Commons00

100 Stories
of Commons

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100 Stories of the Commons is a public archive that journeys across India to document how communities live with and care for shared environmental resources. Through stories from forests, grazing lands, rivers, wetlands, and coasts, we view the everyday relationships that sustain these landscapes. Together, these narratives reveal how millions continue to depend on, and protect India's commons.

Our stories

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theABBIE

1739 S Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115

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Fighting Caste and Patriarchy, How Women Farmers Are Reclaiming Commons

Sangrur, Punjab

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Sacred turtles: How a Haryana Village protects its pond and its soul

Kajalheri, Fatehabad, Haryana

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From Rights to Revival: How forest rights and revived an economy

Tiriya, Bastar, Chhattisgarh

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How Cashew Economy and Devotion Help Protect Community Forests

Surumi, Koraput, Odisha

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When Traditional Knowledge Guides Forest Management

Zendepar, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra

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Commoning Forest and Its Knowledge

Madhya Pradesh

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Panchayats Rights Over Their Forests & Commons

Chhota Bhangal, Himachal Pradesh

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River Guardians: How Communities Reclaimed Kashmir’s Doodh Ganga

Jammu and Kashmir

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How a Village Defied Poverty by Reviving its Water and Dwindling Forests

Ara and Keram, Jharkhand

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How Viradhanur Pastoralists Fight to Save Their Commons and Their Heritage

Viradhanur, Madurai, Tamil Nadu

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How two Lahauli villages rewrote forest governance: Yurnath and Beeling’s 1990s tree‑felling pact

Yurnath and Beeling, Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh

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How Collective Labour of a Drought Hit Village Transformed Their Water Table

Solapur, Maharashtra

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How Van Gujjars community is proving its crucial role in forest conservation

Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand

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A Village Stands Up to its Panchayat to Protect a Century-old Forest

Haryana

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Communities Come Together to Protect Their Forest from Coal Mining

Ledo-Margherita, Assam

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How Rabha Women are collectively reclaiming lost lands

Dooars, West Bengal

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A Drought-prone Village Restores its Forests to Halt Rampant Migration

Payvihir, Maharashtra

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Goa's 3000-Year-Old Model of Sustainable Agricutlure

Goa

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How a Chhattisgarh Village Is Working to Safeguard Its Water Bodies

Chhattisgarh

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Tech savvy Village Reclaims Forest Governance

Gujarat

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In Maharashtra, a village gains control over their bamboo forests

Maharashtra

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Fighting Caste and Patriarchy, How Women Farmers Are Reclaiming Commons

Sangrur, Punjab

·
Shreya Bansal

Sacred turtles: How a Haryana Village protects its pond and its soul

Kajalheri, Fatehabad, Haryana

·
Sat Singh

From Rights to Revival: How forest rights and revived an economy

Tiriya, Bastar, Chhattisgarh

·
Mahmodul Hassan

How Cashew Economy and Devotion Help Protect Community Forests

Surumi, Koraput, Odisha

·
Mahmodul Hassan
Coming Soon

When Traditional Knowledge Guides Forest Management

Zendepar, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra

·
Sukriti Vats
Coming Soon

Commoning Forest and Its Knowledge

Madhya Pradesh

·
Taskeen
Coming Soon

Panchayats Rights Over Their Forests & Commons

Chhota Bhangal, Himachal Pradesh

·
Novita
Coming Soon

River Guardians: How Communities Reclaimed Kashmir’s Doodh Ganga

Jammu and Kashmir

·
Coming Soon

How a Village Defied Poverty by Reviving its Water and Dwindling Forests

Ara and Keram, Jharkhand

·
Mahmodul Hassan
Coming Soon

How Viradhanur Pastoralists Fight to Save Their Commons and Their Heritage

Viradhanur, Madurai, Tamil Nadu

·
Subasree
Coming Soon

How two Lahauli villages rewrote forest governance: Yurnath and Beeling’s 1990s tree‑felling pact

Yurnath and Beeling, Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh

·
Aditi Patil and Manya Singh
Coming Soon

How Collective Labour of a Drought Hit Village Transformed Their Water Table

Solapur, Maharashtra

·
Varsha
Coming Soon

How Van Gujjars community is proving its crucial role in forest conservation

Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand

·
Shreya Bansal
Coming Soon

A Village Stands Up to its Panchayat to Protect a Century-old Forest

Haryana

·
Shreya
Coming Soon

Communities Come Together to Protect Their Forest from Coal Mining

Ledo-Margherita, Assam

·
Kunal
Coming Soon

How Rabha Women are collectively reclaiming lost lands

Dooars, West Bengal

·
Sayantani
Coming Soon

A Drought-prone Village Restores its Forests to Halt Rampant Migration

Payvihir, Maharashtra

·
Mahmodul Hassan
Coming Soon

Goa's 3000-Year-Old Model of Sustainable Agricutlure

Goa

·
Maitreya
Coming Soon

How a Chhattisgarh Village Is Working to Safeguard Its Water Bodies

Chhattisgarh

·
Coming Soon

Tech savvy Village Reclaims Forest Governance

Gujarat

·
Sukriti Vats
Coming Soon

In Maharashtra, a village gains control over their bamboo forests

Maharashtra

·
Coming Soon
About

About this Project

What are commons?
Commons are shared landscapes and natural resources, such as forests, grazing lands, wetlands, coasts, water bodies, and village lands among myriads of shared spaces. Communities collectively access, use, govern, and stewarded commons through collective labour, formal and informal rules, institutions, local and traditional knowledge systems, and practices. They are not defined by their ownership, but by the relationships, responsibilities, and systems of custodianship that sustain both livelihoods and ecosystems over time. Communities that depend on and benefit from commons are also their caretakers. These diverse landscapes are where stories of coexistence come to life.

Why this project?

Commons cover nearly 25% of India's land and form the lifeline for over 350 million people, including marginalised groups like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. As governance structures, legal frameworks, and political priorities have changed, these landscapes are being invisibilised. Fragmented across categories such as public land, government land, private property and the contested label of “wasteland,” commons are becoming spaces of resource contestations. Despite their vitality in millions of lives, commons have no singular legal identity and are frequently classified as vacant or underutilised land. This fails to adequately recognise the labour, dependence, and stewardship of communities.As infrastructure projects, industrial expansion, conservation regimes, and climate change increasingly reshape these spaces, the stakes for the communities that depend on them continue to grow. In the Land Conflict Watch database, mapping nearly 1,095 land conflicts, nearly 78% involve commons as sites of contestation.

Through the 100 Stories of Commons project, we attempt to visualise the idea of commons and their relationships with people. By stepping into local landscapes, we are documenting how communities, with or without formal legal recognition, protect, restore, reclaim, and benefit from their commons. These stories make visible the social, ecological, and political significance of commons, while preserving lessons on collective stewardship often overlooked in mainstream narratives of land and development.

Land Conflct Watch x Common Grounds

All rights reserved | Land Conflict Watch
Team
The people behind the
initiative.
Editors
Kumar Sambhav
,
Vasudha Varadarajan
,
Mohit M Rao
,
Writers
Mahmodul Hassan
,
Sukriti Vats
,
Shreya Srivastava
,
Research guidance
Mrinali
,
Amrita Chekkutty
,

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