Sunderlal Bahuguna (9 January 1927 – 21 May 2021) was an Indian

environmentalist and Chipko movement leader. The idea of the Chipko

movement was suggested by his wife. He fought for the preservation of forests
in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s and
later spearheaded the anti-Tehri Dam movement from the 1980s to early 2004.
He was one of the early environmentalists of India and later he and others
associated with the Chipko movement and started taking up wider
environmental issues, such as being opposed to large dams.
 Early life
Sunderlal Bahuguna was born in the village Maroda near Tehri, Uttarakhand, on 9 January
1927. Early on, he fought against untouchability and later started organising hill women in his anti-
liquor drive from 1965 to 1970. He started social activities at the age of thirteen, under the
guidance of Shri Dev Suman, who was a nationalist spreading a message of non-violence and he
was with the Congress Party of Uttar Pradesh at the time of Independence. Bahuguna also
mobilised people against colonial rule before 1947. He adopted Gandhian principles in his life and
married his wife Vimla with the condition that they would live among rural people and establish
ashram in village. Inspired by Gandhi, he walked through Himalayan forests and hills, covering more
than 4,700 kilometres on foot and observed the damage done by mega developmental projects on
the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas and subsequent degradation of social life in villages.
 CHIPKO MOVEMENT
The Chipko movement started in the early 1970s in Uttarakhand (then a part of Uttar
Pradesh) from spontaneous action by villagers to save trees from being cut down by forest
contractors. In Hindi, "chipko" literally means "hug", and the movement got this name since people
trying to save trees started hugging and Loving onto trees when lumbermen tried to fall those. One of
Sunderlal Bahuguna's notable contributions to the Chipko movement, and to environmentalism in
general, was his creation of the Chipko's slogan "Ecology is permanent economy". Sunderlal
Bahuguna helped bring the movement to prominence through a 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya
march undertaken from 1981 to 1983, traveling from village to village, gathering support for the
movement. He had an appointment with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and that
meeting is credited with resulting in Gandhi's subsequent 15-year ban on cutting of green trees in
1980. He was also closely associated with Gaura Devi, one of the pioneers of the movement.
 ANTI TEHRI DAM PROTESTS
Bahuguna played a major role in the anti-Tehri Dam protests for decades. He used Satyagraha
methods and repeatedly went on hunger strikes at the banks of Bhagirathi as a mark of his protest. In
1995, he called off a 45-day-long fast following an assurance from the then Prime Minister P.V.
Narasimha Rao of the appointment of a review committee on the ecological impacts of the dam.
Thereafter he went on another long fast which lasted for 74 days at Gandhi Samadhi, Raj Ghat, during
the tenure of Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who gave personal undertaking of project review.
However, despite a court case which ran in the Supreme Court for over a decade, work resumed at the
Tehri Dam in 2001, after which he was arrested on 24 April 2001.
Eventually, the dam reservoir started filling up in 2004, and on 31 July 2004, he was finally
evacuated to new accommodation at Koti. Later he shifted to the capital city of Uttarakhand,
Dehradun, and began living there with his wife.
 LEGACY AND INSPIRATION
On September 8, 1983, Pandurang Hegde, an environmental activist from Karnataka, started the
Appiko (Kannada for Chipko, "to hug") movement to protest against the felling of trees, monoculture, and
deforestation in the Western Ghats, deriving inspiration from Sunderlal Bahugana and the Chipko movement.
Bahuguna had visited the region in 1979 to help in the campaign against the proposed Bedthi hydroelectric
project. After the Appiko movement started, Bahuguna and Pandurang Hegde walked across many parts of
south India promoting conservation of ecology, especially the protection of the Western Ghats, a biodiversity
hotspot. This and the broader Save the Western Ghats Movement led to a moratorium on green felling across
the region in 1989.
While best known as an environmental activist and as a passionate defender of the Himalayan people
and India's rivers, Bahuguna also worked to improve the plight of the hill people, especially working women,
and was associated with temperance movements and earlier on with struggles against casteist discrimination.
Bahuguna died on May 21, 2021 due to COVID-19 complications. Shortly after, he was commemorated
by Amul in one of its advertisements.
 AWARDS
1. 1987: Right Livelihood Award (Chipko Movement)
2. 1981: Padma Shri (Refused) In 1981 Bahuguna had refused to accept the
Padma Shri over the government’s refusal to cancel the Tehri dam project
despite his protests.
3. 1986: Jamnalal Bajaj Award for constructive work.
