Embrace the trees and

Save them from being felled;

The property of our hills,
Save them from being looted.

Chipko
Movement

-Project by Mihir Shah (40)

 2

Introduction

Let us protect and plant the trees

Go awaken the villages
And drive away the axemen.

- Ghanshyam Sailani (translated by Govind Raturi)

Reni forests of Garhwal Himalaya succeeded in chasing away timber felling contractors.
In course of time this event became a milestone in the evolution of the world famous
Chipko movement. An impressive and useful bibliography on the literature around the
movement has also developed since then. A number of activists with remarkable
philosophical richness and social commitment have devoted their lives to this movement,
which is one of the most written about in the world today.

The Chipko movement of the Uttarakhand Himalaya is one of the frequently cited and
much publicised environmental and social actions in India. Originating in the Garhwal
region of the Western Himalaya as a grassroots-level conservation movement against
reckless destruction of trees in general and forests in particular, the movement is certainly
seen by many as an inspiring example of local action against the alienating and damaging
incursions of the modern state. Started off as a small protest movement against cutting a
few ash trees, the movement reached its climax in the mid-seventies.

The movement, once branded as an anti-scientific and troublesome phenomenon, is now

hailed as an example of constructive environmental protection activism. It is widely
covered in the Indian press and international ecological journals, its leaders are regularly
 3

asked to address high-level government committees and scientific conventions, and the
word Chipko is now almost a household word in India".

Some notable features of this movement are as follows:

• Growing understanding of the people and their environment born out of a concern
for more equitable and sustainable use of environment, makes this movement
relevant to the people at their level and gives them sustainability.

• A movement where emphasis is on doing something about the degraded state of

the environment with an afforestation program which has a good success rate.

• A movement where participation and role of women has been noteworthy,

specially in a culture where women have always been denied a role in decision
making.

• Chipko is pioneer in making issue of environment figure as a priority issue both

of development and policy making.

• Chipko is a rare example of where people working in a particular situation are

able to respond without any external intellectual leadership in face of a new
problem.

• Protection of trees stems out of its cultural ethos, but more related to sustenance.

• The movement is neither supported nor sponsored by any political parties.

• Chipko is a civil disobedience movement and its modus operandi is somewhat

histrionic and involves physical interference with felling operations by embracing
 4

each marked tree in a desperate attempt to save it. Despite its turbulent political
genesis and boisterous models of regimentation, its ideals are patriotically
motivated and help in focusing attention to crisis in Indian forestry.

Evolution
Though the Chipko movement gained prominence in the 1970s, the Bishnoi community
in Rajasthan (a province in north western India) are said to have been the progenitors of
this movement during the around the year 1730. A large number of villagers, a total 363
people, lost their lives trying to protect Khejri trees from being felled by the soldiers of
the Maharaja of Jodhpur at a village called Khejarli.

Uttaranchal hitherto known as Uttarkhand comprises of an ethnically and, ecologically

distinct region which, although small in population, is rich in resources essential for the
livelihood of the local population even as they are coveted and extracted by outsiders.
This process provides the essential context for understanding the Chipko movement.

Problems leading to Chipko

The British government controlled the northern hill districts of India in the nineteenth
century. During this period (1815-1947), Uttarakhand was divided into two units, Tehri
Garhwal and the Kumaon Division. The political structure of hill society in those two
kingdoms was distinct from the rest of India in that along with the presence of communal
tradition, there was an absence of sharp class division.

Agriculture was the chief profession in these areas. The land was understood to belong to
the community rather as a whole even though there was a caste system in place.

Historically, the Indian Himalayan region was under the control of emigrants
(particularly Germans) since 1855 in order to produce lumber for the railroads. The
government nationalised one-fifth of the forest area and enacted legislation. To make
matters worse, the Indian Forest Act of 1878 regulated peasant access by restricting it to
 5

areas of forest not deemed commercially profitable. Sanctions were enacted on those who
breached those laws. The Forest department passed an order to excavate entire land areas
and use them for commercial purposes. They wanted to cut down tress especially ash
trees to make use of the land.
As a result there has been a shift away from community resource management and
control which was proven to be more effective in ecological regeneration and restoration.
This undercurrent of discontent and protests against the management of the Forest
Department was also aggravated by other elements of commercialization and
underdevelopment of the hills.

