Chipko Movement
Chipko Movement
Chipko Movement
Background
With the conclusion of the Sino-Indian border conflict in
1963, the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh experienced a
growth in development, especially in the rural Himalayan
regions. The interior roads built for the conflict attracted
many foreign-based logging companies that sought access
to the region’s vast forest resources. Although the rural
villagers depended heavily on the forests for subsistence—
both directly, for food and fuel, and indirectly, for services
such as water purification and soil stabilization—
government policy prevented the villagers from managing
the lands and denied them access to the lumber. Many of
the commercial logging endeavours were mismanaged, and
the clear cut forests led to lower agricultural yields, erosion,
depleted water resources, and increased flooding
throughout much of the surrounding areas.
The Movement
In 1964 environmentalist and Gandhian social activist
Chandi Prasad Bhatt founded a cooperative organization,
Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (later renamed Dasholi
Gram Swarajya Mandal [DGSM]), to foster small industries
for rural villagers, using local resources. When industrial
logging was linked to the severe monsoon floods that killed
more than 200 people in the region in 1970, DGSM became
a force of opposition against the large-scale industry. The
first Chipko protest occurred near the village of Mandal in
the upper Alaknanda valley in April 1973. The villagers,
having been denied access to a small number of trees with
which to build agricultural tools, were outraged when the
government allotted a much larger plot to a sporting goods
manufacturer. When their appeals were denied, Chandi
Prasad Bhatt led villagers into the forest and embraced the
trees to prevent logging. After many days of those protests,
the government cancelled the company’s logging permit and
granted the original allotment requested by DGSM.