Sunderlal Bahuguna

"My fight is to save the Himalayas."

Sunderlal Bahuguna

India’s National Magazine, August 27, 2004. Environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, 77, whose name has become synonymous with the anti-Tehri dam movement, is a dejected man today as he watches Old Tehri town go down under water. He is saddened by the turn of events. However, sitting in his new two-storeyed house at Koti, a little hillock overlooking the Bhagirathi river Bahuguna is as resolute as ever to continue his struggle. This interview appeared in Frontline.

What is Chipko Movement or Chipko Andolan?

Chipko Andolan refers to a non-violent movement for conservation of forest. The movement saw people forming circles around the tree and hugging it to save from being cut down. It started in the 1970s and got its name from the obvious reason of people embracing the trees (as Chipko stands for embrace, hug and to stick). However, the original movement dates back to 18th century Rajasthan where a large group of people from the Bishnoi community resisted the cutting of trees (ordered by Jodhpurs Maharaja) by hugging them.

Why and how did the Chipko Movement start?

It began in the 20th century, in the hills where forests are the main source of livelihood. The first Chipko action took place in April 1973 in the village of Mandal in Uttar Pradesh and spread over the next five years to other Himalayan districts. The government denied the demand of the villagers to use wood for making agricultural products and gave a plot of forest area in the Alaknanda valley to a sports goods company. With the help of a local NGO, the women of the area went into the forest and formed a circle around the trees, protecting them from the men who came to cut down the trees. The women kept an all-night vigil, guarding their trees until all of them left. By then, the news of this movement spread to nearby villages and more people joined in. The success achieved by this protest led to similar protests in other parts of the country. Dhoom Singh Negi, Bachni Devi, and many other village women were the first to save trees by hugging them. They even coined the slogan "What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air." Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist and philosopher, also appealed to the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to implement a ban on cutting down the trees. His appeal resulted in a 15-year ban on the chopping of green trees in 1980.

From 1980-1995 Children of the Green Earth initiated, fostered, and connected children’s tree planting efforts in schools, youth groups.

The Chipko Movement in India

Sunderlal Bahuguna