Land meant everything to the Indian farmer, now it means big bucks. As large swathes of farmland turn into prime real estate, instant crorepatis are sprouting across the countryside. Sunday Times tracks the rich harvest '

Devanahalli
New Bangalore airport a harbinger of fortunes

Muniraju Shivaramegowda left his village and ran away to Bangalore when his poor father couldn't send him to college. He joined a private firm that provided security guards to companies. Five years on, Muniraju is a tour operator who owns 32 vehicles and employs as many drivers. Now, a security guard stands outside his office.

Muniraju got lucky when the state government decided to have an international airport near his native village of Devanahalli, 40 km north of Bangalore. As land prices took off, Muniraju sold his father's five acres of farmland for nearly Rs 1 crore per acre. He now lives in an imposing house in Marathahalli, an upmarket area. "Our two sons attend a convent school," his wife Parvati says proudly.

Similar rags-to-riches stories abound in the birthplace of Tipu Sultan, now a picture of modernity with its six-lane roads and highrises. S Chikka Muniyappa was a marginal farmer for decades. Since his one-hectare farm couldn't sustain his family, he used to work as a labourer in the fields of other farmers, taking home a daily wage of Rs 55. Now, Muniyappa moves around in an SUV. He gets nearly Rs 6 lakh per month as rent from the commercial complexes he built on his land near the Bangalore-Devanahalli road. Instead of selling to developers outright, he entered into an agreement which allowed them to construct three complexes in return for a share in rent.

 Muniyappa happened to be at the right place at the right time. "It was pure luck. Even today, I can't sign my name. But I made my fortune as land prices shot up here and offered countless business opportunities," he says.

Conceived 12 years ago, work on the airport started only in 2005. The state government acquired nearly 4,500 acres. Farmers' associations say those whose lands were acquired lost out as they were paid much below the market price. But those whose land lined the road leading to the airport made a killing. Most sold out to realtors and moved to Bangalore. But the smarter ones became realtors themselves.

"Such projects turn farmers into businessmen," says Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president K S Puttannaiah. "Many don't succeed as they lack elementary knowledge about running a business. Sometimes they get so much money that they don't know what to do with it. They spend it all on a lavish lifestyle and end up as paupers. This happened when farmers got a lot of money in the Upper Krishna Project. We hope it does not happen here."

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

 Singur
"Land causes friction. Best to part with it while the going is good"

Singur has been up in arms over land acquisition for the Tatas' small car project, but for some, it has been a windfall. The Barui, Polen and Ghosh families, who owned over 20 acres each in the acquisition zone, have each landed more than Rs 1 crore in the deal.

Incidentally, they are perhaps the only ones in West Bengal to have become crorepatis overnight. (Average landholdings in the state are small because of the land reforms initiated by the Left Front in the late 1970s.) But the swing in fortunes didn't happen without some heartburn. When the Baruis of Beraberi village first learnt that their land would be acquired, they were alarmed. "Land was our only source of income. It yielded paddy, vegetables and potatoes in abundance. It was enough to sustain the families of farmers who tilled the land and maintain our large family (six brothers and a sister) comfortably. If the land went, so would the security of families living off it," explains Swarup, head of the family that sold nearly 25 acres to West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), the nodal agency for facilitating corporates to set up industries in the state.

 When the brothers approached the BDO, he made it clear that resistance would be futile. He also told them that if they agreed within a specified date, they would receive a "dream amount". The government paid Rs 6.5-12 lakh per acre depending on yield and location of plots. It also handed out an additional 12.5% as solacium to those who gave their consent to the sale before the government enforced acquisition.

The money was good, but the clincher was the assurance of a job for one family member. The Baruis agreed to hand over their land and take the cheque. They are now waiting for the car factory to begin production so that they can gauge which business is worth investing in.

However, the Ghosh family from Gopalnagar village has a clear business plan charted out. Brothers Krishna and Kashi Ghosh already trade in milk and want to develop the business further into a dairy. Incidentally, the family had been bitterly opposed to the land acquisition and had participated in the movement organised by the apolitical Krishi Jami Raksha Committee. "We had vowed not to hand the land over at any cost. But as the acquisition deadline approached, differences emerged within the family. We realised that it would be impossible to retain the land given the government's determination to go ahead with the project," recalls Krishna, one of the six brothers and three sisters who make up the joint family. Krishna is now an ambulance driver at the factory site and draws a salary from WBIDC.

