Chikpo at 45, a musing.

In the 18th century Bishnoi community in Rajasthan started the 'Chipko Andolan. It is believed that a large group of rejectionist from 84 villages led by a lady named Amrita Devi laid down their lives in an effort to protect the trees from being chopped on the farman of the Maharaja of Jodhpur. The incident melted the heart of the Maharaja, promoting him to give a strong royal farman preventing the cutting if trees in all Bishnoi villages. 

In April 1973, the Government of Uttar Pradesh decided to allot a plot of forest area in the Alaknanada valley (Now in Uttrakhand) to a sports equipment manufacturing company. This decision irked the villager as their demand to use wood for making agriculture tools has been earlier rejected outright by the Government. (Decision somewhat reflects the prejudice of the Government officials towards rural and urban people in those days) With exhortation by 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. This organised resistance by embracing the tress to stop chopping of the trees by contractors came to be known as ’Chipko Andolan’. Women like Dhoom Singh Negi, Bachni Devi, Gauri Devi, Sudesha Devi were the first to save trees by embracing them. The Chipko Andalon, stand out for fallowing the Gandhian philosophy of peaceful resistance and as an eco-feminist movement from the rural India. These ladies coined the slogan: 'What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air'. The success of the Chipko movement in the hills saved forest of the hills being shaved. The success of this protest was infectious and it spread to other parts of the country in no time.

Afterward, the Chipko movement was given formative shape by people like Mr Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist. He coined the Chipko Slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy' 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. The Government also yielding by framing the National Resource policy that is more sensitive to people's needs and ecological requirements. Since then, the movement has spread across many states in the country. The movement has also stopped shaving of forests in the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas and other parts of the India.

Coming back to 2018. Himachal have witnessed preposterous 72% rain deficient, temperature way above normal in 2018 winter. The spring—unusually dry and hot- came and went, almost imperceptibly. Where are we heading to……water wars, perhaps? Even the behemoth Google came with a doodle to celebrate Chipko’s 45 anniversary. I guess, it’s time not only to reflect back on the 45 years of Chikpo, but to start a Chipko in Himachal too. Mr Ghanshyam Raturi, the renowned Chipko Andalon poet, whose songs echo throughout the Himalayas, his couplets sums it up beautifully:-

"Embrace the trees and 

Save them from being felled;

The property of our hills,

Save them from being looted."