Homogeneous River and Heterogeneous Communities: Implications of Local Practices of Sustainable River Basin Management

This paper examines the concept of resources and communities as it is rigorously used in the sustainable development discourses. The legitimisation of the local practices of sustainable development in turn conceptualise natural environment as a resource which needs to be protected with the help of local participation and local knowledge. As a result of this process of sustainable management of environment, the complexity of heterogeneity exists in the community as well as the natural life supporting system is ignored. The discussion draw on the qualitative ethnographic field work conducted at Thirunelli Grama Panchayath in Wayanad, Kerala3 which is complexly comprised of six different tribal communities and other different non-tribal settler communities from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.