Batwara: Land Split Calculator

When a family divides land, the arguments are rarely about the total. They are about who gets the road, who gets the pond, and where the stones go. Batwara answers those three questions on your phone, with names and fractions, before anyone picks up a tape.

▬ WHO GETS WHAT
• Inheritance: tick the heirs by their tie to the deceased, choose the law (faraid, Hindu Succession Act, Indian Succession Act, French Civil Code or equal shares) and the app sets exact fractions you can still change. A widow and three children: 1/4 each under the Hindu Succession Act; under the Indian Succession Act, 1/3 to her and 2/9 to each child.
• A starting point for the family to check: it does not replace a notary, a mufti or a lawyer.
• Or type each share yourself: 1/3, 25%, or a fixed area such as "half an acre to my brother", the rest in fractions. Shares can also be written in annas (out of 16) or qirats (out of 24).
• Fractions add up exactly: the app shows what is left ("Still to allot: 1/9") and refuses a total above the whole plot. Up to twelve heirs.
• Road side worth more than the back? Mark zones of different value with their price and divide by value, or divide by area and let the app work out the balancing payment: who pays how much to whom.

▬ HOW THE LINES ARE DRAWN
• Every lot on the road: the cuts run away from the road, so nobody's lot is shut in behind a brother's. If a lot cannot reach the road, the app says so instead of drawing it.
• Strips along a side, when the land is narrow and deep.
• Parallel to a line you draw on the map with two taps.
• Exactly on the line, when a bund already marks the boundary: the areas follow the line.
• Every lot comes out in one piece. If a cut would leave a lot in two parts, the app names the heir and suggests another direction.

▬ WHAT IS NOT SHARED
• Keep a common path: give its width and the side it runs along. Exactly that strip is taken out first and stays shared by all, and each lot shows its length on the path.
• A pond, a well or a house drawn inside the plot is left out. Every share is counted on the net area, and the lot that holds the pond shows it as a hole.

▬ ON THE GROUND
• The boundary stones are listed with their coordinates and the lots they separate.
• Tap a stone and the app walks you to it: distance and direction, on foot. Tick each stone once planted; if the division changes, a moved stone is flagged to plant again.

▬ PAPERS FOR THE FAMILY
• A partition deed in PDF: the plan with every lot in its colour, the parcel number, the line "gross area − pond − path = area shared", the law behind the shares, the table of heirs with share, area and frontage, the boundary stones, and room to sign for each heir and two witnesses. Pages break by content, so the signatures are never cut off.
• One extract per heir: their own lot on the map, the length and bearing of every side, its corners, its area and their signature line.
• Each lot is also saved as its own plot in the Plots tab, under the heir's name and share.

▬ MEASURING THE PLOT
• Draw it on the satellite map from home. The imagery shows its date, and earlier years can be compared.
• Walk around it with GPS, or stand at each corner and let the app average the position.
• Enter the sides and diagonals measured with a tape, and the app closes the shape.

▬ YOUR UNITS
Acres, hectares, bigha and katha, kanal and marla, guntha, cent, ground, dismil, or a unit of your own. Shown together like "4 bigha 15 katha". Coordinates in decimal degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds or UTM.

▬ YOUR LAND STAYS YOURS
• No account, no sign-up.
• No subscription. One purchase removes the ads for good.
• Your plots, names and deeds stay on your phone. Nothing leaves it unless you share it.

GPS accuracy is shown honestly as a ± figure. Batwara prepares a fair division and the papers to discuss it; it is not a registered document. Have the final partition checked by a surveyor before registration.

Questions or ideas: [email protected]