The twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion have over the years re-shaped the Brahmaputr... more The twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion have over the years re-shaped the Brahmaputra Valley landscape in the northeast Indian state of Assam. While flooding and erosion have always been part of the natural landscape of the valley, they have now turned disastrous causing agro-ecological instability and large-scale displacement of the local population. This dissertation is based on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in different parts of Assam, with a special focus on Majuli River Island, located in the middle of the Brahmaputra River, and Rohmoria in the upstream. It examines the political ecological processes of the re-production of disastrous geographies in the Brahmaputra Valley, the ways in which disasters have transformed rural livelihoods, and the politics of resistance among the disasteraffected population in the valley. At the heart of the dissertation lies the question of the state. By combining Marxist and postcolonial theorizations of the state and payi...
Despite various weaknesses, joint forest management (JFM) has become a dominant forest management... more Despite various weaknesses, joint forest management (JFM) has become a dominant forest management mechanism in India during last two decades, and has spread across the country. Although a sizeable literature exists on JFM, little attention has been paid to understanding the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in strengthening JFM as an institution for common-pool resource (CPR) management. Based on a comparative analysis of four JFM committees from Rajasthan, two of which were supported by an NGO and the other two by the forest department of the government, this paper highlights the critical role that NGOs can play in making JFM successful. The paper provides an in-depth analysis of several institutional aspects of these committees, and discusses the factors that enabled the NGO-supported institutions to perform better than the other ones. Finally, it argues for an effective integration of NGOs in JFM implementation, and also recommends nesting of JFM within the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion have over the years re-shaped the Brahmaputr... more The twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion have over the years re-shaped the Brahmaputra Valley landscape in the northeast Indian state of Assam. While flooding and erosion have always been part of the natural landscape of the valley, they have now turned disastrous causing agro-ecological instability and large-scale displacement of the local population. This dissertation is based on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in different parts of Assam, with a special focus on Majuli River Island, located in the middle of the Brahmaputra River, and Rohmoria in the upstream. It examines the political ecological processes of the re-production of disastrous geographies in the Brahmaputra Valley, the ways in which disasters have transformed rural livelihoods, and the politics of resistance among the disasteraffected population in the valley. At the heart of the dissertation lies the question of the state. By combining Marxist and postcolonial theorizations of the state and payi...
Despite various weaknesses, joint forest management (JFM) has become a dominant forest management... more Despite various weaknesses, joint forest management (JFM) has become a dominant forest management mechanism in India during last two decades, and has spread across the country. Although a sizeable literature exists on JFM, little attention has been paid to understanding the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in strengthening JFM as an institution for common-pool resource (CPR) management. Based on a comparative analysis of four JFM committees from Rajasthan, two of which were supported by an NGO and the other two by the forest department of the government, this paper highlights the critical role that NGOs can play in making JFM successful. The paper provides an in-depth analysis of several institutional aspects of these committees, and discusses the factors that enabled the NGO-supported institutions to perform better than the other ones. Finally, it argues for an effective integration of NGOs in JFM implementation, and also recommends nesting of JFM within the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
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Papers by Mitul Baruah