Browsing by Author "Gupta, Anil K."

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Biodiversity and Poverty vis-a-vis Biotechnology and Prosperity
(1991) Gupta, Anil K.
"The debate on intellectual property rights of third world farmers, pastoralists and artisans has almost always been guided by the fear that the industry in the developing countries (particularly drug industry) would be wiped out if patent rights demanded by the western companies were granted. This position, I contend, stems from inability of the elite scientists and policy planners in these countries to recognise the strength of the indigenous knowledge systems, it is assumed that there is no knowledge reserve in these developing countries which can provide a bargaining strength to these countries. "I argue that this is neither a very sensible position nor very useful one while negotiating on this subject. There is a tremendous richness in the knowledge systems of the developing society much of which is in great demand. Unfortunately we have not realised its importance. The result is our excessive dependence on imported technologies and Sack of development of indigenous capacities, I also share the dilemma of a third world researcher who by documenting such richness of local knowledge tries to make the farmers' wisdom a common property. Whether this tactical effort would make third world planners shift their stand, agree to sign the convention, patent all the land races, file cases for royalty from companies using any of these plants and refuse the concept of biodiversity as a common heritage remains to be seen. "DNA finger printing as a biotechnologies' tool can be a means of establishing the relationship between patented land races and any new plant variety. The paper also argues that biodiversity is rich in the regions of high environmental risks such as drought, floods, hailstorm etc. Without protecting the knowledge resources of the people in these regions, extraction of their knowledge poses serious ethical and professional dilemma."
Blending Cultural Values, Indigenous Technology and Environment: The Experience of Bhutan
(1992) Gupta, Anil K.; Ura, Karma
"Why do formal development models tend to 'destroy the only cultures that have proved able to thrive in these (isolated and harsh) environments. The question raised in the recent report of World Commission on Environment and Development has been asked in Bhutan ever since the programmed efforts to reduce isolation started few decades ago. Blending indigenous technology evolved in the crucible of culture and local environment with alien concepts, techniques and tools requires adapting institutions as well. The relationship between natural resources and the people have been forged within moral, cultural, politico economic and ecological boundaries."
Building Upon Peoples' Ecological Knowledge: Framework for Studying Culturally Embedded CPR Institutions
(1991) Gupta, Anil K.
"Diversified uses of natural resources are an essential for household survival in high risk environments. We have earlier argued (Gupta 1990) that portfolio of activities which so evolves in an eco specific manner includes a combination of apparently rational and not so rational strategies of livelihood. Portfolio of activities is based on resources governed by different property right regimes on one hand and ethical and cultural norms on the other. In this paper I argue that institutions for natural resource management are a part of evolutionary cultural, religious and social experience of any community. While it is inevitable that conflicts in the access to resources or their utilization emerge from time to time. These conflicts need not erode completely the network of common property knowledge systems. The conflicts and convergence may simultaneously take place along different planes and levels of consciousness. One cannot analyze resource management institutions without understanding the conceptualization of nature and repertoire of responses that a community evolves to adjust with changes in the natural phenomena. "The incidence of drought in dry regions, hailstorm or landslides in hill areas, occurrence of plant, animal or human diseases particularly the ones which are contagious (and call for collective quarantine) and any other natural calamity creates stress on the social institutions. Folk literature including riddles, songs, proverbs, adages, stories, theater and jokes provide mechanisms for internalizing certain values which in their explicit form are either difficult to imbibe or to sustain. In our anxiety to look for rules and related order we may miss the creativity that underlies the experimental and innovative mind of peasants and pastoralists in these regions." "I present in part one a framework for looking at boundaries of beliefs, eco-sociological context and institutional images for natural resource management. In part two I present instances which illustrate the creative aspect of people's indigenous eco sociological knowledge systems (IEKS). In part three, I deal with the lessons for institution building requiring incorporation of indigenous knowledge as a building block of modern institutions. Finally issues for further research are identified."
Choosing the Right Mix: Market, State, and Institutions for Environmentally Sustainable Industrial Growth
(1992) Gupta, Anil K.
