Common lands in India: Spatial distribution and overlay with socioeconomic and environmental indicators

Common pool resources provide important socioeconomic and ecological benefits for local communities and beyond, with around 2.5-3 billion people depending on commons for their livelihoods and other needs globally. In India, common lands constitute around a quarter of the country’s landmass, help meet the subsistence and livelihood needs of at least 350 million people and are of social and cultural significance to rural communities, as well as providing ecosystem services that benefit wider society. Despite these vital contributions, India’s commons have been facing widespread degradation, and policymakers tend to perceive some commons as “wastelands” because their true extent and value is not known. This study contributes to improved understanding of the magnitude and vitality of commons for rural communities, focusing on land-based commons in India. We provide a national assessment of the spatial extent and usage of common lands across districts, using publicly available spatial datasets and 2011 Census of India data and Household Census data. We further examine the spatial overlap between common lands and officially recognized protected areas to shine light on the possible locations where sustainable management or restoration of commons can potentially add value to conservation, in addition to benefiting local communities. Our results show that common lands are spread out spatially across the country and are intertwined, with more than one type of commons often present within the same district. Further, communities, especially poor, marginalized and indigenous communities such as Scheduled Tribe rely on forest commons, barren lands, pastures and culturable wastelands for their livelihoods, including for extraction of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for housing and cooking, grazing livestock, among others. Common lands and the communities that depend on them also often live in proximity to or are surrounded by officially recognized protected areas. Our study points to the need to drill down to more disaggregated level for commons mapping, which, in conjunction with information on the values of ecosystem services provide by commons, could inform land use policies and conservation and development planning.