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| The Illogic of Arithmetic in Resource Management. Overpopulation, Markets and Institutions as Explanations of Forest use in the Indian Himalayas - Van Panchayats "Forest Councils" of Kumaon Hills, Uttaranchal, India |
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Reference |
| Agrawal, Arun: " The Illogic of Arithmetic in Resource Management. Overpopulation, Markets and Institutions as Explanations of Forest use in the Indian Himalayas.", Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Between 1840 and 1910, the British brought most of the forest area in the Kumaon Hills under their control as an economic and commercial resource. This was an important loss for the local population. Because of their relative isolation from factor and product markets, the hill agricultur-alists of the Kumaon Hills use animal drought power instead of mechanized implements, organic manure instead of chemical fertilizers and tradi-tional varieties of seeds instead of modern varieties. Thus, there is a close connection between different ecological subsystems - agricultural, pastoral and forest related and the region is heavily dependent upon selfreliance, thus also upon the access to forest resources. Popular resistance made the state pas the "Van Panchyat" - act in 1931, according to which 30 % of the forests were given back to the villagers, to be controlled and managed by the relatively autonomous panchyats. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Today, more than 5000 "van panchayats", forests councils, control the use of 30 % of the forest areas in the Kumaon Hills. The institution is concurrent. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: The village forest area, governed by the panchayat.
SOCIAL BOUNDARIES: All villagers have acces to extract the resources of the area in accordance with the rules settled by the panchayat. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| The Van Panchayats are governed by the same government law, the Forest Panchayat act. But at village level rules and regulations may differ. Day to day management of the panchayat forests is governed by the rules the van panchayat create in regular meetings. Villagers are appointed as watchmen for a small stipend to monitor people who violate rules about how much can be extracted from the forest by individuals. Violators are reported to the panchayat which will exact fines or impose other sanctions. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| Not reported. Different van panchayats may have different rules for resource allocation. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| The van panchayats can be seen as the result of a conflict between the state and the local communities, by which the villagers regained control over some forest areas which they had earlier regarded as their property.. |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Since Indias independence in 1947, the population in the district has grown enourmously. Normally, in areas with such exposure to population growth, analysts would expect resource scarcity, degradation, and decreasing carrying capacity. The study suggests that the van panchayats have played a major role in managing the forets resources in a way which has prevented the realisation of this scenario. Reportedly, effective ways of monitoring and sanctioning are the major reasons for succesfully coping with population growth.
If there are no funds to appoint watchmen, enormous increase in rule violations occur. At such occasions council officers will sometimes try to do the monitoring, but it will not be at the same extend as with a regular watchman. |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| The institution has been able to manage forest resources in spite of population growth and increased exposure to market forces. |
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Other Features of Institution |
| - |
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Purpose |
| Resource Management. |
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Country |
| India. |
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Region |
| Kumaon Hills, Himalaya. |
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Date Of Publication |
| TroB 180396 |
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