Choppers, rovers, and drones to be deployed for Karnataka's comprehensive digital land survey

Kataria further said that the survey has been ongoing in 21 districts over the past six months, and tenders have been floated for the remaining districts, including Bengaluru rural district.

Karnataka has initiated a comprehensive digital land survey using helicopters, drones and rovers to update property records, in the first such exercise since the British conducted one back in 1935.

The survey will cover 140,000 square km of the state and will be completed in about three years, revenue department officials told Moneycontrol. Alongside, the digitalisation of land records and a project to secure record rooms at various levels in the state is likely to be completed by next year.

"We are deploying helicopters and drones for aerial surveys. Helicopters provide faster results and can operate in all weather conditions," Rajender Kumar Kataria, principal secretary in the state revenue department, told Moneycontrol.

The survey has been under way in 21 districts with the use of drones over the past six months. Tenders have been floated for the remaining 10 districts, including Bengaluru Rural, to be surveyed using helicopters, Kataria said.

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The choppers must be equipped with large or medium-format digital cameras, according to the tender documents seeking bids from companies for the project. The selected firms will carry out professional aerial photography suitable for large-scale mapping at a height of up to 10,000 feet above ground level to achieve a ground sample distance (GSD) of at least 5 cm.

GSD refers to the distance between the centres of two adjacent pixels measured on the ground. A GSD of 5 cm means that one pixel in the image represents 5 x 5 square cm (25 square cm) on the ground.

The selected companies are expected to cover an area of 500 square km per week, according to the tender documents.

"According to the Land Revenue Act, we are required to conduct a survey every 30 years for better record management. Land may have been partitioned into multiple plots, and new infrastructure such as roads and highways may have been developed over the years," Kataria said. "In some places, land surveys were never conducted. This comprehensive survey exercise essentially involves updating records in both land revenue and survey departments. We are intensifying our efforts in this regard, with a target completion time of a minimum of two to three years."

What's the project?

Officials said aerial verification of agricultural land and residential property already surveyed in both rural and urban areas has started in six districts. The Karnataka government, in collaboration with the Survey of India, initiated the verification project in the districts of Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Hassan, Uttara Kannada, and Belagavi as well as Bengaluru City.

Large-scale maps and revised records of rights, tenancy, and crop data will be generated for these areas. The resurvey will be expanded to cover the remaining districts in phases.

Drone surveys have already been completed in other parts of the country including Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Delhi, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.

In a first, rovers to be purchased

The state revenue department is also procuring rovers - surveying equipment designed to receive signals from satellites and a base station - used for calculating grade and survey measurements. Officials said they plan to procure 372 rovers.

"This is the first time we are procuring rovers for ground truthing exercises," Kataria said.

Ground truthing assesses the accuracy of remote sensing data by comparing it with physical measurements collected at the ground level.

This form of validation is especially needed in areas where drone visibility of boundaries between plots is obstructed by tree canopies. These high-tech instruments will enhance the speed of the verification process.

"Once ground truthing is completed, we will convert the digital map and assign geo-fenced numbers. In a few years, once coordinates are inputted, property owners will be able to accurately locate their land with the assistance of geo-fencing," Kataria said.

Digital land documents

Kataria said all land records are scheduled to be digitised by March 2025.

“We initiated the digitisation of land records in the state about 10 years ago, but it remains incomplete. In places like Bengaluru, where land values are high, several court cases arise due to missing or fabricated records," he said. "Currently, we have begun the process of classifying, indexing, cataloguing, scanning, and digitising the records. Once converted into a digital format, users will be able to easily retrieve data using the keywords.

He said the Bhoo Suraksha programme to digitise all documents in the record rooms of the tahsildar's office, the survey office, and the sub-registrar's office was launched two-three months ago.

“Under this programme, on a pilot basis, we have selected 31 taluks - one from each district - and provided a three-month timeline," he said.

He added that the record rooms will be modernised to allow for online retrieval of records without physically touching the files. Additionally, a Movable File Storage System (Compactor) will be installed to store records safely in a fireproof environment.

All record rooms in the state will be equipped with IP-based CCTV cameras for surveillance. Entry records will be maintained to monitor access to the records, minimising the risk of missing documents, Kataria said.