Gautam, Tejendra

The paper intends to explore how forest rights policy processes contributed to the commoning of non-timber forest products in the case of tendu leaves in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. It examines everyday practices and social relations among the forest dwellers in collecting tendu leaves that enable them to come together, share, and act collectively. This commoning process is the result of the post-forest rights policy processes. These policy processes have initiated the commoning process in every block of Gadchiroli, which led to the formation of gram sabha federations in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. The existing literature on the commoning of commons provides insights into the institutional designs, but less is explained about the process of commoning. The paper seeks to fill this gap by examining how post-forest rights policy processes have enabled social practices and relational arrangements to initiate the commoning of tendu leaves in the Kurkheda block of Gadchiroli district. These policy processes have enabled the collective to explore innovative subsystems of networks to mitigate uncertainties. The paper is based on a longitudinal study conducted in Gadchiroli from December 2019 to June 2024. It provides a multi-sited ethnography of collective actions and social practices connected to the commoning process of tendu leaves. The research findings reveal that gram sabha federation has pushed forest-dwelling communities towards sustainable livelihood practices and social relations rooted in collective empowerment and democratic decision-making.