Ownership and status of development; the commons

Detail

1. Why classify resources at all?

• A resource is anything in our surroundings that meets our needs. To be a resource, it must be technically possible to use, affordable, and acceptable to society.
• The same resource can be grouped in several ways: by origin (biotic, abiotic), by exhaustibility (renewable, non-renewable), by ownership, and by status of development.
• This note covers the last two, and then the problem of shared resources (the commons).

2. Classification by ownership

Type	Who owns or controls it	Examples
Individual	Private persons	Farms, houses, wells, plots, orchards, pastures owned by a family
Community-owned	All members of a village or community	Grazing grounds, burial grounds, village ponds, parks, playgrounds, picnic spots
National	The nation (the State holds legal title)	Minerals, water, forests, wildlife, land within political boundaries, sea up to 12 nautical miles
International	International institutions	Ocean resources beyond 200 nautical miles; deep seabed minerals

2a. Individual resources

• These are owned privately by people.
• Farmers own land and get it either from the government (for example as a land grant) or by buying it.
• In towns, people own plots and houses. Other examples are wells, ponds on private land and owned vehicles.

2b. Community-owned resources

• Community-owned resource: a resource open to every member of a community, not to one person alone.
• Village examples: grazing grounds, burial grounds, village ponds.
• Urban examples: public parks, playgrounds and picnic spots.
• In land-use studies these are called common property resources (CPRs). They matter most for the landless and the poor, who depend on them for fodder, fuel wood, fish and water (see common-property-resources in land-use-farming-systems).

2c. National resources

• Technically, all resources belong to the nation. The government has the legal power to take over even private land for public use, such as roads, canals and railways (for example through land acquisition laws).
• National resources include minerals, water, forests, wildlife, all land within the political boundaries, and the territorial waters.
• Territorial waters: the sea up to 12 nautical miles (about 22.2 km, as 1 nautical mile = 1.852 km) from the coast. Here the country has full rights, as on its land. The resources found here belong to the nation.

Ocean zones under UNCLOS 1982 (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea)

Zone	Width (from baseline)	Rights of the coastal country
Territorial sea	12 nautical miles	Full rights over water, seabed and air above
Contiguous zone	24 nautical miles	Limited control (customs, immigration, pollution)
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)	200 nautical miles	Only the coastal country may use fish, oil, gas and minerals
High seas / "the Area"	Beyond the EEZ and continental shelf	No country owns it; managed for everyone

2d. International resources

• International resource: a resource managed by international bodies, not by any one country.
• Example: ocean resources beyond 200 nautical miles, past the EEZ. No country can use them without the approval of bodies like the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
• UNCLOS (1982) calls the deep seabed beyond national control "the Area". Its minerals are the common heritage of mankind. This means they belong to all humanity, and the benefits should be shared.
• ISA: headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica; set up in 1994 under UNCLOS. It gives out contracts to explore and mine the Area.

India and the ISA: polymetallic nodules

• Polymetallic nodules: potato-sized lumps on the deep ocean floor. They hold manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt.
• India signed a 15-year exploration contract with the ISA in 2002 for nodules in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB). The contract was later extended by five years [2].
• India holds exclusive exploration rights over about 75,000 sq km of the CIOB in international waters [2][6].
• Estimated nodule resource there: 380 million tonnes, holding about 4.7 million tonnes nickel, 4.29 million tonnes copper, 0.55 million tonnes cobalt and 92.59 million tonnes manganese [6].
• Deep Ocean Mission (Cabinet approval 2021, Ministry of Earth Sciences):
• It plans a manned submersible to carry 3 people to 6,000 m depth [5].
• It is also building an integrated mining system to collect nodules from 6,000 m in the central Indian Ocean [5].
• This is a live example of an international resource that India is helping to develop (see ocean-relief-temperature-salinity).

