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Glossary · Land records

What is Girdawari?

Also called: Khasra girdawari, Crop inspection

Girdawari is the regular crop inspection in which the patwari records, for each field, what crop is grown and who is cultivating it, usually once each season.

In Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal, Jammu & Kashmir and other states, the patwari carries out a girdawari each crop season (rabi and kharif), recording the crop and the cultivator against each khasra number.

These entries feed into the jamabandi’s cultivator column and are used for crop-loss compensation and other purposes.

Because girdawari records who is actually in possession, repeated entries naming someone else as cultivator can be used as evidence in a possession dispute.

Why it matters if you live abroad

If a tenant or relative is recorded as cultivator year after year without a written lease, it can weaken your position — check who the girdawari names.

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Leasing Farmland to a Tenant From Abroad: A Safer NRI Guide

How NRIs can lease farmland in India more safely: a written lease, registration, short terms, rent by bank, cultivator records and regular checks on the land.

Related terms

Jamabandi
A jamabandi is the record of rights for land in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Rajasthan and other states, showing the owners, cultivators, shares and area of each holding.
Khasra
A khasra is the unique number given to a single plot or field on the village revenue map in north India, used to identify that land in every record.
Kabza
Kabza means physical possession of land. ‘Illegal kabza’ is the everyday term for someone occupying or using land that isn’t theirs without the owner’s permission.
Adverse possession
Adverse possession lets someone who has openly, continuously and hostilely possessed private land for 12 years claim title to it under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963.
Patwari
A patwari is the village-level revenue official who keeps the land records, village map and crop register for a group of villages and reports to the tehsildar.

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