The Dantewada District Administration of Chhattisgarh, India, announced on March 6 that they have digitized over 700,000 land records on the Avalanche blockchain via the Office of Land Records. The project was conducted in collaboration with Indian blockchain startup LegitDoc by Zupple Labs. All land records dating back to the 1950s have been digitized to foster more transparent and tamper-proof land governance.
What were the issues with their legacy processes?
As you might imagine, Dantewada’s land records, similar to those of many administrations, primarily existed in paper format. This created several issues. Firstly, paper-based documents are challenging to store securely and are prone to loss or theft. In large countries like India, paper formats are inefficient for managing vast amounts of information, highlighting the necessity for digitization.
Apart from storage issues, paper documents are not efficient for retrieving information. Since you cannot simply query data and must manually sift through documents, it is challenging for both citizens and officials to locate and authenticate documents. Land-related transactions, involving complex ownership verifications, could take weeks due to manual searches and processing delays. Thanks to the new blockchain system, officials can now access and verify records within minutes, enabling citizens to complete land transactions in just a day, which represents a significant improvement over the previous weeks-long process.
Why did they choose to use blockchain?
Considering the issues mentioned, it became clear that digitization was necessary. However, digitizing documents does not inherently require blockchain technology. So, why was blockchain needed in their case? Blockchain is a digital ledger capable of storing information immutably, transparently, and in a decentralized manner.
Every participant can maintain their own copy of the ledger and independently verify its contents. If any malicious actor tries to alter information, the entire network can detect it. In the context of land record documents, attempts at fraud could create legal complications, resulting in time and financial losses. Hence, it’s crucial for documents not only to be digitized but also to be secured against tampering. Blockchain is the perfect solution for this, as it ensures documents, once recorded, cannot be altered.
Blockchain’s transparency also significantly reduces legal costs by streamlining audits and improving accessibility for citizens. Mr Mayank Chaturvedi, IAS, District Collector of Dantewada, highlighted the benefits of using blockchain to digitize their land records.
“For decades, our citizens faced significant delays in accessing their land records, with verification sometimes taking weeks. By digitizing these records and securing them on blockchain, we have ensured they are easily accessible and cannot be tampered with. Now, revenue officers can retrieve and authenticate land records in minutes, making it possible for land-related services to be delivered within a day. This is a major step toward improving transparency, efficiency, and citizen trust.”
How was the project conducted?
The project was carried out in collaboration with Zupple Labs and powered by the Avalanche blockchain platform. Avalanche is a Layer 0 blockchain infrastructure that allows anyone to build applications on it. Businesses or individuals can either create their own Layer 1 blockchain within the Avalanche network or directly develop applications on the network itself. Avalanche infrastructure offers instant transactions, minimal gas fees, and highly customizable frameworks where developers can establish their own rules, such as custom tokens for gas, network policies, and more. Its fully decentralized structure provides an ideal environment for digitizing records.
To modernize land governance, the first phase of the digitization project was completed in 2024, with 700,000 land records converted into a digital format. The second phase was the collaboration with Zupple to migrate these records to the Avalanche blockchain. Zupple is a company that specializes in blockchain-enabled document management solutions. Their flagship product, LegitDoc, assists governments and organizations worldwide in issuing secure and verifiable documents.. Mr. Neil Martis, CEO of Zupple Labs, whose team developed the solution, commented:
“We’re thrilled to see the Dantewada District Administration adopt our blockchain application, LegitDoc. This project expands our existing use cases—such as caste certificates, diploma certificates, skill certificates, and GBV survivor identities—to now include land records, showcasing the versatility and impact of our technology in enhancing governance and trust”.
As a result, they developed a permissioned application that allows sub-district revenue officers to access records. The blockchain-based application enables officers to search for properties, download, and view digitized records directly on the blockchain. Various government records, such as B-1 forms (elevator installation), rights records, plot registers, ownership records, and cadastral maps, can now be easily viewed and verified on-chain.
Blockchain verification of land records. Source: Office of Land Records portal. Image from cointelegraph.
Officers can also verify the smart contracts associated with digital documents using Avalanche Explorer, ensuring robust, tamper-proof record-keeping.
Blockchain verification of land records. Source: Office of Land Records portal. Image from cointelegraph.
Overall, the Dantewada District Administration’s blockchain project has effectively tackled issues inherent in traditional record-keeping methods, making information safer and transactions faster. With the successful implementation of this initiative, we could soon see similar blockchain applications adopted by other Indian administrations, improving governance and transparency in various public domains.