45th anniversary of the forest conservation initiative named Chipko Movement
The goal of the Chipko Movement was to draw attention to and prevent deforestation, which had begun to occur on a mass scale to make way for dams or industry or roads. The movement began in 1973 in Uttar Pradesh, and was an initiative of Sunderlal Bahuguna, a renowned environmentalist.
The goal of the Chipko Movement was to draw attention to and prevent deforestation, which had begun to occur on a mass scale to make way for dams or industry or roads. The movement began in 1973 in Uttar Pradesh, and was an initiative of Sunderlal Bahuguna, a renowned environmentalist.
The word 'Chipko' in Hindi is meant for 'to stick to' and the way people expressed solidarity with the movement was by surrounding trees and linking their hands together around it, to physically prevent trees being chopped down.
In the 20th century, it began in the hills where the forests are the main source of livelihood, since agricultural activities cannot be carried out easily. The Chipko movement of 1973 was one of the most famous among these. The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in April 1973 in the village of Mandal in the upper Alakananda valley and over the next five years spread to many districts of the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh.
The success achieved by this protest led to similar protests in other parts of the country. From their origins as a spontaneous protest against logging abuses in Uttar Pradesh in the Himalayas, supporters of the Chipko movement, mainly village women, have successfully banned the felling of trees in a number of regions and influenced natural resource policy in India.
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 the order of Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.
Embrace the trees and
Save them from being felled;
The property of our hills,
Save them from being looted
