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| Common Pool Resources and Communal Control: Two Case Studies in Himachal Pradesh, India |
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Reference |
| Emmanuel Bon, "Common Pool Resources and Communal Control: Two Case Studies in Himachal Pradesh, India", presented in the 8th IASCP Conference BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA, USA, May 31- June 4, 2000. Link: http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/archive/00000224/ |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Mixed-farming is the main occupation in the mid-hills and basically consists of agriculture, livestock and forest produces. Communal forests (mushtarka), common grazing lands (ghasnies) and gravity flow irrigation system (khul) are the three major common property resources managed by the people in this area. People have combined various type of resources such as private resources, state-owned resources and commonly-owned resources in their day to day functioning |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spacial Boundaries: Dhamla and Chauras villages, The Sirmour district, Himachal Pradesh, India. The villages lie in the outer western Himalayan range.Social Boundaries: The residents of the villages Dhamla and Chauras are part of the institutions |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Grass lands (ghasnies) : On account of grass resource seasonality, customary rule imposes on graziers restrictions on access to grasslands over a period of time. The rule in practice is to prohibit access to the grasslands during the monsoon season (July to September) until it could be collectively harvested in September/ October. Regulatory in nature, these informal restrictions are monitored and enforced by mutual agreement among the user group. Households are entitled to graze only as many animals in summer as they are able to feed in winter period (when extra sources of green fodder is not availaible). This rule is aimed at preventing rearing for commercial purposes which could take place during the grazing season.Irrigation Channel (khul): Maintenance- Desilting following the monsoon is carried out in September/ Ocotber, while repairs before the peak season for vegetables are carried out in February/ March. Landslides and other occasional damages are dealt with through daily supervision that two young males are put in charge of. Hella system is followed for the annual maintenance which consists of voluntary labor contribution. Mutual monitoring and consensual agreements are adopted within the user group in accordance with customary rules recorded in the Wajib-ul-arz.Communal Forest (mushtarka): Forest Protection Committee was created at village level in 1996. Illicit felling and encroachment on forest lands sentenced directly at the committee level. Village watchman have been appointed to control timber transportation |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| In the Chauras, irrigation rounds allocation is used as a means to solve hamlet and caste conflicts. Rajput households located at the beginning of the main channel are using their “locational power” to solve their disputes with the second hamlet- access to water from the khul is used as a tool of bondage by the political elite during the peak season. Khul property rights have been vested in the I.P.H.D. under the “Himachal Pradesh Minor Canals Act” to avoid internal conflicts.On account for the numerous conflicts with surrounding villagers and the illegal felling of valuable species by the Forest Mafia Forest Protection Committee (F.P.C) was created at the village level. FPC in also involved in solving the conflicts regarding the timber distribution. |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Since the 80’s, farming systems at Dhamla and Chauras villages have evolved like the rest of the economy in the district, moving from one of subsistence characterised by a diverse and self-reliant mountain agricultural system based on food-grains, to one that is mainly cash driven and market-oriented based on vegetable crops. Due to increased State concern over the environment in the 70’s, especially in the form of national afforestationschemes, the indian administration wanted to apply “scientific methods of management” on open wastelands which were previously used as traditional common pastures. To facilitate this, the Himachal Pradesh Village Common Land Vesting and Utilisation Act, 1974, was passed. This Act resulted in the transfer of common lands ownership from the Panchayats to the State government. |
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Country |
| India |
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Region |
| Dhamla and Chauras villages |
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