"Efficiency, Growth, and Exports are the main items on nation's economic agenda. There is some concern (perhaps not adequate) for developing Safety Nets for people hurt/ left out by growth. Unfortunately environmental implications of industrial restructuring have not been given adequate attention. We present a framework to identify the appropriate policy response to make growth environmentally sustainable. "We see no contradiction between growth and environment sustainability. There is a broad degree of consensus that the size of the cake needs to be expanded. The issue therefore is not to have growth or not. The issue is what kind of growth and what pace of growth. Environmental implications are contingent on the pace and kind of growth. Since environment sustainability and economic growth reinforce each other, we need to make environment as an explicit decision variable in the macro economic policy. "Three policy measures i.e. market mechanism, state intervention, and institutional innovations can be used to enable firms to internalize externalities. We need to identify various mix of three options to deal with various kinds of externalities. "The best policy response is one that internalizes externalities at lowest transaction cost. In Section one we present a typology of externalities. In Section two we relate the type of externality with the stage and causes of industrial growth. Externalities can arise not only at the firm stage (input and transformation) but also at the consumer stage (consumption and disposal). Growth at production can be due to increase in scale of operation, new technology , and increase in number of firms. Growth in consumption can be due to increase in per capita consumption, introduction of new products and new consumers entering the market. ln Section Three we speculate upon the feasible policy choice given a mix of externalities, associated uncertainties and the measurability of the impact of the uncertainties."
Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation: Science for Generating Policy Options in Rajasthan, India
(2010) Singh, Vijai Shanker; Pandey, Deep Narayan; Gupta, Anil K.; Ravindranath, N. H.
"This report reviews the published research on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation with specific focus on Rajasthan, India. The science-based insights shall remain crucial to generate and implement policy options to address the challenges of climate change. The report provides process guidance for designing adaptive policy and actions. It is argued that giving clear priority to those developmental activities in Rajasthan that meet a combined set of seven climate-proofing criteria, which can be verified through measurable indicators for ecological, economic and social sustainability shall be essential (i) Reduction and/or sequestration of greenhouse gases, (ii) biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning, (iii) enhancing the yield of livelihoods goods and services to local people, (iv) reduction in poverty and vulnerability, and improving the resilience and adaptive capacity, (v) local empowerment and capacity development, (vi) synergy with objectives of international instrument and conventions, and (vii) coherence with local strategies for sustainable development. Filtering from these standards, we found that several activities being carried out under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) address both poverty and climate change. The land-based activities being done under MNREGA enhance resilience and reduce vulnerability, and thus contribute both to climate change adaptation and mitigation. The report also provides abstracts of the research articles and publications that policymakers can use to design evidence-based policy responses in various domains of governance. We also provide a selection of examples on using science to generate policy responses for Rajasthan. These examples are drawn from diverse domains such as water, energy, dryland and desert, protected areas, and urban systems. This selection of examples, hopefully, shall facilitate policymakers and practitioners working in diverse governance domains to use the literature included in this document for designing appropriate policy options for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Rajasthan."
Compensating Local Communities for Conserving Biodiversity: Shall We Save the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs so Long?
(1994) Gupta, Anil K.
"My contention in this paper is that various schemes for compensation must take into account a variety of ethical positions guiding the motivations of those who conserve biodiversity. Same incentive or recognition or reward will obviously not work for all kinds of motivations. I also submit in this paper that given the past record of most governments having very weak commitments to make the machinery of government accountable to local disadvantaged communities, entrusting the task of routing compensation from national or international funds through the same in different machinery will be counter productive. Whether NGOs will serve the purpose depends to .a great extent on their ethical position and accountability to local communities. This is one area where values of provider, receiver and the intermediaries would inevitably require reconciliation. Here again, the transaction costs of fair agreements may be minimized more through faith and transparency than just through laws. Though legal framework is necessary to enable enforcement of respective rights in any exchange. It cannot be sufficient."
Cooperation in Cooperatives: Contributions of Risk, Resources and Skills
(1985) Gupta, Anil K.
