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Applying the Social-Ecological System Framework to the Diagnosis of Urban Lake Commons in Bangalore, India
Get PDF"The south Indian city of Bangalore provides a challenging yet representative context within which to examine issues of governance of urban social-ecological commons. The city was once famous for its numerous large water bodies, which have witnessed tremendous encroachment and pollution in recent years. These water bodies, called tanks or lakes, were typically managed by adjacent village communities but are now administered by a number of government departments involved with aspects of lake management, with multiple overlapping jurisdictions. The publics perceptions of lakes has also changed with urbanization, transitioning from community spaces valued for water and cultural services to urban recreational spaces used largely by joggers and walkers. We focus on a set of seven lakes located in the urbanizing peripheral areas of southeast Bangalore. Some water bodies have been restored and managed effectively by newly forged collaborations between citizens and local government. Others are extremely polluted, and some have completely dried up and have been encroached. We use a social-ecological system (SES) framework to investigate why some locations have been successful in negotiating changes in governance from community-based systems to state management following urbanization, whereas other lakes have deteriorated. We use seven second-tier SES variables that were associated with self-organization in previous research: size of resource system, number of actors, leadership, social capital, importance of resource, existence of operational-choice rules, and existence of informal mechanisms for monitoring. We also include three third-tier variables previously identified as important in urban lake commons in Bangalore: scale and type of pre-existing pollution, exclusion of socioeconomic groups from the planning process, and networking with government organizations. We use this subset of 10 variables to examine social outcomes of the lakes, which we define as the extent of collective action by residents working together for lake restoration and ecological outcomes based on the ecological condition of the lakes. Collective action was low in only one of seven lakes, which challenges the presumption that citizens will not organize efforts to cope with common-pool problems. However, only two of seven lakes were highly successful in regard to both the extent of collective action and the level of ecological performance. While one lake was small and the other moderate in size, these two cases shared similar ranking in all other variables. Both lakes were polluted at a relatively low level compared with the other lakes, and in both cases, the leaders of local groups were able to network with government officials to clean up the lakes. Unfortunately, the challenge of cleaning up urban lakes after many decades of pollution is very difficult without effective interaction with various governmental units. Our analysis illustrates the usefulness of the SES framework in examining the combination of variables that makes a collective difference in affecting the outcomes of collective action and ecological performance. Our findings illustrate the need for polycentric arrangements in urban areas, whereby local residents are able to organize in diverse ways that reflect their own problems and capabilities, but can also work jointly with larger-scale governments to solve technical problems requiring changes in major engineering works as well as acquiring good scientific information. Such arrangements can reduce transaction costs for city governments by actively engaging local communities in processes that include coordination of collective activities, design of inclusive and locally suited ecological and social restoration goals, and planning and enforcement of regulations limiting access and withdrawal. At a time when many city governments are facing financial and administrative challenges that limit their ability to regulate and maintain urban commons, models of public-community partnerships could provide more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable institutional alternatives. This is an aspect that needs significant further consideration because the attention of most urban planners and scholars has remained on privatization while studies of successful instances of cooperative action in the urban context remain few and far between.
