Depleting Commons -Deleting Commons, in Indian cities
Abstract:
Natural and built heritage common property resources are referred as Common Property Resources (CPR) or Commons for short. These resources located in cities over centuries, is the focus. Encroachment of these commons by relatively recent migrants leading to deletion of CPR permanently from city landscapes is as major concern for some urban governments battling to reclaim them.
Their deterioration is seen as an interdisciplinary issue. Each discipline approaches its importance, from its own perspective and therefore proposes its solution from the disciplinary point of view. It is seen as a cultural resource by anthropologists, socio-economic and political resource by sociologists, economic resource by economists, planning resource by urban planners, ecological resource by ecologist and more recently climate change concern by natural scientists. This inter disciplinary confusion of approaches and solutions results in projects impossible implementation. The challenge is to provide a unified theory to take the city forward.
Depleting Commons -Deleting Commons, in Indian cities
Introduction:
over, including India. While India is fast urbanizing, this is occurring mainly in its minor towns, where the boundaries of these common property resources are not well demarcated and their ownership not well established.
With expanding cities they face ‘orphan child syndrome’. Their old use and users are considered by city planners as no longer relevant and there is no well-articulated new use for them. The lands they occupy becomes a precious commodity as the city engulfs them. Commons begin quickly to deteriorate and even deleted from cityscape over time due to encroachment of slums. The argument proposed is the political economy one, status of these commons in an urban context transforms into land as commodity, to be quickly encroached for housing and work, by new migrants creating slums. They come in search of employment and jobs. These are migrants are new ‘vote banks’ for the emerging politicians (Jankowick W 2010) in democracy like India.
Deterioration of commons in urban cities is seen as an interdisciplinary issue. Each discipline approaches its importance, from its own perspective, as a cultural resource by anthropologists, socio-economic and political resource by sociologists, economic resource by economists, planning resource by urban planners, ecological resource by ecologist and more recently climate change concern by natural scientists.
Cultural Resource for Anthropology:
forests in rainy season are typical livelihood activities of poor landless communities like tribal
communities and scheduled castes, which they could consume or sell in markets. They in addition to the labor for which they may get paid in cash or kind, they involve themselves in spare time in these activities on commons, in India. As the village grows into towns besides these earlier mentioned uses, the water bodies are used by washer community and the minor forest produce like grass, leaves berries roots etc. are sold in markets Thus their importance and relevance does not reduce, as long as these communities continue to subsist on the produce. The public heritage buildings or the built heritage usually
representative of a past glory are equally rare and precious cultural commodity especially for the pride and identity of the future generation. Over time, use of these commons and the communities who used them and the purpose for which they are used in the past, may undergo changes. There would be new uses and new users, but their continued existence and maintenance in urban context is equally relevant today as for the future generation as a rare and precious cultural commodity. Understanding persistence of these commons against all odds over time as a result of their cultural creation and recreation is of interest to anthropologist.
India is a signatory to the UNESCO cultural heritage conservation accord and has a commitment to conservation of natural and built heritage conservation where ever they are located. Location of these commons in cities is an important dimension, giving rise to complexity of conserving them for the future generations. The Commons focused here are both natural and built heritage resources and are culturally created at certain points in history. They have survived centuries of changes in the city governance and political regimes. This is highlighted in three case studies that I have highlighted in other papers. Socio-economic and political resource for social scientists:
the caste and occupation profile predominates the settlements. This is one way of ensuring social security of new immigrants. Some of these lands is converted into commercial and industrial enterprise for gaining economically (Kosambi, M. 1994). Typically small scale chemical and hazardous industries are first to develop. With the region caste and occupation specific settlements patterns, comes development of stores/shops for their typical every day needs for food from their regions and their need to celebrate their typical festivals. Very quickly their religious places like temples and mosques come up (Bapat, J. and Pande, S. 2012). Thus there is a ready to use ‘vote bank’ for political capital in cities’ local elections in a democracy like India (Jankowick W c2010).
