Consider being the most important environmental movement, ChipkoAndolan – Hug the trees movement promoted the feeling of environmental awareness and its preservation among the population of India.
Causes
- Initiated by Jayaprakash Narayan and the Sarvodayamovement, in the year 1964 Dasholi Society for Village Self-Rule was set up by Gandhiansocial worker Chandi Prasad Bhatt in
- The purpose was to set up small industries using the resources of theforest.
- Their project often involves making farm tools for local use.
- Every time they visit forest, they had to face restrictive forest policies of colonial era still prevalent, as “contractor system”, during which these pieces of forest land were commoditized and auctioned to bigcontractors.
- The hill regions saw an influx of more people from the outside – urbanization, which only added to the strained ecologicalbalance.
- Hastened by increasing imbalance, the Garhwal Himalayas soon became the center for a rising ecologicalawareness.
- Deforestation becomes verypopular.
- Floods arrived and the number of deaths incidents increased.
MOVEMENT PROGRESSION
- Soon the women from nearby villages started forming small groups and questioned the Authorities.
- The movement started with a single group, expanded within the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand.
- By the late1970s, marches and protests were initiated.
- Around October 1971, the Sangha workers held a demonstration in Gopeshwar to protest against the policies of the Forest Department.
- The Sangha community- native to tree protection started hugging the trees in order to stop contractors from axing the tree.
- Fewmonthslater,the govt. declared an auction program inJanuary1974,for2,500treesnearRenivillage.
- Soon the women from nearby villages started forming small groups and questioned the Authorities.
- The movement started with a single group, expanded within the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand.
- By late 1970s, marches and protests we reinitiated.
- Around October 1971, the Sangha workers held a demonstration
- In Gopeshwar to protest against the policies of the Forest Department.
- The Sangha community- native to tree protection started hugging the trees in order to stop contractors from axing thetree.
- Few months later, the government declared an auction program in January 1974, for 2, 500 trees near Reni village.
- Huge demonstration was organized to Boycott the movement by clasping the
- Contractors threaten the people of killing the morimprisoning them.
- The movement expanded into a nationwide protest.
EFFECTS
- The struggle soon reached across many parts of the Uttarakhand, and spontaneous stand-offs/the local citizenry and timber merchants occurred at various locations, with hill women demonstrating their newfound power as non-violent activists.
- The contract was upheld because they can’t kill people in order to gain forest resources.
- Women start a binding sacred thread- Rakhi contemplating trees as their
- One of the Gandhian activists, Sunderlal Bahuguna, got influenced by such mass movement and started spreading the news of the movement by initiating massmovement nationwide.
CONCLUSION
- Then-Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, banned the felling of trees in 1980 for 15 years so that the region can rehabilitate.
- Gradually, women developed self-help groups (SHGs) to act as a way between humans and forests.
- Sunderlal Bahuguna was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2009 by the Government of India for his contribution to the environmental field.