and forest commons in the life and economy of rural Indians has
revealed that CPRs provide as much as 58% of fuelwood requirements
and up to 25% of fodder requirements. It also provides
evidence of large-scale depletion of CPRs, with CPR lands in rural
India declining by almost 2% every 5 years (Goswami, 2011). Deterioration
of common property resources increases the incidence
of poverty level because poor people depend on forest resources.
Earnings of rural people are mostly the combination of income from
private property and common property resources. Reduction in
common property resources reduces earnings of rural people leading
them to migrate to nearby urban areas in search of livelihood.
Thus, there is a link between common property resource degradation,
poverty and migration (Mahanta and Das, 2012; Suresh et al.,
2010). In India, the greatest decline in terms of absolute area (forest
and grazing land) has been in the Central Plateau and Hills, the
Eastern Plateau and Hills, the Southern Plateau and Hills and the
Middle Gangetic Plains (Menon and Vadivelu, 2006). The study area
(Gondia) thus represents the declining region.