Economic resource for economists:
The most comprehensive documentation of economic benefits of commons in India is in rural area by Porf. N S Jodha (1986) in this article argued that public policies and programs after independence affecting waste lands have by and large ignored the fact that waste lands are the common property natural resources used by the landless. He quoted the example of 80 villages in 21 Districts of seven states in India were these commons contributed to income generation and employment of rural poor Ranged between Rs. 530 to Rs 780 monthly income. In Rajastan before independence they were very well maintained by the rulers as they had the recognized authority and the power to enforce the rules they had laid down for the use of commons for grazing and collection of minor resources by the villages in its neighborhood.
The article goes on to point out that the Common Property resource benefits more to the poor small farmers dependent on rain fed agriculture by allowing them to dedicate all their lands to farming
recommended conservation and better management policies of waste lands and environment in dry regions of the country to ensure economic support for the marginal groups in rural India.
Similar usage of these commons wherever they are not fully encroached continue to be made by the indigenous communities as mentioned earlier in this article and besides this new use like washing vehicles and water tankers, (illegally drawing water for use in formal colonies where there is water shortage during summer season) are new typically urban uses (Field observation 2017 Hyderabad). Ecological justification by ecologists:
Social Ecological studies that emphasize conservation of natural resources by protecting indigenous cultures and knowledge are supported by eminent biologist Prof. Madhav Gadgil and Subhash Chandran (1992). They also focused in rural India and pointed to the Devrai or sacred groves. These were small patches of forests that are one of the finest example of traditional cultural conservation practices. In all states in the country there are sacred groves found where there is a tradition of protecting sacred trees. They are never cut down and the animals living in it are not hunted. The groves are known by different names in different states but the practice keeping a patch of land as natural habitat or wild jungle is associated with mother Goddess Bhagavati. They form part of every agricultural settlement. These dense woods formed the first inspiration for the temples of the south. The dark tall and cool interiors of a temple replicate the insides of the sacred groves. They function as centers of biodiversity. Their existence also supports water bodies and streams who would dry without these dense forests. They contribute to conservation of genetic diversity and gene pool conservation of forests in the Western Ghats of the country. Thus forests in the form of original jungles contribute to the environment and water bodies’ conservation where ever they stand. The Bishnois of Rajasthan are known to protect dears from being hunted as a cultural belief. Thus natural commons have untold and equally un quantified or un measured benefits that are not fully understood (Inglis J 1993) or documented.
Built heritage as commons:
commons includes ‘cultural resource’ accessible to all members of society. These resources are held in common, not owned privately therefore they can be classified as commons. Hence built temples, mosques churches tombs, royal palaces, all get classified under built heritage. In the olden time these public building were located in lands that were owned by religious or administrative entities. The surrounding lands and private donations and sometimes taxes collected contributed to their up keep. Temple lands managed by Devadasi’s in south India contributing to temple maintenance is a very well documented example. Tombs are located in the lands belonging to the Church or Masjid according to the religions respectively. Their upkeep is thus managed by the believers of those religions. Administrative buildings of specific reigns are managed through the taxes collected by the rulers and so on. All these building start to deteriorate over time, as the reign comes to an end or the prosperity of the patrons declines. But they reflect the architectural beauty of an eras and as a cultural artifact that cannot be replicated and hence worth preserving. It is these public building heritages monuments and statues that are referred to here as built heritage.
Built heritage is in the form of a monument or complex of buildings and ruins, so declared by
Archeological Survey of India (ASI) or accepted by the local communities as having cultural religious or historical significance. Some of these are promoted as conservation efforts initiated by the British in 1947 in India (Chainani S 2007). To the extent that these are public spaces have heritage value and considered significant by the surrounding settlements and people in the city at large, they are built heritage spaces in urban areas.
Historically only archeological survey of India selected and labeled certain built sites as heritage sites and made efforts to restore structures that these sites covered. These included the monument and its prescient. Some of these sites happen to be in rural areas. This process still continues. Thus rural built heritage does exist and is recognized and labeled but compared to what is available only a few of these built heritages are marked. At the same time UNESCO is active in conservation of heritage in India through their various projects. Both these agencies do not differentiate between urban and rural sites.