4. 1989: Honorary Degree of Doctor of Social Sciences was conferred by IIT
Roorkee.
5. 2009: Padma Vibhushan Award by government of India for environment
conservation.
 BABA AMTE:
Murlidhar Devidas Amte, popularly known as Baba Amte, (26
December 1914 – 9 February 2008) was an Indian social worker and
social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and
empowerment of people suffering from leprosy. He has received
numerous awards and prizes. He is also known as the modern Gandhi
of India.
 Murlidhar Devidas "Baba" Amte was born in an affluent Deshastha Brahmin family on 26
December 1914 in the city of Hinganghat in Maharashtra. His father, Devidas Amte, was a colonial
government officer working for the district administration and revenue collection departments.
Murlidhar Amte acquired the nickname Baba in his childhood. His wife, Sadhanatai Amte, explains that
he came to be known as Baba not because "he was regarded as a saint or a holy person, but because
his parents addressed him by that name.
Amte was the eldest of eight children. As the eldest son of a wealthy land owner, he had an
idyllic childhood, filled with hunting and sports. By the time he was fourteen, he owned his own gun
and hunted bear and deer. When he was old enough to drive, he was given a Singer Sports car with
cushions covered with panther skin. Though he was born in a wealthy family he was always aware of
the class inequality that prevailed in Indian society. "There is a certain callousness in families like my
family," he used to say. "They put up strong barriers so as to avoid seeing the misery in the outside
world and I rebelled against it."
 Dedicated works
Trained in law, he developed a successful legal practice in Wardha. He
soon became involved in the Indian independence movement and, in 1942,
began working as a defense lawyer for Indian leaders imprisoned by the colonial
government for their involvement in the Quit India movement. He spent some
time at Sevagram, at the ashram started by Mahatma Gandhi and became a
follower of Gandhism. He practiced Gandhism by engaging in yarn spinning
using a charkha and wearing khadi. When Gandhi got to know that Dr. Amte had
defended a girl from the lewd taunts of some British soldiers, Gandhi gave him
the name – Abhay Sadhak (Fearless Seeker of Truth).
 However one day his encounter with a living corpse and leprosy patient Tulshiram, filled him with fear.
Amte,who never feared for anything till that incident and who fought one time with British men to save the honour of
an Indian lady and was also challenged by sweepers of Warora to clean the gutters, was quivered in fright on seeing
plight of Tulshiram. However,Amte wanted to create a thinking and understanding that leprosy patients can be truly
helped only when a society is free of "Mental Leprosy"-fear and wrong understanding associated with disease. To dispel
this thinking he once injected himself with bacilli from a patient, to prove the ailment was not highly contagious. In
those days, people with leprosy suffered a social stigma and Indian society disowned these people. Amte strove to
dispel the widespread belief that leprosy was highly contagious; he even allowed bacilli from a leper to be injected into
him as part of an experiment aimed at proving that leprosy was not highly contagious. But Baba Amte and his wife used
to prioritise the care and treatment and mainstreaming those affected by the dreaded disease of leprosy and lived
amongst the affected and ensured that they got exemplary medical care which ended the scourge of the disease for
them. For the rehabilitated and cured patients he arranged vocational training and small-scale manufacturing of
handicrafts and got things crafted by them. He struggled and tried to remove the stigma and ignorance surrounding the
treatment of leprosy as a disease.
 Amte founded three ashrams for treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy patients, disabled people and
people from marginalised sections of general society in Maharashtra. On 15 August 1949, he and his wife Sadhna
Amte started a leprosy hospital in Anandvan under a tree. The leprosy patients were provided with medical care
and a life of dignity engaged in agriculture and various small and medium industries like handicrafts. In 1973,
Amte founded the Lok Biradari Prakalp to work for the Madia Gond tribal people of Gadchiroli District. Baba Amte
also involved in other social cause initiatives like,in year 1985 he launched the first Knit India Mission for peace-at
72 years he walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, a distance of more than 3000 miles, to inspire unity among
Indian people and organised second march three years later travelling over 1800 miles from Assam to Gujarat. He
also participated in Narmada Bachao Andolan in year 1990, leaving Anandwan and lived on banks of Narmada for
seven years.
Amte devoted his life to many other social causes, most notably the Quit India movement and
attempting to raise public awareness on the importance of ecological balance, wildlife preservation and the
Narmada Bachao Andolan. The Indian Government awarded Baba Amte with a Padma Shri in 1971.