"The question most basic to any discussion on cooperatives is? why is it, that elites in most cooperatives neglect the task of fostering cooperation amongst different classes of poolers of resources and instead, concentrate (some) only on cooperation between enterprise and its members? It is assumed that the latter can substitute the former. Decrying the tendency for reification in social science literature, we argue for more pointed analysis and communication in issues involving value positions of the analysts. Finally three parameters viz: Risk, resources and skills are used to provide a framework for appraising the utility of any value a adding enterprise for the socially disadvantaged."
Cradle of Creativity: The Case for In Situ Conservation of Agro-Biodiversity and the Role of Traditional Knowledge and IPRs
(2003) Gupta, Anil K.
"Agro-biodiversity in any specific ecological context emerges through the interaction among human preferences, natural selection pressures and larger social and institutional considerations. There are major catastrophic events such as droughts, severe floods and other natural calamities which might lead to not only extraordinary changes in the agro-biodiversity conditions or the local agro ecological characteristics but also to major migrations. The intermingling of agricultural biodiversity from different regions has gone on for millennia. Human preferences have played a prominent role in selection but many times in highly ecologically stressed regions, the selection was made by nature and human beings adapted to whatever seeds or plants which survived. It will be useful therefore in any study of agro-biodiversity to look at the pattern in the use of agro-biodiversity within the variable field conditions as influenced by medium or long term agro-ecological changes. Such studies would require a longitudinal or a long term monitoring or agro-biodiversity for which we have not had any institutional infrastructure created in the country. This is perhaps the only study where we had the opportunity to revisit the same region after a interval of 10 years to see the changes at plot and sub plot level in the preferences of farmers as influenced by agro project conditions."
Dynamics of Internationally Aided Farming System Research Programmes: 'A Gospel of Dirty Hand'
(1990) Gupta, Anil K.
"The problem of donor influence, often not very helpful, has been discussed in the literature mainly in the context of aid for development projects. Lele and Goldsmith (1987) provided a very complimentary account of the assistance received by India from USAID and Rockefeller foundation for building up agricultural universities. There is no doubt that if host agency is careful enough, many of the hazardous influences of donor agencies can be minimized and useful impacts maximised. "With increasing problem of adverse balance of payment, my fear is that the influence of donor agencies (providing valuable foreign exchange) is likely to increase. I appreciate the initiative of professional associations like AFSRE to provide platform for open discussion on such issues. I hope that these discussions will lead to some rethinking among the donor community. "I had earlier provided an account of the effort made by a donor agency in India to tempt a host country professional coming in the way (rightly of course) of the agency's plans to push a particular model of development of so called waste lands ( Gupta, 1986). In this paper I discuss my tentative impressions about the donor influence in South Asia in promoting a particular kind of institutional structures for FSR/OFR. I have not taken the views of concerned donor agencies into account because it is so difficult to uncover them."
Eco Institutional Perspectives on Maintaining Diversity
(1992) Gupta, Anil K.
"The global dialogue on diversity particularly mediated by global institutions has been biased against the perspectives and philosophies evolved by the cultures in the developing countries. It is a different matter that seeds of change for sustainable development may exist with in these cultures. It is not that this neglect of local knowledge perspectives manifests only in Western writings or UN publications. The neglect is equally strong even in the formal publications of various governments in these countries. In this paper, I argue that biodiversity can not be maintained where it exists and enhanced where it is declining without appreciating the institutional context of the cultural, ecological and religious consciousness. The socio-economic factors explain only partially, why some communities maintain biodiversity and others do not. The earlier argument about close linkage between biodiversity and poverty is extended to suggest that economic poverty need not be coterminus with institutional and cultural poverty. There may be lessons to be learnt from the communities which have maintained biodiversity by remaining 'poor'. However, it has to be strongly asserted that one can not expect biodiversity to be maintained by keeping people poor or out of the natural habitats as seems to be the strategy in many countries. "The paper is organized in three parts. In part one, I discuss the phenomena of ecological diversity and its bearing on our learning, living and exchange systems. In part two, I provide examples of the interactions through which Eco Institutional Perspective can be advanced. Finally, in part three, I suggest some puzzles and dilemma which need to be further understood and analyzed. I would not suggest, resolved. A puzzle resolved is a faith broken. Perhaps diversity cannot be maintained by reason alone."
