Decentralized Governance of Natural Resources: Comparing India and China on Policy Effectiveness

While there are important advantages for decentralized governance of natural resources, there are problems too. Most important of this is the incongruence between policy logic of a country and immediate benefit that local people want to draw by depleting natural resources. Especially in emerging economies, where commoditization tendencies are on the increase cash have high substitutability than natural resources. At the same time, emerging economies also require natural resources to fuel into the growth process. Because of these factors, there is increasing pressure on sustainable use of natural resources in those economies. This issue is examined by looking at the ground water governance in China and India in this paper. In both case countries, the tube wells have dramatically increased in last six decades. Particularly, rise has been for the purpose of irrigation.  In both countries, the authors find that decentralized governance has not been successful to control such unsustainable extraction of ground water. Pollution of the ground water and surface water also has been an issue that has escaped the control of local water regimes. While, policies are existing to replenish water resources, the dynamics at the local level is to bite-off the natural resources for the short-term benefits. The paper is future-looking to suggest institutional possibilities to strengthen decentralized governance and sustainable use of natural resources. Keywords: decentralized governance; natural resources; policy