Paddy fields widely decimating; 1.5 lakh applications still pending; misuse of Form 5

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even though 16 years have passed since the Legislature passed the Paddy Land Wetlands Conservation Act to protect paddy fields and wetlands, the filling of paddy land is still rampant. The filling is done under the guise of a provision that if the paddy field data bank prepared in August 2008 includes land without paddy fields, that land can be excluded from it by submitting a Form 5 application.

Around one lakh applications have been processed in the last one year. One and a half lakh applications are pending in RDO offices. Mafia is active to facilitate the exclusion. Scrutiny of Form 5 applications is done by a Local Level Monitoring Committee (LLMC) consisting of Agriculture Officer Convener, Village Officer, Panchayat President and three farmers nominated by the President. Only paddy fields filled before 2008 when the law came into effect are eligible to be excluded from the data bank. However, there is a situation where even recently filled land is exempted by filing the Form 5 application.

Last March, the Revenue Department issued a circular that instead of the report of the local monitoring committee, the report of the agriculture officer is sufficient to take action on the Form 5 application for exclusion from the data bank.

Two coconut trees to fill paddy field

If two or more coconut saplings are planted early in the field, it will turn into a big coconut tree after a few years. After filling in some space in between, coconut trees are pointed out to mislead that the land is not a paddy field. An application for reclassification of the exempted land should be made later to amend the revenue records.

Area of field decreased sharply

90 years ago: 30 lakh acres

1970s: 20 lakh acres

2008 estimate: 12.35 lakh acres

Estimate for 2021-22: 4.83 lakh acres