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| Private Owned Trees on Common Land: Institutional Innovation for Protecting Pastures, In Harnessing Wisdom for Managing Watersheds - A case from village Chandisar, Banaskantha, Gujarat, India |
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Reference |
| Sinha, Riya and Srinivas Chokkakula : "Private Owned Trees on Common Land: Institutional Innovation for Protecting Pastures, In Harnessing Wisdom for Managing Watersheds, pp.121 |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Chandisar is situated 13 km from Palanpur, Banaskantha district. It has population of 6000, out of which about 250 households belong to Muslim community and 300 households to Bhil tribe. The rest belong to different castes of Hindu religion. The conditions are semi-arid with a mean annual rainfall of about 700 mm.
Being a village adjacent to a state-highway and nearby a city like Palanpur, Chandisar was subjected to many pressures leading to usurpation of gauchar land by individuals both from within and outside the village. In addition, large part of gauchar land was allocated by the district administration and state government for various purposes, such as; rehabilitation of people whose lands were inundated by nearby Sidhpur dam; Allocation of permanent pattas for landless people. The private ownership of the trees has prevented people from encroaching the gauchar land, atleast the part adjacent to the highway. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Not known |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| SPATIAL: The gauchar land used to be about 900 acres before 50 years and it has come down to about 150 acres now.
SOCIAL : The households of the village have rights to grow trees on the gauchar land. Most of the communities own trees on gauchar land. Earlier, there were about 1500 total number of trees owned by the villagers on the gauchar land. Over time, the gauchar land has shrunk and the number of trees is about 400-500 now. These days, nobody plants new trees except in rare cases. The reason being a) it takes lot of efforts to raise a tree and b) The panchayat no longer encourages planting trees on the gauchar land c) There is not much land left to raise any trees. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Tree-owner enjoys total rights over the tree, but the land is under the jurisdiction of Panchayat.
Monitoring: Bhil tribe people from the village own the exclusive right of care-taking of the trees. During the fruit bearing season, the care-takers shift temporarily to the gauchar land to guard the trees. The care-taking rights of the Bhil tribe are so particular that the owner cannot change a care-taker even if the owner sells away the trees or loses the ownership through mortgage. This is so even in the case when the care-taker does not perform his duties effectively. Villagers say that the rule has been made with a concern towards the care-taker's family. Some Bhils also own trees. Therefore in addition to the income from these trees, they also enjoy the share of benefit out of the care-taking rights of other tree. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| The number of trees owned by each household ranges between 0 to 10. A mango tree is estimated to generate an income of minimum Rs 1000 per year. One-third of the produce is shared with the care-taker at the end of the season for guarding the trees. While the villagers can own the tree and harvest the produce, they do not have any ownership rights on the land. Nor they can cut the tree without permission from the Panchayat. However, the owner can sell or mortgage the tree to an insider. In case of mortgage, if the owner fails to pay the dues, the ownership may be transferred to the person it was mortgaged. The owner can sell the produce to anybody, irrespective of whether the bidder is from the village or outside the village. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Conflicts such as theft of the produce or cutting of branches without the permission of the owner are dealt with both at community and inter-community level. Elders decide the culprit and s/he is asked to pay through dharmatu. Dharmatu, the act of repentance implies actions of sacred importance, like feeding birds with grains, pay to the village goddess or mosque. |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Not reported |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| *** |
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Other Features of Institution |
| *** |
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Purpose |
| To prevent the gauchar land from encroachment |
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Country |
| India (Gujarat) |
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Region |
| Chandisar (Banaskantha) |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-24/06/2000 |
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