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| Traditional Episodic Institutions for Dealing with FPM - 'Maldharis' of the village Sembalpani |
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Reference |
| Patel, Kirit K., Jitendra Suthar, Raychand Bochia and Astad Pastakia: " Traditional Episodic Institutions for Dealing with FPM.", Honey Bee, vol. 6, no. 4, SRISTI, Ahmedabad, 1996. |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a serious cattle disease which spreads rapidly, unless strict quarantine measures are adopted at an early stage. The disease has a cycle of twenty days, and when the cycle is completed, the cattle will recover. Milk yield of infected animals will go down and pregnant cows risk loosing the foetus if it is less than two months old. For the 'Maldharis' from the village of Sembalpani and adjoining villages, FMD constitutes a common problem. The villages are mostly inhabited by pastoralists. They are surrounded by the hills of Aravalli, which are covered by forest. The Maldhari's do not possess any land. They rely mostly on the forests to provide fodder for their cattle (cows and buffaloes).
In order to control the spread of FMD, the Maldhari's have used a set of quarantine rules over a long period of time (Further details not reported). |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Geographic and historical coverage is not reported. The institution is episodic. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| SOCIAL BOUNDARIES: The 'Maldhari's in Sembalpani and adjoining villages.
SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: Sembalpani and adjoining villages. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Quarantine rules vary depending to the extent to which the disease has spread:
- When only one or two animals are infected, the owner of the animals is expected to inform the other farmers. The diseased animals are confined to a cattle-shed until their treatment is completed. Under no circumstances are the infected animals allowed to visit the "gauchar", the common grazing ground, ot the "hawada", the common place for drinking water. Instead, the animals are stall fed by the owner.
- When several animals are infected, stall feeding becomes less practical. The farmers of the village get together and decide on a particular area of the forest and a particular "hawada" which will be restricted for use by the infected animals. The route by which these animals are taken to the forest is also specified. Usually it will be the shortest route.
- When the majority of the animals is infected, the elders of the village get together and make arrangements to inform all the neighbouring villages about the disease. It is ensured that infected animals do not visit the pasture lands of other villages.
If rules are violated, the "panch" - a committee of, usually, five elders decide on the mode and intensity of punishment. Social ostracism is the highest punishment which can be given. Generally, sanctionrules are flexible and punishments can be reversed subject to the attitude adopted by the offender. Frequently a person who acknowledge his or her mistake will be taken back into the fold. To be taken back one should pay a fine of 15 kg. of food grain to the community and one should also invite the entire community to tea and ask forgiveness from each member. But for the last ten years there has been no cases of ruleviolation
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(c) Resource Allocation |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Last year, 20 out of 170 cattle in the village were affected. The previous year it was more serious, affecting almost the entire herd. Generally, though, people believe that the quarantine rules are effective in containing the spread of the disease and reducing economic losses. As no villagers are reported to have violated the rules for the last ten years, it is believed that FMD spreads when cattle, without the owner knowing of it, occassionally stray into quarantined areas of other villages. |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
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Other Features of Institution |
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Purpose |
| Controlling Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Cattle. |
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Country |
| India. |
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Region |
| Banaskantha, Gujarat. |
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Date Of Publication |
| TroB 280496 |
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