This dataset accompanies "The shifting norms behind emerging governance systems of peri-urban lakes in South India" (Kennedy, Anand, Harishankar & Follmann). It supports an inquiry, using a legal pluralism framework, into how the governance of peri-urban lakes in the metropolitan regions of Bengaluru and Chennai, India, is being transformed, and how "bundles" of rights and obligations over lake resources are redefined among social groups. The dataset includes actor-perception survey data (KoboToolbox) collected from residents and stakeholders at peri-urban lakes in Bengaluru and Chennai, covering demographic information, lake-use patterns, perceptions of ecological state, and actor roles/capacities in relation to lake governance.

This dataset forms part of the empirical material used for Chapter 4 of the doctoral thesis "Who Governs the Lakes?". It is linked to the co-authored paper examining shifting normative orders and legal pluralism in peri-urban lake governance in Bengaluru and Chennai, India.