Chipko movement

The Chipko movement was a group of villagers in the Uttarakhand region of India who opposed commercial logging. The movement is best known for its tactic of hugging trees to prevent them being cut down. This gave rise to the term tree hugger for environmentalists. Also, it was notable in that the movement was led by women who were influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. The name of the movement comes from the Hindi word for 'embrace', as the villagers hugged the trees, and prevented the contractors from felling them.

Motivators for the movement

Their opposition to deforestation was motivated by a combination of environmental and economic concerns. The felling of forests of Banj (Himalayan Oak), and their replacement by Chir Pine, reduced the amount of undergrowth and hence led to increased flooding. Among the movement's economic demands were that no forest-exploiting contracts be given to outsiders, a minimum wage for forest labourers, and the provision of low-cost materials for local small-scale industries.

Was It Part of a Hierarchy?

The movement denied any formal hierarchy, but particularly influential members included Sunderlal Bahuguna and Chandi Prasad Bhatt. The writer and activist Vandana Shiva was also involved in the Chipko movement in the 1970s.

When was the First Chipko Action?

The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in April 1973 in the village of Mandal in the upper Alakananda valley and over the next five years spread to many districts of the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh. It was sparked off by the government's decision to allot a plot of forest area in the Alaknanda valley to a sports goods company. This angered the villagers because their similar demand to use wood for making agricultural tools had been earlier denied. With encouragement from a local NGO (non-governmental organization), DGSS (Dasoli Gram Swarajya Sangh), the women of the area, under the leadership of an activist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, went into the forest and formed a circle around the trees preventing the men from cutting them down.

Bahuguna coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'. Ghanasyam Raturi, the Chipko poet, whose songs echo throughout the Himalayas of Uttar Pradesh, wrote a poem describing the method of embracing the trees to save them from felling:

Embrace the trees and

Save them from being felled;

The property of our hills,

Save them from being looted.

History

Though this movement gained prominence in the 1970s, the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan (a province in north western India) are said to have been the progenitors of this movement during the around the year 1730. A large number of villagers, a total 363 people, lost their lives trying to protect Khejri trees from being felled by the soldiers of the Maharaja of Jodhpur at a village called Khejarli.

References

Weber, Thomas. Hugging the Trees ISBN 0670823538

External links

Environmental movements | Recipients of the Right Livelihood Award | Uttaranchal | Environment of India