Remembering Chipko: An Unfinished Mission

“Save Forest, Save Earth”

By Alma Grace Barla

The end of winter and beginning of spring is a sign of thanksgiving, new life, hope and aspiration which is celebrated in many cultures throughout the world. In India, several calendars begin around the start of spring, with celebration of various festivals like, Holi, Ugadi (South India), Gudi Padwa (Maharashtra), Maha Vishuba Sankranti (Odisha), Pohela Boishaki or Bengali New Year, Punjabi Vaishakhi, Navroz the Persian New Year etc. The Santal tribes celebrate Baha Porob – festival of flowers and the tribals across Jharkhand celebrate the most popular “Sarhul”, when the ‘sal’ trees get new branches leaves and flowers, marking the beginning of New Year. Besides these seasonal festivals, the international celebrations like Water Day (March 22) and Forest Day (March 23) also are connected with the nature and the cycle of life.

The month of March also reminds us of the ‘Chipko Andolan’, one of the significant efforts to preserve nature. March 26 is observed as ‘Chipko Diwas’ (Chipko Day). On this very day of 1974, under the leadership of Gaura Devi, women and children of a small village of Reni in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand resisted the destruction of forests through Gandhian method of non-violent resistance through an act of hugging the trees – known as ‘Chipko’ Movement. For decades it became a role-model movement for thousands of eco-groups across the world.

Gaura Devi [1925-1991]

Gaura Devi, born into a Bhotiya (Marchha) tribal family of Lata village in 1925, often accompanied her mother to the forest for collecting firewood, tending their sheep and goats. She often wondered why her mother walked miles to collect dried broken branches and twigs instead of cutting big trees nearer home. But her mother would often teach her the importance of nature in their life and for the community; that the forest is like a mother which provide beautiful flowers, nice fruits, roots, medical herbs, fire wood and fodder for their animals. This left a deep impact on Gaura’s mind.

In keeping with tradition of those days, Gaura was married off at the age of 12 to Reni village. She became a widow at a very young age and had to take over her family’s wool trade to make both ends meet and raise her two and a half-year-old only son Chander Singh. With great difficulty, she run her family with the support of small scale farming and forest produces. Gradually, she got involved in the community activities and became the head of the Mahila Mandal.

On 26th March, 1974, the forest department announced an auction of 2500 trees in the Reni Forest overlooking the Alaknanda River which saw disastrous floods in 1894 and 1970. On a day when all men of the village had gone to Chamoli district headquarters for collecting compensation for agricultural land acquired by the army during the Indo-China War, contractors and their axe-men entered the forest for felling trees.

A small girl, who spotted some men marching towards the forest with luggage and equipment, informed Gaura Devi. Being leader, and in the absence of village men, she quickly gathered the women. They pleaded with the loggers to go back, who instead abused the women and threatened them with guns. When all talks failed, the women resorted to hugging the trees and Gaura Devi dared the loggers, “If you cut the trees down, first you will have to hit us with your axes.” Seeing the women’s determination, the officials and labourers went away. In fact, the women shepherded them down to the main road below. They continued to be vigilant for three days and nights to prevent felling of the trees.

The Original Tree Huggers (1730): 

The original Chipko movement dates back to 1730 AD and the Bishnoi community of Rajasthan. As cutting of trees was prohibited in Bishnoi religion, there was a lot of greenery even in the middle of Thar Desert. The Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur ordered his men to get the woods to burn lime for the construction of his new palace. A Bishnoi woman, Amrita Devi, and her three young daughters tried to save the trees by hugging them, but the soldiers struck them with axe. Knowing this, a large group of Bishnois from 84 villages protested and 363 people, including women and children laid down their lives. Commemorating the martyrs, a Bishnoi Temple and Cenotaph (monument of empty tomb) has been built at Khejarli Kalan village of Luni Tahsil in Jodhpur. Thus Khejarli village became site of a forebear of the Chipko movement.

Chipko Andolan 1973 Inspired by the Gandhian principles of Sarvodaya (progress for all), in 1964, Chandi Prasad Bhatt from Gopeshwar in today’s Uttarakhand formed the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (Society for Village Self-Rule), with a purpose to generate local employment through sustainable use of forest produces. The cooperative gave employment to about 1000 persons between 1969 and 1972. But they had to face restrictive forest policies.

The Forest Department refused to allot trees even for domestic purpose to the villagers, but the same trees were auctioned to outsiders. The villagers’ legitimate rights to trees and forest products were curtailed to favour outside commercial interests. In 1973, Bhatt mobilized the forest-wise society members and villagers into the collective Chipko Andolan (Hug the Trees Movement) to force revision of forest policies dating from 1917. Women, who regularly walk three to five miles to the forest to gather and carry home fuel and fodder on their backs, took the lead.

Chipko Women, friends of Gaura Devi

True to the movement’s non-violent philosophy, these women embraced the trees to restrict their felling. Over the years the movement spread throughout the country and ban was imposed in other states like Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka (Appiki Movement), Rajasthan, Bihar, Western Ghats and Vindhyas. More than 1,00,000 trees were saved from felling and by 1981, over a million trees were planted by the Chipko workers. A study by S. N. Prasad of the Indian Institute of Science showed that the survival rate of saplings in DGSS plantations was in excess of 70 per cent, where as the figure for Forest Department plantations lay between 20 per cent and 50 per cent. In late 1980s, another Gandhian leader and peace worker, Sundarlal Bahuguna and his wife Vimla led a unique campaign by taking a 5,000-kilometre foot march spreading the Chipko message in trans-Himalaya region and series of hunger strikes to draw political attention to stop the Tehri dam (8th highest dam in the world), which would submerge a number of towns having nearly half a million population. Bahuguna’s appeal to Indira Gandhi resulted in a 15-year ban on tree felling in the Himalayas forests. But finally the Dam was constructed in 2006.

Gaura Devi quietly died in her village on July 4, 1991 at the age of 66. Often she said, “Cutting the forests will result in floods and wash away our homes.” Gaura Devi’s caution became a reality in June 2013 when floods claimed nearly 5,000 lives and left thousands homeless in the Himalayan region. The government had to spend on relief much more than the revenues collected from timber extraction. When we take part in the spring festivals or plan summer holidays to some hill stations, let’s not forget the lessons from the Chipko,

"माटू हमरू, पाणी हमरू, हमरा ही छन यी बौण भी... पितरों न लगाई बौण, हमुनही त बचौण भी ।" Soil is ours, water ours, ours are these forests. Our fore fathers raised them. It’s we who must protect them (Old Chipko Song in Garhwali).

First Published in Indian Currents, 30 March - 05 April, 2015, pgs. 3-99