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India: The unrecognised urban farmers of Delhi are caught in conflict over land

Bhole, a tenant farmer in Chilla khadar in Delhi. He lives in a temporary shelter on farms without any electricity connection. Photo by Aakiz Farooq.

The draft Delhi Master Plan 2041 charts out a green belt and area for urban farming, but it misses many areas in the Yamuna floodplains where farming is currently happening.

By Aakiz Farooq
Mongabay
5 January 2023

Excerpt:

While Delhi is primarily dependent on neighbouring states to meet its demand for food, there is about 10% of its demand that is being met by local produce from urban and peri-urban agricultural activities. These urban farmers, however, remain inconspicuous in the face of rapid urbanisation, land conflict and the absence of policy support.

Ram Chandra, a farmer in Chilla Khadar, narrates, “We do not exist here, as per the official document. I learned about this during the monsoon when our farm flooded due to heavy rain. We went to meet the sub-divisional magistrate of East Delhi. There we got to know that there is no official record of us living or farming here since 2018.”

Almost every farmer in Chilla Khadar, situated on the Yamuna floodplains, has the same story to narrate. The farmers say they are victims of the continuous rift between the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the farmers claiming ownership of land. The land conflict has also caused occasional displacement of farmers. Frequent episodes of demolitions and evictions from the area has led to exclusion of many farmers from official records.

The conflict over land ownership on the Yamuna floodplains arises from the fact that on the one hand, the DDA has claims over the same land and has proposed a Yamuna Riverfront Development Project; on the other, some farmers also claim ownership of the same land.

A farmer in Chilla Khadar, where multiple demolitions have taken place before, the last one being two years ago, told Mongabay-India that “the DDA officials were recently seen marking land again, drawing and redrawing boundaries. The officials informed farmers that DDA is drawing new land boundaries, and if one’s land comes inside the marked territory, he will be evicted. Everyone is living in uncertainty here.” They keep wondering, “Whose crop will be destroyed, and who will be evicted next?”

Read the complete article here.