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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Singh, Subrata |
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Conference:
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Commoners and the Changing Commons: Livelihoods, Environmental Security, and Shared Knowledge, the Fourteenth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons |
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Location:
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Mt. Fuji, Japan |
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Conf. Date:
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June 3-7 |
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Date:
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2013 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/9074
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Sector:
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Land Tenure & Use |
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Region:
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Middle East & South Asia |
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Subject(s):
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wastelands
commons
Supreme Court
IASC
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Abstract:
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"This paper explores the evolution of the discourse on 'wastelands' in India from the colonial time to the present and how it has shaped Indias land related policies. This paper is an attempt to understand the changing rights of the communities to use the resources over the past two
centuries. The concept of wastelands in India originated during the colonial period and included
all lands that were not under cultivation through the process of settlement for all land held under
different property regimes.
While the state took all the wastelands under its purview through the principle of Eminent
Domain, these lands were supposed to be managed with the principle of Public Trust Doctrine
where the State is not an absolute owner, but a trustee of all natural resources. With the
competing demands over the wastelands, the discussions and discourse have emerged on the
relevance of the common lands (wastelands) in ecological and economic terms and against the
use of such wastelands for commercial purposes. This has further been strengthened by the
enactment of the Forest Rights Act in 2006 and the recent judgments by the Supreme Court of
India on the protection of the common lands. This has brought in a discourse on the
Communitization of the wastelands as Commons."
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