How to get your cadastral map and Khesra sheets in Jharkhand

Before any of the practical steps, one thing decides whether they are worth taking. Most land in Jharkhand is governed by the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, and the Santhal Pargana districts by the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act. Both restrict transfer of land held by a member of a Scheduled Tribe, and the SPT Act is the stricter. Establish which applies and what it permits on your parcel before commissioning a survey or a valuation.

What you are actually asking for

Bhu-Naksha

The cadastral map of a mauza, showing each Khesra number with its boundaries. A mauza is drawn across several sheets, so a holding near a sheet edge comes out cut.

Panji-II

Register II: the current record of rights held at the anchal office, showing who holds each Khesra number now and how much area.

Khatiyan

The settlement record from the cadastral survey: the raiyat and the Khesra numbers as they stood when the village was surveyed. Old title work is traced through it.

Start with the record, so you know what to ask for

Pull Panji-II for the Khesra number first. It gives you the Khata and Khesra numbers exactly as the department writes them, and those are what the map request is keyed on. Where a deed names a number Panji-II does not show, the Khatiyan is usually what reconciles them, because the settlement record and the current register were made a lifetime apart.

Note the district, anchal and mauza as Panji-II spells them. Mauza names repeat across anchals in Jharkhand, and the anchal is what disambiguates them.

Getting the map sheets

1. Note the district, anchal and mauza exactly as Panji-II spells them.
2. Ask for the cadastral sheets for that mauza covering your Khesra numbers. Where a mauza runs to several sheets, ask for all the sheets your numbers fall on, not just the first.
3. Ask for the neighbouring sheet where a boundary you care about runs along the edge of yours, because the line you need continues onto it.
4. Check every sheet before you leave: the mauza name, the sheet number, and that your Khesra number is legible on it. An unreadable edge is the part you will need when you come to line it up.

Bhuinhari land

Some Chhotanagpur land is held under Bhuinhari tenure, the original clearer's tenure, recognised separately and recorded in its own register. Bhuinhari rights descend within the family that cleared the land and carry their own restrictions, so a Bhuinhari entry changes what a transaction can be. It is worth checking alongside the CNT position rather than after it.

Joining the sheets you end up with

Almost nobody ends up with one sheet. A holding scattered across a mauza is several sheets, land on a mauza boundary needs sheets from both, and the boundary you care about is usually the line where two of them meet.

Joining them is ordinary work: line the sheets up along the boundaries they share, so the lines that continue across the join actually continue. Done by hand it is fiddly; done on a canvas that snaps edges together it takes a few minutes, and the result is one continuous map you can print, send to a valuer, or take to the anchal office.