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Chipko movement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Chipko movement (literally "to stick" in Hindi) was a group of

female peasants in the Uttaranchal region of India who 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. The movement began in Chamoli district in 1973 and
spread throughout the Uttaranchal Himalayas by the end of the decade.
In Tehri district, Chipko activists would go on to protest limestone
mining in the Dehra Dun hills in the 1980s as well as the Tehri dam,
before founding the Beej Bachao Andolan or Save the Seeds
movement that continues to the present day. In Kumaon region,
Chipko took on a more radical hue, combining with the general
movement for a separate Uttaranchal state. [1]
One of Chipko's most salient features was the mass participation of
women villagers. [2] As the backbone of Uttaranchal's agrarian
economy, women were most directly affected by environmental Villagers surrounding a tree to
degradation and deforestation, and thus connected the issues most stop them from being felled
easily. How much this participation impacted or derived from the
ideology of Chipko, has been fiercely debated in academic circles. [3]
Despite this, both female and male activists did play pivotal roles in the movement including Gaura
Devi, Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sundarlal Bahuguna, Govind Singh Rawat,
Dhoom Singh Negi and Shamsher Singh Bisht.

Chipko Slogans
"What do the forests bear? soil, water and pure air."

"Embrace the trees and

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

and,

"Ecology is permanent economy."

Surviving participants of the first all-
woman Chipko action at Reni village in
See also 1974 on left jen wadas, reassembled
thirty years later.
 Chandi Prasad Bhatt
 Sundarlal Bahuguna

 Women and the environment through history

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Chipko movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 2

References
1. ^ Chipko Movement, India (http://www.iisd.org/50comm/commdb/desc/d07.htm)
2. ^ Mishra, A., & Tripathi, S. (1978). Chipko movement: Uttaranchal women's bid to save forest wealth. New
Delhi: People's Action/Gandhi Book House.
3. ^ Aryal, M. (1994, January/February). Axing Chipko. Himal, 8-23.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipko_movement"

Categories: Environmental movements | Uttarakhand

 This page was last modified on 15 August 2008, at 04:43.

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