Prior to the 60’s, Uttarkhand was relatively inaccessible to outsiders, but following the
Indo-Chinese border conflict of 1962, an extensive network of motor roads was
constructed throughout the mountains. Although the motive was strategic, the
consequence was the opening up of the area to contractors, corporations and other
entrepreneurs intent on exploiting the area's timber and forest products (e.g., resin and
medicinal herbs), mineral resources (e.g., limestone, magnetite, potassium), and land
suitable for fruit orchards and cool climate commercial crops and building hydroelectric
sites on the area's abundant river networks. This, together with massive exploitation by
extractive industries, led to serious economic and social dislocation of the Himalayan
people.

The 1960’s also opened its doors to one of the first mobilization of women's
consciousness and collectivity. Led by Sarvodaya workers of the Gandhian Foundation,
Uttarakhand Sarvodaya Mandal (founded by Mira Behn and Sarala Behn) and thousand
of villagers-mostly women-picketed in different districts of Gharwal and Tehri against
widespread distillation and sale of liquor. These workers as well as anti alcohol
movement created mass base for Chipko.

When the great flood of 1970 took place, a substantial number of the communities were
washed away by the severity of the natural disaster and many villagers began to see the
causal link between the flood and the deforestation; this was especially evident where the
 6

villages that were most affected by the flood lay right underneath forests that felling had
taken place.

Chipko: The Beginning

In 1973 when a local co-op organization, Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal, asked for an
allotment of ash trees to make its agricultural implements and was refused by the forest
department, and then Seymonds Co. a large lumber asked for the same and was allotted
just a few miles away in the forest of Mandal. Initially some members of the co-operative
thought of burning down the forest but then under the leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt,
it was decided to hug trees to prevent the felling. Hence Chipko, which literally means to
embrace, was conceived.

It was the next event however that truly bought to light the significant role and
contribution that women played in the movement's successes and global environmental
implications for all. With all the men out of the village on scheduled meetings against the
proposed auctioning off of trees at Reni, the contractors men took advantage of the
situation (forgetting about the women) and headed for the forests. A young girl who spied
them headed back to inform the head of Mahila Mandal (Women's Club) Gaura Devi
who quickly mobilized the women of the village toward the forest before the contractors
arrived. When they refused to budge, the contractors were forced to return home

The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in April 1973 and over the next five
years spread to many districts of the Himalaya in Uttar Pradesh. The movement saw the
use of folklore and songs from local culture in reaching out to people with the message.

The Chipko protests in Uttar Pradesh achieved a major victory in 1980 with a 15-year
ban on green felling in the Himalayan forests of that state by order of India's then Prime
Minister, Indira Gandhi. Since then the movement has spread to Himachal Pradesh in the
North, Kamataka in the South, Rajasthan in the West, Bihar in the East and to the
 7

Vindhyas in Central India. In addition to the 15-year ban in Uttar Pradesh, the movement
has stopped clear felling in the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas and generated pressure
for a natural resource policy which is more sensitive to people's needs and ecological
requirements.

Impact

Thomas Weber, an Australian scholar of politics states “The Chipko Andolan is

becoming an inspiration for activists around the world and whether its work in the
Uttarakhand Himalaya is almost complete or not is to some extent irrelevant. Much of the
rest of the Himalayan mountains are bare and in desperate need of friends. The Earth in
general no less so. And at this stage these friends of the Earth would greatly benefit if
Chipko continued to illuminate the path towards a green earth and a true civilisation".

Weber's wishes appear to have been fulfilled. Grassroots activists in the United States
hug trees, invoking the Chipko movement. In London, a man who was fighting for a tree
identified himself as David Chipko. Chipko is now clubbed with the struggle of Brazilian
rubber-tappers led by the late Chico Mendes (popularly known as Chipko Mendes).

Weber , while introducing his book Hugging The Trees: The Story of Chipko Movement,
writes "A BBC documentary film has been based on this Chipko andolan, it has been
mentioned approvingly in Time magazine and India's The Illustrated Weekly has
included the advent of Chipko in its list of The Ten Most Momentous Events Since India
Won Freedom (along with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the liberation of
Bangladesh, the lifting of the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi etc) and its two
leading lights Sunderlal Bahuguna and Chandi Prasad Bhatt, in its list of Fifty Indians
Who Matter.

