Dehradun: Today the world is celebrating 51st Anniversary of 'Chipko Andolan'.
Right fifty-one years ago on 26 March 1974, a movement started in India to protect trees and forest areas from deforestation which was called Chipko Andolan. It was the first ecofeminist environmental movement in the world.
The name comes from the Hindi word “chipko”, meaning “to cling” or “to hug”, as the villagers embraced the trees to prevent them from being felled.
Backgrounder
Perhaps it was an extraordinary morning in the remote Himalayan village of Reni in 1974, when most male villagers had gone to the district headquarters of Chamoli to collect the compensation for land they had given up to the Army after the Chinese attack of 1962.
Gaura Devi Leads
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'Only women, seniors and children were in the village when labourers were smuggled into the forest to chop trees. Gaura Devi gathered 21 women and seven girls and marched up the mountain to save their forests. They firmly forced the labourers to leave the forest.
'Thus these women saved thousands of trees from being cut on a large scale in the catchment area of Nanda Devi peak.
Historic Step
'After the historic initiative of Chipko at Reni, the movement continued spreading to other parts of Uttarakhand. In Almora district, 6,000 trees in the Chancharidhaar forest were saved from Star Paper Mills. People used slogans such as ‘Pedon par cut jayenge...’ (Cut us efore the trees, we will save our trees).
Chander Singh
'Gaura Devi’s son, Chander Singh Rana talked about the persisting connection between the forest and the people. We still depend on the forest for medicinal herbs, and the most fresh vegetables. He said, “The Chipko Andolan taught us that we must save what nature has given us. The movement was born because there was so much oppression [of people’s rights]. Gaura Devi, though she was unlettered, was part of the movement so that the wealth of the forests could be saved for future generations.”
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Sunderlal Bahuguna
'The Chipko Andolan did not end with the famous hugging-of-trees protest – it began with it. The next steps of the movement, as laid out by Sarla Behn, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Shamsher Bisht and others were towards making local communities self-sufficient when it came to forest dependence – greening of the hills by planting trees...'
In the ensuing years, Chipko influenced the implementation of the Forest Conservation Act 1980, which disallowed the use of forests for non-forest purposes.
The Chipko Andolan inspired several movements within Uttarakhand such as the Beej Bachao Andolan (Save Seeds Campaign), Maiti Andolan (Tree Planting Campaign), Chetna Andolan, Van Panchayat Sangharsh Morcha, anti-mining and Nadi Bachao Andolan (Save Rivers campaign).
