‘Buy Land Today and Become Lord Tomorrow’ Land Governance in the Peri-Urban Region of Chennai

Land has been the source of livelihood particularly among peasants across the since ages. With the limited supply and ever increasing demand due to reasons like food production, industrialization and urbanization, land is considered to be an important asset. Of late, there are many instances in which land is being converted from agricultural use to non-agricultural uses. This paper two main processes of land-use conversion. One by means of forceful acquisition by powerful actors including the State and other the land owners willingly parting away with the land. This paper focussed on land-use conversion in the peri-urban region of Chennai, where it happens with consent of farmers. The land-use conversion happens in spite of national and state policies to prevent the conversion of agricultural land. This paper investigated the formal dynamics and informal mechanisms and the roles of various stakeholders in land-use conversion by studying policies, media reports and various published sources. Further, discussions with various stakeholders in a selected village in peri-urban Chennai established that informal mechanisms overpower the implementation of policies that prohibit land-use conversion. This paper sought to make some modest recommendations and suggests making farming a viable option might help in reducing land-use conversion. The means to achieve this needs a detailed research in itself.