Eco-Sociology of Household Risk Adjustments and Commons: Performance in an Uncertain World
(1990) Gupta, Anil K.
"The search for ethically responsible and scientifically precise alternatives for socially disadvantaged groups in high risk environment requires a multi disciplinary, multi market/multi institutional approach. Various groups of rural households diversify portfolios of their economic enterprises within a range defined by the ecological endowments. The access to factor and product markets, kinship networks, intra and inter household risk adjustments, public and private relief systems and finally common property resources or common pool institutions determines the composition and evolution of portfolios of different enterprises. There have been some studies on the role of commons in risk adjustment vis-a-vis private and open access resources. A coherent theoretical framework however, remains to be developed."
Enigma of Intellectual Property Rights: How Long Shall We Miss the Opportunities?
(1997) Gupta, Anil K.
"Indian drug industry provides an outstanding example of its distinctive contribution in adapting global technologies for domestic demand through adaptive research in formulation of drugs. This has meant availability of large number of drugs at low cost. Having developed an expertise in reverse engineering, somehow we started to believe that we were capable of being outstanding only in this field of knowledge. Developing new drugs not just for Indian but global market apparently was beyond our reach. Consequently, a dominant opinion against product patent regime got developed in our country. However, success of Dr. Reddy's lab and Ranbaxy in vying for global space for the locally developed technologies has started to change the mind set. Simultaneously, new partnerships between academic and commercial organisations within and outside the country have started emerging. Many small companies believed that given their limited resources, it will be almost impossible for them to do world class R&D and pursue the path of prosperity through protection of intellectual property rights. "In this paper, I first discuss the key concept of IPR and its relevance for our conditions. I particularly refer to the opportunities that exist globally with specific reference to patent expiration, biodiversity based drug development. I also review the recent trends in filing patents based on herbal resources in US Patent Office during last two years compared to the trends apparent in 1992. "In part two I review the inter-organisational strategies for R and D drawing upon the excellence in informal sector as well as formal sector. Finally, I summarise the strategy that Indian pharmaceutical industry could pursue for global competitive advantage through protection of IPRs without compromising with the goal of universal health for all."
How Common is Commons: Political Economy of Wasteland Development
(1986) Gupta, Anil K.
"The so-called 'uncultivated half' has received attention of Aid Agencies, Planners and Environmentalists to a great extent in recent past. For many, it is a wasted opportunity and hence a wasted land. Vandana Shiva (EPU XXI, 15, 1986) has raised some very relevant issues with regard to the official policy far wasteland development programme. However, while the over-all thrust of her argument is quite acceptable, there are certain inadequacies with regard to the conceptualisation of the problem and consequent search for the alternatives. I will first summarise some of the key points she makes and then present my arguments in the context of the recent lobbying pursued by FICCI, International Aid Agencies and concerned citizens within our country."
Managing Common Properties: Some Issues in Institutional Design
(1985) Gupta, Anil K.
"Designing institutions that co-ordinate expectations of different classes of rural producers in a manner in which income disparities are reduced; common property is better managed and infact rejuvenated (if possible); and redundancy for coping with uncertain contingencies are continually created; is indeed a tremendous challenge. Three major issues are discussed here. The concept of scarcity and its consequent effects on different classes are presented to answer the question: Who should bear what part of the loss for how long when supply of a basic resource is reduced. The unfortunate aspect of institutional innovations triggered by market forces is that they pass on the greatest part of burden on those who have least capacity of shoulder."
Managing Ecological Diversity, Simultaneity, Complexity and Change: An Eco-Political Perspective
(1989) Gupta, Anil K.
