Adapting Pasture Land Management System of Chotanagpur Tribes

Abstract

"The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate alternative institutional arrangements to redeem the health of Bero's pasture land management and use them to augment the resource base of the poor. Historically, poor people were heavily dependent on these (common) resources. Recent experiences in privatizing these resources and entrusting ownership/usufruct rights to individual poor families does not appear to have produced encouraging results either in restoring productivity of this land or in expanding the resource base of poor families. Establishing the instrumentality between individual reward and quality of effort, and explicit efforts in group action to establish clearly each member's stake, rights and responsibilities in the resource is the way towards gaining sustainability.

"This research paper takes into account the case of five Chotanagpur villages, namely Asro, Lamakana, Dumardon, Hutri and Dhauntatoli in the Jharkhand state of India and analyzes the following prominent features of pastureland management system in these villages. The villages are Oraon dominated villages. The Oraons are believed to belong to the Dravidian stock. They generally speak Kurukh language. The Oraons mainly depend on agriculture and have believed to have first introduced plough cultivation in the Chotanagpur Plateau.

"It has been observed that apart from minor diversification of occupations there has been rapid dispossession of land, forcing increasing number of them to become a laborer. In spite of protective land laws, a number of them have been rendered landless due to regular and irregular processes of land alienation. Money lending law has not been enforced and moneylenders continue to charge exorbitant rates of interest and fully exploit the tribal people.

"This research paper primarily focuses on the pastureland management system of basically this primitive tribe and how it is being adjusted with the changing times.

"Further it invites the students from different fields and practitioners to share their level of experiences and give us the fruitful and constructive suggestions."