In Uttar Pradesh, this movement achieved a major victory in 1980, which came with a
15-year ban on green felling in the Himalayan forests by order of India’s then Prime
Minister, Ms. Indira Gandhi. It also stopped clear felling in the Western Ghats and the
 8

Vindhyas and generated pressure for a natural resources policy, which is more sensitive
to people’s needs and ecological requirements. Then the movement spread to Himachal
Pradesh in the North, Karnataka in the South, Rajasthan in the West, Bihar in the East
and to the Vindhyas in Central India.

• Chipko has definite impact on consciousness of local people and has slowed down
ecological decline of Himalayas.
• Chipko is an affirmation of a way of life more harmoniously with natural
processes.
• Chipko ( Guha ) is a private (peasant) and public ( ecological ) image, which
gives Chipko its distinctive quality and strength.
• Most important legacy is its section of hill and forest people in the assertion of
their rights.
• Needs to be seen as part of democratic struggle at a point of history when existing
institutions and theoretical models become totally inadequate.
• Active participation of all social groups. I has been able to sustain itself for long.
• Inspiration for Appiko. Success in harnessing women’s power.
• Removal of system of private contract felling and formation of UP Forest
Development Corporation.
• It slowed down march of commercial forestry.
• Government and Planning Commission have sponsored some of CPB’s economic
development camps and afforestation efforts.
• Led to movements against big dams, unregulated mining and sale of illicit
liquour.
• Afforestation successful, fight against Tehri; both received Magsaysay award.
• Chipko emerged as a peasant movement in defense of traditional forest rights,
continuing a century-long tradition of resistance to state encroachment.
 9

Critics
Many courageous activists, men and women of determination, have brought 'Chipko'
from the stage of a possible instrument of struggle to the stage of a trend-setting
achievement. Despite the movement’s success and popularity round the globe, there
appear some serious gaps in the public impressions and actual realities of the movement.
Over the last few years, a small but growing number of chroniclers and authors have
started to criticize the popular and widely accepted image of the movement. This
criticism revolves round insufficient attention paid to the socio-political and the
economic context of the Chipko' protests.

Moreover, what is distressfully true is the fact that the authors and scholars are busy
writing the obituary of the movement. The general consensus is that very little is left of
the Chipko movement in the region save the memory. It lives in educational centres,
academic circles, and environmental debates.

Documented evidence from the movement sources does not indicate any influences of the
brand of thinking known as 'deep ecology'. Dependable historical account of this widely
written about movement is, surprisingly, scanty. Among the early writers on the history
of the movement, Bandyopadhyay (1992) as well as Guha (1989) have not indicated any
link with 'deep ecology'. On June 24, 1973, the first successful resistance to forest felling
at the Mandal forests was based on economics and aimed at obtaining higher allotment of
trees for felling to the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (DOSS), a local Gandhian
organisation. On March 26, 1974, the more vociferous yet non-violent resistance at the
Reni forests was triggered off by the news of auction of some local forests for felling to a
sports-goods company from the plains. The contract system for forest felling allowed rich
contractors from the plains to make large profits from fellings in the mountain forests.
 10

The basic theme of the movement as opposition to this practice is precisely expressed in
the following lines from a famous poem by Raturi, the folk-poet of the movement:

Embrace the trees in the forests

And save them from being felled!
Save the treasure of our mountains
From being looted away from us!!

The movement had its beginning in the conflicts over mountain forests between the
economic interests of the mountain communities and the economies of the plains.
However, this fundamental basis of the movement got substantially reduced when the
contract system of felling was stopped and the public sector Forest Development
Corporation was established. The fellings were undertaken with the help of local village
co-operatives.

Reference in the literature is frequently made to an environmental branch of the

movement, which called for a total ban on commercial fellings in the whole Garhwal and
Kumaon Himalaya. This part of the movement is reported to have originated -in the
Tehri-Garhwal region, particularly the Henwal valley region, and is identified with the
slogan:

What do the forests bear?

Soil, water and pure air!!

The slogan is an excellent and simple summarization of the ecological importance of the
mountain forests, especially in the Himalayan context. Many academic analysts,
including the present author, had unhesitatingly accepted the slogan, when first informed
about it. However, with the passage of time, several questions on the representative
character and origin of this slogan have emerged. Notwithstanding the significant role
played by the women of Henwal valley region in the protection of mountain forests,
many women in the Garhwal and Kumaon region do not find the slogan very realistic.
 11

Can the women in the mountain villages who spend several hours each day in the forests
struggling to collect daily firewood and green fodder, ever forget to include them in the
list of important forest products, they ask. The convoluted argument that firewood and
green fodder can grow only when there is soil, water and pure air, and hence they are
secondary, appears too distant, theoretical and urban in the face of the hard struggle for
survival in the rural mountain villages.