"Mainly Indian studies on Governance from Ecological Perspective during last decade were reviewed as a part of Third Survey on Public Administration organized by Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. "The importance of ecological or environmental issues has been realised in several studies but the bearing ecological variables have on the design and dynamics of public administration has not been adequately conceptualized. The discipline of Political Science has particularly neglected the rigorous empirical studies on this aspect - Of late there has been resurgence of interest in the study of ecological perspectives as it evolved in ancient Indian literature. The fusion of ancient understanding and the modern insights available through both natural and social science analysis remains to be done. "This review is about conception of ecology {relationships between living beings and their environment--living or non living) in viewing interaction between people and state. Several questions have been kept in view; who have the demands of ecological variability and administrative uniformity been matched; if scientific enquiries and institutional arrangements for incorporating the emerging insights in design of public systems are adequate, how have peoples organizations and NSO's (Mon Governmental Organisations) reacted to the chasm between public policies and local realities; what are the strategies and styles of protest, campaign and legal activism in conflicts around natural resources? how has the framework for analysing public policies for risk and uncertainty evolved? and, finally what are the questions that the discipline must address in future. "The paper is divided into Four parts: Part one deals with the evolution of ecological thought in public administration -Part Two includes discussion on ecological diversity and uniformity of administrative systems- Part three looks into ecological movements and the strategies and styles used by these struggles in different parts of the country . The approaches to negotiation campaigns and legal activism used by the eco-movements / struggles are also discussed. Hem public policy deals with the issue of risk and uncertainty is discussed in Part Four. The implications for further research have been drawn in each section but an overview has been presented in the end."
Mine Spoil Restoration: A Strategy Combining Rainwater Harvesting and Adaptation to Random Recurrence of Droughts in Rajasthan
(2005) Pandey, Deep Narayan; Chaubey, Avanish C.; Gupta, Anil K.; Vardhan, Harsh
"Rajasthan presents evidence for the existence of one of the most advanced works of ancient mining and accompanied deforestation globally. Mining continues to be an important economic activity in Rajasthan. However, economic benefits of mineral extraction also accompany environmental, economic and social costs. Mine waste dumps and mined out areas viewed simply as the legacies of past may appear overwhelming environmental hazards presenting ugly picture of cultural landscape. However, mine wastes can be transformed into an opportunity for learning, adaptation and productivity enhancement for sustainable livelihoods through ecological restoration. Here we propose a strategy for mine spoil restoration aimed at creating a multifunctional ecosystem in mine waste dumps. We suggest that dredging and sediment removal from traditional tanks and ponds can potentially be used to prepare the substratum over the mine wastes for direct seeding. It will also create enhanced decentralized water storage capacity for wildlife and people. Our strategy combines the concomitant revival of traditional water harvesting systems, ground water recharge, enhanced biomass production and an adaptation to random recurrence of droughts in Rajasthan."
On Internalization of Externalities
(1993) Gupta, Anil K.; Prakash, Aseem
"Externalities can be internalized through market mechanism, government regulation, or self-governing institutions or a mix of these institutions. We recommend the institutional route which minimizes total cost (sum of technology, management, and transaction costs) to the firm. These costs are influenced by the externality attributes (occurrence, polluter, spatial, time, and technology). Different institutions may be appropriate for different stages and social contexts of an externality."
Politics of Articulation, Mediating Structures and Voluntarism: From 'Chauraha, to 'Chaupal'
(1990) Gupta, Anil K.
"There is a considerable concern in India about the 'silence' of a large number of disadvantaged groups who have either learned to be helpless or articulate their problems rather feebly. The nature of articulation, mediating structures or platforms for dialogue or negotiation be it political channels or voluntary arenas have to analysed as a basis of alienation of masses from the state. Emergence of the social movements encompassing ecological struggles particularly in backward regions indicates the limits of the patience of the poor disadvantaged people. "One can hypothesize that NGOs emerged or became stronger when the political channels got partly chokes o that people could neither remodel the nature of their representation nor communicate with/through state bureaucracy. The transition in mediating structures has been studied through five metaphors i.e. from counter to corridor; corridor to courts; court to 'Chaurahas' (cross roads); 'Charuahas' to 'Char diwaris' (four walls) and finally from 'char diwari' to 'chaupal' as a future solution. "The voluntary initiatives in this context could also reflect a way of reducing transaction costs, fulfilling ones urge to go beyond the mandated responsibilities or just to provide a channel of articulation to those who find the existing channels and platforms non accessible or non fulfilling. We have presented discussion on articulation, mediating platforms and voluntarism through following four questions in different parts of this paper."
