Abstract
Natural or man made tanks/village water bodies, which form a critical part of rural landscape in India, have been used traditionally as multiple use systems. Tank complexes, along with their water resources, are used for their land and biomass resources. Land-poor communities particularly depend on tanks/water bodies for livelihood and supplemental income generating activities. However, rights of access to these resources, tenure security and participation in decision making are often politically defined.
The article uses the political ecology approach to study diverse uses as well user groups of tanks. This study, based on a survey carried out in five districts of West Bengal, reveals the nature of multiple uses, access patterns of user groups, institutions involved in tank management and their socio-political dynamics. The study establishes, first, strong presence of multiple uses and second, that beneficiary groups and their access patterns are defined according to political allegiance. Tank related benefits are part of larger patron–client relationships between beneficiary groups and Panchayat–Party combined. Based on their political capital, Schedule Castes and tribal group form the dominant beneficiary group but they have to reciprocate in various forms. Large farmers form the excluded group and their traditional land based irrigation rights on tank waters have been challenged and detached. Strong evidences of overlapping benefits, informalism and political alliance based inclusions/exclusions reveal the complex patterns of resource access. Thus study helps to understand inadequacies of ‘scientific’ tank management models which emphasize the dominant and prevalent single use (i.e., irrigation) perspectives and present a very ‘apolitical’ picture of natural resource utilization.
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