Chipko Movement 50 Years On - How Life in Uttarakhand Has Changed

17/03/2024, 17:02 Chipko movement 50 years on: How life in Uttarakhand has changed
EN
CULTURE
Chipko 50 years on: Uttarakhand villagers

describe how life has changed
Fifty years after the birth of India’s most famous environmental movement, climate
disasters and restrictions on forest access are forcing residents of Raini village in
Uttarakhand to leave the land where Chipko started
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Juthi Devi, daughter-in-law of one of the pioneers of the Chipko movement, clasps the trunk of a
tree in Raini village in October 2022. Almost 50 years ago, women in Raini, Uttarakhand, used their
bodies to shield the trees in their forests from loggers and in the process sparked a global
conservation movement. (Image: Varsha Singh)
Varsha Singh
November 30, 2022
https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/culture/chipko-50-years-on-uttarakhand-villagers-describe-how-life-has-changed/ 1/14
I
n July 1970, devastating floods swept through the Alaknanda Valley, in northern
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India. Sudden, intense rainfall had caused a violent rise in the level of the
Alaknanda River and its tributaries, which flooded roads, bridges and farms in the
district of Chamoli, Uttarakhand state. Landslides triggered by the rainfall destroyed
many small villages in the hills.
The residents of the affected villages were left grappling with questions as to why the
floods had happened. Their search for the answer laid the foundations of the Chipko
movement – today remembered as one of the most important non-violent community
mobilisations in the history of forest conservation and environmental activism in India.
Did you know…

The origins of the Chipko movement date back to 18th century Rajasthan, but it did not
become famous until the events in Raini in the early 1970s
“To understand the reasons behind the floods, we walked to many places and found
out that wherever the forests were cut, the impact of floods was severe,” says Chandi
Prasad Bhatt, 88, an environmentalist and social activist credited with popularising the
Chipko movement, who was awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2013. Bhatt still lives in
Chamoli, close to Raini.
The villagers of Chamoli concluded that to protect themselves from future floods and
landslides they needed to protect the forests.
This knowledge was at the core of the movement that became famous after 1973 in
Raini. Chipko, derived from a Hindi word which translates as ‘to hug’ or ‘to stick’,
captured the popular imagination when women across the district embraced the trees,
putting their bodies between loggers and their forests.
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A photo taken in March 1974 of people in Raini village, Uttarakhand, a few days after they
protested against the felling of trees in order to make tennis racquets. (Image: Varsha
Singh)
*The original photograph was taken on 30 March, 1974 by Chandi Prasad Bhatt and has
been reproduced here with permission
October 2022: Juthi Devi (second from right) and other residents of Raini at the village
entrance. The four women in the foreground all participated in the Chipko movement,
although they were not among the first group who hugged the trees. (Image: Varsha
Singh)
2023 marks 50 years since this defining moment in the Chipko movement. But when
The Third Pole’s reporter visits Raini, it is clear that this place with such a strong
legacy of environmental activism is now haunted by disasters related to the impacts of
climate change – a threat to people’s way of life that is even greater and more
complex than the felling of their trees. Slowly, Raini is becoming uninhabitable and
people are being forced to leave their homes. EN
Raini ravaged by climate disasters

There have been many disasters in Chamoli since 1970. Most notable in recent history
was a flood in February 2021, triggered when a massive chunk of a glacier broke away.
More than 200 people died in the resulting flash flooding of the Rishi Ganga River.
In Raini, villagers say they live in fear of disasters that are becoming more frequent and
intense. As The Third Pole travels the nine-hour journey between Uttarakhand’s capital
Dehradun and Raini there are constant reminders of this, with rubble from landslides
strewn across the road.
The village was once home to many generations of the Bhutia community – a group
descended from people who migrated south from Tibet around the 9th century AD,
settling in the mountain ranges along the Indo-Tibet border. Now it only has elderly
residents.
The village of Raini in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, photographed in October 2022. Raini was
the birthplace of the 20th-century Chipko movement. (Image: Varsha Singh)
“Millions of Himalayan trees were saved from felling because of Chipko. Due to natural
calamities, today we are forced to look for a new place for our children. But I don’t
want to leave my house. Where else will we get this shade of trees?” says Chandra
Singh. Singh, 78, is the son of Gaura Devi, who led the group of women who first
defended the forest and pioneered the Chipko movement.
“The vegetables that we had in our forests cannot be found in our fields. Now animals
do not get food in the forest, so they come to our farms. Due to this our children
EN left
the fields barren and went to work in the city,” Singh adds.
The women of the village who witnessed and were involved in the Chipko movement
tell The Third Pole that today they only feel resentment and dismay.
We did not know that we will have no control over the trees
we saved from outsiders
Baati Devi
Successes of the ’70s a distant memory

