Jhabua district is locate in the westernmost agro-climatic zone in Madhya Pradesh. It is, in fact, one of the five most backward districts of the country. It is characterised by high concentration of tribal population (mostly Bhils). The people suffer due to poverty which has been accentuated by the high rate of resource degradation, both forest and land. The Watershed Management programmes funded by both the ministries of "Rural Development" and "Agriculture", Government of India, have been successfully implemented in Jhabua district which has gone a long way in preventing land degradation and improving soil quality. Watershed Management Programmes acknowledge the linkage between land, water and vegetation and attempts to improve livelihoods of people through natural resource management and community participation. In the past five years, the programmes funded by the Ministry of Rural Development alone (implemented by Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Westershed Management) has treated 20 per cent of the total area under Jhabua district.

The Bhils in Petlawad block, through their own efforts, have revitalised large parts of common property resources. Each household planted and maintained one tree on the common property. They also have planted fodder grass on the pasture land and adopted social-fencing of these lands for at least two years. Even after that, they say, there would be no open grazing on these lands, but stall feeding of cattle, and they are thus confident that the pastures they have developed would sustain their cattle in future. The ensuring conflict was tracked by the villagers by offering to make the defaulter encroaching on the Common Property Resources (CPR) a member of their user group and sharing the benefits of greening the common lands/pastures.

CPR in the text stands for:

Common Property Resources

Common Property Resources (CPR)