CHIPKO MOVEMENT

Foot March for Chipko Movement

Meeting for Chipko Movement

INTRODUCTION• The Chipko movement was started to prevent the

cutting of trees.

• Against those people, who were destroying the natural resources of the forests

• Chipko Movement aimed at protection and conservation of trees and forests from being destroyed.

HISTORY• Birth place - Gopeshwar in District Chamoli in 1973

• First Chipko action March 1974 in Reni village.

HISTORY

• Spread throughout the Uttaranchal Himalayas by the end of the decade.

• Based on the Gandhian philosophy

• The name of the Chipko moment originated from the word ‘embrace’

 

Major people in the Chipko Movement

• Village women• Amrita Devi• Gaura Devi • Chandi Prasad Bhatt • Sundarlal Bahuguna

Women’s Participation

• Mass participation of female villagers and their children• Women were most directly affected by environmental

degradation and deforestation. • Key women leaders were Gaura Devi, Sudesha Devi,

Bachni Devi, Dev Suman, Mira Behn, Sarala Behn and Amrita Devi.

• Women formed human chains across roads to prevent contractors from reaching the forest area.

• Women have fought against the deforestation. They have prevented the contractors from felling the trees.

Children as Mediators

• Children act as mediators for Chipko Movement to take the message home and spread to their parents.

Gaura Devi• Head of the village Mahila Mangal Dal.  

• Mobilized village women for the movement when company men marched to cut the trees.

• Gaura Devi stood on way and declared: 

“The forest nurtures us like a mother; you will only be able to use your axes on it but you have to use them  first on us.”

Chandi Prasad Bhatt• A leader within the Chipko movement.• Educate villagers among the Himalayan Mountains.• Bhatt’s teachings focus on the protection of the

Himalayan Mountains from deforestation. • Organized rallies to protect the forest from mass

destruction.

“Let them know we will not allow the felling of a single tree. When their men raise their axes, we will embrace the trees to protect them.”

- Chandi Prasad Bhatt

Sundarlal Bahuguna

• He has contributed globally through awareness raising measures concerning deforestation.

• He was one of the first people to stop the construction of the Tehri Dam.

• Bahuguna understood the need for protecting the environment by taking foot marches.

• He suggested that the villagers must replant what they cut.

Importance of Tehri Dam• Tehri Dam,a major hydroelectric project centered

near Tehri Town.

• Final installed capacity of 2000 MW

• Additional irrigation to 270,000 hectares

• Stabilization to existing irrigation on 600,000 hectares

• 270 million gallons of drinking water per day to Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

Why not Tehri Dam ???

• Tehri Dam- object of active protestation by environmental organizations and local people.

• Reasons for Protestation:

• The relocation of more than 100,000 people

.• It is located in the Central Himalayan Seismic Gap.

• This region was the site of a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.

• The dam-break would submerge numerous towns whose populations total near half a million.

• The intention of the Dams was to divert water flow to New Delhi.

• This will lead to reduction of water supply in mountain villagers.

• The villages get water supply of only 4 liters per family.

• Moreover the protestors claim that it will uproot trees and pose a flood threat.

Why Chipko Movement

• The forests of India are a critical resource for the livelihood of rural peoples throughout the country.

• These forests have been increasingly felled for commerce and industry.

• If the Himalayas are not saved all of India will be turned in to a desert.

• Fodder will not be available.• There will be Soil Erosion and land slides.

• Indian villagers have sought to protect their livelihoods through the Gandhian method.

• This resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and became organised.

• Known as the Chipko Movement.

• Deforestation is a severe problem in northern India.

• Local people have come together to prevent commercial

timber harvesting.

• Subsistence agriculture provided women the necessary nutrients needed to feed their families.

• Uttarakhand has moved away from subsistence-oriented peasant economy to a dependent on outside remittances to live.

Slogan of Chipko Moment

• “ What do the forest bear? Soil ,water and pure air”

Embrace the tree and save them from being

felled; the properties of our hills, save them from being looted. And, “Ecology is permanent

economy.”

Another one said ….

• “Let us protect and plant the trees Go awaken the villages And drive away the axe man”

Success of the Chipko Movement

• Ban on cutting the trees for the 15 years in the forests of Uttar Pradesh in 1980.

• Later on the ban was imposed in Himachal Pardesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Bihar, Western Ghats and Vindhayas.

• More than 1,00,000 trees have been saved from excavation.

• It generated pressure for a natural resource policy which is more sensitive to people's needs and ecological requirements.

• Afterward environmental awareness increased dramatically in India.

• New methods of forest farming have been developed, both to conserve the forests and create employment.

• By 1981, over a million trees had been planted through their efforts.

• Villagers paid special attention in care of the trees and forest trees are being used judiciously.

• The forest department has opened some nursery in villages and supplies free seedlings to the forest.

• This method often slowed the work and brought attention the government’s actions.

• The Chipko is still working to protect the trees today through the same nonviolent methods.

• The chipko movement is teaching the people better land use ,nursery management and reforestation methods.

References

• http://www.iisd.org/50comm/commdb/desc/d07.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipko_movement• http://healthy-india.org/saveearth6.asp • http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/

Chipko_Movement