat. Community assets like roads, ponds, canals, open spaces, etc. will also be surveyed. Geographic Information System (GIS) maps would help in preparation of accurate work estimates for various works undertaken by Gram Panchayat and State Government.


Coverage of the scheme


In the pilot phase, the scheme will extend to six states, namely, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. This will cover approx. 1 lakh villages out of the total 6.62 lakh villages.


Implementation process flow

Survey approach


Drone based large scale mapping is carried out using professional survey grade Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). These UAVs use high resolution sensor to provide accurate projection and orientation of images captured. The survey approach has been divided into three sub-activities

  1. Pre-survey activities – Among other things, it will include taking permission form Collector’s office and Survey of India (SoI) shall take approvals from Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

  2. Survey activities – Regional revenue office would provide scanned maps to SoI. Ground validation of the processed image for better than 10 cm accuracy.

  3. Post-survey activities – Legal notification for joint verification of ownership by state revenue department and gram panchayat. Printing and distribution of property cards along with updating revenue records.


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