12, December 2025

Psychosocial Determinants of Community Participation in Dal Lake Conservation: A SIMCA-Based Assessment

VOLUME-11; ISSUE-12; DEC-2025

Author(s): 1. Samiya Gul, 2. Uzma Majeed, 3. Masroor Majid, 4. Farhet Ahmad Shaheen

Authors Affiliations:

  1. Postdoctoral fellow (ICSSR) Institute of Business and Policy Research, SKUAST, Shalimar Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India – 190025 and corresponding author e

2. Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Business and Policy Research, SKUAST, Shalimar Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India – 190025

3. Young Professional, HADP-04, Institute of Business and Policy Research, SKUAST, Shalimar Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India – 190025

 4. Associate professor, Institute of Business and Policy Research, SKUAST, Shalimar Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India – 190025

DOIs:10.2015/IJIRMF/202512003     |     Paper ID: IJIRMF202512003


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Dal Lake has undergone decades of ecological degradation despite extensive governmental interventions, highlighting the need for community-driven conservation. This paper examines Dal Lake conservation through the lens of the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) to identify the psychosocial antecedents that motivate residents to engage in collective conservation behaviour. The study explores how social identity, group-based emotions, perceived injustice, collective efficacy, moral conviction, and solidarity operate as determinants of collective action. A structured questionnaire survey was administered to 372 residents living in the Dal Lake using a random sampling approach. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to assess the levels of social identity, group-based emotions, perceived injustice, collective efficacy, solidarity, moral conviction, and collective action tendencies. The findings reveal that residents exhibit strong social identity, emotional alignment, and perceived injustice in relation to lake degradation; however, these sentiments do not fully translate into collective action, indicating a gap between attitudinal commitment and behavioural engagement. By adapting SIMCA to an environmental conservation context, this paper emphasises that successful restoration of Dal Lake depends not only on technical interventions but also on strengthening psychosocial drivers that build unity, moral responsibility, and confidence in collective efforts. The conceptual framework provides a foundation for designing people-centered and socially embedded conservation strategies.

SIMCA, Dal Lake, community engagement, collective action, conservation, social identity, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Conservation.

Samiya Gul1, Uzma Majeed2, Masroor Majid3 and Farhet Ahmad Shaheen4 (2025);  Psychosocial Determinants of Community Participation in Dal Lake Conservation: A SIMCA-Based Assessment, International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, ISSN(O): 2455-0620, Vol-11, Issue-12, Pp. 20-28.         Available on –   https://www.ijirmf.com/

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