326 



MANUA.L OF THE NILAGIRT DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XIII, 

 I'ART I. 



Rf VENUE 

 U I STORY. 



Kdtas and 

 other aborigi- 

 nal culti- 

 vators. 



Mode of 



assessing 



lands. 



in the interests both of Government and the villagers^ if this 

 settlement were accompanied by the introduction of a complete 

 revenue, judicial, and police system among the hill peoples. The 

 present village arrangements have outgrown the altered condi- 

 tion of things. Hamlets have grown into villages without being 

 provided with a sepai-ate establishment of village officers, or, in 

 a word, receiving the privileges of village autonomy. 



The land revenue arrangements of the Kotas differ in no respect 

 from those of the Badagas, though they care less to extend their 

 cultivation ; and of the practice e:jtisting in regard to the remain- 

 ing tribes, the vagrant Irulas and the Kiirumbas, little has to be 

 said except that the shiftinrj system of cultivation, which hither- 

 to prevailed amongst the Badagas, has prevailed amongst them 

 in a still greater degree. A putta once granted for cultivating 

 some undefined portion of land ostensibly for a season has been 

 permanently held, and been made to represent, not the title to one 

 piece of land of undefined extent, but an undefined number of 

 pieces. These puttas have been, and it is believed still are, freely 

 alienated, and form the title to valuable coffee and other 

 plantations on the eastern slopes of the Hills. Efforts were made 

 by Mr. Breeks to call in these puttas and to endorse them as 

 non-transferable. In some cases this was done, but owing to 

 a defective revenue administration the evil has continued. The 

 completion of the survey and the improvement of the revenue 

 administration will in time abolish the abuses. Hitherto the 

 checks which an annual revenue settlement is supjjosed to afford 

 to encroachments and other irregularities in regard to cultivated 

 land have been in great measure inoperative. 



I would shortly note that the mode of assessing the lands of the 

 hill cultivators is practically according to the intrinsic quality of 



prices owing to unusual competition, &c. ; assessment on the area retained 

 should be levied in arrears from the date on which it would have been payable 

 had the land been procured in a regular manner and further encroachment 

 prevented by imposition of prohibitive assessment. 



2. In cases of unauthorized occupation by other than Badagas of grass or 

 scrub, the reservation of which is not considered necessary, title-deeds should 

 be oifered on payment of the average auction price and assessment for the past 

 years on the excess over the area covered by putta, subject to an allowance of 

 25 per cent, or 5 acres, whichever is more favorable to the occupant. This 

 allowance will, the Board think, be a sufficient concession in cases of error of 

 estimate on the part of hond fide purchasers, and will probably exclude all hufc 

 the cases in which the discrepancy must have been palpable. 



3. In the case of bond fide Badaga holdings, excess over the putta area within 

 100 per cent, should be charged with assessment for the futm-e merely ; where 

 the land demarcated is more tlian double the extent shown in the putta, the 

 occupant should have the option of throwing up the excess over 100 per cent, or of 

 retaining it on payment of the average auction price and back assessment. 



4. In the case of specific grants the area demarcated should be strictly 

 limited to the extent specified therein. 