Naturally, the slogan has impressed urban environmentalists the world over but, for the
women in the mountain villages who struggle to keep the cooking-fire running and the
domestic cattle well-fed at home, the slogan is an abstract one, at best a reflection of half-
truth of their lives. This point indicates why the ecological message of the Chipko
movement has impressed environmentalists in the urban areas and the countries of the
north, much more than those in the mountainous hinterlands in the south. However, there
is also a positive side to it. Much of the success of the movement in getting tacit political
support lies in this capacity of the leadership of the movement to mobilise the vocal and
urban environmentalists. Thus, in line with the distinction made by Guha (1989), the
Chipko movement has the private face of a quintessential peasant - movement and a
public face of one of the most celebrated environmental movements of the world. Chipko
has its roots in the hard economic struggle for survival, while its face has been tactically
decorated by some 'deep ecological' terms.

In the early literature on Chipko no serious questions were raised about the movement
being based on gender conflict. There was no lack of recognition of the fact that the issue
of forests in the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalaya touches the women much more
intensely than the men. The presence of large number of women in the forest action at
Reni, and the large-scale participation of the village women have led to some analysts
claiming that Chipko is a 'women's movement'. Guha (1989) has answered these
questions in a substantive manner showing the location of Chipko in the tradition of
social movements of the region. However, in spite of that, Shiva (1992), identified
Chipko as 'a women's movement', though no activist woman from the movement has
made any such claim. The acutely subjective nature of such claims and the confusions
 12

they generate can be explained by a closer look at the way the protest led by Gaura Devi
in 1974 is seen from the ecofeminist viewpoint. As Guha (1989) describes, Reni's
importance in the saga of Chipko andolan (movement) is two-fold. It was the first
occasion on which women participated in any major way, this participation, moreover,
coming in the absence of their own men folk and DGSS activists.

Guha has elaborated on how the officials made a clever move to get the men folk and the
DGSS activists away from the villages around Reni forests, so that felling could be
undertaken without resistance. The forest officials were concerned about the resistance to
forest felling by both men and women. As Gaura Devi, the woman leader of the forest
action at Reni explained [Guha 1989]: % was not a question of planned organisation of
the women for the movement, rather it happened spontaneously. Our men were out of the
village so we had to come forward and protect the trees." This clearly establishes the
nature of the movement as a joint struggle based on gender collaboration. Thus, while the
men in the concerned villages were diverted by a clever official move, the .women took
up the mantle of resistance.

Interestingly, Shiva's (1992) description of the same incidence, from an ecofeminist

viewpoint merely says: "A group of village women led by one Gaura Devi hugged trees,
challenging the brute power of hired sawyers, about to cut down the trees for a sports-
goods company." This statement suffers from reductionist drawbacks and distortion of
facts. Due to the reductionist view, Shiva is unable to see the Reni action in a holistic
perspective, Thus, the link between the steps taken by Gaura Devi and the contrived
absence of the men in the village has been missed in her analysis.

Referring to the contrived absence of the menfolk of the village, Guha (1989) describes
the same incidence thus: "Gaura Devi quickly mobilised the other housewives and went
to the forest. Pleading with the labourers not to start the felling operations, the women
initially met with abuse and threats. When .the women refused to budge, the men were
eventually forced to retire...As such, even at the level of participation Chipko can hardly
be said to constitute a women's movement."
 13

Gaura Devi herself did not mention any incidence of having led the women to embrace
trees, as has been projected by Shiva (1992). This is historically incorrect. In the
ecofeminist literature on Chipko, the women of Garhwal and Kumaon have often been
described as opponents of change and mere carriers of tradition. Similarly, the menfolk
are described as rapacious agents of economic development and change. Realistic,
holistic and painstaking research results by scholars in the same region have, fortunately,
provided a different picture [see for example Mehta 1996]. (Njere recently, such myths
have been more effectively exploded by the leading roles played by the women of
Garhwal and Kumaon in the popular movement demanding a new and develop-—, ment-
oriented state in this mountain region.

