Chipko movement:

The Chipko movement or Chipko Andolan is a movement that practiced the Gandhian
methods of satyagraha and non-violent resistance, through the act of hugging trees to protect
them from being felled. The modern Chipko movement started in the early 1970s in the Garhwal
Himalayas of Uttarakhand, Then in Uttar Pradesh with growing awareness towards rapid
deforestation. The landmark event in this struggle took place on March 26, 1974, when a group
of peasant women in Reni village, Hemwalghati, in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, India, acted
to prevent the cutting of trees and reclaim their traditional forest rights that were threatened by
the contractor system of the state Forest Department. Their actions inspired hundreds of such
actions at the grassroots level throughout the region. By the 1980s the movement had spread
throughout India and led to formulation of people-sensitive forest policies, which put a stop to
the open felling of trees in regions as far reaching as Vindhyas and the Western Ghats. Today, it
is seen as an inspiration and a precursor for Chipko movement of Garhwal. The Chipko
movement though primarily a livelihood protection movement rather than a forest conservation
movement went on to become a rallying point for many future environmentalists, environmental
protests and movements the world over and created a precedent for non-violent protest. [4][5] It
occurred at a time when there was hardly any environmental movement in the developing world,
and its success meant that the world immediately took notice of this non-violent movement,
which was to inspire in time many such eco-groups by helping to slow down the rapid
deforestation, expose vested interests, increase ecological awareness, and demonstrate the
viability of people power. Above all, it stirred up the existing civil society in India, which began
to address the issues of tribal and marginalized people. So much so that, a quarter of a century
later, India Today mentioned the people behind the "forest satyagraha" of the Chipko movement
as amongst "100 people who shaped India". Today, beyond the eco-socialism hue, it is being seen
increasingly as an ecofeminism movement. Although many of its leaders were men, women were
not only its backbone, but also its mainstay, because they were the ones most affected by the
rampant deforestation, which led to a lack of firewood and fodder as well as water for drinking
and irrigation. Over the years they also became primary stakeholders in a majority of the

afforestation work that happened under the Chipko movement. In 1987 the Chipko Movement
was awarded the Right Livelihood Award CHIPKO MOVEMENT.

Issue:
Deforestation is a severe problem in northern India and local people have banded
together to prevent commercial timber harvesting. These people have adopted a unique strategy
in recognizing trees as valuable, living beings. The Chipko movement adherents are known
literally as "tree huggers."It was 1973, and the first movement happened spontaneously in a
village in the Himalayas. Since then, the Chipko Movement, groups of activists protecting their
trees, has spread across Uttar Pradesh and India itself. An active protest, the Chipko Movement
put themselves between their beloved trees and the axe threatening to cut them down. From
1973, the movement grew rapidly, and in 1980 it succeeded in persuading Indira Gandhi to pass
a fifteen year old ban on felling in the Himalayan states. Whats more, although in 2004 one
district Himachal Pradesh lifted this ban, in 2005 it was still in place in most districts. One of the
best things about the Chipko Movement was the way it spread to women. In Chamoli district in
1974, a group of women protected 2500 trees from being auctioned off by the government by
standing by them. Chipko empowered women to change their world. Weve all heard about tree
huggers, but this is one time when this method really worked! It just goes to show that, if you
feel strongly about something, if you want to protect it, you can.

History:
The Himalayan region had always been exploited for its natural wealth, be it minerals or
timber, including under British rule. The end of the nineteenth century saw the implementation of
new approaches in forestry, coupled with reservation of forests for commercial forestry, causing
disruption in the age-old symbiotic relationship between the natural environment and the od were
crushed severely. Notable protests in 20th century, were that of 1906, followed by the 1921
protest which was linked with the independence movement imbued with Gandhian ideologies,
The 1940s was again marked by a series of protests in Tehri Garhwal region. In the postindependence period, when waves of a resurgent India were hitting even the far reaches of India,

