Data Bank Kerala
the paddy land and wetland register, and how to check yours

The Data Bank is the official register of paddy land and wetland prepared under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008. Each local body’s Local Level Monitoring Committee compiled the list of survey numbers that were paddy land or wetland as on 12 August 2008, and it is the register the Revenue Department works from. If your survey number is in it, the land cannot be converted for private use without going through Form 5 first.

There is no single statewide search by survey number. Ask the Krishi Bhavan, whose Agricultural Officer holds the list for the local body, or the Village Office. Many grama panchayats publish their Data Bank as a downloadable report on their own lsgkerala.gov.in page, and several district collectorate sites publish wet and paddy land reports village by village. Check the published list against your survey and sub-division number, and confirm it at the Krishi Bhavan before acting on it.

It cannot be filled, reclaimed or converted for private purposes. Building on it, or applying for a building permit, is not possible while the entry stands. If the land was genuinely paddy or wetland in 2008, the entry is correct and the Act is designed to keep it that way. If it was already filled or dry before 12 August 2008 and was wrongly included, the remedy is a Form 5 application to the Revenue Divisional Officer for removal — see /blog/form-5-land-conversion-kerala.

No, and the two often disagree. The thandaper classification (nilam, parambu, purayidam) is the revenue record of what the land is; the Data Bank is a separate register compiled in and after 2008 under the Paddy Land and Wetland Act. Land can be recorded as purayidam in the thandaper and still appear in the Data Bank, or the reverse. Both have to be checked before a purchase or a conversion, which is why we pull both.

You can buy it, and people do — but understand what you are buying. It cannot be built on until it is removed from the Data Bank through Form 5, that removal is not guaranteed, and the price should reflect the risk and the delay. Never rely on a seller’s assurance that removal is a formality; get the Krishi Bhavan entry in writing before you pay an advance. See /services/due-diligence.

No. Section 27A deals with land that was already reclaimed before 12 August 2008 and is not in the Data Bank — that is the route where a fee of 10% or 20% of fair value converts the record. Land inside the Data Bank has no fee route; it needs removal under Form 5 first, and only then does a Form 6 or Form 7 application arise. Work out which situation you are in at /tools/land-conversion-fee-calculator.

That is exactly what Form 5 is for. The application goes to the Revenue Divisional Officer, who decides on the report of the Local Level Monitoring Committee after inspection. The evidence that works is evidence of the condition of the land before August 2008 — old tax receipts and classifications, building permits, electricity connections, photographs and satellite imagery of the period. Typical time is 30 to 90 days.

A padashekharam is a contiguous block of paddy fields farmed as a unit, usually with its own committee and shared water channels. Data Bank and wetland mapping work at padashekharam level as well as by survey number, because draining or filling one plot affects the whole block. A plot inside a padashekharam is harder to get removed from the Data Bank for that reason.