| This dissertation examines a dynamic process of sanctification of forests in the Central Himalayan region of northern India, where villagers are placing village (panchayat) forests under divine supervision for conservation. Using the political ecology, common property, and spiritual ecology perspectives, the study analyzes the reasons for forest sanctification. The study investigates the changes in local resource use patterns, and the inter- and intra-village variations in household adaptations resulting from forest sanctification. The study assesses the ecological impacts in the region by focusing on the collateral impact of sanctification.; The study suggests that the decision to sanctify village forests emerged from multiple reasons relating to the problem of enforcement of rules of forest use. Integration of villages into the market economy is leading to shortage of labor for household and community activities. Political economic integration and state policies are also leading to weakening of legal and social sanctions important in community resource management. Lacking effective secular solutions to these problems, villagers have resorted to the customary use of the supernatural to enforce forest rules.; The study shows that supernatural sanctions have resulted in significant shifts in resource use patterns and regeneration in sanctified forests. However, long-term success of this strategy is limited by the greater risk-taking behavior of households better linked with market economy. Moreover, regional success of supernatural sanctions is limited by excessive pressure on secular forests in the vicinity.; This research confirms that problems of natural resource degradation are embedded in social factors and in peoples' belief systems. It suggests that local solutions to resource degradation are limited by increasing social differentiation, and gap between forest users and decision-makers. Therefore, local institutional change is needed, more suited to the changing social, political and economic circumstances.; From the theoretical perspective, the research emphasizes the importance of social and spatial heterogeneity in understanding a phenomenon. It suggests that evolutionary models of socio-economic change are insufficient in explaining the complex coexistence of contradictory patterns observed. The continued emergence of sacred in an increasingly secular world presents one such phenomenon that it opens up for further research. |