3. Classification by status of development

Type	Definition	Example	Can we use it now?
Potential	Found in a region but not yet used	Solar and wind energy in Rajasthan and Gujarat	Partly; not yet fully developed
Developed	Surveyed; quality and quantity known; being used	Coal and iron ore being mined	Yes
Stock	Could meet needs, but no technology to use it	Hydrogen in water as energy	No
Reserves	Part of the stock usable with today's technology, but kept for the future	Water in dams, forests	Yes, but kept back

3a. Potential resources

• Potential resource: a resource found in a region that has not yet been used.
• Example: Rajasthan and Gujarat get strong sunshine and steady winds, so they have huge potential for solar and wind energy. Only part of it has been developed so far.

3b. Developed resources

• Developed resource: a resource that has been surveyed, with its quality and quantity worked out for use.
• Whether a resource gets developed depends on technology and on feasibility (whether it is worth the cost).
• Examples: coal fields and iron ore mines in production.

3c. Stock

• Stock: materials in the environment that could meet human needs, but we do not have the right technology to use them.
• NCERT example: water is made of two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen can be a rich source of energy, but we did not have the advanced technology to use it widely.

3d. Reserves

• Reserves: the part of the stock that we can use with today's technical know-how, but which we have not started using. We keep it to meet future needs.
• Examples: water stored in dams, which can be used later for power and irrigation; forests kept back for future use.
• Key link: reserves are a subset of stock. A trap in MCQs is to treat them as separate, unrelated classes.

3e. Reclassification: hydrogen moving out of "stock"

Categories are not fixed. Better technology moves a resource from one class to the next.

• New technology (electrolysis powered by renewable energy) can split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• This makes green hydrogen (hydrogen made using renewable power) possible at scale.
• As a result, hydrogen is moving from stock towards developed resource.
• The National Green Hydrogen Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet on 4 January 2023. Its outlay is ₹19,744 crore [3].
• Target: 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) per year of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030 [3].
• Progress: about 8,000 tonnes per year of green hydrogen capacity had been commissioned by February 2026 [4]. This shows hydrogen is still at an early stage of becoming a developed resource.

4. The tragedy of the commons

4a. The idea

• Tragedy of the commons: when everyone can freely use a shared resource, each user gains from using more, while the cost is shared by all. So the resource gets overused and ruined.
• It was made popular by the American ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968 [7].
• Hardin's example, step by step [7]:
• Many herders graze cattle on one shared field.
• Each herder adds more animals, because the extra profit goes to that herder alone.
• The cost (less grass, damaged soil) is shared by everyone.

• Each herder acts sensibly for himself, but nobody thinks for the whole group, so the field is overgrazed. In the end nobody can use it.

• Open-access resource: a resource with no rules on who may use it or how much. This is where the tragedy happens. Examples: pastures, fisheries, aquifers.

4b. Ostrom's answer: communities can manage commons

• Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990), studied forests, irrigation systems, fisheries and pastures across the world.
• She won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with Oliver E. Williamson) "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons". She was the first woman to win the economics prize [8].
• Her main finding: commons can be managed well without handing them to the government or to private owners [8].
• This works when communities have:
• clear rules on who may use the resource and how much;
• monitoring (watching that the rules are followed) [8];

• sanctions (penalties for those who break the rules).

• So Hardin's "tragedy" applies to open access, not to every commons. A commons with working local rules is a common property resource, not open access.

4c. Indian examples of community management

Example	Where	What is managed
Van panchayats	Uttarakhand (Kumaon and Garhwal hills)	Village forests, run by elected village forest councils
Orans	Rajasthan	Sacred groves and grazing land, protected by religious and community custom
Arvary Pani Sansad	Alwar district, Rajasthan	"Water parliament" of villages on the Arvari river; sets rules on water use after the river was revived with johads (small earthen check dams) (see water-resources-india)

• Decline of village commons: the studies of economist N.S. Jodha in dry regions of India showed how common lands shrank over time:
• common land was given out as private plots, or encroached upon;
• traditional rules and village control weakened;
• the poor, who depend most on commons, lost the most.