Notwithstanding sensationalist writings, the women activists of the Chipko movement

have considered that the movement has strengthened itself from gender collaboration
against the inappropriate management practices for the mountain forests. Women have
played significant roles in the movement, just as their male counterparts. There is no
reason for seeing the Chipko movement as based on gender conflicts.

A common impression exists all over the world, except in the villages of Garhwal -and
Kumaon, that large number of people, especially women, have been embracing trees to
prevent their felling. While the media has played an important role in spreading the
positive message of the movement, some journalists have failed miserably to maintain
minimum professional standards and have created serious confusions at the international
level on the above question.

In a magazine Sanctuary, Shiva (1992) declared that 'one Gaura Devi' led a group of
village women to hug trees. A number of researchers had discussed the Reni action with
Gaura Devi. However, there is no documented support to the claim of Shiva. She was
neither present at the spot in Reni, nor does she refer to any discussion with Gaura Devi.
There has been a media created confusion on the issue of who embraced the trees in
Chipko movement. This has also disturbed the activists of the movement.
 14

The spreading of misinformation is taken to comical heights by a Malaysian journalist

Fong (1996) who, in an article in The Star wrote; "Her (Vandana Shiva's) name is
synonymous with the Chipko movement (Chipko means embrace) in India, an active
anti-logging movement in the 70s and early 80s. To stem environmental destruction,
Vandana (Shiva) led thousands of women to embrace (literally) the trees in the
Himalayan mountains in their bid to stop logging activities." In the characteristic style of
sensationalist journalism, Fong (1996) does not pro vide any date, place, forest area, or
villages associated with the incident he reports. Nor does he mention one name out of the
thousands of women that Shiva, reportedly, had led somewhere in the Himalayan
mountains. The activists of the Chipko movement, though partly amused, wrote a letter of
protest to the editor of The Star: 'The interview is based on false claims of Vandana Shiva
and has angered many ...The real activists are so simple that they do not know why
Vandana Shiva is reportedly publishing wrong claims about Chipko in the foreign press.
We should all stand up against this new green exploitation of the people's simplicity and
courage by clever, greedy and selfish persons like Vandana Shiva.

Contrary to all the unfounded greenish journalistic attempts in the international media, to
garner the glory of the Chipko movement, there has so far been only one reported
instance of actual use, of the method of embracing trees, and that too by a male activist.
In the year 1977. Dhoom Singh Negi, a courageous and lesser known Gandhian activist
from the village Pipleth, successfully prevented felling by embracing trees in the Salet
forest area in the Garhwal Himalaya, as has been reported by Shiva and Bandyopadhyay
(1986). In all other instances of Chipko movement, resistance was expressed in other
non-violent forms. In most cases, the presence of a large number of angry villagers was
enough to discourage the contractors from trying to fell trees.

All photographs of 'Chipko Actions' represent enactments. When the only reported
incidence of embracing trees to protect them from felling occurred in Salet forests in the
Garhwal Himalaya, and human life was at risk, there was no photographer around in the
remote mountain forests.
 15

Chipko: Ideology and Leadership

The Chipko Movement is the result of hundreds of decentralised and locally autonomous
initiatives. Its leaders and activists are primarily village women, acting to save their
means of subsistence and their communities. Men are involved too, however, and some
of these have given wider leadership to the movement. Chipko, denied any formal
hierarchy, but particularly influential members included Sunderlal Bahuguna , Chandi
Prasad Bhatt and Sarala Ben. The writer and activist Vandana Shiva was also involved in
the Chipko movement in the 1970s.

Ghanasyam Raturi, the Chipko poet, whose songs echo throughout the Himalayas of
Uttar Pradesh, wrote a poem describing the method of embracing the trees to save them
from felling.

Ideologically, Chipko is seen as monolithic movement most of which is spontaneous.

There are 3 different approaches:

• Eco Development- Chandi Prasad (Alaknanda Valley )

• Ecological World View – Sunderlal Bahugana based Gandhian Principles
( Bhageerathi Valley )
• Marxist View – Uttarkhan Sangharsh Vahini ( Almora & Pithoragarh )

Happy blend of environment and development is well illustrated by Chandi Prasad who
sees larger dilemma of impoverishment of entire hill region which forces men to migrate
to towns in the plains. He advocates selective felling of trees along with massive
afforestation in which entire community involved. Timber used to set up forest based
industries locally, thereby providing permanent source of employment.
 16

He agrees that locals play a role in deforestation but this is due to separation of local
population from management of forest wealth. He is also critical of growing divide
between state and people.

