India - Common Property Resources and Village Facilities, January - June 1998, NSS 54th Round

If the entry in Item 5 is '1', i.e. if it is reported that the area of CPR land was larger 5 years ago than what it is on the date of survey, the field official will be required to find out the area of CPR land as it existed 5 years ago. The difference between the area as existed 5 years ago and the present area will be entered in Item 6 in hectares up to two places of decimal. If the response to Item 5 is 'no', this item will be crossed. Note that a valid entry in this item will always be greater than “0.00”.

Area of CPR land gets depleted due to natural causes and privatization. The latter takes place both legally and through illegal encroachment. The Revenue Department allots CPR land to individuals and co-operatives for housing and other non-agricultural uses. CPR land is also allotted to individuals for cultivation. Illegal encroachments are often formalized by giving patta to the holders. In this block, only the legal privatization and regularized encroachments will be considered for determining the area of land diminished during last 5 years. Illegal encroachments will not be considered.