Lal Dora Digital Mapping in District Mewat (Haryana): An Indian Case Study of Village Chharora, Tehsil Tauru Dr. Subhan Khan Scientist-F GIS/Remote Sensing Lab, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), India Email: subhankhan1@yahoo.com Dr. Shakti Prakash GIS/Remote Sensing Lab, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) Email: shaktitiwari@yahoo.com Indian revenue term Lal Dora which originated during British period literally signifies red thread; used in the past for demarcating the jurisdiction of a village settlement. Presently implies the boundary of the territory of village within which norms and controls of a local government bodies are not applicable. Lal Dora map is easily not available for most of the villages of Mewat district and even if they are, they are very old as most of these dates back to 60s, the time when land consolidation work was undertaken here. The land use restrictions and property tax burdens are less under Lal Dora. The value of the land covered by this regime is therefore usually very high, especially in places with good commercial opportunities. This land is also highly sought after by small entrepreneurs who run the type of industries that are not allowed elsewhere and want to avoid paying taxes when acquisition from the government takes place. The Lal Dora regime is usually expanded to provide villagers with the opportunity to acquire more residential and commercial land. This leads to a big political scramble for the most attractive locations, in which much off-the-record trading is taken place and many alliances are formed. It can happen that one side of the village develops into a high-value market area, while another part of the village might become an inaccessible and poorly serviced backwater. Illegal encroachments to Lal Dora have become rampant harsh reality, especially in villages near to urban areas. This leaves villagers completely helpless, sometime even uncompensated loss of their precious land, due to violation of the Lal Dora legislation, which is meant to make residential land available to the villagers and to stimulate ‘rural industry’ while saving the agricultural land. If Lal Dora digital maps are prepared and maintained/updated timely and honestly with comprehensive village database in GIS mode, such efforts may go a long way in fighting against correction and help in proper planning decisions for the developmental of village planning. The Village Chharora is located between the geo-coordinates of 28° 10' 31.7’’ N , 76° 56' 45'' East 264 meters elevation and 28° 9' 54'' North, 76° 58' 44.4'' East, 350 meters elevation ( geo-coordinates taken by GARMIN I Que M5 Pocket PC integrated with hand-held GPS & accompanied by Nav Talk GSM Phone/GPS with 6-10 meters accuracy) .The village is situated in tehsil and development block, Tauru of the newly created district namely Mewat which was earlier a part of district Gurgaon (Haryana). This is also the headquarter of Mewat Development Society (MDS), a leading registered NGO who is implementing a DST sponsored joint project with NISTADS (CSIR), New Delhi on ‘’Development of Village/Panchayat Level Integrated Spatial Database on Natural Resources and Socio-economic Parameters using GIS/GPS/RS Technologies to help in Local Area Development Planning”. Like other rural areas in Mewat district, village Chharora may also get trapped into serious legal disputes related with Lal Dora due to ongoing developmental activities in near by developmental blocks, mainly Tauru. An urgent need for digital mapping of Lal Dora of village Chharora was felt to assist villagers, local government i.e. Chharora Gram Panchayat. The structured questionnaire was implemented to conduct survey of Lal Dor households in terms of their origin, house type, house use, house density, socio-cultural attributes, occupation & economic status, health, major family problems, knowledge about various rights, acts, & schemes etc. The single biggest advantage of proposed exercise leading to Chharora Village GIS would be for effective implementation of newly announced govt. schemes and initiative like 73rd Constitutional Amendment 1993, Haryana Panchayati Raj Act 1994, National Common Minimum Programme 2004, The Right to Information Act, 2005 and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. The present paper intends to discuss the entire methodology of digital mapping of Lal Dora of village Chharora along with a brief analysis of its significance for the efficient land governance in the same area. It demonstrates that such maps can prove very useful device to measure the status of any given aspect of the study area.