He was the first one who taught Indian environmentalists that it was not enough to
righteously protest at destruction of one kind or another. They must also set about process
of reconstruction seeking always to improve the lives of the poor, Bhat has sought to
humanize modern science rather than reject it, to democratize the bureaucracy rather than
to quickly demonize it.

Another important aspect of the Chipko movement was the active reforestation program
that has continued since its inception in 1974. In Chamoli district, under the aegis of the
DGSM, over 1 million trees have been planted since 1974, of which 73 to 88 percent
have survived (Center for Science and Environment 1988). This success was achieved
largely through the work of ecodevelopment camps, which were set up by the DGSM to
impart environmental education to the population of Chamoli district.

One of the important features of the camps is the joint participation of the poor and rich
alike, DGSM workers, college and university students, teachers, personnel from scientific
institutes, government officials, voluntary organization workers and local villagers. The
principal problems of the villagers are discussed in the local dialect, and various village
organizations are set up to deal with problems. The camps also serve as a catalyst for
interaction between the government development machinery and the local people. Until
1979 the camps were all-male affairs, but since then female participation has increased
dramatically.

Sunderlal Bahuguna was responsible for popularizing movement via padyatras. Mr.
Bahuguna coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'. He believes that
science must be guided by spirituality of the East if it is to solve the problems it faced
with, while alternatives are not spelt out, return to a pre-industrial society is implied. He
 17

propagated the slogan, soil, water, air, vegetation are gifts of forest and nature. According
to him, the main of Chipko is to foster love for trees in hearts of man.Both Chandi Prasad
and Bahugana were influenced by Gandhian and Sarvodayan ideologies.
USV ( Sangarsh Vahini ) was influenced by Marxist way of thinking. Main thrust of its
efforts was to link together issues – mining, tree cutting, alcoholism – as related to a
single process of exploitation which destroys both the environment and cultural traditions
of the people.

Focus of USV activists was to rescue what was worth retaining a distinctive way of life
from the ravages of capitalism. It saw any approach as being futile which views
ecological issues independently of social system in which they crop up. Here, social and
economic redistribution was seen as logically prior to ecological harmony.

Role of women in the Chipko movement

In the Himalayan Mountains of India when the forests were logged excessively, the
women were the first to recognise the relationship between deforestation and social and
environmental impacts. The Chipko movement was a significant step forward in the fight
to save Himalayan ecology and society as commercial logging was destroying both. A
large number of women were actively involved in Chipko moment as they were the most
affected by the deforestation.

Women’s role in the Chipko movement essentially began three decades ago during
Gandhi's movement of non-violence, which attracted two young English women
searching for a new way of life, to come to India. One of these was Madeleine Slade, the
daughter of a British General, who was renamed Miraben, by Gandhi himself. She
worked closely with him and realized that commercial exploitation was the reason why
floods were occurring in the Himalayas. The second woman was Catherine Hillman,
renamed Sarlaben. She realized that the British in India were out to destroy India's culture
and self-sufficient village economy, and to further their colonial interests Sarlaben, who
also worked with Gandhi, realized that the hill women of the Himalayas had great
potential for social action.
 18

Another happening that shows the role of the women was in January of 1979, in
Vadiargarh. Twenty-five hundred trees were marked for felling and the men of the village
were bought off with bribes. Women from Kemar, one hundred kilometers away came
and camped there. The women stood close to the marked trees to stop the loggers from
felling trees. The women of the Chipko movement were very strong-willed, very creative
and extremely empowered to protect the forests even if it meant giving up their husbands
and possibly their lives. The women of the Chipko movement not only protected the
forests and their society, but the movement added to the world's consciousness of
environmental issues.

Chipko continues the traditional realm of tree hugging, but has undertaken more project-
oriented work in close collaboration with the local government. Women are still the ones
who fight against the state because women are the most involved in agriculture and they
continue to link deforestation to environmental problems more easily than men do.
Furthermore, men have more contact with the government and therefore have more
respect and fear for the government than women have. Also, for poor men, the prospect
of more hotels, shops, schools and infrastructure makes them believe their incomes will
be raised. Women, on the other hand, who provide subsistence goods, which are
necessary for their village survival, wish to maintain their status quo by retaining the
traditional ecosystem.

