Srinagar, June 20 -- In the complex and often contested terrain of land governance in Jammu & Kashmir, the question of Shamilat land-or village commons-remains one of the most underexamined yet deeply consequential issues. Codified under Section 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, these lands are legally owned by the government but traditionally used by local communities for collective needs: village footpaths, cattle grazing grounds, stream banks, graveyards, and public gathering spaces.
Today, however, these communal assets are witnessing a systematic and silent erosion-both in the legal sense and in the moral compact they once represented. From the northern reaches of Kupwara to the plains of Kathua, and fr...