Talk:Rural-scape on the Fringe of City

Dear Archana,

This area makes me really curious. Your drawing with the uses of men, women and children is very good, I hope you can develop this method further also for other places in this village. It shows a lot - in a planning sense - but is also well understandable for lay people.

The use map rises some questions to me: what is 'undefined' space - are they not used? Temporarily? Cows eating? Children playing? What happens in the 'common' place - is it agricultural land used by everybody? In German this would be called 'Allmende'. How is the boundary between the religious site and its surroundings defined - is it more an invisible boundary (in people's minds) or is it spatial?

Are the woodlands used by people as you say this is a reserve?

Well, this is rather a set of questions than a comment -

Best wishes, Ellen

Archana: It is good that you liked the drawing.I think I would like to use this in behavior mapping. Regarding your questions I would like to answer them one by one but some how its interconnected

1) The areas which I mentioned in map as undefined is the current use of land. These are the land pieces belong to villagers. Initially its function was agriculture land, may be on papers its still a agricultural land. But as this village is on the fringe of city, and young generation is moving to city for job, these are the areas which are just lying ideally there with no function at all. There is no defined cattle in villages so no grazing as such. Children are not allowed to play there as it is a private property....so no current function just a piece of land with undefined function.

2) Common place or area is the land which belongs to gram panchayat (village governing body). It can be used by anyone with some formalities. Initially this area was a water body where water from rain was collected and used for irrigation purpose. But due to unplanned construction now this catchment area is dry for almost all the time.

3) Religious land belongs to one villager which he donated, but on papers its still his land. So its more of a agreement on social level. Its boundary is defined by wired fencing.It can be used by any one anytime...

4) Reserve forest in India is generally forest which comes under forest authority of India. Entering in it after certain limit is prohibited. Initially for fuel villagers used to go inside and collect woods but now a day because of proximity to city and availability of gas its kind of very minimum. There are certain conflicts between forest authority and villagers also man -animal conflict as there is no barricade between village and forest which is a matter of concern. Which I would like to reflect further as well in my thesis.

Thanks. If there are any other questions please let me know.

Dear Archana, Your sketches, maps and drawing are very clear and I can get a good idea of the area.

I am very much curious about the results of your workshops with the villagers about how they appreciate their landscapes and how you have developed the workshops. Could you give me some ideas about that? is there a problem or conflict for the use of the space due to the neighboring city expansion? why are there not agricultural activities today in the piece of land with undefined function? is it only because of the young job migration?