 Dedicated works of family members
Amte married Indu Ghuleshastri (later called Sadhanatai Amte). She participated in her husband's
social work with equal dedication. Their two sons, Vikas Amte and Prakash Amte, and daughters-in-law,
Mandakini and Bharati are doctors. All four dedicated their lives to social work and causes similar to those of
the senior Amte. Prakash and his wife Mandakini run a school and a hospital at Hemalkasa village in the
underprivileged district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra among the Madia Gond tribe, as well as an orphanage for
injured wild animals, including a lion and some leopards. She left her governmental medical and moved to
Hemalkasa to start the projects after they married. Their two sons, Dr. Digant and Aniket also dedicated their
lives to the same causes. In 2008, Prakash and Mandakini received the Magsaysay Award for Community
Leadership.
Amte's elder son Vikas and his wife Bharati run the hospital at Anandwan and co-ordinate operations
with satellite projects. Anandwan has a university, an orphanage, and schools for the blind and the deaf. The
Anandwan ashram is self-sufficient and has over 5,000 residents. Amte later founded "Somnath" and
"Ashokwan" ashrams for people suffering from leprosy.
 GANDHISM
Amte followed Gandhi's way of life and led a spartan life. He wore khadi
clothes made from the looms at Anandwan. He believed in Gandhi's concept of a self-
sufficient village industry that empowers seemingly helpless people, and successfully
brought his ideas into practice at Anandwan. Using non-violent means, he played an
important role in the struggle for the independence of India. Amte also used Gandhi's
principles to fight against corruption, mismanagement, and poor, shortsighted
planning in the government. However, Amte never disowned God. He used to say that
if there are hundred thousands of universes then God must be very busy. Let us do
our work on our own.
 NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN WITH MEDHA PATKAR
In 1990, Amte left Anandwan for a while to live along the Narmada River and joined
Narmada Bachao Andolan ("Save Narmada") movement one of whose popular leaders was
Medha Patkar, which fought against both unjust displacement of local inhabitants and
damage to the environment due to the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the
Narmada river.
DEATH
Amte died at Anandwan on 9 February 2008 in Maharashtra of age-related
illnesses. By choosing to get buried than cremated he followed the principles he preached as
environmentalist and social reformer.
 AWARDS
1. Padma Shri, 1971
2. Ramon Magsaysay Award, 1985 Citation: "In electing MURLIDHAR DEVIDAS
AMTE to receive the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of
Trustees recognizes his work-oriented rehabilitation of Indian leprosy patients and other
handicapped outcasts."

3. Padma Vibhushan, 1986

4. United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights, 1988
5. Rashtriya Bhushan, 1978: FIE Foundation Ichalkaranji (India)
6. Jamnalal Bajaj Award, 1979 for Constructive Work
• N.D. Diwan Award, 1980: National Society for Equal Opportunities for the 'Handicapped' (NASEOH), Bombay
• Ramshastri Award, 1983: Ramshastri Prabhune Foundation, Maharashtra, India
• Indira Gandhi Memorial Award, 1985: Government of Madhya Pradesh for outstanding social service
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award, 1986: Delhi
• Fr. Maschio Platinum Jubilee Award, 1987: Bombay
• G.D. Birla International Award, 1988: For outstanding contribution to humanism
• Templeton Prize, 1990 [Baba Amte and Charles Birch (Emeritus professor of University of Sydney) were jointly awarded
the prize in 1990][4][20]
• Mahadeo Balwant Natu Puraskar, 1991, Pune, Maharashtra
• Adivasi Sewak Award, 1991, Government of Maharashtra
• Kusumagraj Puraskar, 1991
• Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Dalit Mitra Award, 1992, Government of Maharashtra
• Shri Nemichand Shrishrimal Award, 1994
• Fr. Tong Memorial Award, 1995, Voluntary Health Association of India
• Kushta Mitra Puraskar, 1995: Vidarbha Maharogi Sewa Mandal, Amravati, Maharashtra
➢ Bhai Kanhaiya Award, 1997: Sri Guru Harkrishan Education Trust, Bhatinda, Punjab
➢ Manav Sewa Award, 1997: Young Men's Gandhian Association, Rajkot, Gujarat
➢ Sarthi Award, 1997, Nagpur, Maharashtra
➢ Mahatma Gandhi Charitable Trust Award, 1997, Nagpur, Maharashtra
➢ Gruhini Sakhi Sachiv Puraskar, 1997, Gadima Pratishthan, Maharashtra
➢ Kumar Gandharva Puraskar, 1998
➢ Apang Mitra Puraskar, 1998, Helpers of the Handicapped, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
➢ Bhagwan Mahaveer Award, 1998, Chennai
➢ Diwaliben Mohanlal Mehta Award, 1998, Mumbai
➢ Justice K. S. Hegde Foundation Award, 1998, Karnataka
➢ Baya Karve Award, 1998, Pune, Maharashtra
➢ Savitribai Phule Award, 1998, Government of Maharashtra
➢ Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Award, 1988: FICCI, for
outstanding achievements in training and placement of disabled persons
➢ Satpaul Mittal Award, 1998, Nehru Sidhant Kendra Trust, Ludhiana, Punjab
➢ Adivasi Sevak Puraskar, 1998, Government of Maharashtra
➢ Gandhi Peace Prize, 1999
➢ Dr. Ambedkar International Award for Social Change, 1999, Government of
India[4][25][26]
➢ Maharashtra Bhushan Award, 2004, Government of Maharashtra
➢ Bharathvasa award, 2008
➢ On 26 December 2018, search engine Google commemorated him on his 104th
birthday, with a google doodle.
