Decentralising Governance of Natural Resources in India: A review

This paper provides a broad overview of the past and ongoing efforts at decentralising the governance of natural resources (DGNR) in India. The focus is on ‘governance’, which includes both day-to-day management as well as broader decision-making regarding resource ownership, access and use, and associated legal, administrative and fiscal arrangements. We assume that more decentralisation than what prevails today is better, but emphasise the need for multi-layered governance as well

Water: a quintessential public good that needs public solutions

Bring up the topic of water, and you are bound to get everybody’s attention and probably a heated discussion going. Water is a part of our lives in so many different ways: not just for survival activities of drinking or cooking, but also in the production of our food, in many industrial activities, and even as a carrier of our waste. And in India, as in many other densely populated and rapidly industrialising sub-tropical regions, water scarcity, water pollution and too much water (flooding) are all major societal challenges. Responding to these challenges properly requires understanding how water is the quintessential environmental public good, and what kind of public actions may be required

ET By invite - investing crores but passing the buck

After decades of neglect, statuto ry bodies--municipalities or dedicated sewerage boards-are coming under pressure from citizens, central governments, pollution control boards and the courts to improve sewage treatment.Unfortunately , in the absence of knowledge-based and participatory decision-making, the responses of these bodies are often schizophrenic.The recent moves by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) are a classic example

Changes in pollution board undermine accountability

In a surprise move, the Government of Karnataka drastically altered recently the distribution of authority within the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), the sole environmental regulator in the state. After having appointed a new chairman a few months ago, the government has now amended the rules to give most day-to-day powers to the member-secretary

Why we must have water budgets: If we run out of groundwater, millions of people will be left without any means to sustain themselves

The protest by farmers in Chikballapur recently, over the scarcity of drinking water, received extensive news coverage as it halted Bengaluru in its tracks after key highways were blocked. Interestingly, very little of that coverage was devoted to the groundwater crisis that underpins the problem in such regions

Death knell for citizen-led lake governance

Bengaluruhas become a bit notorious globally as videos of Bellandur lake catching fire and its froth blocking roads over the past couple of years have gone viral. But Bengaluru’s lakes areal so famous for another reason: the enormous citizen activism that has led to the protection, rejuvenation and beautification of many of its lakes, and the continued citizen efforts to save and revive the remaining ones

BWSSB's wrong approach

Bengaluru’s wastewater woes—stinking rivers, fish kills, and froth and fire on lake spillways—have attracted global attention. This notoriety has triggered various policy responses. Mandating large apartment and commercial buildings to treat and reuse their wastewater has been one such response. Scarcity of fresh water lends support to this idea as wastewater reuse can reduce freshwater demand as well

Apartments struggle with 'manage your own sewage' rule

Bengaluru's bruhath problem with sewage is notoriously well known, with pictures of foaming lakes and fish kills attracting global media attention. But what is less well known is the fact that this city has the highest number of apartment-scale sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the country

Managing our lakes and sewage

On the morning of March 7, the walkers and joggers at Bengaluru’s Ulsoor lake were shocked to see thousands of dead fish piled up its banks. The local corporator blamed the fisherfolk, the chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) asked for time to investigate, and residents blamed all government agencies. Solutions proposed ranged from running motorboats and releasing ducks, to banning fishing and releasing enzymes for lake cleanup

Joint Forest Planning and Management (JFPM) in the Eastern Plains Region of Karnataka: A Rapid Assessment

Over the past decade Joint Forest Management (JFM) has become the key concept through which forest generation activities are being implemented in most parts of India. This study was a rapid independent assessment of the JFPM activities conducted by Karnataka Forest department under a massive loan from the Japanese Bank for International Co-operation, focusing on the northern and southern maidan regions. The assessment used data from various sources at different scales and depth, including macro-level data gathered by the department itself, responses to a mail-in questionnaire, observations from brief field visits to a number of villages, and from in-depth case studies in a few villages. The study uncovered several lacunae in the way JFPM was being undertaken. Many of the basic tenets of ‘joint planning and management’ like consultation with villagers and setting up of Village Forest Committees (VFCs) are being violated from the outset. The selection of villages has been poor. Most VFCs exist in name only with poor participation of the village general body.Some of the lacunae in JFPM implementation are due to lacunae in the basic framework for JFPM. It is also true that the Eastern Plains region presents special challenges to JFPM implementation. But genuine JFPM is generally absent even in pockets where favourable conditions exist. On the contrary, the few ‘success’ stories are often cases of exploiting existing hierarchies to meet narrowly defined goals. Thus, the major cause of the poor quality of JFPM processes and outcomes is the refusal of the implementation agency to seriously commit itself to the concept of participatory, people-oriented forestry