How to get your village map and FMB sketches in Kerala
Why an old survey number may not match the current map, what the Village Office issues, and which sketch answers which question.
Kerala has a complication the other southern states mostly do not: two generations of survey numbers in circulation. Where the re-survey has been completed, parcels carry re-survey numbers, while older deeds and older records still cite the settlement survey numbers. Matching one to the other is usually the first real step, and skipping it is why a map request comes back showing land that is not yours.
Which record does what
- Thandaper
- The holding account for a person in a village: every parcel they hold there sits under it, and land tax is paid against it.
- Basic Tax Register
- The village register of each survey number with its extent, classification and basic tax. What the Village Office works from when issuing extracts.
- FMB sketch
- The measured sketch of one survey number, showing its surveyed boundaries. One number per sketch.
- Location sketch
- Where a parcel sits relative to its neighbours and its access. It answers 'where is this', not 'what are its measured boundaries'.
Getting the sheets
- Establish your survey or re-survey number for the village as it is currently recorded, not as an older deed cites it.
- Request the cadastral and FMB sketches for those numbers through the survey department's map service.
- Where a holding spans several numbers, ask for every sketch, plus the village sheet the numbers sit on.
- The Village Office is where the accompanying certificates come from: possession, location and the land tax receipt that most transactions ask to see alongside the title documents.
Pokkuvaravu is what finishes a purchase
Registration transfers the document; Pokkuvaravu, mutation, transfers the entry in the revenue record. Until it is done the record still shows the previous holder, and the land tax will still be demanded from them. It is the step buyers most often assume happened automatically.
Several sketches, one piece of land
Kerala holdings are frequently small and frequently sub-divided, which means a holding of any size is several survey numbers and therefore several FMB sketches. Each shows one parcel in isolation; none shows how they sit together, which is exactly the question a buyer or a bank asks.
Placed side by side and lined up along the boundaries they share, they become one continuous map of the whole holding: printable at full resolution, and assembled entirely on your own device.
🔗 Kerala land records: documents, districts and taluks →Frequently asked questions
Why doesn't my old survey number appear on the current map?+
Most likely because the area has been re-surveyed and the parcel now carries a re-survey number. Older deeds cite the settlement survey number, and the two have to be matched before a map request will return the right parcel.
What is a Thandaper number?+
The land-holding account number for a person in a village. Every parcel they hold there is listed under it, and land tax is paid against it.
What is Pokkuvaravu?+
Mutation: transferring a holding into the buyer's or heir's name in the revenue record after registration. Until it is done the record still shows the previous holder.