Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the Chipko Movement.
By Simran Bedi.
Resistance in India has been commonly characterized by nonviolent tactics for centuries. Mahatma Gandhi popularized this nonviolence globally and coined the term, “satyagraha,” a form of nonviolence resistance in place of using force as a political weapon.[1] The Chipko Movement comes from the word, “chipko,” which means to hug or to cling to. During the 1970s rural villagers held on to trees as a way to protest tree felling in regions, notably in Uttar Pradesh.[2]
The origins of this movement date back to the 1920s and 1930s. British colonists exploited and destroyed forests in Uttar Pradesh for shipbuilding for their navy and for expanding railway networks.[4] The Forest Act of 1927 furthered British interests resulting in an increase of forest satyagrahas. The Uttar Pradesh region has long been coveted for its forests and resources, often leaving local villagers to deal with the consequences of governmental exploitation of their land.
In the early 1960s, Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal (DGSM) was founded by Chandi Prasad Bhatt. The organization was started in order to help unskilled and semiskilled construction workers in the Garhwal region of Uttar Pradesh to obtain employment.[5] They began buying rights over nearby forest and the organization also started fighting for locals to have access to the forest lands. By the 1970s, villagers that had once sustained their food supply from the surrounding forests had to rely on importing resources due to the depleted soil fertility.[6] On April 24, 1973, the first protest of Chipko began with C.P. Bhatt and his co-workers marching to stop the felling of trees in Gopeshwar. This one protest resulted in the Forest Department canceling the tree-felling company’s permit and assigning the trees to DGSM.
Chipko started to spread through Himalayan regions, and Sunderlal Bahuguna led a similar protest on October 25, 1973. In March of 1974, the Forest Department put obstacles in place so Bhatt and his followers could not protest on a specific day that lumber workers were planning to fell trees in Reni forest. In response, Gaura Devi led a group of 30 women and children to stop contractors from cutting trees until the men had arrived back to the village. Within two years, the Reni forest had a 10-year ban placed on tree felling. After this event, C.P. Bhatt and Chipko leaders throughout the Himalayas began to include women more.[7]
Women were often most affected by deforestation of the Himalayas because they were responsible for cooking and thus cultivating crops from the forest. Women began taking lead in the Chipko movement, but it is important to note this was not a feminist movement or even an environmental movement in a “western sense.” Villagers affected by the exploitation of the forests had no choice but to protest, their homes and livelihoods were being destroyed.[8]
The Chipko Movement adhered to strictly nonviolent protest tactics, similar to many other resistance movements that have occurred on the Indian subcontinent. Chipko has resulted in decade-long tree-felling bans in numerous forests in the Himalayas, protecting the people and resources of rural India. In Hind Swaraj, Gandhi had written, “In India the nation at large had generally used passive resistance in all departments of life. We cease to cooperate with our rulers when they displease us.” [9]
[1] Shiva, Vandana, and J. Bandyopadhyay. “The Evolution, Structure, and Impact of the Chipko Movement.” Mountain Research and Development 6, no. 2 (May 1986): 133–42.
[2] Jain, Shobita. “Women and People’s Ecological Movement: A Case Study of Women’s Role in the Chipko Movement in Uttar Pradesh.” Economic and Political Weekly 19, no. 41 (October 13, 1984): 1788–94.
[3] Singh, Pamela. Chipko Tree Huggers of the Himalayas. 1994. Photograph. Sepia Eye.
[4] Shiva, Vandana, and J. Bandyopadhyay. “The Evolution, Structure, and Impact of the Chipko Movement.” Mountain Research and Development 6, no. 2 (May 1986): 133–42.
[5] Jain, Shobita. “Women and People’s Ecological Movement: A Case Study of Women’s Role in the Chipko Movement in Uttar Pradesh.” Economic and Political Weekly 19, no. 41 (October 13, 1984): 1788–94.
[6] Shiva, Vandana, and J. Bandyopadhyay. “The Evolution, Structure, and Impact of the Chipko Movement.” Mountain Research and Development 6, no. 2 (May 1986): 133–42.
[7] Jain, Shobita. “Women and People’s Ecological Movement: A Case Study of Women’s Role in the Chipko Movement in Uttar Pradesh.” Economic and Political Weekly 19, no. 41 (October 13, 1984): 1788–94.
[8] Mallick, Krishna. “Chipko (Hug the Trees) Movement.” Essay. In Environmental Movements of India: Chipko, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Navdanya, 37–58. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2021.
[9] Shiva, Vandana, and J. Bandyopadhyay. “The Evolution, Structure, and Impact of the Chipko Movement.” Mountain Research and Development 6, no. 2 (May 1986): 133–42.
[10] Singh, Pamela. Chipko Tree Huggers of the Himalayas #75. 1994. Photograph. Sepia Eye.