In recent time the whole world is going through tough phases, we are facing a lot of problems

and some of them are changing climate, water scarcity, rise in temperature, new terrain and
industrial impact. The best news is that to address these issues now the whole world is coming
together and the perfect example is Paris Peace Agreement where the whole world came together
to address the issue of climate change.
Common Property Resources (CPR) are natural resources owned and managed collectively by a
community or society rather than by individuals. The Common Property resources can be
subjected to individual use but no individual can claim ownership over them as it is used by a
number of stakeholders who have their own independent right to use. The main question arises
here is of ownership. The question of ownership can be understood by three important case laws
in India.
The first case law is of Hindustan Coca Cola Limited, in this case this particular company
established their factory in Plachimada village and used excessive groundwater and after one
year there was excessive shortage of groundwater which forced the villagers to approach court.
In this case for the first time the question of how much water an individual use and to what
extent? Sadly we still don’t have any law for this in our country except Odisha where the
government has restricted the use of groundwater to a certain extent.
The second case law is of M.C Mehta vs. Kamal Nath which is also known as the Span motel
case, in this case a case was lodged against Kamal Nath the then Ministry of Environment for
giving clearance to resorts near river Beas in Manali. In this case Justice Kuldeep Singh gave a
very important principle of Public trust doctrine which stated that “when the property are owned
by public at large, then any action that is to be taken across properties has to be taking into interest
accountability and transparency. No action must be taken into private properties with maligned
interest and it can’t be for the benefit of few in hands but for the benefit of larger in hand. This
case taught us that when the resources are owned by public at large then it cannot be subdued by
private individual for their own vested interest.
The thirs case is of Primacy over Hospitals and playgrounds and this was a case of Bangalore
Medical Trust v. Mundappa, in this case the question was what’s necessary, hospitals or
playground? In other word the question was of Right to wholesome environment vs Right to
Health. In this case under Bangalore Improvisation Act, the territory which was for playground
was to be shifted somewhere else and in its place a hospital was to be constructed but it came to
notice that the land provided for the hospital was of some private individual and so the court
applied the principle of Public Trust doctrine and decided that Common resources can’t be
diverted to others for few individual gains or for some private vested interest.
So through these cases it’s clear that CPR are owned by public at large and they’ve to be
preserved for public interests and are not to be diverted for private interests. These cases also
taught us that there should be conservation of CPR; it was evident in Hindustan Coca Cola case
that when the Court talked about transferring some percentage of revenue of the company to the
local people then suddenly the company retreated and stopped their production at the particular
village. Even in Span Motel Case Kamal Nath ultimately agreed on everything the river was
restored. In the last case also the area that was reserved for hospital was transferred to playground
because of public interest.
So through these cases we can in a way say that Human Beings especially private companies are
taking things for granted and that’s one of the main reasons for intensive encroachment of CPR.
The main reason for this is that people don’t claim CPR they live it thinking that it’s some sort
of development. The second reason is because people’s approach of not in my backyard and
letting further exploitations so we must need to change this approach and we should understand
that CPR are the highest protector of Environment and we must do anyhow protect CPR.