Email : Minoti.chakravartykaul@gmail.com
Web-site: http://commonlandsresearch.info
Affiliation : Formerly Senior Reader (Retd) Deptt. Of Economics, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi 1961-2002.
Founder : Rahat for Raah Shamilat - The Way of the Commons - Foundation for Common Lands Research & Information.
My research began with the disturbance in a cluster of villages in North-West Delhi in 1977 which was then the first ever research on two centuries of comparative analysis of institutions both formal and customary and common property resources in India and comparison with the UK. Consequently the Ford Foundation in New Delhi invited me in 1982 to draw up a framework for similar research based on my input. Subsequently, I received their support in 1982; again a fellowship for two years at the Ostrom Workshop, Bloomington, IU.1990-92.
My research revealed the institutional impact of resource- use on the environment, hence I won a Ciracy-Wantrup Fellowship in 1994-96 to U of Berkeley, USA which enabled my field-work in the North West Himalayas and to publish my book Common Lands and Customary Law, Insitutional Change in Northern India(OUP 1996) Pastoralism then got incorporated into my study. The result was the award of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Senior Fellowship, 1998, to examine the Gitksan v Supreme Court of Canada case on Customary Law - visiting the Faculty of Law, UBC, Vancouver Canada. A project on Empowerment of Women Pastoralist by WISP in 2008 followed.
Education:
PhD Economics, 1991, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi : " Common Lands: The Study of an Economic Asset of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab."
A Masters and Honours degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and Miranda House, University of Delhi 1956-1961.
For Reports, journal articles and conference papers please see my web-site.
For a brief over view of my research and publication from Micro level to Regional and Asiatic history of Agri-Pastoral Resource- Use and Institutions of Common Property Rights and Patterns of Ecology and Eco-systems please see below -
2013 “Self-Governance of Village Common Lands, Water and Forests in Northern India, 1803-2006 - Lessons from a Sustainable Eco-Culture.” In Prof. Haruka Yanagisawa Edited forthcoming Volume on The Commons of Asia.
2013. "Severance of a traditional grazing landscape in the Himalayas: commons and ecosystems in crisis?" Hallam Book of Commons forthcoming Stringer. Chapter 6.
2008. "Asian Woodland and Fauna history" Chapter 22 in UNICEF Encyclopeida on World Forest History. EOLSS Asian Woodland and Fauna History eolss