Pasturelands and Community

A new project that I’ve been working on concerns common property resources, specifically community pasturelands. Understanding how rural communities manage their shared resources to avoid overgrazing and benefit the entire village has been fascinating. The practices that they’re adopting mesh alongside with what I’ve learned in theory, studying Environmental Science and the concept of Tragedy of the Commons (Garret Hardin), so it’s very exciting to see it in practice. And then the community has found ways to address their particular circumstances, which goes beyond anything I have learned in theory!

Going to the desert twice in the last week, I’ve visited pasturelands and met with villagers to discuss the issues that are facing them and their land. I’m particularly interested in the relationship of villagers to resource management and the benefits the pastureland has given them, such as: more fodder for their livestock meaning less pressure for villagers to migrate during drought years. A whole slew of indirect benefits have been realized, including: groundwater recharge, erosion control, halting of desertification, more education for children who don’t need to graze livestock , less time spent by women gathering water, etc.

Last week, Shashi Ji, the GRAVIS Secretary and I, drove around dunes and dunes with a few other GRAIS staff to reach the pastureland at Narayanpura village. The pasture was only developed a few years ago with the help of GRAVIS, and they harvested their first fodder grass this year, which is proudly stacked next to the guard’s hut. We pulled up and found that the Head of the Pastureland Committee was actually just stopping by at the same time! Serendipity! So we pulled a mat over the sand and sat in the pasture sipping chai with the guard, the head of the committee and other village elders who had been passing by and discussed the pastureland as the sun set over the dune. Shashi Ji translated, and we came away feeling as though we had had a productive discussion and listened to what the villagers had said, and encouraged the village to continue talking about management practices of the land. It was very rewarding.

On Monday, I visited another pastureland and held a discussion with Village Development Committee members under the newly constructed Hutch mobile provider tower in the center of the village. It seemed kind of strange to be sitting under this giant steel tower, surrounded by barbed wire fence out in the desert. But then I realized that the tower represents Development for the community and that there was also a lightbulb located outside, so when it got too dark, we could turn on the light and continue our community resource mapping project in the sand. Using some of the colored powders left over from the Holi festival, we drew the village boundaries, major roads, water sources, pastureland, etc, with the colors on the sand.

On a different note, Shashi Ji and I came up with an awesome idea that Joey and I have been exploring in more depth and will let you know as soon as things become more concrete. We think it’s pretty darn sweet concept.

I’ve also continued work on my curriculum for desert school children for personal hygiene and sanitation. Developing some new games and activities for the curriculum which will be implemented next year, it’s currently being translated into Hindi.

Given the assignment to design a cover for GRAVIS’s newest publication, “The Story of GRAVIS” by a past volunteer Hayden Kantor, I sat down learned how to use Adobe Photoshop all in one day. I had no idea how to work the program, but after going through the tutorial lessons, I became fairly literate in the program and designed some cool covers. One of them has gone to the printing press now!