Satyapriya Rout is a Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad since August 2021. He joined the department as an Assistant Professor in the year 2006. Prior to joining University of Hyderabad, he worked as Lecturer in Sociology at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi from February 2004 to August 2006. His areas of research interest broadly include environment and natural resource governance, environmental movements, decentralised governance and development. While inquiring into the question of community’s engagement with governance of natural resources, his research focuses upon forest and water. He was awarded Sir Ratan Tata Fellowship for his post-doctoral research at Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics Phone: +919177982487 Address: Dept. of sociology, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad - 500046, Andhra Pradesh, India
This article attempts to examine the negative impact of climate change on agricultural livelihood... more This article attempts to examine the negative impact of climate change on agricultural livelihood and human social life. Natural climatic variations have always been a challenge for human sustenance as they are predicated on a host of factors that include natural, human-made and unbalanced environmental conditions. India too, with its geographic zones such as mountains, small islands, wetlands, coastal areas, deserts, semi-arid lands and plains is exposed to challenges of climatic change. The impact of climate is particularly severe on the livelihoods of the rural poor. For instance, people living near coastal regions are constantly prone to severe floods. This study specifically focusses on coastal Odisha and the impact of floods which have been triggered by climate change. The study, looking at the effect on crop production and socio-economic conditions, has followed a two-pronged approach––conducting a field survey and collecting data from secondary sources.
Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements... more Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements with similar goals and forms of mobilisation that challenged government policies and actions. Many of them achieved their goals or objectives whereas others failed. This study is an attempt to understand the factors that determined the success and failure of those movements and protests by employing rich details of four case studies from the North-East to make a systematic comparison. This study uses political opportunity structure as a theoretical construct to understand relative success and failure of environmental movements in the North-East.
Community participation in forest management has evolved as the new paradigm of natural resource ... more Community participation in forest management has evolved as the new paradigm of natural resource governance in recent decades. Focusing on community participation in local forest resource management, this article examines the evolution and working of community forestry in Thailand from a socio-historical perspective. It narrates the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand and explores the community’s response towards deforestation, resource degradation and rising livelihood insecurity. Drawing insights from three case studies of community participation in forest governance from the provinces of Lampang, Lamphun and Kanchanaburi, this article highlights the potentials of community forestry in evolving as an alternative institution for sustainable livelihood security and forest governance. The article maps out the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand by identifying three successive stages: (a) influence of early European colonial rule in the neig...
Taking the tribal resistance against Vedanta Alumina at Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha in India as a c... more Taking the tribal resistance against Vedanta Alumina at Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha in India as a case in point, the present article deciphers the nuances of contemporary environmental movements. It discusses the manner in which movements like Niyamgiri address global environmental issues with local environmental actions. It examines the issue of scale shift of environmental activism and the process in which a local struggle over livelihood and resource capture becomes a global environmental movement. It unravels the subtle negotiations that the local agents of the movement engage in with their global counterparts. The major arguments of the article are based on empirical research at the site of contestation with the help of qualitative methods. The article vividly narrates the emergence of the Niyamgiri movement from that of a localised struggle against land acquisition to that of a transnational movement raising serious ecological concerns, which bridges the gap between the local an...
Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements... more Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements with similar goals and forms of mobilisation that challenged government policies and actions. Many of them achieved their goals or objectives whereas others failed. This study is an attempt to understand the factors that determined the success and failure of those movements and protests by employing rich details of four case studies from the North-East to make a systematic comparison. This study uses political opportunity structure as a theoretical construct to understand relative success and failure of environmental movements in the North-East.
The article examines the process of community’s involvement in protection and management of its l... more The article examines the process of community’s involvement in protection and management of its local forests resources in Thailand. It attempts to examine the role played by the institution in providing a sustainable solution to the problems of deforestation and forest degradation. The article is based upon qualitative data gathered from three cases of community forest management (CFM) from Kanchanaburi, Lampang and Lamphun provinces of Thailand. The analysis is based on Elinor Ostrom’s framework of Institutional Analysis and Development, and empirically examines the rule configurations associated with sustainable governance of local commons resources. The article highlights that along with a robust institutional design at the local level, two other factors such as availability of external assistance and legal backup by the state, create favourable conditions which enhance the institutional performance in commons governance.
ABSTRACT The paper aims at understanding tribal land alienation and attempts of tribal self-gover... more ABSTRACT The paper aims at understanding tribal land alienation and attempts of tribal self-governance in the context of tribal resistance to development from a legal pluralistic perspective. Taking the tribal resistance to Vedanta Alumina Project, in the state of Orissa, an eastern Indian province, as a case in point, the paper tries to explore and explain the existence and interaction of multiple legal frameworks in the whole context. The paper narrates how different versions of state law, project law and customary law coexist together, and what implications these coexistence of laws have on matters relating to tribal rights to land, forest and other natural resources. Besides a conceptual analysis of ‘legal pluralism’ as a perspective, the paper scans several state laws and policies related to tribal access and rights to land and local natural resources, as well as existing local customary laws defining property rights over such local resource base. In conclusion, the paper highlights the opportunities that the existence of multiple legal orders provide to the tribal communities to struggle and resist in defense of their traditional rights to land and other natural resources in the face of exclusion and deprivation, which are being imposed on them by the neo-liberal state.