Unlike the Ghoshs, the Polens of Khasherbheri were among the first to give their consent and accept the compensation handed out by the government. Jawaharlal Polen, the family head, says they were happy to contribute to Singur's industrialisation and did not see eye to eye with fellow villagers who opposed the factory bitterly. "Though we had a fair bit of land, returns were not regular. Moreover, land gets fractured with successive generations. It is a cause for dispute and trouble in many families. We thought it best to part with it when the going was good."

Falguni Banerjee

Tiruchi
Role reversal: Tillers of the land take to moneylending

Rural Tamil Nadu has seen a transformation in the past four years with investors pumping big bucks into real estate, buying large swathes of agricultural land. From a price band of Rs 2,000-4,000 per acre a few years ago, prices of remote drylands have gone up to Rs 30,000-50,000 per acre now. Lands closer to highways are priced even higher. In tier-II cities like Tiruchi, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Perambalur, where major IT parks and SEZs were announced, rates hover in the region of Rs 15-25 lakh per acre depending on road access.

While real estate investors are the major beneficiaries of this price spiral, farmers too have made it big. A senior revenue department official says, "More than 80% of traditional farmers, who held properties abutting highways and other major roads in the state, have sold out to realtors and moved to interior areas in search of cheaper land. So rates in those areas have gone up as well. A majority of them continue to do farming as it's the only life they know."

P Kannaiyan (name changed), a seventh standard dropout, could have hardly known that his fortunes would turn with the state government's move to promote an IT park in Tiruchi. The 42-year-old farmer had no plans of selling his five acres near Tiruchi airport, where he grew groundnut and maize. "But last year, a broker said he could get me the kind of money I had never seen in my life. When I asked how much, he said: Rs 50 lakh per acre. I didn't believe him till the date of the registration." The money posed new dilemmas: "I had no idea what to do with Rs 2.5 crore." On his wife's advice, he bought 15 acres in Pudukottai district at Rs 1 lakh per acre. But he doesn't plan to cultivate it. "Perhaps I will go into moneylending," he says. While Kannaiyan is still mulling over the idea, many farmers have turned moneylenders overnight. His neighbour, N Panneerselvam, also sold his 10 acres but had to settle for Rs 2 crore as the property did not have any road frontage.

Despite all this new-found wealth, there's little change in lifestyles. "I plan to distribute the money equally among my three sons," says Sadaichami from Vadapazhanji near Madurai, who recently sold his dry tract for Rs 20 lakh when the village was chosen for an IT park. He also wants to refurbish his little village tea shop and plough some money back into land. Many others have invested in a house. Farmers who have flushed their wealth down the drain are a small minority, says P T Krishnan, a mediator in Tiruchi, who has brokered hundred of deals in the past three years. "These people aren't gullible. Very few have gone bankrupt by wasting money on liquor."

Initially, buyers and brokers used to dictate terms to villagers. But they soon formed syndicates to protect their interests. "Now buying land from villagers is really tough. It is easier to negotiate and buy from realtors," says Chennai-based broker K Selvam.

Jayaraj Sivan

With inputs from Mayilvaganan in Tiruchi

Gurgaon
High-flying weddings: Grooms take a copter ride to mandap

The growth story of the Capital's toniest suburb is getting bigger. The latest leap has been scripted by the Gurgaon-Manesar Master Plan 2021 that converted farmlands into residential zones two years ago. As private developers moved in to build luxury apartments, land prices shot up from Rs 15-20 lakh to Rs 2-10 crore per acre, making many millionaires overnight.

The returns are even higher in villages such as Kherki Dhaula, where farm areas have been converted into commercial zones. "Private developers are paying as much as Rs 13 crore per acre. Since there's a huge demand for commercial space, they're pulling out all stops to strike deals," says Viresh Sharma, a property dealer. And the nouveau rich farmers are now flaunting their stuff. The potholed roads of villages like Ullahwas, Baliawas, Kadarpur, Tikri, and Mohammedpur are cramped with luxury cars. Palatial buildings with ACs and other modcons have come up. Marriages have become extravagant affairs, with some parents even hiring choppers to fly the groom to the bride's village.

While their offspring go into a splurging overdrive, the elders spend the day playing cards and puffing hookah. With money in the bank and returns from investments assured, not many are concerned about livelihood. But some are now putting their children into good schools, perhaps realising that the money may not last for generations. Many international schools in Gurgaon have a sizeable number of students from these villages.

But not everyone's been lucky. The 40 acres of Nathu Sarpanch from Mohammedpur were acquired by Haryana for India's largest SEZ. "We were paid only Rs 12 lakh while those who sold land to private developers got Rs 2-3 crore per acre. That's why we are demanding that we should also get a share of the profits from this project," he says.

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