Typically environmental impact of climate change is increase in frequency of extreme climate events causing more frequent natural disasters. Melting of polar ice caps and snow mountains and increase or decrease in frequency of rainfall and uncertainty in predictability of rainfall, leading to draughts or flooding is the expected consequence of climate change in tropical developing countries like India.
Human settlements particularly high density settlements in urban areas, ecological systems that provide resource base and public health are likely to be deeply affected. Disruptions to life, property and resources in these densely populated urban systems due to the effects of climate change can severely destabilize the fabric of economic life, not only for individuals, businesses and groups, but for entire regional systems. These threats are starkly magnified in emerging economies like India where millions live and work in densely populated urban agglomerations. In these rapidly growing existing cities and emerging new cities, moreover, deep spatial and economic inequalities make the distribution of climate risks even more uneven, thus intensifying urban vulnerability.
Besides the impact on economic competitiveness, the indirect impact of frequent flooding in class I and II cities in India is mainly health impacts of epidemics and infectious water borne diseases. Increase in of infectious diseases and vector borne diseases in high density, low income groups of people living in slums. Only preventive measures in dense populations is by ensuring adequate physical infrastructure particularly related to drinking water, waste water, solid waste management.
Climate change will bring two potentially significant development challenges to less developed countries (LDCs). First, the nature and extent of the weather and climate related stressors already affecting
taking care of people living in coastal areas, lowlands, drought, and flood prone regions or people whose livelihoods directly depend on resources that are going to be negatively affected by climate change especially in urban slums. (UNCCC 2011)
Reduction of carbon di oxygen is one way to deal with climate change issues, second is to deal with earthquakes, floods and water shortages and finally waste water and solid waste disposal. Sustainable urbanization (Ahluwalia M 2012). First requires reducing use of electricity based on fossil fuels in buildings and reducing the energy used in urban transportation, both of which contribute to sustainability by containing CO2 emissions. The other two relate to construction standards for buildings and rain water management. Finally waste water reuse and recycle and segregation with ‘waste to energy’ are known solutions but difficult to implement. Empowering the local governance systems to ensure implementation is one way out.
In order to foster environmentally sustainable development in cities it is necessary to differentiate between green areas and areas that support nature (Inglis J. 1993) There is a need to rescue and extend natural resources within city borders that support wide range of biological life forms like fish, other water animals, birds, land animals, cattle and plants supported by these areas.
Green areas typically refer to a park is a public space created and maintained by the city planners with the help of the people living in its neighbourhood. In the first half of the twentieth century a theory on nature in cities was represented by the idea of garden city thus guaranteeing contact with nature in urban life, by incorporating parks gardens and urban boulevards applied in English cities. This was applied by British in third world cities they colonised. In fact there are many places in cities where plants and trees grow without human interface such as ruins and other deserted sites which can serve as a depot for rare seeds and plants.
fight dust. Besides improving air quality these areas contribute to the balance of hydrological systems, through percolation and infiltration to retain rain water. They are also important as habitat for animals and birds who have survived urban growth and even have adjusted to city environment. They are habitats for animals such as possums bandicoots mongoose snakes and rabbits in these lakes, birds and fish in these lakes. But urban greenery cannot be used to solve urban environmental problem only disguise it. Development planning by Urban planners:
Indian urbanization has followed the planned urbanization approach soon after independence and over the last ten years 2000-2010 onwards has taken into account issues arising out of climate change and
sustainable development. Meera Kosambi (1994) believes that urban planning has an ideological underpinning and political context. The modernist approach to city planning is that it is a specialist activity and there is a belief in expert knowledge in drawing of the plans, zoning of activities in cities and avoidance of slums. Once drawn the job of the planner is complete. Slums developed on vacant
vulnerable lands like marshes, water bodies and minor urban forests. With increasing urbanization slum growth in cities increased upto to 30 to 35%. Urban development for people living in slums in India can be broadly divided into three distinct phases. Between the emergence of cities till 1970s with increasing number of migrants coming into cities rise in slums was a major problem faced by cities in India, when almost nothing was done except provision of public toilets and public water taps. From 1970-1990 with increasing number of residents living in this situation of inadequate infrastructure of water and sanitation the authorities felt obliged to provide water and sanitation in the residence for those who could afford to pay for it. 1990 to 2000 there is a willingness on part of authorities to face the problem explicitly with actions ranging from infrastructure improvement to providing cheap multistoried housing for people residing in slums for those who are willing to pay for this. (Satterthwaite D 2016)
in the form of natural lakes ponds river fronts and built heritage. A total of about 14 percent of budget was allocated to these commons in phase I. With change in government the Phase II of the program changed to urban housing. But phase I related to urban commons was not very successful either barely two percent of the budget was spent and the rest was spend on building additional physical infrastructure around these commons instead of directly spending on conserving the commons. But emphasis on decentralized governance that the program had was a step in right direction.
