Land, Commons and Waterbody Governance

The session on land, commons and waterbodies highlighted several examples of panchayat-led natural resource restoration.

Arul Rajesh, former President of Muthukkaapatti Village Panchayat in Namakkal District, described how the panchayat had stopped the large-scale commercial sale of groundwater. The panchayat had also desilted a public well through the 100-day work scheme with active community participation and restored it for public use.

Selvi Nirmala, former President of Kemmarampalaiyam Panchayat in Coimbatore District, shared her experience of working in a hilly panchayat inhabited by tribal communities. She had played an important role in identifying poramboke, or government wasteland, and using the 100-day work scheme to construct large ponds. These interventions had contributed significantly to groundwater recharge.

Sivarasu, former President of Pratabaramapuram Panchayat in Nagapattinam District, presented the panchayat’s work on lake and river restoration. A large village lake had been desilted with community participation, and the excavated soil had been deposited along the embankments to reinforce them. The panchayat had also restored a river that had effectively disappeared and made it usable again for farming and household purposes. His experience also drew attention to palm-tree conservation along the coastline.

Forest Land, Public Access and Panchayats

Murugan, former President of Kengara Panchayat in the Nilgiris District, discussed the challenges of working at the intersection of forest administration and local public needs. Natural rockfalls had blocked a public road, preventing local communities from collecting minor forest produce. The blockage had also led to the suspension of bus services, restricted residents’ mobility and prevented students from reaching school.

Forest laws and administrative procedures had initially made it difficult to clear the road. Through sustained engagement and coordination with the Forest Department, the panchayat had succeeded in reclaiming the public pathway and restoring access for the community.

Peri-Urban Land and Protection of Public Spaces

Ramya, former President of Krishna Samuthiram Panchayat in Tiruchirappalli District, reflected on the pressures faced by panchayats located on expanding urban fringes. The panchayat, situated near the BHEL establishment in Tiruchi, had experienced rapid and forced urbanisation.

Land earmarked for public use had been illegally sold, while individuals who had invested their retirement savings in constructing houses on such land had faced serious difficulties. The panchayat had undertaken several measures to protect public spaces from encroachment and prevent unlawful land transactions. The experience demonstrated the increasingly important role of peri-urban panchayats in regulating land conversion, protecting common and public land, and responding to the consequences of poorly managed urban expansion.

Biodiversity Conservation and Local Institutions

Kambur Selvaraj, a community activist from Kambur Panchayat in Madurai District, discussed the role of gram sabhas and village panchayats in environmental conservation. Drawing on his association with the efforts that led to the establishment of the Arittapatti Biodiversity Heritage Site, he highlighted the importance of Biodiversity Management Committees.

The discussion emphasised that Biodiversity Management Committees needed to be strengthened as functioning local institutions rather than treated only as formal administrative bodies. Panchayats and gram sabhas had an important role in documenting biodiversity, protecting local ecosystems and ensuring that conservation activities reflected community knowledge and priorities.

Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Social Justice

The workshop also included an interview session with Sumathi and Chidambaranathan, former Presidents of Athigattur Village Panchayat in Tiruvallur District. Their work demonstrated how panchayats could use common and poramboke land to advance social justice and land equity.

They had facilitated the creation of new housing settlements on poramboke land for Narikuravar communities who had previously lived along urban roadsides. Housing settlements had also been created for bonded labourers who had been rescued from rice mills. Their experience brought attention to the administrative, political and social challenges involved in securing land and housing for historically marginalised communities.

The session illustrated that panchayats could play a transformative role in rehabilitation when access to land was approached not only as an administrative matter but also as an issue of dignity, inclusion and social justice.

Pastoral and Grazing Lands

Rajiv Gandhi presented the challenges surrounding pastoral and grazing lands in Tamil Nadu. Drawing on his continued engagement with livestock grazing issues and his leadership of a pastoral-land network in southern Tamil Nadu, he discussed the relationship between grazing lands and panchayat governance.

The session drew attention to the importance of protecting grazing lands as a critical livelihood resource for livestock-dependent and pastoral communities. It also highlighted the need for panchayats to recognise grazing lands within local planning and natural-resource governance processes.

Key Insights from the Workshop

The workshop demonstrated that panchayats had played an important role in addressing a wide range of land and natural-resource challenges. The experiences shared during the workshop showed that effective local governance had depended on a combination of community participation, elected leadership, administrative coordination and the strategic use of government programmes such as the 100-day work scheme.

Across the different sessions, several common messages emerged:

• Panchayats had successfully restored public wells, ponds, lakes, rivers and pathways when communities were actively involved.

• Poramboke and common lands had served important environmental and social functions, including groundwater recharge, housing and rehabilitation.

• Local governments had faced significant challenges when dealing with Forest Department procedures, urban expansion, encroachment and illegal land transactions.

• Gram sabhas and Biodiversity Management Committees had an important role in conserving biodiversity and strengthening community-based environmental governance.

• Land governance had been closely connected to social justice, particularly for tribal communities, Narikuravar communities, rescued bonded labourers, pastoralists and other resource-dependent groups.

• Strong panchayat leadership had helped communities navigate administrative barriers and protect public and common resources.

Overall, the Chennai Regional Workshop highlighted how panchayats had moved beyond the delivery of basic services and acted as important institutions for land governance, ecological restoration, resource conservation and social inclusion. The experiences presented during the workshop offered practical lessons for strengthening the authority and capacity of gram sabhas and panchayats in the governance of land and natural resources.