the landscape of the upper Himalayan region was only slowly changing, and remained largely
inaccessible. But all this was to change soon, when an important event in the environmental
history of the Garhwal region occurred in the India-China War of 1962, in which India faced
heavy losses. Though the region was not involved in the war directly, the government, cautioned
by its losses and war casualties, took rapid steps to secure its borders, set up army bases, and
build road networks deep into the upper reaches of Garhwal on Indias border with Chinese-ruled
Tibet, an area which was until now all but cut off from the rest of the nation. However, with the
construction of roads and subsequent developments came mining projects for limestone,
magnesium, and potassium. Timber merchants and commercial foresters now had access to land
hitherto. Soon, the forest cover started deteriorating at an alarming rate, resulting in hardships for
those involved in labour-intensive fodder and firewood collection. This also led to deterioration
in the soil conditions, and soil erosion in the area as the water sources dried up in the hills. Water
shortages became widespread. Subsequently, communities gave up raising livestock, which
added to the problems of malnutrition in the region. This crisis was heightened by the fact that
forest conservation policies, like the Indian Forest Act, 1927, traditionally restricted the access of
local communities to the forests, resulting in scarce farmlands in an over- populated and
extremely poor area, despite all of its natural wealth. Thus the sharp decline in the local agrarian
economy lead to a migration of people into the plains in search of jobs, leaving behind several
de-populated villages in the 1960s. Gradually a rising awareness of the ecological crisis, which
came from an immediate loss of livelihood caused by it, resulted in the growth of political
activism in the region. The year 1964 saw the establishment of Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh
(DGSS) (Dasholi Society for Village Self-Rule ), set up by Gandhian social worker, Chandi
Prasad Bhatt in Gopeshwar, and inspired by Jayaprakash Narayan and the Sarvodaya movement,
with an aim to set up small industries using the resources of the forest. Their first project was a
small workshop making farm tools for local use. Its name was later changed to Dasholi Gram
Swarajya Sangh (DGSS) from the original Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal (DGSM) in the
1980s. Here they had to face restrictive forest policies, a hangover of colonial era still prevalent,
as well as the "contractor system", in which these pieces of forest land were commodified and
auctioned to big contractors, usually from the plains, who brought along their own skilled and
semi-skilled laborers, leaving only the menial jobs like hauling rocks for the hill people, and
paying them next to nothing. On the other hand, the hill regions saw an influx of more people

from the outside, which only added to the already strained ecological balance. Hastened by
increasing hardships, the Garhwal Himalayas soon became the centre for a rising ecological
awareness of how reckless deforestation had denuded much of the forest cover, resulting in the
devastating Alaknanda River floods of July 1970, when a major landslide blocked the river and
affected an area starting from Hanumanchatti, near Badrinath to 350 km downstream till
Haridwar, further numerous villages, bridges and roads were washed away. Thereafter,
incidences of landslides and land subsidence became common in an area which was experiencing
a rapid increase in civil engineering projects. Soon villagers, especially women, started
organizing themselves under several smaller groups, taking up local causes with the authorities,
and standing up against commercial logging operations that threatened their livelihoods. In
October 1971, the Sangh workers held a demonstration in Gopeshwar to protest against the
policies of the Forest Department. More rallies and marches were held in late 1972, but to little
effect, until a decision to take direct action was taken. The first such occasion occurred when the
Forest Department turned down the Sanghs annual request for ten ash trees for its farm tools
workshop, and instead awarded a contract for 300 trees to Simon Company, a sporting goods
manufacturer in distant Allahabad, to make tennis rackets. In March, 1973, the lumbermen
arrived at Gopeshwar, and after a couple of weeks, they were confronted at village Mandal on
April 24, 1973, where about hundred villagers and DGSS workers were beating drums and
shouting slogans, thus forcing the contractors and their lumbermen to retreat. This was the first
confrontation of the movement; the contract was eventually cancelled and awarded to the Sangh
instead. By now, the issue had grown beyond the mere procurement of an annual quota of three
ash trees, and encompassed a growing concern over commercial logging and the government's
forest policy, which the villagers saw as unfavourable towards them. The Sangh also decided to
resort to tree-hugging, or Chipko, as a means of non-violent protest. But the struggle was far
from over, as the same company was awarded more ash trees, in the Phata forest, 80 km away
from Gopeshwar. Here again, due to local opposition, starting on June 20, 1973, the contractors
retreated after a stand-off that lasted a few days. Thereafter, the villagers of Phata and Tarsali
formed a vigil group and watched over the trees till December, when they had another successful
stand-off, when the activists reached the site in time. The lumberermen retreated leaving behind
the five ash trees felled. The final flash point began a few months later, when the government
announced an auction scheduled in January, 1974, for 2,500 trees near Reni village, overlooking