Unruly Commons: Contestations around Sampangi Lake in Bangalore
Get PDFCommon pool resources (such as lakes and green spaces) are particularly contested in the urban context, representing unruly environments. Lakes in Bangalore provide a particularly illustrative example of such messiness in environment, social use and in governance. These lakes, initially created by local communities to support agricultural and domestic uses, find their
role transformed in the urban context. They support a highly diverse set of user groups often with conflicting interests, deriving benefit from different consumptive and non-consumptive characteristics of the resource. This heterogeneity creates a landscape of contestation where different stakeholders seek to maximize stakes through selectively highlighting different positive traits of the
resource. Using an example of a “lost lake”, Sampangi Lake within Bangalore, this paper draws attention to landscape changes around the lake as depicted in maps between 1884 and the present day and relates changes in and around the lake with archival data between 1883 and 1935. These documents demonstrate how environmental characteristics of the lake such as the availability
of water, location of siltation and the seasonality of the lake generated different challenges and opportunities for user groups such as gardeners, polo players and brewery owners, resulting in contestations that needed resolution by the colonial government of Mysore. These disagreements are representative of deeper underlying conflicts between commons as recreational resources,
and as provisioning sources that are essential for local livelihoods. Such conflicts continue to resonate in Bangalore’s lakes even today, though with a different cultural manifestation and with changes in governance. The paper ends with a reflection on how resolution
of these differences for governance provides a reflection of unequal power relations between different traditional and “modern” user groups
Monetary and Multidimensional Poverty in Kerala: A Review of Recent Evidence
Get PDFAlthough income based poverty estimates and assessment still guide much of the national policies in India, there is wider recognition of non-income dimensions of poverty than twenty years back. The last ten years especially has seen significant developments in the conceptualization and application of multidimensional poverty. The original capabilities idea became theoretically more robust and its measurement improved with the application of the multidimensional poverty index (MPI). Even before multidimensional conceptualizations of development and poverty made their way into the mainstream, this was discussed and debated in the special context of Kerala, which showed the paradox of low income-high human development. Further, Kerala had made its own contribution to the multidimensional analysis toolkit by developing a risk index through participatory methods to assess poverty
Not just subjective, but also sloppy – a response to Bhadra
Get PDFWe read Bhadra’s rejoinder1 to our letter2 with interest and disappointment. Not only has she failed to counter the main criticisms of our response to Majumder et al.3, she has made fairly serious allegations of scientific impropriety on our part. She has also alleged that we have inflated figures of dog bite cases in India by three orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, her conclusion is flawed and arises from a misreading and misunderstanding
of both our original statement as well as the primary literature that was cited
Small Carnivores of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India
Get PDFDuring the present study in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT), nine species of small carnivores viz., Jungle Cat Felis chaus, Rusty-spotted Cat Prionalilurus rubiginosus, Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis, Small Indian Civet Viverricula indica, Asian Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, Striped-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis, Ruddy Mongoose Herpestes smithii, Common Mongoose Herpestes edwardsii and Smooth-coated Otter Lutrogale perspicillata, were recorded using camera-trapping technique, transect walks, and night surveys. Vegetation type strongly influences the presence and abundance of each species. The most sightings of small carnivores occurred in dry deciduous forests. Among all the species, the Asian Palm Civet was the most abundant and was followed by the small Indian Civet. Compared to many other forests or regions in India, the sight records of the Rusty-spotted Cat were relatively higher in BRT. Although we were unable to use statistical methods to search for higher levels of interdependencies between forest types and small carnivore abundance, our study sheds light on patterns of small carnivore distribution in this unique habitat which bridges the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats
Sustainability of Elephant Hunting Across International Borders in Southern Africa: A Case Study of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area
No full textTrophy hunting of African elephant is often implemented as an income generator for communities surrounding protected areas. However, the sustainability of hunting on elephant populations, especially with regards to international cross-border populations has not previously been evaluated. We assessed the effects of trophy hunting on the population dynamics and movements of elephant in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area, which is spread across the junction of Botswana, South
