Common lands are not wastelands

ElDidi, Hagar; Khurana, Ritika; Zhang, Wei; Jadav, Maheshkumar Kalidas; Guha, Chiranjit; Priyadarshini, Pratiti; et al. 2024. Common lands are not wastelands. India Water Portal blog post. First published online June 9, 2024. https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/common-lands-are-not-wastelands

What are common lands? What is the state of common lands in India?

This has to do with the expansion of economic activities, human encroachment, land conversions, along with increasing environmental pollution. Policy makers tend to look at commons as wastelands and weak community rights over commons and eroding local institutions governing commons have also contributed to their degradation. Further, conservation policies that focus on expanding protected areas have led to shrinking of common lands marginalising communities who depend on them.

The paper discusses the findings of an assessment of the spatial extent and usage of officially recognised common lands across districts in India, using 2011 Census of India data and Household Census data.