Portfolio Theory of Technological Change: Reconceptualising Farming Systems Research
(1997) Gupta, Anil K.
"I argue in the paper that in high risk environments the high degree of ecological variability makes it well nigh impossible that traditional models of extension be used. In any case there is not much to transfer. At the same time farmers have been trying to survive in these regions some how. It is true that with worsening of prospects of their survival, their household portfolios have been shifted towards some of the environment degrading resource mix. Survival in the short term takes precedence over the long term sustainability of resources. It is for this reason I have argued that portfolio approach is necessary for developing a viable approach to fsr and extension in high risk regions."
Rainwater Harvesting as an Adaptation to Climate Change
(Current Science Association/Indian Academy of Sciences, 2003) Pandey, Deep Narayan; Gupta, Anil K.; Anderson, David M.
"Extreme climate events such as aridity, droughts, floods, cyclones, and stormy rainfall are expected to leave an impact on human society. It is also expected to generate widespread response to adapt and mitigate the sufferings associated with these extremes. Societal and cultural responses to prolonged drought include population dislocations, cultural separation, habitation abandonment, and societal collapse. A typical response to local aridity is the human migration to safer and productive areas. However, climate and culture can interact in numerous ways. We hypothesize that people may resort to modify dwelling environments by adapting new strategies to optimize the utility of available water by harvesting rain rather than migrating to newer areas. We review recent palaeoclimatological evidence for climate change during the Holocene, and match that data with archaeological and historical records to test our 'climate change-rainwater harvest' hypothesis. We find correlation between heightened historical human efforts for construction of rainwater harvesting structures across regions in response to abrupt climate fluctuations, like aridity and drought. Historical societal adaptations to climate fluctuations may provide insights on potential responses of modern societies to future climate change that has a bearing on water resources, food production and management of natural systems."
Restructuring Public Systems through Administrative Innovations: Will Civil Service Respond!
(1992) Gupta, Anil K.
"When the role of the state is being redefined in the wake of recent economic crisis, a discussion on making public systems and enterprises more responsive to social concerns may be quite appropriate. But that was not the only reason for taking upon this initiative of bringing out a special issue of Administrator (Journal of LBS Academy, Mussoorie) on innovations by administrators. I think like any other subsystem of society, bureaucracy is also ridden with conflicts. While majority may be averse to any change for the better, some do care {just like in any other system). I have no doubt that in any major restructuring in society, the role of even such odd balls may be marginal. But some of them can enlarge their role. Whether they will or not depends upon how crucial and powerful they consider their marginal position to be. Not all those who attempt change are marginalised. Some get Padam Shree {State honour) for their 'distinguished' service. What are the factors which lead state to incorporate certain type of changes and reject others is not too difficult to speculate. "I look into the factors which affect the transition of an idea into initiative, innovation and finally into institutionalization. Barriers to innovations have been looked at separately though briefly are reviewed here too. Not every innovation needs to be institutionalized in the structure of an organization. Some can get institutionalized into the person of the innovator. This is an insight which, perhaps, helps in taking us away from the common refrain in literature about perceived frustration of the researchers on the subject. "The paper is organised into 3 parts. In part one, I look into the possible reasons for administrators to take initiatives. In part two, I present an overview of some of the change experiences covered by the authors in the special volume of Administrator, as well as some other experiences not covered. Finally, I summarize a few lessons for further exploration."
Saga of a Star Fish: Participative Design of Sustainable Institutions for Natural Resource Management
(1992) Gupta, Anil K.