the Alaknanda River. Bhatt set out for the villages in the Reni area, and incited the villagers, who
decided to protest against the actions of the government by hugging the trees. Over the next few
weeks, rallies and meetings continued in the Reni area. On March 26, 1974, the day the
lumbermen were to cut the trees, the men of the Reni village and DGSS workers were in
Chamoli, diverted by state government and contractors to a fictional compensation payment site,
while back home labourers arrived by the truckload to start logging operations.[4] A local girl, on
seeing them, rushed to inform Gaura Devi, the head of the village Mahila Mangal Dal, at Reni
village (Laata was her ancestral home and Reni adopted home). Gaura Devi led 27 of the village
women to the site and confronted the loggers. When all talking failed, and instead the loggers
started to shout and abuse the women, threatening them with guns, the women resorted to
hugging the trees to stop them from being felled. This went on into late hours. The women kept
an all-night vigil guarding their trees from the cutters till 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 others villages including Henwalghati, and more people joined in.
Eventually only after a four-day stand-off, the contractors left.

After effects:
The news soon reached the state capital. Where then state Chief Minister, Hemwati Nandan
Bahuguna, set up a committee to look into the matter, which eventually ruled in favour of the
villagers. This became a turning point in the history of eco-development struggles in the region
and around the world. The struggle soon spread across many parts of the region, and such
spontaneous stand-offs between the local community and timber merchants occurred at several
locations, with hill women demonstrating their new-found power as non-violent activists. As the
movement gathered shape under its leaders, the name Chipko Movement was attached to their
activities. According to Chipko historians, the term originally used by Bhatt was the word
"angalwaltha" in the Garhwali language for "embrace", which later was adapted to the Hindi
word, Chipko, which means to stick. Subsequently, over the next five years the movement spread
too many districts in the region, and within a decade throughout the Uttarakhand Himalayas.
Larger issues of ecological and economic exploitation of the region were raised. The villagers
demanded that no forest-exploiting contracts should be given to outsiders and local communities
should have effective control over natural resources like land, water, and forests. They wanted
the government to provide low-cost materials to small industries and ensure development of the
region without disturbing the ecological balance. The movement took up economic issues of
landless forest workers and asked for guarantees of minimum wage. Globally Chipko
demonstrated how environment causes, up until then considered an activity of the rich, were a
matter of life and death for the poor, who were all too often the first ones to be devastated by an
environmental tragedy. Several scholarly studies were made in the aftermath of the movement. In
1977, in another area, women tied sacred threads, Raksha Bandhan, around trees earmarked for
felling in a Hindu tradition which signifies a bond between brother and sisters. Womens
participation in the Chipko agitation was a very novel aspect of the movement. The forest
contractors of the region usually doubled up as suppliers of alcohol to men. Women held
sustained agitations against the habit of alcoholism and broadened the agenda of the movement
to cover other social issues. The movement achieved a victory when the government issued a ban
on felling of trees in the Himalayan regions for fifteen years in 1980 by then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi, until the green cover was fully restored. One of the prominent Chipko leaders,
Gandhian Sunderlal Bahuguna, took a 5,000-kilometre trans-Himalaya foot march in 198183,
spreading the Chipko message to a far greater area. Gradually, women set up cooperatives to

guard local forests, and also organized fodder production at rates conducive to local
environment. Next, they joined in land rotation schemes for fodder collection, helped replant
degraded land, and established and ran nurseries stocked with species they selected.

The Chipko movement and women:

The Chipko Movement in the Uttarakhand region of the Himalayas is often treated as a women's
movement to protect the forest ecology of the Uttarakhand from the axes of the contractors. But
the reasons behind women's participation are more economic than ecological. In fact, the
economic and ecological interests of Uttarakhand are so interwoven that it is difficult to promote
one without promoting other. In this paper an attempt would be made to explain the reasons
behind women's active participation in the Movement and their place within the Movement.
The Chipko Movement began in 1971 as a movement by local people under the leadership of
Dashauli Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS) to assert then rights over the forest produce. Initially
demonstrations were organized in different parts of Uttarakhand demanding abolition of the
contractual system of exploiting the forest-wealth, priority to the local forest-based industries in
the dispersal o forest-wealth and association of local voluntary organizations and local people in
the management of the forests. In 1982 , in spite of these demonstrations, the DGSS (now
DGSM, M for Mandal) was refused, by the Forest Department, on ecological grounds, the
permission to cut 12 Ash trees to manufacture agricultural implements. At the same time, an
Allahabad based firm was allotted 32 Ash trees from the same forest to manufacture sports
goods. On hearing this news, Chandi Prasad Bhatt threatened to hug the trees to protect them
from being felled rather than let them be taken away by this company. Till this time, however, the
women were absent. In 1974, inspite of DGSS's protests, about 2500 trees of Reni forest were
auctioned by the Forest Department. The DGSS planned to launch the Chipko Movement there.
However, the local bureaucracy played the trick and managed to make the area devoid of local
men as well as activists of the DGSS. To the utter surprise of everybody, 27 women of Reni
village successfully prevented about 60 men from going to the forest to fell the marked trees.
This was the first major success of the Chipko Movement. It is after this incident that attempts
were made to project it as a women's movement. After this incident, the Reni Investigation
Committee was set up by the U.P. Government and on its recommendations 1200 sq. km. Of

