By Jyotsna Sitling
Working together, the Revenue and Forest Departments corrected the land records of Uttarakhand’s Van Panchayats and made them public in 2023. This is an account of the reform, its results and the agenda ahead.
When I took charge as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Van Panchayat) in Uttarakhand in 2020, many Sarpanches, the heads of Village Forest Committees, came to me with the same complaint. The village had made them Sarpanch, yet they did not know where their Panchayati forest lay, because they had no record of it. How could an institution that does not even know the boundary of its forest manage it? My colleagues and I decided that this must be the first task. After that, there was no looking back. For a village forest, a land record is not a formality; it is the first line of defence.
More Panchayats, Weaker Records
Uttarakhand is the only state in the country with a Van Panchayat system, in place since 1931. After the State was formed in 2000, the policy of having a Van Panchayat in every village was adopted, and the 4,665 panchayats on record in 1994 grew to 12,089, covering 5,450 sq km, in the 2007 Van Panchayat Directory. The numbers rose rapidly, but the records did not keep pace.
The root of the problem was structural. Under the Rules, the formation, demarcation and administration of a Van Panchayat rest with the Revenue Department, while technical support is the responsibility of the Forest Department. In this dual arrangement there was no mechanism of accountability, and decisions and their implementation kept getting delayed.
Where the Gaps Lay
For many Van Panchayats formed after 2000, the area declared in the 2007 Directory had never been mutated (amal-daramad) in their names in the revenue records. The committees were therefore legally weak when it came to fighting cases to protect Panchayati forests and to stopping encroachments. Demarcation maps and notifications had not been properly deposited in the revenue archives, and even the Forest Department held no copies of the land records of panchayat land. The law added to the tangle: under the state Public Premises Rules (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants), 1973, the power to remove encroachment lies with the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of the Revenue Department, whereas the Forest Department can evict encroachers only from forest land under its own control.
When I placed before the Revenue Department a proposal to correct the number and area, both on the ground and in the records, its officers pointed to serious anomalies and were initially reluctant to take up the task. This was the real challenge, because without the Revenue Department’s cooperation no correction on the ground could hold.
How the Reform was carried out
From September 2020, 31 forest divisions having Van Panchayats began the exercise. A nodal Divisional Forest Officer was appointed in every district, and the tehsil-wise lists of the District Magistrates were matched with the Revenue Board’s list of revenue villages. Van Panchayats confirmed by the District Magistrate were placed in Form-1, while those recorded in the 2007 Directory and present on the ground, but outside the District Magistrate’s list, were placed in Form-2. For panchayats formed from reserved forest, the Forest Department’s data was taken as the basis; for those formed from civil forest, the District Magistrates’ data. The Revenue Department also reconciled several cases of double counting of parts of the same Panchayati forest. On 22 November 2021, the Revenue Board directed the District Magistrates to keep the Sajra (village forest map), Khasra (plot or survey number), Hadbandi (demarcation of boundaries), Khatauni (record of rights) and the formation order updated in the District Land Record archives.
Even after this detailed exercise, 686 Van Panchayats of the 2007 Directory remained unconfirmed. To trace the gap, the District Magistrates issued notices in local newspapers in August 2022, inviting the public to respond with factual records. Where records were received, the Van Panchayats were added to the list.
Throughout, many Sarpanches gathered old evidence and helped resolve discrepancies between the data of the two departments. In a few cases, the original record of the formation of a Van Panchayat (Form CK-53) had to be created afresh. Special committees were formed under the chairmanship of the Tehsildar, and the District Magistrate conducted weekly reviews. To ensure that no coordination gap remained between the two departments, the Forest Minister organised two inter-departmental meetings in September and November 2022. This gave the exercise much-needed momentum and carried it to its logical end.
Meanwhile, in Public Interest Litigation 93/2022, the High Court of Uttarakhand in para 10 passed order for Divisional Forest Officers on 12.09.2022 that every Van Panchayat be given its Sajra and Khatauni, and that these documents be put on the website. In compliance, the Division Forest Officers indicated to the District Magistrates and the District Magistrates handed over the corrected records to every Van Panchayat by the end of 2022, and the four records were made public on the Forest Department’s website in early 2023.
The Result: A Clear Picture
In February 2024, the State Government issued the Van Panchayat Directory 2023. It shows the number of Van Panchayats falling from 12,089 to 11,217 (872 fewer) and the area from 5,449.64 sq km to 4,526.44 sq km (923.20 sq km less). This was not a shrinking of community forestry, but a clean-up of land records on the basis of ground facts. The figures now rest on verified records rather than on assumption.
Of the 11,217 Van Panchayats, 10,876 were formed from civil/Soyam forest, 258 from reserved forest and 83 from both. Also, 153 panchayats (about 5,918 hectares) now lie within the limits of 36 urban local bodies. By size, 26 per cent of Van Panchayats have an area of less than 5 hectares, 32 per cent between 5 and 15 hectares, and 29 per cent between 15 and 50 hectares, while the remaining 14 per cent exceed 50 hectares.
Who Gains, and How
Every Van Panchayat has received a firm land record of its Panchayati forest, and the records are now public. This answers the most basic question about the survival of a Van Panchayat. The document whose absence made litigation and the removal of encroachments so difficult is now in the hands of the Van Panchayats themselves, and the community can now stand up for its forest with documents rather than with claims alone.
The government has also gained significantly. Duplication of reporting has ended, and the number, location and area of Van Panchayats are now clear. It is easier for the Forest Department to prepare the Composite Plan and Micro-Plan of a Van Panchayat, while the Revenue Department finds survey, demarcation, identification of encroachment and statutory action more convenient. With the number and area known, a strategy to strengthen small, weak Van Panchayats can be built. In the long term, in an era of climate change and biodiversity loss, this exercise is a milestone towards linking Van Panchayats with custodianship for ecosystem services and rights on the ground.
The Reform Agenda Ahead
First, the Panchayati forest area must be demarcated on the ground on the basis of the Van Panchayat Directory 2023, and the demarcated area digitised. Funds for this can be raised from the CAMPA fund and the State’s Van Panchayat Improvement Scheme.
Second, this success came from a campaign, whereas the Rules assign the two departments separate roles. Accountability for the maintenance of records should therefore become a permanent arrangement, and the five key records should remain deposited and updated in the district revenue archives, so that a situation like that of 2007 never arises again.
Third, the resurgence and strength Van Panchayats have experienced need to be harnessed and channeled by the State so that Uttarakhand becomes a leader in ecosystem services.
Fourth, the Panchayati forest land records made public on the Forest Department’s website should remain in the public domain for all time to come, with needful reviews from time to time.
Credit Where It Is Due
This reform was the collective result of the dedicated work of officers of both the Forest and Revenue Departments, the Van Panchayat Wing of the Forest Department in its nodal role, the public at large- specially the Sarpanches, and the timely intervention of the High Court. I hope the State Government has begun the stated works on priority, in the interest of the ecological security of the state and the long-term benefit of the people of Uttarakhand.
(The writer is former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Van Panchayat, Uttarakhand)