Conceptualizing Commons:
‘Common Property (Natural) Resources’ or commons as they are popularly known has been an issue discussed in the rural context in the early 70 till mid 80’s in academics, think tanks, and policy makers in the context of rural development. Julian Inglis (Ed “traditional ecological knowledge 1993) in the conference proceeding refers to Canadian experience. Indigenous community knowledge about local ecology and its sustainable natural resource use has to be reconciled with policy for their economic development. In dryer climates like India typically they would cover grazing and fallow lands and minor forests, water bodies and various waterfronts like rivers, sea shores and ocean beaches etc; and I include built heritages sites like temples palaces tombs etc. past regimes, under this category of commons, if a more liberal criteria of defining commons is applied. Protection of these lands and spaces from
privatization and justification of keeping them as common lands is what the debate was all about. It was argued that these commons have multiple benefits for the small and marginal farmers in rural areas. They add to their quality of life. Allow them to adopt multiple strategies of risk minimization in rain fed agricultural lands, and economic incomes derived by marginal farmers in India tends to outdo any poverty alleviation programs that the government had introduced.
Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) on commons he published in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) ( 1989) was widely read and quoted in India.
Common Property Natural Resources or commons as they are popularly called refer to land or resources belonging to or affecting the whole of a community. The commons are the cultural and natural
resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a
habitable earth. These resources are held in common, not owned privately but used by all who need it. Another definition of commons ‘tract of land owned or used
jointly by the residents of a community, usually a central square or park in a city or town’ thus including urban commons in the definition.
The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory of a situation within a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action. The concept and name originate in an essay written in 1833 by the Victorian economist William Forster Lloyd, who used a hypothetical example of the effects of unregulated grazing on common land (then colloquially called "the commons") in the British Isles. The concept became widely known over a century later due to an article written by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968. (Hardin, G (1968). "The Tragedy of the
commons". Science. 162 (3859): 1243–1248). In this context, commons is taken to mean any shared and unregulated resource such as atmosphere, oceans, rivers, fish stocks.
In 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin explored this social dilemma in his article "The Tragedy of the Commons", published in the journal Science.(1978). The essay derived its title from the pamphlet by Lloyd, which he cites, on the over-grazing of common land.
family would not be of public concern. Parents breeding excessively would leave fewer descendants because they would be unable to provide for each child adequately. Such negative feedback is found in the animal kingdom. Hardin said that if the children of improvident parents starved to death, if
overbreeding was its own punishment, then there would be no public interest in controlling the breeding of families. Hardin blamed the welfare state for allowing the tragedy of the commons; where the state provides for children and supports over breeding as a fundamental human right, Malthusian catastrophe is inevitable. In addition, Hardin also pointed out the problem of individuals acting in rational self-interest by claiming that if all members in a group used common resources for their own gain and with no regard for others, all resources would still eventually be depleted. Overall, Hardin argued against relying on conscience as a means of policing commons, suggesting that this favors selfish individuals – often known as free riders – over those who are more altruistic.
In the context of avoiding over-exploitation of common resources, Hardin concluded by
restating Hegel's maxim (which was quoted by Engels), "freedom is the recognition of necessity". He suggested that "freedom" completes the tragedy of the commons. By recognizing resources as commons in the first place, and by recognizing that, as such, they require management, Hardin believed that humans "can preserve and nurture other and more precious freedoms".