4d. Groundwater: India's biggest commons problem

Why groundwater is a commons

• A well or tubewell sits on private land, so it looks like an individual resource.
• But it draws water from an aquifer (an underground layer of rock or soil that holds water). The aquifer lies under many farms.
• Each farmer gains by pumping more, while the falling water table hurts everyone. This is the tragedy of the commons underground.

The scale of the problem

• CGWB's Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment 2025: India's stage of groundwater extraction (the share of yearly refillable groundwater that is actually pumped out) is 60.63% [9].
• In the same assessment, 730 of 6,762 assessment units (10.80%) are "over-exploited" [9].
• Categories used [9]:

Category	Stage of extraction
Safe	≤ 70%
Semi-critical	> 70% to ≤ 90%
Critical	> 90% to ≤ 100%
Over-exploited	> 100% (more taken out than put back)

• Trend: over-exploited units fell from 17.24% (2017) to 11.13% (2024) [9], and to 10.80% in 2025 [9].
• The 2024 assessment put the national stage of extraction at 60.47%, with 751 units over-exploited [9].
• Section 8 covers groundwater in detail.

Prelims Hooks

• Territorial waters = 12 nautical miles → national resource. Beyond 200 nautical miles (past the EEZ) → international resource.
• International Seabed Authority: HQ Kingston, Jamaica; set up in 1994 under UNCLOS 1982. UNCLOS calls the deep seabed "the Area", the common heritage of mankind.
• India's ISA nodule contract was signed in 2002, covering about 75,000 sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin [2][6].
• Reserves are a subset of stock. Trap: "water in dams" = reserve, not stock. "Hydrogen in water as energy" = stock (NCERT).
• Solar and wind in Rajasthan and Gujarat = potential resource (NCERT example).
• Grazing grounds, burial grounds and village ponds = community-owned; minerals, forests and wildlife = national (even when found on private land).
• Tragedy of the commons → Garrett Hardin (1968). Governing the Commons → Elinor Ostrom (1990). Ostrom won the 2009 economics Nobel, the first woman to do so [8].
• National Green Hydrogen Mission: approved 4 January 2023; outlay ₹19,744 crore; target 5 MMT a year by 2030 [3].
• Groundwater "over-exploited" means stage of extraction > 100%. In 2025, 10.80% of units were over-exploited [9].
• Pairs: Van panchayat → Uttarakhand; Oran → Rajasthan; Arvary Pani Sansad → Alwar, Rajasthan.

Mains Points

• Resource classes change with technology (GS-III, energy). Hydrogen moving from stock to developed resource under the Green Hydrogen Mission (5 MMT a year target by 2030 [3]) and the deep seabed nodules targeted by the Deep Ocean Mission [5] both show that "resource" is a technical and economic idea, not a fixed one. Planning must survey potential resources (for example solar in Rajasthan) and keep reserves for future generations. This is the Brundtland idea of sustainable development.
• Groundwater as a hidden commons (GS-I/III). Private wells drawing on shared aquifers lead to over-pumping. 730 assessment units were still over-exploited in 2025 [9]. Remedies follow Ostrom's principles: community aquifer mapping and water budgets, local monitoring, and pricing and power-supply rules that limit free extraction. Examples include participatory groundwater management and models like the Arvary Pani Sansad.
• Shrinking village commons hurt the poor most (GS-I, society; GS-III, environment). Encroachment, privatisation and weak local control (Jodha's findings) cut fodder, fuel and water for landless and pastoral groups. Strengthening van panchayats, protecting orans and recording commons in land records can reverse this. The aim is to turn open access into managed common property.
• The global commons and equity (GS-II/III). The deep seabed is the "common heritage of mankind" under UNCLOS. ISA contracts let India gain access to critical minerals (nickel, cobalt, copper) [6]. But deep-sea mining raises questions about harm to ocean life and fair sharing of benefits. This links to SDG 14 (life below water) and the Rio principle of care before damage (the precautionary principle).