Africa, and Zimbabwe. Currently, no common policy exits in quota setting for cross-border species, and each
country determines their own quota based on limited data. Using VORTEX, we determined the sustainability of current quotas of elephant off-take under different ecological and hunting scenarios. We used distribution data from 6 aerial surveys and hunting data per region to determine the disturbance effect of hunting on bulls and breeding herds separately. Hunting of bulls had a direct effect in reducing bull numbers but also an indirect effect due to disturbance that resulted in movement of elephants out of the areas in which hunting occurred. The return interval was short for bulls but longer for females. Only a small number of bulls (<10/year) could be hunted sustainably. At current rates of hunting, under average ecological conditions, trophy bulls will disappear from the population in less than 10 years. We recommend a revision of the current quotas within each country for the Greater Mapungubwe elephant population, and the establishment of a single multi-jurisdictional (cross-border) management authority regulating the hunting of elephant and
other cross-border species
Crunchy, juicy devil's backbone
Get PDFI remember my mother eagerly waiting for the rainy season to begin and for the tender shoots and fresh leaves of narale to sneak out from the trees in our courtyard in a central Karnataka village. Narale (Cissus quadrangularis) or devil’s backbone, as the succulent plant is known, remains dormant the whole year and starts regenerating soon after it receives the first shower of rain in June. Till October, my mother would regularly collect its angular shoots and leaves for making chutney and serve it with an advice: the zigzagged stems can fight kidney stone
Pathogenicity of Metarhizium anisopliae (Deuteromycotina: Hyphomycetes) Isolates to the Ailanthus Webworm, Atteva fabriciella (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae) Under Laboratory and Field Conditions
No full textThe virulence of 25 Metarhizium anisopliae isolates was tested under laboratory conditions and the two most effective isolates were evaluated in the field for control of the Ailanthus defoliator, Atteva fabriciella. A bioassay was carried out to determine the dose and time mortality responses. The LC50 of the isolates ranged from 3.16 to 647.81 × 105 conidia mL−1. Toxicity tests of the isolates MIS7 and MIS13 and 0.5% Pongamia pinnata seed oil, individually and in different combinations, indicated improved efficacy of the isolates when used in combination and also when combined with seed oil. Evaluation of these formulations in the field showed 66.36% reduction of infestation with MIS7 + MIS13 + 0.5% P. pinnata seed oil and 61.15% reduction with MIS7 + MIS13. The study indicated a possibility of employing combined formulations of M. anisopliae and also combination with P. pinnata seed oil for augmenting the effectiveness of the fungus
Livelihood and Revenue: Role of rattans among Mongoloid tribes and settlers of Andaman and Nicobar islands, India
Get PDFThe Andaman and Nicobar islands, located in the Andaman
Sea between peninsular India and Indo-Malaya, are part of two of the 34 mega-diversity hotspots of the world. These islands are characterized by their vegetation types such as littoral, mangroves, wet and semi-evergreen forests,
and rainforests, and for being the home for six aboriginal tribes of Negrito and Mongoloid descent. The islands are also home to a number of migrants and “settlers” from the Indian mainland and Myanmar. The aboriginal tribes and the settlers have a long history of association with the island’s bioresources. We surveyed the ethnic uses of rattans, the unique climbing palms, about 63% of which are endemic to these islands. Our ethnobotanical survey revealed several uses of rattans by the Nicobarese and Shompens, the two major ethnic communities of the Nicobar Islands. We also estimated the revenue generated among those involved in the rattan trade (collectors, processors, and exporters)
Villages in the City: Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity in Rurality and Urbanity in Bangalore, India
Get PDFUrban-rural distinctions are particularly challenging in the context of fast growing cities in the developing world. Through an example of the Indian city of Bangalore, we demonstrate the case for development of more continuous approaches of urban representation that are needed in many parts of the world. Thus even some of the oldest areas in Bangalore, which have been part of an urban center for centuries, exhibit aspects of rurality, as much as other recently developing peri-urban parts of the city. We demonstrate the considerable heterogeneities in urbanity and rurality that exist in Bangalore, which constitutes complex mosaics of rural and urban systems. In contexts such as these, binary representations of the urban rural dichotomy break down, as does the gradient approach to urbanity. There does not appear to be any obvious relationship between the time span for which a site has been urbanized, and the degree to which rurality
still maintains its influence on these fluid urban landscapes. New theories and methods are needed to fully represent the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of rurality and urbanity in these fluid landscapes, moving beyond traditional, discretized urban vs. rural classifications, as well as relatively simplistic gradient-based urban to rural analyses