Commons are a traditional village managed resource (land, water, forests) that provides fuel, fodder, water, fruits, and grazing to most households in a village. 70 million hectares of land in India are under commons, and 48 to 75% of rural population depends on the commons in some ways or the other.

Specifically, animal husbandry is the main occupation of the pastoralist communities, who are highly dependent on the commons for feeding their cattle. About 10% of Indian  population is pastoralists, but the Policy on Commons, particularly in the context of the Pastoralists is yet not prepared. Most of the commons have been encroached and thus are not available for the pastoralists and other marginalised people. Moreover, pastoralists are  not able to use the commons to feed their cattle during drought. Additional problems identified include:

No clear institutional jurisdiction over the Commons – The jurisdiction over Commons differs, with pasture land vested with the Gram Panchayats and revenue wasteland under the custody of the Revenue Department. As the traditional village norms are fast eroding, the institutional protection of commons is weakening, and as a result, commons are being increasingly encroached upon by the rich and powerful, the poor and even by state  institutions. The biggest losers are women as studies point out that woman actually use the commons much more than men to discharge their domestic duties. 

While decentralization of powers and functions to the Panchayat Raj may be one systemic answer, the Panchayats are not clearly mandated about their responsibilities under any commons policy.

New policy on commons may not be effective enough – October 2011 was a landmark in the history of related legal framework on the management of the Commons. The Supreme Court, in the case of Jaspal Singh & Others vs. the state of Punjab pronounced a judgment that, in section 22, all states must prepare schemes in case of eviction of illegal/unauthorized occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/Shamlat land and these must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers.  In line with the Supreme Court Ruling on Commons, the state governments and the High Courts and the lower courts in the states have issued orders for safeguarding the Commons.

The Government of Rajasthan was the first state government that prepared a draft policy on Common land where it placed the entire responsibility of identifying, developing and managing the Commons with Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabha. One significant part of the policy is to identify Common land area for grazing @ 1/8 of a hectare per livestock, implying more area to be identified for grazing to match the increase of livestock that happened over the years. However, it remains to be seen whether a policy will lead to laws, or have the same impact if the policy on commons had legal basis. 

Further, all the land investors have an eye on commons, but there aren’t stringent legal tools to protect and save the commons. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act (LARR) 2013 replaced the archaic and oppressive Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and introduced the provisions of Social Impact Assessment, Public Hearing, and Gram Sabha Consent prior to land acquisition by government (for its own use or for private parties for public use). It also increased the compensation to four times the market value for rural areas and two times for urban area. However, not a single state till now has implemented the act effectively. Six states amended the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 to make the process convenient for land acquisition.

The Environmental Impact Assessment process under Environmental Protection Act (1986) was introduced in 1994 to predict the impact of a proposed project on the surrounding environment. Environmental Clearance is made mandatory for any new project or expansion of an ongoing project which is based on the EIA study. The EIA process in India is not as robust as that followed in the developed country – it lacks community and government involvement at the initial phase, is not comprehensive as it studies the environmental within a limited radius and does not include social or health impact, it also lacks professional experts and interdisciplinary capacity among others. The most glaring problem with EIA in India is that the onus of the study is on the party who wants to acquire land, and hence has been known to influence the process.