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The '''Chipko movement''' was a group of villagers in the [[Uttarakhand]] region of [[India]] who opposed commercial logging. The movement is best known for its tactic of '''hugging trees''' to prevent them being cut down. This gave rise to the term '''tree hugger''' for [[environmentalist]]s. Also, it was notable in that the movement was led by women who were influenced by Gandhi. The name of the movement comes from the [[Hindi]] word for 'embrace', as the villagers hugged the trees, and prevented the contractors' from felling them. |
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== Motivators for the movement == |
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Their opposition to deforestation was motivated by a combination of environmental and economic concerns. The felling of forests of Banj (Himalayan [[Oak]]), and their replacement by [[Chir Pine]], reduced the amount of undergrowth and hence led to increased flooding. Among the movement's economic demands were that no forest-exploiting contracts be given to outsiders, a miniumum wage for forest labourers, and the provision of low-cost materials for local small-scale industries. |
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The movement denied any formal hierarchy, but particularly influential members included Sunderlal Bahuguna and Chandi Prasad Bhatt. The writer and activist [[Vandana Shiva]] was also involved in the [[Chipko]] movement in the 1970s. |
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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. It was sparked off by the government's decision to allot a plot of forest area in the Alaknanda valley to a sports goods company. This angered the villagers because their similar demand to use wood for making agricultural tools had been earlier denied. With encouragement from a local NGO (non-governmental organization), DGSS (Dasoli Gram Swarajya Sangh), the women of the area, under the leadership of an activist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, went into the forest and formed a circle around the trees preventing the men from cutting them down. |
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Bahuguna coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'. Ghanasyam Raturi, the Chipko poet, whose songs echo throughout the Himalayas of Uttar Pradesh, wrote a poem describing the method of embracing the trees to save them from felling: |
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:''Embrace the trees and'' |
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:''Save them from being felled;'' |
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:''The property of our hills,'' |
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:''Save them from being looted.'' |
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== History == |
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Though this movement gained prominence in the 1970s, the [[Bishnoi]] community in [[Rajasthan]] (a province in north western [[India]]) are said to have been the progenitors of this movement during the around the year [[1740]]. A large group of villagers lost their lives trying to protect trees from being felled by the soldiers of the [[Maharaja of Jodhpur]]. |
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==References== |
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*Thomas Weber, Thomas. ''Hugging the Trees'' ISBN 0670823538 |
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==External links == |
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*[http://edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/forestry/chipko.htm The Chipko movement] |
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{{India-stub}} |
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[[Category:Environmental movements]] |
Revision as of 15:16, 1 December 2005
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