Initially, the Chipko movement was led by men. Bhatt tells The Third Pole that women
used to sit at the back of the meetings and would sometimes laugh at the word
‘chipko’. But they took a leading role on 26 March 1974, when all the men from Raini
had gone to Chamoli town.
Seventy-five-year-old Baati Devi recalls that around 9am a young girl saw some
workers, accompanied by Forest Department staff, marching towards the forest with
implements. She ran to Gaura Devi, who immediately mobilised the women. Around 30
women and young girls dropped their work and ran down the narrow roads leading to
the forests.
“We held the trees tightly and stuck to them… We asked them [the loggers] to run
their axes through us first before the trees. They had to go back. The Forest
Department scolded us as well,” says Baati Devi.
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A sabha (village meeting) in Bhyundar village, Chamoli, in 1978. Multiple Chipko

movements occurred all over Chamoli.
People beating drums and singing traditional songs in Gopeshwar, the district
headquarters of Chamoli, as they celebrate loggers employed by a sports equipment
manufacturer being forced to leave the forests in March 1974.
Images: Varsha Singh *The original photographs were taken by Chandi Prasad Bhatt and have been
reproduced here with permission
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Baati Devi was involved in the Chipko movement in the 1970s, along with Gaura Devi. Now
75 years old, she still lives in Raini. (Image: Varsha Singh)
The villagers’ apprehension of the connection between deforestation and flooding was
confirmed years later by a report released by a committee chaired by Virendra Kumar, a
professor in the Department of Botany at the University of Delhi, Bhatt says.
Bhatt says it was because of the Chipko movement that the Forest Act of 1927 was
amended and the Forest Conservation Act 1980 was adopted. In 1981, the Uttar
Pradesh government (Uttarakhand was then part of Uttar Pradesh) imposed a 10-year
ban on cutting down trees growing at over 1,000 metres above sea level, which was
later extended by a further 10 years. In December 1996, the Supreme Court of India
imposed a ban on felling trees in Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, which
continues to this day.
Raini has become uninhabitable

The flood in February 2021 caused severe damage in Raini, and residents tell The Third
Pole that it is no longer a safe place to live. Cracks have appeared in their houses and
the slopes the village is built on have become unstable. Just downhill, the land is
being eroded by the Rishi Ganga River.
All the people The Third Pole speaks with say they are demanding to be relocated. This
was also the recommendation of an official report in the aftermath of the 2021
disaster.
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The Rishi Ganga River at Raini village (Image: Varsha Singh)
A landslide in Chamoli, in October 2022 (Image: Varsha Singh)
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Floods in 2021 damaged many houses and farms in Raini village (Image: Varsha Singh)
Relocation is not an easy solution, Juthi Devi, Gaura Devi’s daughter-in-law, stresses.
The village is central to people’s identities and they are reluctant to leave it behind.
They are also dismayed at having to move away from the forests they saved in the
1970s.
Juthi Devi explains that every village in the region has its own forest, and people can
only use resources from their assigned forests. They might be relocated to a place
where all the forests have already been assigned. “Even if the government rehabilitates
us, we will lose access to our forest and the other villages will not allow us in their
forests,” she says.
But due to the need to give their grandchildren a safe future, they are ready to move to
a new place, the villagers tell The Third Pole.
Forests remain at the heart of village life in Raini

Baati Devi says the forests around Raini are far more than a source of resources. “We
started the [Chipko] movement to save our forests, our Earth and our livelihoods. It is
our maternal home. We shared our sorrows in the forest. As long as the forest was
ours, everything was fine. When the Forest Department started guarding the forest,
things turned south,” she says.
The major laws that have restricted forest access over the years
Traditionally, the villagers of Raini could find everything they needed in the forest;
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going to the market to buy vegetables, spices or medicines was never a part of daily
life. But, particularly after 1980, increasing restrictions enforced by the Forest
Department mean they now regularly visit the local market to buy essentials.
Women tell The Third Pole that whenever they visited the forests they took care of
them by removing dry wood (which reduced the risk of wildfires) and tending younger
trees. They felt a sense of responsibility towards their local environment.
“We did not know that we will have no control over the trees we saved from outsiders.
When we need dry wood from the forest, we have to take a receipt from the Forest
Department,” says Baati Devi.
Duka Devi (left), Jaita Devi (right) and other women in Raini say that residents who grew
up calling the area’s forests home are now moving to the plains in search of employment
and opportunities (Image: Varsha Singh)
With no way to make a living from the land left in Raini, men started to move to cities
like Delhi and Dehradun. Their daughters and daughters-in-law moved with them or to
nearby areas like Joshimath-Tapovan in search of education for their children.
Their spirits battered by recent disasters, Raini’s last inhabitants are preparing to
follow in the younger generation’s footsteps, leaving behind the forests they and their
descendants once fought to protect.

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17/03/2024, 17:02 Chipko movement 50 years on: How life in Uttarakhand has changed

Chipko 50 years on: Uttarakhand villagers

Did you know…

Raini ravaged by climate disasters

Successes of the ’70s a distant memory

A sabha (village meeting) in Bhyundar village, Chamoli, in 1978. Multiple Chipko

Raini has become uninhabitable

The Rishi Ganga River at Raini village (Image: Varsha Singh)

A landslide in Chamoli, in October 2022 (Image: Varsha Singh)

Forests remain at the heart of village life in Raini

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