Chipko Movement turns 46 today

Chipko Movement turns 46 today
Women saving trees from being cut down

There is none who doesn’t know about the Chipko movement. It started back in the year 1970s and got attention for all the obvious reasons. It was the non-violent wave where people fought for the trees and protected them from being cut down by hugging them. Let us go back to those times and remind ourselves of the few important pointers of the movement.

  1. The cutting of trees was ordered by the Jodhpur Maharaja in the 20th century.
  2. It started in April 1973 in the village of Mandal located in the UP and soon took all over Himalayan districts.
  3. For the sports industry to flourish, a plot of the forest was given to the sports company and villagers were denied access to forest wood.
  4. The women of the area took the lead and with the help of an NGO, guarded the trees by hugging them for the whole night.
  5. People kept on joining the movement as the news spread all over. Soon the protest became a success and more such protests began to take birth.
  6. Women like Bachni Devi and Dhoom Singh Devi came up and saved the trees. They gave the slogan, “What do the forests bear? Soil, water, and pure air.”
  7. Sundarlal Bahuguna, who was also a Gandhian activist and philosopher appealed to the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi to implement a ban on the cutting of trees.
  8. The protest brought a significant change in society. For 15 years chopping of green trees was banned in 1980.

Let us thank all of the people who were a part of this protest and try to be sensitive toward our ecological requirements.

 

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-Team Social Mela