The Economic Survey 2025-26 has addressed a policy blind spot by recognising what markets alone cannot see: the commons. It acknowledges that water bodies, grazing lands, and other assets covering nearly 15 per cent of India's geographic area are not idle, residual spaces waiting to be priced, diverted, or encroached upon. They are productive, living resources that sustain village economies and are maintained through local governance systems. This shift matters, because it reframes natural resources not as extractive inputs to growth, but as foundations of rural livelihoods and ecological resilience.
What the Survey also implies is that the central challenge facing the commons is not the absence of ownership, but the absence of custodianship. Policy debates and programmatic decisions have long fixated on which line department Land Revenue, Forest, Irrigation, or Animal Husbandry exercises control over them, which leads to commons being treated as sectoral fragments rather than integrated socio-ecological systems.
Why Custodianship Matters?
We have been exploring the topic over the past few years, trying to understand that while the commons are vested with the panchayats, why are these lands not being managed well? Why are panchayats indifferent to encroachments and misuse? Custodianship focuses on sustainable resource use, maintaining the ecological health of commons, and ensuring equitable access for all community members by the village collectives. This includes overseeing land use changes, preventing encroachments, regulating the extraction of resources, and ensuring environmental conservation. Though ingrained in the provisions of law, such expression of custodianship is not in the common discourse and therefore is not visible in practice. With more than three decades passed, there is a need to unpack the expression of custodianship and make it a common practice.
Constitutional & Legal Basis
Grounded in the vision articulated in Article 40 of the Indian Constitution, which advocates for empowered and self-governing Panchayats, we explore proactive mechanisms to integrate this role more deeply. The aim is to strengthen Panchayats as local governments - strong, accountable institutions, enhancing their effectiveness, community engagement, and equitable resource management.
The constitutional framework, however, has pointed to a different logic since the year 1993. Under its Eleventh Schedule, Panchayats are entrusted with responsibilities over 29 subjects, at least ten of which directly relate to the commons, including land improvement, water management, social forestry, rural development, and maintenance of community assets.
State Panchayati Raj Acts act as the legal backbone for grassroots environmental management. By formally "vesting" and “endowed” under Article 243 G community resources such as pastures, tanks, and forests in Gram Panchayats (GPs), state laws empower local bodies with custodial rights to manage, protect, and regulate these communal assets. While the terms are not explicitly defined in law, vesting may be interpreted to mean a legally recognized claim to manage resources or the delegation of management rights and duties. The Supreme Court of India has also clarified that vesting does not confer unfettered title to the Gram Panchayat; even after vesting, the Government can impose restrictions on their use and enjoyment of such resources.
The idea of Panchayat as a self-government gained formal recognition with the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act in 1992.This landmark legislation provided a constitutional mandate and it is important to realise that while panchayats may collaborate with the state government and other bodies, they have the right to set their own priorities. Panchayats, as self-governments, are entrusted with a wide range of functions aimed at promoting local development and ensuring the well-being of rural communities. The functions as statutory bodies of local government, can be broadly categorised into administrative, developmental, regulatory, and judicial functions.
The Panchayat system therefore holds immense significance as panchayats promote decentralised governance, bringing administration closer to the people and making it more responsive to local needs; enables direct participation of citizens in decision-making processes, strengthen grassroots democracy and empower communities. The idea of Panchayat as a self-government is integral to the vision of a decentralised and democratic country.
Public Trust Doctrine
Custodianship of panchayats over the commons also flows from the public trust doctrine, which holds that natural resources are held by the State in trust for the benefit of the people. While the doctrine is silent on where this responsibility should reside within the State, Panchayats can be regarded as trustees by virtue of the constitutional mandate for democratic decentralisation. As institutions closest to the resource and its users, Panchayats are best placed to operationalise this trust, while the State's role is to enable them through technical, fiscal, and functional support.
Custodianship as a Pathway to Community Stewardship
Community Stewardship is the broader umbrella under which communities possess the rights, duties, and responsibilities to protect, manage, and govern common resources within the governance system. Panchayat custodianship supports this broader objective by strengthening community based governance mechanisms. For example, in Rajasthan, the Charagah Vikas Samiti is constituted under Rule 170 of the Rajasthan Panchayat Raj Rules, 1996, empowering Gram Panchayat to facilitate community-led management and protection of pasture lands, Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the Government notified the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Restriction and Control to Regulate the Use of Porambokes in Ryotwari Tracts) Rules, 2000 under Section 134 and clause (xxxv) of sub-section (2) of Section 242 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 (G.O.Ms.317, Rural Development, dated 6 December 2000). The Rules require Village Panchayats to maintain porambokes, including threshing floors, cart-stands, cattle-stands, burning and burial grounds, take measures for their protection, and initiate the removal of encroachments.
More recently in the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India gave a historic judgement paving the way for protection of the commons across the country. This came in connection to the hearing on the Civil Appeal No. 1132/2011 @ SLP(C) No. 3109/2011, in which it stated “22. Before parting with this case we give directions to all the State Governments in the country that they should prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorised occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/ Poramboke/ Shamlat land and these must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village.” The judgement brought back this discussion on custodianship.
