Bhopal: Tribal Village 'Missing' from Land Records After Digitisation
A complaint alleging that an entire tribal village has effectively “gone missing” from official land records has reached the chief minister’s office in Madhya Pradesh, even as hundreds of Adivasi farmers continue an indefinite protest in Khargone district demanding restoration of their land rights.
Residents of Dagadkhedi village in Bhagwanpura tehsil — home to around 250 tribal residents — claim that large parts of their agricultural land disappeared from revenue records after digitisation, while several cultivated plots suddenly began appearing as “government land”.
For villagers, the crisis is unusual and deeply unsettling: the village exists physically, but much of it allegedly no longer exists in government records, say officials privy to information.
In a memorandum sent to CM Mohan Yadav, the tribal affairs department, revenue department, Khargone collector Bhavya Mittal and local authorities, villagers alleged that land cultivated by tribal families for generations was either erased, wrongly mapped or shifted to other villages during digitisation of records.
According to the complaint, many families still possess old receipts and revenue documents showing cultivation and tax payments. Yet, villagers claim several khasra entries have either disappeared completely or are now reflected in unrelated villages instead of the land they occupy.
The villagers alleged they have been repeatedly petitioning authorities since 2022. Memorandums were submitted to the chief minister in May 2022 and July 2023, to the district collector in September 2022 and February 2023, and fresh representations were made this year through the gram sabha, SDM and tehsildar. On March 13, 2026, the gram sabha unanimously passed a resolution seeking correction of land records and opposing a proposed industrial zone in the village.
The complaint also refers to a September 2024 letter by National Commission for Scheduled Tribes chairman Antar Singh Arya to the Khargone administration, reportedly directing officials to correct records to ensure tribal families are not deprived of rights and welfare schemes. Villagers allege no action followed.
The issue gained urgency after residents alleged that the land now shown as “government land” was identified for a proposed industrial area in Dagadkhedi. Protesters claim land cultivated for decades first disappeared from records and was then marked for industrial use.
Villagers further alleged that because their land is missing from official records, many tribal families have been denied PM-Kisan benefits, crop insurance, fertilisers through cooperative societies, farm loans, irrigation schemes and electricity bill waivers for years.
Some villagers also questioned a proposal allegedly suggested by officials to first classify the land as forest land, settle claims under the Forest Rights Act, and then convert it back into revenue land, calling it an attempt to cover up administrative mistakes. Hundreds of villagers continue to protest outside the Bhagwanpura tehsil office, demanding a fresh survey of Dagadkhedi based on old receipts, actual cultivation and gram sabha recommendations under the PESA Act.
Repeated attempts to contact Khargone collector Bhavya Mittal and other district revenue authorities for their version remained unsuccessful.