The paper explores the processes and factors that led to the emergence of Joint Forest Management... more The paper explores the processes and factors that led to the emergence of Joint Forest Management in Orissa and its functioning in the State. The changes in forest policies and regulations are analysed in terms of first, its impact on the livelihood of the people and the ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of the forest area; second, the changing discourse of the forestry debate in India; and third, the emergence of community forestry in Orissa.
Recent forest governance practices in India have responded to environmental change and subsequent... more Recent forest governance practices in India have responded to environmental change and subsequent livelihood insecurity by focusing resource governance policies on communities. A paradigm shift has occurred involving participatory inclusive bottom-up approaches, rather than state-centric, top-down forestry. With the formulation of the 1988 National Forest Policy, several variants of participatory models of forest governance – social forestry, community forestry, joint forest management – have been tried out, with differing degrees of success. The 2006 Forests Right Act adopts a rights-based approach to participatory forestry to address the serious concerns of environmental degradation, livelihood insecurity, tenure reforms and questions of autonomy and identity of forest-dependent communities. Using mainly qualitative methodology, this paper reviews forest governance policies and undertakes a critical examination of recent participatory forestry practices. Drawing empirical evidence from two community-based forest governance institutions in the state of Odisha in eastern India, the paper demonstrates how participatory forestry programmes, albeit successful, may be exclusionary with regard to women’s engagement in cases where their involvement is under-represented.
This article attempts to examine the negative impact of climate change on agricultural livelihood... more This article attempts to examine the negative impact of climate change on agricultural livelihood and human social life. Natural climatic variations have always been a challenge for human sustenance as they are predicated on a host of factors that include natural, human-made and unbalanced environmental conditions. India too, with its geographic zones such as mountains, small islands, wetlands, coastal areas, deserts, semi-arid lands and plains is exposed to challenges of climatic change. The impact of climate is particularly severe on the livelihoods of the rural poor. For instance, people living near coastal regions are constantly prone to severe floods. This study specifically focusses on coastal Odisha and the impact of floods which have been triggered by climate change. The study, looking at the effect on crop production and socio-economic conditions, has followed a two-pronged approach––conducting a field survey and collecting data from secondary sources.
Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements... more Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements with similar goals and forms of mobilisation that challenged government policies and actions. Many of them achieved their goals or objectives whereas others failed. This study is an attempt to understand the factors that determined the success and failure of those movements and protests by employing rich details of four case studies from the North-East to make a systematic comparison. This study uses political opportunity structure as a theoretical construct to understand relative success and failure of environmental movements in the North-East.
Community participation in forest management has evolved as the new paradigm of natural resource ... more Community participation in forest management has evolved as the new paradigm of natural resource governance in recent decades. Focusing on community participation in local forest resource management, this article examines the evolution and working of community forestry in Thailand from a socio-historical perspective. It narrates the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand and explores the community’s response towards deforestation, resource degradation and rising livelihood insecurity. Drawing insights from three case studies of community participation in forest governance from the provinces of Lampang, Lamphun and Kanchanaburi, this article highlights the potentials of community forestry in evolving as an alternative institution for sustainable livelihood security and forest governance. The article maps out the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand by identifying three successive stages: (a) influence of early European colonial rule in the neig...
Taking the tribal resistance against Vedanta Alumina at Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha in India as a c... more Taking the tribal resistance against Vedanta Alumina at Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha in India as a case in point, the present article deciphers the nuances of contemporary environmental movements. It discusses the manner in which movements like Niyamgiri address global environmental issues with local environmental actions. It examines the issue of scale shift of environmental activism and the process in which a local struggle over livelihood and resource capture becomes a global environmental movement. It unravels the subtle negotiations that the local agents of the movement engage in with their global counterparts. The major arguments of the article are based on empirical research at the site of contestation with the help of qualitative methods. The article vividly narrates the emergence of the Niyamgiri movement from that of a localised struggle against land acquisition to that of a transnational movement raising serious ecological concerns, which bridges the gap between the local an...
Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements... more Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements with similar goals and forms of mobilisation that challenged government policies and actions. Many of them achieved their goals or objectives whereas others failed. This study is an attempt to understand the factors that determined the success and failure of those movements and protests by employing rich details of four case studies from the North-East to make a systematic comparison. This study uses political opportunity structure as a theoretical construct to understand relative success and failure of environmental movements in the North-East.