The role of the woman in this moment is unquestionable. They were the first to recognize
the environmental problem with deforestation and the ones who absolutely disagreed
with commercial logging and development. As the sole providers of their families with
clean water and fuel and fodder, the women of the Himalayas were the most directly
affected, and hence, the strongest fighters in the protection of the forests.

Some notable features regarding the role of women are as follows:

• Women constituted 80 % of movement strength.

• It is not a women’s movement as focus not on their issues.
 19

• Women were not allowed to participate in public and political life. Women were
more receptive to Chipko as the issues touched their lives. Men succumbed to
development process.
• Women seen as bearers of continuity and tradition.
• Guara Devi ( Mahila Mangal Dal ) ; Vimla Bhaguna ( Silyara ) ; Radha Bhatt
( Lakshmi Ashram )
• Despite their contribution to the movement, the efforts of the women were not
recognized.
• Chipko Movement led to release of women’s power.
 20

Strengths & Weakness

Strengths

• The movement had the ability to energize and motivate passive people to assert
themselves.
• The merit lies that initiative came from within local people and their experience.
• The movement didn’t have any elite outsiders or intellectuals.
• The protests rose because of need for survival. Movement emerged against vested
interests ( contractors, forest departments,police)
• The movement was more successful as compared to Bhoomi Sena and Jharkand
Movement.
• Non violent nature as the Gandhian reference is embarrassment to state which
claims to be rightful successor to freedom struggle.

Weakness

• The Movement comes strong only against the state but was not that decisive force
or potent when it comes to both state and local interests.
• Difficult for movement to deal with causes of deforestation and exploitative
patterns of utilization.
• Men were not totally involved in the movement. The degradation of the
Himalayas continues.
• No uniformity in action plan of the three distinct wings.
• Though alive, the movement has lost the revolutionary focus on opposing
government policy.
• Inability to nurture forests back to health.
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• Not many changes in forest policy. The government has gone ahead with its plan
to build Tehri Dam.
• Relies too much on highly personalized and centralized character of Bahugana.

Conclusion

The bare slopes where pine forests once thrived is a sure sign that the famous Chipko
conservation movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which drew world attention to this once
verdant Himalayan region, is now a fast-fading memory. Vested interests have slowly but
surely overwhelmed the movement in which women from local villages literally hugged
trees to save them from the lumberjack's axe, inspiring a nationwide movement that
saved entire forests critical to the environment and to the livelihoods of rural people in
India.

So powerful was the movement that by 1980, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered
a 15-year ban on logging in the Himalayan regions of Uttar Pradesh.

Thus, Phase 1 of Chipko got over in 1981 when government banned felling of trees.
Important for Himalayas to remain covered in trees- not just timber but trees which yield
foodstuff.

In 2001, the new state of Uttaranchal was created out of these regions, marking a new
phase of development activity, not all of which is environment-friendly.

Today, authorities who should be helping to protect the delicate ecology of the hills are
instead working hand-in-glove with the timber barons.

Activists and villagers at the meeting, one of a series of Media and Human Development
Workshops organized by the Delhi-based Press Institute of India, said that they were
hampered by restrictions imposed by authorities while those who denuded the forests for
commercial gain were given free rein.
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Another significant danger lurking over this region today is the construction of the Tehri
dam despite local resistance. Bahuguna, who believes that restoring the harmonious
relationship between people and nature would solve most modern problems, emphasized
that the biggest danger to the ecology and livelihood of the people of Uttaranchal came
from the series of large dam projects planned for the region.

The new concern to save and protect forests through Chipko satyagraha did not arise
from a resentment against further encroachment on people's access to forest resources. It
was a response to the alarming signals of rapid ecological destabilization in the hills.

Government which sings praises of Chipko movement still sends officials to cut trees.
According to authorities the movement cannot be allowed to stand in way of transmission
of hydropower which will face the rapid spread of more industries and cities.

Before Chipko it was thought that the poor were too poor to be green. After Chipko,
indeed though Chipko, it was demonstrated that peasants and tribals had a greater stake in
the responsible management of nature than did aesthetically minded city dwellers.

The movement is at a standstill today and needs massive support and co-operation from
various factions including the government and environments to save the Himalayas from
further deterioration.