ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the changing political ecology of the commons that are situated between rural and urban regimes of land and property in India. It focuses on urbanizing peripheries because amid extensive urban transformation the social and material relations of land, ecology, property, community, and place are undergoing significant reconfiguration. The chapter explores the contours of urban conservation projects as they take shape in urban India and describes the case of biodiversity conservation in the Aravali Hills in the new city of Gurgaon, located on the southwestern edge of New Delhi. The goal of the chapter is neither to celebrate a romanticized notion of the commons, simply defending the agro-pastoralists who continue to live in many villages near the park, nor is it to undermine or challenge the efforts of environmental advocates who have come forward to create the park.
