Centre for People’s Collective

THT Seed Grant (August 2022)

Project Name:

Grassland Conservation Project - Wardha

Project Brief:

The Centre for People’s Collective (CPC) is a non-profit dedicated to filling gaps in conservation knowledge, empower local communities to preserve the habitats and species around them, and influence policy.

CPC’s project to conserve the Wardha grasslands of Maharashtra has come a long way since it began. With the help of THT Seed Grant, their team on-ground has formed Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) in three villages that cover a large part of the grasslands, namely Danapur, Gumgaon and Chopan. These villages are inhabited by Nanda Gawli communities —- one of the prominent pastoral communities in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. The BMC members, who are members of the local community, are being educated and trained on conservation practices.

CPC’s project involves mapping and documenting the habitats and species of the landscape —- and they have made headway there as well. They have begun GIS mapping (Geographic Information System Mapping) of the grasslands, along with the documentation of livestock directly dependent on the grassland. They plan to document the landscape with a tool called the People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR), which is a formal record of the local knowledge.

Project objectives:
  • To create a community-led grassland conservation movement in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra with Biodiversity Management Committees in three villages of Wardha District
  • To create prospects of scientific documentation of flora and fauna of this region.
  • To build a well-informed community for the protection of the grassland and its ecosystem.