"Management of natural resources requires reconciliation in the conflicting world views of different stake holders. The conflicts emerge because of the variation in (a) the perception of nature, (b) associated socio-ecological interactions and (c) the ethical values generating respect for non voting members of our society. It is not easy to design institutions for collective action such that resources are managed not only for the current generation but also in a manner that options of future generations are not compromised. An organization becomes an institution when its members use internal commands (i.e. the directions for action emanating from within one self) instead of external demands (i.e. external regulation or direction for individual action). The cultural conditions in both the cases are very different. "The paper provides discussion on the issues which affect 'Our' participation in 'Peoples' organizations and institutions in part one. Much of the literature on participation deals with the opposite, i.e. how people participate in the organizations designed by us. The eco-sociological perspective for survival of households over space, season and sector is given in part two. The nature of risks and the strategies for coping with the same are described. The relationship between culture and ecology is discussed in the light of eco-specificity of social interactions in part three. The problem of collective action, the role of risk and redundancy, and resource diversification are discussed in part four."
Scale, Equity and Efficiency: A Stone May Kill More Than One Bird
(1993) Prakash, Aseem; Gupta, Anil K.
"Policy goals of efficiency, equity, and sustainability may not be independent. Also the policy instruments, i.e. price mechanism, fiscal policy, and scale may be related. We need to find answers about who shall decide the scale at the national and international level? If equity and scale are related, the interests of the countries in the resource-intensive growth phase and of the post-industrial societies, may clash."
Search for Sustainable Solutions: How Do We Build Upon Indigenous Ecological Knowledge System?
(1993) Gupta, Anil K.
"This paper is about the mediation that a cultural and institutional memory provides to the interface between objective environmental conditions and subjective human preceptions. Disturbances occur. But societies which survive evolve ways of repairing the errors. The ecolgical systems also have capacity to repair themselves but with in their homeostatic limits. Mutations occur. The selection of chance solutions in socio- ecological interactions does not take place only through laws of natural selection. Human cultures can inhibit some times and enable at other times selection of certain arrangements. Gupta and Ura (1992) have observed in Bhutan that the consequences of what may be considered an externality is in fact the outcome of cultural consciousness. In Bhutan, a wide boundary of responsibility leading to shared consequences was an important outcome of historical institutional development. Once the state or other authorities supersede the power of religion, village or community institutions without providing space for them to evolve and adapt, the conflicts between desired perceptions of this boundary and its newly legislated limits invariably arise."
Socio-ecology of Land Use Planning in Semi-Arid Regions
(1984) Gupta, Anil K.
"Small farmer households try to adjust with the risks inherent in semi-arid tropical agriculture through several intra and inter Household Resource Adjustment (HHRA) strategies having significant bearing on the land use options which we will argue, differ characteristically for different classes of farmers in various ecological contexts. Intra-HHRA strategies include multiple cropping, land fragmentation, simultaneous operation in land-livestock -- craft -- labour markets, seasonal shifts in energy use etc. Inter-HHRA include operations in tenancy, credit, labour markets besides asset disposal, contractual livestock management etc. "Decision making options of farmer in one market cannot be analyzed in isolation of constraints and opportunities in other markets. Implications of above complexity for conceptualizing the logic of survival mechanisms evolved historically by small farmers and labourers in different ecological contexts of arid and semi-arid world have been invested to varying degree."
Socioecology of Stress: Why Do Common Property Resource Management Projects Fail? A Case Study of Sheep and Pasture Development Project in Rajasthan, India
(1985) Gupta, Anil K.
"The key elements of the socio-ecological perspective is that the ecology defines the mix of economic enterprises that different classes of farmers find historically sustainable in that context. The scale at which different classes operate different enterprises is influenced by the respective access to credit, product and labour markets. Thus, if we find bigger farmers owning predominantly high value grazers and poor owning browsers, the implications for respective access and resource use options can be easily drawn. The mean and variance matrix of this mix generated different perceptions and responses to risks. It appeared thus that different classes of farmers used different discounts rates and different time periods to appraise the returns in various resource markets depending upon the accumulated knowledge, skills, resource advantage, and future expectations; besides surplus, subsistence or deficit budget conditions."
Sustainability Through Biodiversity: Designing Crucible of Culture, Creativity, and Conscience
(1992) Gupta, Anil K.