The article examines the process of community’s involvement in protection and management of its l... more The article examines the process of community’s involvement in protection and management of its local forests resources in Thailand. It attempts to examine the role played by the institution in providing a sustainable solution to the problems of deforestation and forest degradation. The article is based upon qualitative data gathered from three cases of community forest management (CFM) from Kanchanaburi, Lampang and Lamphun provinces of Thailand. The analysis is based on Elinor Ostrom’s framework of Institutional Analysis and Development, and empirically examines the rule configurations associated with sustainable governance of local commons resources. The article highlights that along with a robust institutional design at the local level, two other factors such as availability of external assistance and legal backup by the state, create favourable conditions which enhance the institutional performance in commons governance.
ABSTRACT The paper aims at understanding tribal land alienation and attempts of tribal self-gover... more ABSTRACT The paper aims at understanding tribal land alienation and attempts of tribal self-governance in the context of tribal resistance to development from a legal pluralistic perspective. Taking the tribal resistance to Vedanta Alumina Project, in the state of Orissa, an eastern Indian province, as a case in point, the paper tries to explore and explain the existence and interaction of multiple legal frameworks in the whole context. The paper narrates how different versions of state law, project law and customary law coexist together, and what implications these coexistence of laws have on matters relating to tribal rights to land, forest and other natural resources. Besides a conceptual analysis of ‘legal pluralism’ as a perspective, the paper scans several state laws and policies related to tribal access and rights to land and local natural resources, as well as existing local customary laws defining property rights over such local resource base. In conclusion, the paper highlights the opportunities that the existence of multiple legal orders provide to the tribal communities to struggle and resist in defense of their traditional rights to land and other natural resources in the face of exclusion and deprivation, which are being imposed on them by the neo-liberal state.
The paper explores the processes and factors that led to the emergence of Joint Forest Management... more The paper explores the processes and factors that led to the emergence of Joint Forest Management in Orissa and its functioning in the State. The changes in forest policies and regulations are analysed in terms of first, its impact on the livelihood of the people and the ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of the forest area; second, the changing discourse of the forestry debate in India; and third, the emergence of community forestry in Orissa.
Recent forest governance practices in India have responded to environmental change and subsequent... more Recent forest governance practices in India have responded to environmental change and subsequent livelihood insecurity by focusing resource governance policies on communities. A paradigm shift has occurred involving participatory inclusive bottom-up approaches, rather than state-centric, top-down forestry. With the formulation of the 1988 National Forest Policy, several variants of participatory models of forest governance – social forestry, community forestry, joint forest management – have been tried out, with differing degrees of success. The 2006 Forests Right Act adopts a rights-based approach to participatory forestry to address the serious concerns of environmental degradation, livelihood insecurity, tenure reforms and questions of autonomy and identity of forest-dependent communities. Using mainly qualitative methodology, this paper reviews forest governance policies and undertakes a critical examination of recent participatory forestry practices. Drawing empirical evidence from two community-based forest governance institutions in the state of Odisha in eastern India, the paper demonstrates how participatory forestry programmes, albeit successful, may be exclusionary with regard to women’s engagement in cases where their involvement is under-represented.
In S. R. Padhi and B. Padhy (Ed.) Trends and Issues in Tribal Studies, New Delhi: Abhijeet Publications., 2008
the present paper focuses on the issues of inclusion and empowerment of Scheduled Tribes in the d... more the present paper focuses on the issues of inclusion and empowerment of Scheduled Tribes in the democratic local governments or Gram Panchayats. It perceives inclusion as a process and tries to explore the potentials of the decentralisation policies for such inclusion. The objective of the paper is to examine the process of inclusion and empowerment of Scheduled Tribes through decentralised governance.
In A. Jyotishi and S. mohapatra (ed) Proceedings of the International Conference on “Legal Pluralism in Natural Resource Management” organized by International Commission on Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law and Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, during March 30 – 31, 2012., 2012
The paper aims at understanding tribal land alienation and attempts of tribal self-governance in ... more The paper aims at understanding tribal land alienation and attempts of tribal self-governance in the context of tribal resistance to development from a legal pluralistic perspective. Taking the tribal resistance to Vedanta Alumina Project, in the state of Orissa, an eastern Indian province, as a case in point, the paper tries to explore and explain the existence and interaction of multiple legal frameworks in the whole context. The paper narrates how different versions of state law, project law and customary law coexist together, and what implications these coexistence of laws have on matters relating to tribal rights to land, forest and other natural resources. Besides a conceptual analysis of ‘legal pluralism’ as a perspective, the paper scans several state laws and policies related to tribal access and rights to land and local natural resources, as well as existing local customary laws defining property rights over such local resource base. In conclusion, the paper highlights the opportunities that the existence of multiple legal orders provide to the tribal communities to struggle and resist in defense of their traditional rights to land and other natural resources in the face of exclusion and deprivation, which are being imposed on them by the neo-liberal state.
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Papers by Satyapriya Rout