Traditional irrigation practices of Ladakh (villages of Phuktse, Shara, and Sharnos), India

The villages of Phuktse, Shara, and Sharnos are located in the Ladakh division of the Jammu and Kashmir districts, India.  The villages are successively downstream from each other, beginning with Phuktse which is upstream from Shara which is upstream from Sharnos.  Each village encompasses an unknown geographical area of land located in a cold desert/high altitude region characterized by glaciers, snowfields, short cultivation periods, and scarce water resources. The case study involves an undetermined snapshot in time and catalogues an action situation involving an unknown number of households in each village which are dependent on an earthen channel irrigation system to divert water from melting snow and glaciers to their fields.  The three villages share the same source of water draining into a common tokpo (stream) and are, therefore, grouped into one system of intra-village common-pool resource management.  Water is the main resource and the irrigation canal is the public infrastructure that requires regular maintenance. 

The original case study authors focused on the impact of globalization on the traditional CPR governance of this irrigation system.  The case study has subsequently been used in comparative analyses regarding Ostrom's Design Principles (see bibliography).