 HONORARY TITLES
1. D.Litt., Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
2. D.Litt., 1980: Nagpur University, Nagpur, India
3. Krishi Ratna, 1981: Hon. Doctorate, PKV Agricultural University, Akola,
Maharashtra, India
4. D.Litt., 1985–86: Pune University, Pune, India
5. Desikottama, 1988: Hon. Doctorate, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan,
West Bengal, India
6. Gandhi had conferred on Amte the title Abhayasadhak ("A Fearless Aspirant")
for his involvement in the Indian independence movement.
Born: Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg
3 January 2003 (age 19)
Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation: Student, environmental activist
Years active: 2018–present
Movement: School strike for the climate
Parent: Svante Thunberg (Father)
Malena Ernman (Mother)
Awards:
1. Golden Camera (2019)
2. Fritt Ord Award (2019)
3. Rachel Carson Prize (2019)
4. Ambassador of Conscience Award (2019)
5. Right Livelihood Award (2019)
6. International Children's Peace Prize (2019)
7. Time Person of the Year (2019)
8. Nature's 10 (2019)
 Greta Thunberg (born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish activist. She is known for her
work against climate change, a popular example of youth activism. She started protesting on
20 August 2018, outside of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm. In December 2018, she
attended the UN Climate Change Conference. In the next month, she gave a speech on the
World Economic Forum in Davos.
She has received many awards. Three Norwegian MPs nominated her for the 2019
Nobel Peace Prize.
On 15 March 2019, approximately 14,00000 people around the world, mainly
students, protested against climate change. On 24 May 2019, a second major protest took
place.
In December 2019, Time magazine named Thunberg Time Person of the Year 2019.
 EARLY LIFE
Greta Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003. She is the oldest daughter of Malena Ernman,
an opera singer and actor Svante Thunberg. Her grandfather is actor and director Olof Thunberg.
At a TEDx speech in November 2018, Thunberg stated that she first heard about climate
change at the age of eight, but could not understand why so little was being done about it. At age 11,
she had depression and stopped talking. Later, she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome,
obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. She added that selective mutism means
that she was speaking only when she needed to and that "now is one of those moments". She further
added that the "spectrum" was an advantage "as almost everything is black or white". She said: "I feel
like I am dying inside if I don't protest". She hands out leaflets outside the Swedish parliament with
the phrase "I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future."
 Her father doesn't like that she misses school but says: "[We] respect that she wants to
make a stand. She can either sit at home and be really unhappy or protest and be happy". To
lower her family's carbon footprint, she insisted on becoming vegan and give up flying. She said
she persuaded her parents to give up eating meat by making them feel guilty. "I kept telling them
that they were stealing our future." Her mother gave up her international career as an opera
singer. Despite invitations to speak at international events, Greta also avoids flying.
Thunberg says her teachers are divided in their views about her missing class to make her
protest. She says: "As people they think what I am doing is good, but as teachers they say I
should stop." A teacher who supports her said: "Greta is a troublemaker, she is not listening to
adults. But we are heading full speed for a catastrophe and in this situation the only reasonable
thing is to be unreasonable."
 WORKS
In May 2019 Penguin, a British publishing house, published No
One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, which is a collection of her
speeches. Penguin published Scenes from the Heart, the Thunberg
family's story, in August 2018. All earnings from these books will be
donated to charity. In the same month, artist Jody Thomas painted a
mural of Thunberg on a wall in Bristol. It portrays the bottom half of
her face as if under rising sea water.