river catchment area were banned from commercial exploitation. After Reni, in 1975, the women
of Gopeshwar, in 1978, of Bhyudar Valley (threshold of Valley of Flower), of Dongary-Paitoli in
1980, took the lead in protecting their forests. In Dongari and Paitoli, the women opposed their
men's decision to give a 60 acre Oak forest to construct a horticulture farm. They also demanded
their right to be associated in the management of the forest. Their plea was that it is the woman
who collects fuel, fodder, water, etc. The question of the forest is a life and death question for
her. Hence, she should have a say in any decision about the forest. Now they are not only active
in protecting the forests but are also in afforesting the bare hill-slopes.

Afforestation Programmes General Awakening:

Since 1976, the IGSS started afforesting such which had become vulnerable to landslides.
Initially this was also an all male programme. Sometimes local village women participated on
some ornamental programme on the last day of the afforestation camp. However, the idea of
increasing the association of women got momentum after 1978. In the beginning, the local
women were assigned the responsibility of looking after the trees planted in their villages. While
planting trees their suggestions were sought about the species to be planted. To solve the fodder
problem, grass imported from Kashmir was planted. As the afforestation programme attempted
to solve the problem of fuel and fodder, the women welcomed it. They looked after the trees so
much so that the survival rate is between 60-80 percent. In these afforestation camps,
information about different aspects of local life is exchanged with the villagers. Their basic
problems including the specific problems faced by women are discussed and ways of solving
these problems are evolved.
Because both the protection and afforestation programmes reflect the needs and aspirations of
women, the women have spontaneously responded to the Chipko call and became the effective
links of the movement. In fact recently, due to the awakening generated during the afforestation
camps, women have started Mangal Dals in many villages have become very active. In our
village, the women stood for elections for village head. Previously, the women used to be passive
listeners in the camps too. In one of the recent camps, July-Aug 1982, women with breast-

feeding children walked about 18 kilometers to participate in the afforestation camp there. The
women, who till recently were mere limbs of the movement, have now risen to leadership roles.

Success of the Chipko Movement:

Ban on cutting the trees for the 15 years in the forests of Uttar Pradesh in 1980.

Later on the ban was imposed in Himachal Pardesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Bihar,
Western Ghats and Vindhayas.

More than 1,00,000 trees have been saved from excavation.

It generated pressure for a natural resource policy which is more sensitive to people's
needs and ecological requirements.

Afterward environmental awareness increased dramatically in India.

New methods of forest farming have been developed, both to conserve the forests and
create employment.

By 1981, over a million trees had been planted through their efforts.

Villagers paid special attention in care of the trees and forest trees are being used
judiciously.

The forest department has opened some nursery in villages and supplies free seedlings to
the forest.

This method often slowed the work and brought attention the governments actions.

The Chipko is still working to protect the trees today through the same nonviolent
methods.

The chipko movement is teaching the people better land use ,nursery management and
reforestation methods.

Conclusion:
As a diverse movement with diverse experiences, strategies, and motivations, Chipko
inspired environmentalists both nationally and globally and contributed substantially to the
emerging philosophies of eco-feminism and deep ecology and fields of community-based
conservation and sustainable mountain development.

Reference:

chipko movement - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipko_movement

The Chipko movement- http://edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/forestry/chipko.htm

Chipko Movement, India : http://www.iisd.org/50comm/commdb/desc/d07.htm

The Chipko Movement (1987, India)- http://www.rightlivelihood.org/chipko.html

The Chipko movement and women -- By Gopa Joshi - http://www.pucl.org/fromarchives/Gender/chipko.htm