The Union Government has recently drafted a national land reforms policy to ensure scientific management of all categories of lands in India. It is a very welcoming move, but the major difficulties lie on proper and scientific classification of lands. land itself is a State property and land is inalienably associated with one’s livelihood and freedom.

Since the Moghal period, civil disturbances have been noticed in India pertaining to land rows. Hence, it is in this light that the current controversies on land are no new phenomena. The fault lies with the failure of the State or Central Government to put in place a systematic land administration to avoid the civil disputes. The Revenue department looks after land management in every State.

During British regime, the classification of lands was made entirely basing on irrigation of lands and production capacity and various uses. During that period, the lands did not have the facility for artificial irrigations. So, the agriculturists had to fall back on dug wells and other manual ways of lifting water from water bodies. Again in very limited areas, the artificial irrigation through canal had been made, but no priority was given on scientific management of land resources in the whole of the country. Though the nation has made tremendous strides in the development of irrigation, yet the drive for improvement of land resources through scientific management has not been satisfactory so far.

land ensures livelihood and hence, dignity of life as well as security for millions of citizen. Though we have got political independence, yet economic independence is still eluding most of us. Economic independence gives social status and means of sustainable livelihood.

We have glaring inequalities in the distribution of landed resources. The land reform made during 1950s and 1960s did not have any perceptible impact on the livelihood of the people and on the ownership of lands in true sense.  Similarly, the Zamindary abolition too had little social impact, except giving rights to some Rayat tenants, who were tilling land and raising the crops under the estate owners. As West Bengal and Kerala were under Communist administration, the land reform policies were worked out in a better way there.

Besides, the Naxalite movement had raised its head primarily on land issue and its growing popularity had forced the Communist Governments to put in practice effective land reforms.

Jammu and Kashmir had a different situation. Both the Central and the State Government there are focusing on improvement of the marginalized people so as to contain extremism. Kerala and West Bengal were at the forefront in the implementation of land reforms.

But these reforms did not touch the borders of other States effectively. Odisha was one of them.

Odisha is now on an industrial resurgence mode. During land acquisition, the Government and industrial houses have been facing a lot of popular resistances. Besides, land is required for expansion of cities and towns and other infrastructural development, but the Government has also been facing many troubles for this. Industrialisation has also led to shrinking of agricultural lands and stagnation of agricultural yields. land disputes have spurred Maoist insurgency in the State. Consequently, it is highly essential to have a policy on land management.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, nearly 47 per cent of our land comes under forests and 13.6 per cent as cultivable lands. The non-cultivable land roughly comes to 41 million hectares.

If we consider the case of Odisha, the land mass can be grossly divided in to hilly regions, coastal plain and valley based areas.

Similarly, the hilly regions can be divided into extremely steep, moderately steep, and sloping. There is a need to protect the hills with scientific management plan. The villages and coastal plains can be saved from disastrous floods and other climatic disasters by proper management of hilly regions.

Again the coastal plains should be categorically divided into completely sub- merged, seasonally sub- merged and tracts. These three categories should be treated with different management policies. The mangrove forests and the estuarine ecological systems should be duly protected to act as protective barriers against cyclone, tide and wave erosion including inundation of inland areas. Again the water bodies and swamps should be intensively protected. Further, the cultivable lands should be properly dealt with. Under no circumstances, should the agricultural lands be spared for any industrial purposes, except for inland communication. The agricultural, horticultural and forest-related lands should not be given to industrial houses at any cost.

(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist)