Gandhian Approach to the Management of Forest as Common Property Resource: A Case Study of Binjgiri Hills (Orissa) India

Abstract

"The economic well being of most countries is directly or indirectly related to the management and productivity of its environmental systems. Gandhi identified five elements: Philosophical Balance, Structural Balance, Environmental Balance, Technological Balance, and Distributional Balance for Balanced Economic Growth. As societies evolve, population grow, land-use pattern change, the regulatory mechanisms that earlier maintained balance between man and the environment break-down, and the product use of renewable resources can no longer be effectively asserted. Management systems must be improved so that renewable resources such as forest can be restored and used on a sustained yield basis."