Fight for land

On December 24, 2023, thousands of people gathered in Uttarakhand’s winter capital, Dehradun, to pressurise the government to enact strict land laws, aiming to halt the large-scale sale of agricultural land to individuals from other states. The protestors, organised under the banner Mool Niwas Bhu Kanoon Samanway Sangharsh Committee, assert that since the state’s formation in 2000, governments have relaxed rules to attract outside investment. According to them, this ap-proach has deprived Uttarakhand residents of their land, culture and identity.

In the days following the protests, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami imposed an interim ban on the purchase of new agricultural land by outsiders and is now awaiting the report of an ongoing Law Land Committee to determine further steps.

Chandrashekhar Kargeti, a lawyer with the Uttarakhand High Court in Nainital, points out that Uttarakhand is the only Himalayan state that allows the sale of agricultural land to outsiders. This poses a significant problem, given that only 14 per cent of the state’s geographical area is designated as agricultural land, Kargeti says. “The land records for the region were last updated in the 1960s. Since then, extensive agricultural land has been repurposed for non-agricultural activities such as road construction and industries. The state government does not even have the details on the extent of agricultural land lost over the past 60 years,” says Dehradun-based historian Shekhar Pathak.

In 2003, the state’s first government attempted to address the issue by amending Section 154 of the Uttaranchal (The Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950) Act. This allowed outsiders to buy agricultural land of up to 500 sq m only for farming purposes. In 2008, the cap was reduced to 250 sq m.

In 2018, the state government lifted the cap entirely, enabling large-scale purchase of agricultural land, along with easing the process to change land use. “The then chief minister, Trivendra Rawat, justified the move by saying that it will bring about industrial development. While small industrial areas have been created in every district, till date no industries have been established in them. Instead, a large land bank has been created by purchasing agricultural land in Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Yamkeshwar of Pauri. In Garhwal, all the commercially important land beyond Srinagar towards Alaknanda and Mandakini valley, Badrinath, Kedarnath has been sold, mostly for resorts,” says Manoj Rawat, a former Member of Legislative Assembly from Uttarakhand, who had opposed the 2018 relaxations.

Although the 2018 amendment included a provision that the state government could take over land if it was not used for the prescribed purpose or was sold to someone else, this clause was lifted in 2022, giving a free hand to outsiders to hold on to land or use it for any purposes they deem fit, says Rawat.

He alleges that the state government has also broadened the definition of “industrial purpose” to include educational institutions, hospitals and even gardens.

Apart from the diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, the state has experienced a population surge since 2000, exacerbating the problem. Protestors are demanding a revisit of domicile requirements to limit benefits in government jobs and land purchases to the original settlers of the region, particularly those settled until 1950, when the country issued a Presidential order that set the basis for the concept of domicile residents in states.

Anoop Nautiyal of Dehradun-based non-profit Social Development for Community Foundation notes that Uttarakhand’s population has increased from around 8.5 million in 2001 to 13 million now. “The state was formed to preserve the rights of the mountain people. Instead, it paved the way for outsiders to settle down here. Almost 4 million people have migrated to the state since 2000 and they are now being given domicile status as the current rules require an Indian national to stay in a state for 15 years to apply for the same,” says Kargeti.

He highlights that when the state was formed, the cut-off date for domicile was revised to 1985, even though other states were still following 1950 as the cut-off year.

In 2012, while hearing a case related to domicile status, the high court ruled that any person who has been living inside the border of Uttarakhand since November 9, 2000, when the state was formed, is a domicile resident of the state. The state government did not challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court even though it was not in the interest of the people. “Our land serves as the foundation of our identity. Our songs, cultural traditions and folk deities are all intricately linked to our land. If we lose it, we risk becoming a displaced person, disconnected from the roots that define us,” says Pathak.

This was first published in the January 16-31, 2024 print edition of Down To Earth