Following this, several instruments are evolving to establish and reimagine the expression of custodianship. One such expression being the entry of all such resources in the Panchayat Asset Register and thereby being subject to a system of audit, either as a traditional audit or a social audit system. At a higher level, bodies for arbitration like Public Land Protection Cells (PLPCs) are evolving to strengthen and support the function of custodianship. We see such an expression in the panchayats in Rajasthan, where the state architecture for grazing land development has enabled panchayats to take up the role of custodianship. Apart from facilitating village level charagah vikas samitis (under section 170 (1) of Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994), to entry of the grazing lands into their asset registers and supporting restoration processes using MGNREGS, the panchayat has taken larger custodianship role as creating awareness for not encroaching their pastures to putting up notices for removal of encroachments through advertisements and working with the Public Land Protection Cells (PLPCs) for their removals. There are many such panchayats that demonstrate what is possible and help us believe in the potential of these institutions as custodians.
Further, Panchayati Raj Acts across states empower Panchayats to frame their own bye-laws. For example, Section 104 (1) of Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 authorises Panchayats to make bye-laws on matters such as protecting drinking water resources, preventing damage to Panchayat property, and regulating the maintenance and use of tanks, ponds, pasture lands, playgrounds, and other common resources. However, these provisions have not been utilised to their full potential across states. Framing and enforcing bye-laws is an important expression of custodianship, and their limited use reflects the lack of recognition and practice of this role.
The idea of custodianship is not confined to legislative frameworks; it has also received judicial recognition. In 2023, while dealing with Meikkal Poramboke (community -maintained government land reserved for grazing purposes), the Madras High Court, in CRP No. 430 of 2023, expressly recognised the Village Panchayat as the custodian of the commons (para.3). Similarly, in Manoj Kumar Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2025), the Allahabad High Court, while directing the eviction of encroachments from commons, recognised the Panchayat Land Management Committee as the custodian of common property and emphasised its responsibility to protect and manage such resources in accordance with law. These judicial pronouncements reinforce the evolving legal understanding that Panchayats are not merely administrative bodies but institutions entrusted with legally enforceable custodial responsibilities over commons. These jurisprudential foundation for recognising Panchayats as custodians of natural resources.
Polycentric Governance Strengthens Custodianship
In the context of village institutions embedded within larger Panchayats, polycentric governance ensures that local level decision making is respected while connecting these institutions to broader governance structures. By recognising local communities as primarily custodians, it strengthens local autonomy, collective action,accountability. Each village institution manages its immediate commons, while the Panchayat provides overarching policies, dispute resolution, and financial and programtic support.
Applied to the governance of commons, polycentric governance enables multiple, overlapping centres of decision making, making it particularly effective for managing shared resources such as water bodies, grazing lands, and forests. Village institutions address local issues and conflicts, while more complex matters are escalated to the Panchayat, ensuring coordination without undermining local authority. By embedding village institutions within larger Panchayats, this layered approach combines local stewardship with coordinated governance, making commons management more responsive, accountable, equitable, and resilient.
Five Principles for Realising Custodianship
1. Constitutional Identity - Panchayats need to recognize and build on their constitutional identity and mandate as custodians of both their resources and the economic and social development of their area. As constitutional bodies, panchayats have a legal identity and are entities where responsibility as stewards and custodians begins to take shape.
2. Local Problem Solving - While many issues are complex at the macro level, there are several of these problems that are simpler to solve at the local level, if local institutions are equipped to handle them. Hundreds and thousands of villages have demonstrated their ability to protect and conserve their commons, without dedicated support through programs.
3. Ecological Responsibility -As the closest administrative bodies to rural communities, panchayats have a deep understanding of local needs and resources and are best positioned to manage them. There is a need to emphasize the crucial, yet often understated, custodianship role of panchayats in managing natural resources.
4. Institutional Capacity -A panchayat can be effective when it creates a vision for itself, builds its internal organizational capacity, manages and negotiates with various stakeholders, and prepares and implements plans. There is a need to appreciate the role of Panchayats as custodians and make-arrangements to support with adequate financial resources (say, through Finance Commission allocations) and autonomy to undertake such functions.
5. Local Agency- It is important for panchayats to recognize their agency and understand that they have the right to set their own priorities. Ecosystem actors must support them in discovering and valuing their own strengths.
6. Custodianship of Panchayats is neither about ownership; rather, it is about recognising the constitutional responsibility that accompanies their existing powers and functions. It enables Panchayats to become self-governing and self-sustaining institutions in fulfilling their duties towards the protection, management, and restoration of commons. Recognising Panchayats as custodians is therefore essential for safeguarding India's commons and strengthening democratic decentralisation in both practice and principle.
Know More:
- 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 - https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s316026d60ff9b54410b3435b403afd226/uploads/2023/02/2023022123-1.pdf
- Section 34, Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Act 1947 https://panchayatiraj.up.nic.in/docs/ActsnRules/GP-Act-1947-English.pdf
- Madhya Pradesh Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993
- The Panchayat Asset Register an instrument to conserve India's Commons https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/governance/the-panchayat-asset-register-an-instrument-to-conserve-india-s-commons.html
- Public land protection cells: A new hope for our commons https://idronline.org/article/rights/public-land-protection-cells-a-new-hope-for-indias-common-lands/
- CRP 430 of 2023, Tamil Nadu High Court
- Manoj Kumar Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh - https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/allahabad-high-court/allahabad-high-court-crackdown-gram-sabha-land-encroachments-pradhans-lekhpals-tahsildars-inaction-306753
Author Subrata Singh is a current Executive Director at Foundation for Ecological Security & Killi Bhaskara Rao is a Lawyer and Legal Researcher Foundation for Ecological Security. Views are personal.