Chapter 10 - An institutional analysis of Gundalav Lake governance

Abstract

Lake Governance in India is undergoing a dilemma between lake development and lake conservation. Between this give and take situation, the lake biophysical system is challenged, and the community attributes are compromised. The lake restoration is perceived as a provision by the government with the community as mere users. This disconnect at the operational level of the lake restoration makes it difficult for the comprehensive understanding and application of the policies made at the collective action level and that unitedly affects the lake sustainability. To understand the lake restoration and governance activities at the Gundalav Lake, located in the city of Kishangarh in the central Rajasthan in India, the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework Ostrom (1990) is applied. The research objective is to identify the pattern of interaction between the actors at all the levels and the related governing mechanisms in the form of policies and programs. The key challenge faced is to understand the role of governance and actors for sustaining the lake physically and ecologically in a complicated setting as they happened in different levels and are entangled in complex manner. It is intriguing to find that the correlation between all the actors and actions at the operational level is crucial and that there is an important missing link among the different actors and with the lake that is challenging the lake sustainability. Certain institutional reforms in the lake governance of the Gundalav Lake are recommended that may be a start point to reform lake governance in India.