Chipko Movement : An unfinished movement….

” Ecology is the permanent economy “

 

Chipko is a Hindi word, which means “to hug” or “to stick”.
Chipko Movement is one of the strongest movements which began in 1973 at the foothills of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand (then a part of Uttar Pradesh for the conservation of forest.
Background:
Inspired by Jayaprakash Narayan and the Sarvodaya movement, “Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh” (DGSS) was set up by Gandhian social worker Chandi Prasad Bhatt in Gopeshwar in the year 1964. It’s aim was of setting up small industries using the resources of the forest. In 1980s, they had to face restrictive forest policies of colonial rulers as well as the “contractor system” which not only resulted in leaving only menial jobs fo the locals, paying nothing but also effect on ecological balance in hill regions. Incidences of floods, landslide and land subsidence became common in the areas of prevailing such civil engineering projects. Taking up the stand for environment, soon villagers and women began to organise several smaller groups against commercial logging operations that threatened their livelihoods.
The first confrontation of the movement occurred in 1973 when the Forest Department turned down the Sangh’s annual request for 10 ash trees for its farm tools workshop and instead awarded a contract for 300 trees to Simon Company to make tennis rackets. When the lumbermen arrived at Gopeshwar, they got confronted at village Mandal, where there were about 100 villagers along with the DGSS workers were beating drums & shouting slogans, thus forcing the contractors and their lumbermen to move back.
Though the contract was eventually got cancelled & awarded to the Sangh instead, but for the villagers, by the time, issue had grown beyond the mere procurement of an annual quota of the ash trees. Their concern growing over commercial logging and the government’s forest policy, which the villagers saw as unfavorable towards them.
Here, the Sangh also decided to turn to tree-hugging, or Chipko, as a means of non-violent protest. Yet the struggle wasn’t over, villagers & sangh have to retreat contractors & lumberman several times in between.
Immediate cause of the movement:
It started when in January 1974, the government announced an auction for 2,500 trees near Reni village, overlooking the Alaknanda River. For that, Bhatt set out for the villages in the Reni area and incited the villagers, who decided to stand and protest against the actions of the government by hugging the trees. Rallies and meetings continued in the area for next few weeks.
On 25 March 1974, the men of Reni village & DGSS workers were diverted to Chamoli by the state government & contractors to a fictional compensation payment site. It was done purposely to allow the lumbermen to proceed foe cutting trees without confrontation. A local girl, on seeing loggers, rushed to inform Gaura Devi, the head of the village Mahila Mangal Dal. Hearing this, Gaura Devi led 27 of the village women to the site to confront the loggers. When all talking failed, the loggers started threatening womens with gun, shouting and abusing them; the women turned to hugging the trees to stop them from being felled. This went all day & all night, the women kept an all-night vigil guarding their trees from the loggers until a few of them relented and left the village. The next day, when the men and leaders returned, the news of the movement spread to the neighbouring Laata and other villages including Henwalghati, and many more people joined in. Eventually, after a four-day stand-off, the contractors finally left.
Spread of the movement:
• The struggle soon spread across many parts of the region. It not only drew the attentions of the political power but also of environment lovers and scientists.
The news of the movement soon reached the state capital, where the state Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, setted up a committee to look into the matter. It eventually ruled in favour of the villagers and became a turning point in the history of eco-development struggles in the region and around the world. 
• The peaceful protest for the protection of environment became more prominent during the times. 
• It also laid it’s foundation in many states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. 
• In 1980, it also resulted in the government’s 15-year ban on cutting of green trees by the PM Indira Gandhi.
• Sunderlal Bahuguna helped to bring the movement into light through a 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya march undertaken from 1981 to 1983, where he travelled from village to village and gathered support for the movement.
• In 1987, the Chipko movement was awarded the Right to Livelihood Award.
Impact of the movement:

The Chipko movement displayed to the world, how with a firm determination and path of non – violence can bring big changes in the society and helps in eliminating the root cause of social evils.

It inspired villagers and people to work on water management, energy conservation, afforestation, recycling, issues of environmental degradation and methods of conservation in the Himalayas and throughout India.
Women’s participation:
• Women’s participation in the Chipko andolan was a very novel aspect of the movement. Being the backbone of Uttarakhand’s Agrarian economy, women were most directly affected by environmental degradation and deforestation, and thus related to the issues most easily.
• A lady named Gaura devi, the head of village Mahila Mangal Dal, led the 21 women & children and hugged the tree in order to protect it from loggers.
• Later, she led many operations against cutting of trees to their smuggling. Spending whole life in the forest she kept an updated & modern view and participated as Rural Problems Advisor on Najibabad radio. Her opinions were in the interest of people and the environment, she stood in the support of women empowerment. She was often being called as “Goddess of the mountains”.
• She was awarded the first environment-friendly award in 1986 and was elected as the chairman of Dasheli Gram Swarajya Mandal over 30 other women groups.
• Despite this, both female and male activists did play pivotal roles in the movement. In the leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt, main participants were Gaura Devi, Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sundarlal Bahuguna, Govind Singh Rawat, Dhoom Singh Neji, Shamsher Singh Bisht and Ghanasyam Raturi (the Chipko poet whose songs are still popular in the Himalayan region).
• In 1982, Chandi Prasad Bhatt was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award and Sunderlal Bahuguna was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2009.
Not just a movement…

The Chipko movement was not just a movement we read in history, it showed world the firm determination & non-violence path for protecting our ecology. The movement ended, but the idea kept alive; the world has witnessed many such movements till then. Just two years back Delhi also witnessed it’s own version of ‘Chipko movement’ where around 1500 people gathered against the government’s order to cut down 14,000 trees in south Delhi area.

Reference:
1. Wikipedia
2. The Indian Express
3. downtoearth.org.in
4. ndtv.com
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