"There is a widespread concern the world over about non-sustainability of present developmental strategies and structures in both developed and developing world. Most debates have however, ignored the relationship between the regions of high biodiversity and high poverty. In this paper we have not only pursued the cultural and institutional roots of this relationship but also identified practical ways in which the people preserving biodiversity can be compensated. Paper makes a strong case for changing the nature of discourse and modifying existing epistemology of environmental debate. "In part one, the relationship between diversity and deprivation is analysed. In part two, the cultural and institutional aspects are studied. In part three, examples form indigenous ecological knowledge system including nature related folk songs generating eco-ethics are reviewed. Cultural diversity and the traditions of indigenous enquiry are pursued in part four. In part five, we discuss the reasons for protests emerging from these regions and the nation state's response. In part six, I discuss the mechanism for compensating farmers for preserving diversity. In part seven, the legal, fiscal and organisational routes for paying compensation are described. Part eight lists the ethical dilemma in conducting discourse on biodiversity. In last part, areas for follow up action by academics; planners and NGOs are illustrated."
Traditional Forest Knowledge (TFK), Commons and Forest Landscape Management: An Indian Perspective
(2008) Gupta, Hemant Kumar; Gupta, Anil K.
"Forests in the mountain societies is a part of a cultural landscape linked to livelihood concerns for those living close to nature and natural resources, whilst for Forest Department it means management for timber extraction. In the present day context, where forest resources are rapidly being degraded, the issues involved are about sustainable forestry for economic benefits (timber and non timber forest products (NTFPs) to the society, and conservation of biodiversity in the given landscape. Traditional Forest Knowledge (TFK) operating at the ecological/social process levels is a more recent development, and is a powerful tool for sustainable forestry at a cultural landscape level, with tangible and intangible being derived through what is sculptured by traditional societies around them .Very often, intangible elements have tangible implications at all scalar dimensions species, and ecosystem, and landscape levels. The emerging view point that socio-culturally valued species often are ecologically valuable keystone species and that community centered sacred groves and sacred landscapes which are held as commons too have implications for sustainable forest management, conservation and rehabilitation. Economic evaluation of NTFPs, their sustainable harvest and management, linked with sustainable timber extraction are linked with TFK available with forest communities. The way traditional societies manipulate and in the process also conserve biodiversity linked with sustainable use determine ecological processes at the biophysical level, with implication for participatory sustainable management of natural resources with development concerns of traditional societies. The case studies in Indian Himalayas provide that how the altitude zones and dependent communities utilize plant diversity by utilizing different spaces at given landscape, selective collection and preserving NTFPs resources. The historical interaction between geography, culture and polity of evolution of deity institutions and managing village and sacred commons has been attempted. Tradition knowledge systems remain deeply influenced by religious-cultural customs and religious commons that continuous to have bearing on the secular processes of decision- making both at the personal and the community level. Development planning and administration must therefore take into account the belief systems and community created commons, traditional management systems and historically created community consciousness that still remain powerful motivators for sustainable forest landscape management."
Traversing Across Knowledge Domains
(2005) Gupta, Anil K.
"When the knowledge of people is neither fully understood nor properly interpreted, it is unlikely to be used for making decisions that help the same people. This is obvious. But to suggest that peoples knowledge, because it is oral, may not thus be abstracted or conserved may not be very accurate description of reality in certain parts of the world. Doug is right when he observes, holding tacit, oral, or anecdotal knowledge rather than discursive, written, or systematic knowledge can mean real disadvantages for the people. But then sometimes disadvantage is mutual. The pressure under which scientists have to declare a given state of fisheries in an uncertain world as stable, is neither systematic, nor discursive. It is simply opportunistic. And opportunism is not some thing that only local communities thus indulge in."
Violence Around Grazing Lands
(1982) Gupta, Anil K.
"Public memory is short. The fact that most people would have forgotten about Bharaptur firing on livestock grazers who wanted to gain access to large forest lands which had been closed so as to protect wild life, would prove this point. Sitill my submission is that problem should not be defined as an issue merely of law and order or an insistence of a few hundred families of a semi-arid district in a particularstate to continue a practice of grazing on government lands."