This paper attempts to present the various issues for development of Land Information Systems across the country, the available technologies and the need for standardization. It also presents an overview of VISION LIS 2000, a suite of software which caters to the diverse requirements of Land Records in various states across the country.
LIS - Issues
Diversity of Land Records System across the country
Importance of Land Records
- Land Records form the basis for assignment and settlement of land titles
- These records must stand against legal scrutiny
- Land is a very precious resource and the Land Records system must safeguard the rights of the legal owner of land.
Survey Methods used in the past
The object of cadastral survey is the determination of village and field boundaries, preparation of village map showing such boundaries and area lists, and preparation of field registers. The maps and area lists give the physical boundaries and areas and the field registers give the land particulars like ownership, revenue assessment, land classification etc.
Numerous Survey methods were used in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Many of these systems led to inaccuracies and were modified time and again. However, the records of Bombay Survey System and Madras Survey System which evolved after 1880, were accurate and were directly or with variations adopted as a standard in many States.
Bombay Survey System
This method involved running an imaginary line called G-Line or Baseline across the field and measurement of plot boundary vertex locations with respect to this line. Two distances, the distance along the baseline and the perpendicular length from the baseline to the vertex were recorded in the form of a Ladder Table or Field Measurement Table (FMT). The Field Data for a village were maintained in a book with the ladder tables and a rough or fair sketch of each land holding.
Variations of this method include use of multiple baselines, adharline survey (where a number of plots were surveyed on a single long baseline, with the entire village surveyed on 1 to 4 baselines), punganur system (where entire village was surveyed on one baseline) etc.
Madras Survey System
In this system, the survey field is initially approximated by running triangulation lines across the field. These triangulation lines describe the basic shape of the boundary of the survey field. The detailed profile of the survey field is described by offsetting local boundary points on to the triangulation lines along the boundary. The system also uses multiple base line method occationally in describing a complex shape survey field. Further, survey records are also sub-divided and represented in the field measurement sketch unlike in the case of Bombay survey system where sub-divisions are represented on a separate sheet from the main tippan (a sheet describing the boundary of the survey field).
Mapping
Village maps were prepared by using the individual survey field data. Such maps tended to be slightly inaccurate due to error in individual fields being accumulated across the village. Errors generally crept in due to measurement resolution being rounded off and also due to terraneous nature of the ground. Field sketches assume the ground to be flat, however, the same data when mosaiced across a village result in sizeable.
The boundary of the village was traverse surveyed and was used to control the accumulated error in the mosaiced village map. In traverse survey, the entire village was divided into more than one block called Khandam and known boundary points (called traverse stations) in each Khandam were surveyed. The method involved starting from first station and recording the distance and the angle to the next station and so on till the circuit was closed. This circuit represented an accurate Khandam boundary, whereby plots belonging to that Khandam were manually adjusted in the past to fit into the Khandam boundary.
In Southern States, changes were made to plot boundaries only in making the village maps while traverse fitting were not reflected back on the original Field Data, i.e., only the original record of field measurement table or sketch are still legally acceptable.
However, in many Northern states, the individual field records were either lost or abandoned after preparation of accurate village map and this map became a basis for obtaining individual survey boundaries.