Because the welfare and distribution of the forest lands had been mainly under the control of its inhabitants throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, lands were not privately owned, but under the control of separate villages. Each village would elect a panchayat, or village council, to draft and enforce local laws that were designed to regulate the usage of the forests by each villager. If a villager needed to cut a tree for housing or fencing purposes, he must first request permission from the panchayat. Patches of oak were restricted from looping in hot weather in order to preserve the fodder and saplings that relied on the shade to survive. Villages shared the tasks of planting, maintaining, and guarding the common grounds of other villages. If a member of the village was caught abusing any of the rules, they could be restricted or banned from the forest. Villagers were limited by need rather than desire as to the amounts of resources they could collect from the land and local forests. (Guha 1989, p 37) .
Villagers were also sensitive to the needs of the earth and understood the challenges that living in the Himalayas presented. Terrace farming is a centuries old tradition used in the Himalayas because of the steep slopes and thin topsoil. Since animal husbandry was just as important to local economies as crop cultivation, people were required to migrate annually with their cattle to the grass rich areas of the forest. These areas were often located across other village's boundary lines, but rarely did disputes occur because of the care and conservative methods used by the people. In the lower elevations, chir pine forests served as excellent pasture land and were respected and understood by the villagers. Each year during the dry season, the pine needles and dry grass were burnt in order to make room for the new grass and to prevent the needles from becoming slippery and a hazard to the cattle.
In India, the most visible advocate of ecofeminism is Vandana Shiva. One would tend to categorize her work with the eco-feminists of the radical mode, Vandana Shiva (1988) critiques modern science and technology as a western, patriarchal and colonial project, which is inherently violent and perpetua...