In addition, Hardin also pointed out the problem of individuals acting in rational self-interest by claiming that if all members in a group used common resources for their own gain and with no regard for others, all resources would still eventually be depleted. Overall, Hardin argued against relying on conscience as a means of policing commons, suggesting that this favors selfish individuals – often known as free riders – over those who are more altruistic. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons, referred to 23/2/2017)
Solution to the tragedy:
Comedy of the Commons: Commerce, Custom, and Inherently Public Property". Faculty Scholarship Series, Yale Law School. Paper 1828. )
In a more contemporary and equally controversial proposition by Allen Savoy Zimbabwe's foremost land degradation expert has come up with a readily available solution for reversing the spread of deserts around the planet and slowing climate change in the process: He wants to let cows and sheep eat their way through the problem. He suggested in Ted talk on You-tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=vpTHi7O66pI) of reversing the trend of desertification by mimicking the role of wild herds, by domestic herds. He has been studying the spread of deserts for more than 50 years. He has been practicing what he preaches for last 30 years and is founder of Savoy Institute. He came to a surprising conclusion about how best to bring back grasslands and in the process help address poverty and social breakdown in some of the poorest corners of the planet. He turned to holistic management of livestock like cattle and sheep, overriding his own belief that grazing animals had been part of the problem when it came to green, fertile lands widely becoming barren and dry. Savory said the annual rite of movement through a region by large herds actually protects the environment. A wildebeest migration in central Africa, for instance, eats up grasses as it moves along and leaves behind a protective layer of trampled dung, dust and soil. That protective layer, it turns out, is vital for healthy soils that trap carbon, break down methane and produce more grasses every year to feed returning grazers. In turn, those herds feed predators like lions, cheetahs and, human beings. Thus desert dweller have no choice but to depend on grazing animals for food where 75% of their diet constitutes animal meat.
Savory decided to mimic the great herds of old, which have died out in many regions or persist in far reduced numbers, with managed "strategic" herds of grazing vegetarians. The sheep and cattle picked for the project, if managed properly using fanned grazing strategy, would theoretically bring nature back to its normal cycle in semiarid regions where rains for part of the year are followed by long dry spells. He has succeeded in his experiments across the continents in the world. Use livestock bunched and moving as a proxy for former moving herds and predators. Thus culling of herds to maintaining optimal stalk is equally important as bunching of the stocks.
A practice followed by nomadic herding tribes in India in foot hills of Himalayas, who graze sheep and plateau of Western Ghat’s rain shadow side called Gavali Dhangars who graze cow herds. These Gavali Dhangars, traditionally are shepherds, cowherds, buffalo keepers, blanket and wool weavers, butchers and farmers, in Mharashtra state. They were listed as Scheduled Tribe in Indian schedule, but 2011 census showed them to be listed as scheduled caste.
worldwide, but new management techniques might make livestock part of the solution. (‘Can Livestock Grazing Stop Desertification?” Scientific American Colin Sullivan, ‘ClimateWire’ on March 5, 2013) Way forward:
But all these concepts apply to rural areas and quote examples from rural areas. The issue of urban commons is far more complicated. Lands associated with CPR in Urban areas are seen as an economic asset for the price it can get and not for the built or heritage resources it currently has, by city
administrators, development planners and people who come to live on it (encroached slum dwellers) from other regions. But the original settlers are never asked what it means to them? The pride and value they put on their historical survival through different regime changes.
Planned development approach to cities has come for heavy criticism since the 90s due to project delays, incomplete or slow projects, difficult to implement projects, cost over runs etc. It is critical of the basic planning approach to urban development (Kohl J and McCool S 2016) where plans are drawn by a team of technical experts for the future of a city. That is to assume that city plan is a rigid document. This assumption itself, needs to be questioned. The authors go on to state the planner ought to master
communication skills like dialogue conflict resolution and group facilitation in planning. They claim that planning is a continuous ever changing and ongoing process that lives on indefinitely. Planner therefore should be a good listener and implementer of what people want and accept changes in what they want over time. The procedures that are to be followed is demonstrated through the use of communication skills, in continuous planning of a city planner if a plan has to become a success in cities. The approach suggests training the planner in communication skills: dialogue, negotiation conflict resolution etc. to communicate with people involved in planned development in their neighborhood.
Map 1: Hyderabad Hydrology References:
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