Discuss the Chipko Movement along with the conditions under which it started and its implications.
Discuss the Chipko Movement along with the conditions under which it started and its implications.
The Chipko Andolan (‘Hug the Trees Movement’) was the result of a grassroot level effort to end the alienation of people from their forests. The movement originated from an incident in a remote village called Reni in Garhwal, high-up in the Himalayas during the early 1970s. There was a dispute between the local villagers and a logging contractor who had been allowed to fell trees in a forest close to the village. On a particular day, the contractor’s workers appeared in the forest to cut the trees while the men folk were absent. Undeterred, the women of the village reached the forest quickly and clasped the tree trunks thus preventing the workers from felling the trees. Thus thwarted, the contractor had to withdraw. The Chipko movement quickly spread across communities and media, and forced the government, to whom the forest belongs, to rethink their priorities in the use of forest produce. Experience has taught people that the destruction of forests affected not just the availability of forest products, but also the quality of soil and the sources of water. Participation of the local people can indeed lead to the efficient management of forests.
The Chipko Andolan (‘Hug the Trees Movement’) was the result of a grassroot level effort to end the alienation of people from their forests. The movement originated from an incident in a remote village called Reni in Garhwal, high-up in the Himalayas during the early 1970s. There was a dispute between the local villagers and a logging contractor who had been allowed to fell trees in a forest close to the village. On a particular day, the contractor’s workers appeared in the forest to cut the trees while the men folk were absent. Undeterred, the women of the village reached the forest quickly and clasped the tree trunks thus preventing the workers from felling the trees. Thus thwarted, the contractor had to withdraw. The Chipko movement quickly spread across communities and media, and forced the government, to whom the forest belongs, to rethink their priorities in the use of forest produce. Experience has taught people that the destruction of forests affected not just the availability of forest products, but also the quality of soil and the sources of water. Participation of the local people can indeed lead to the efficient management of forests.
