50 Years of Chipko

Updated: Mar 30, 2023

50 years back, in the small village of Reni, a few women made history and became part of the 1st Environmental revolution in India.

In the late 60s and early 70s, rampant cutting of trees was causing terrible harm to the jungles in the upper Himalayan range of Nanda Devi Biosphere, popularly known as Mandal forests and Nanda Devi Jungle.

To tackle the issue Chandi Prasad Bhatt, a young activist from Chamoli town, started Dashauli Swarajya Seva Sangh (DSSS)

His endeavour was to increase women's participation in the social movement since they had been impacted the most due to massive deforestation and cutting of trees.

Apart from doing household and farm work, they had to source firewood and grass, which meant walking endless kilometres and carrying back bundles of wood on their head.

Women from various villages attended his meetings and discussed the ideas to save their forests.

As part of the initiative, Mahila Mangal Dal was formed in each village.

Reni also was part of this initiative under the leadership of Gaura Devi, the head of their village Mandal.

Reni village was located at the height and had a clear view of Nanda Devi Forest and the spectacular Mountains.

On one side of the Village was Nanda devi temple with the Alaknanda river flowing, on the other was the Nanda Devi jungles, dense as they can be.

On this day, 50 years back, men folk of Reni village were called on the pretext of payment to Joshimath.

Women were alone in the village; a few women witnessed the movements of trucks with unknown men headed towards Nanda devi forest.

The news of the Uttar Pradesh government agreeing to auction 2500 trees was common knowledge among village folks.

The women were alone in the village so they rushed to Gaura Devi for guidance.

Without wasting any moment, Gaura devi and her 27 women from Reni village headed to the jungles and asked the men to leave.

The contractor's men were foul-mouthed and didn’t budge when women asked them to leave the jungles.

Gaura Devi came up with the most indigenous idea, she and her 27 women hugged the trees.

Despite the gun threats and abuses by the contractors, Gaura devi and her women refused to get their hands off their “Cheed ka Jhaad”.

By the time Men at Joshimath heard of the commotion in the jungles, they left for the jungle site.

The members of the DSSS under the guidance of Bhatt sahab also reached the spot.

The faceoff continued for 4 days, and finally, the contractor and his men left.

This was the beginning of an era leading to the formation of environmental ministries both at the centre and state levels.

As a result of Chipko, multiple policy changes were made to ensure the environmental protection of the forest and forest dweller's rights.

But today, as we celebrate 50 years of the Chipko Movement, a question we all need to ask ourselves is, where does India stand on its environmental commitment today.

Ironically, today the home of the Chipko movement is in danger due to multiple hydroelectric projects operational within 100 km of each other and the constant cutting of mountains.

The recent all-weather Roads for Char Dham Yatra and the railway line till Karnaprayag have left the young Himalayas more fragile than ever.

The slow sinking of Joshimath town, resulting in the displacement of its own residents is a scary situation.

In the city, we want electricity and all the comforts without going through any environmental agony, it is the people from regions like this who suffer without gaining anything but risking their lives.

As city folks, we want everything at our fingertips, we don't realise that our convenience could be life-threatening to others.

India witnessed what happened in 2012 in Kedarnath, and in 2021 Chamoli floods, what will be left if we don’t take care of our environment.

There will never be enough, and greed will always exist, but at some point, we need to take a stand as Indians.

Last year in August 2022, I met Bhatt Sahab at his home in Gopeshwar, a frail Bhatt sahab at 88 is still the picture of strength and courage.

We were driving through Uttrakhand from Joshimath to Nandadevi Biosphere, Badrinath and witnessed the slow destruction of the mountains.

Massive mountains are cut to lay the railway line track from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag.

And the rapid cutting of the mountains for the all-weather Chaar Dham road was a scary sight.

While visiting the Badrinath shrine, the local government official told us about the future development of Badrinath, in line with the Kashi corridor.

Badrinath Corridor will include a mall and an elevated temple.

The plan is displayed on the local notice board as well.

We asked Bhatt Sahab about his views on the Badrinath temple corridor and he mentioned that the Himalayas are young mountains and cannot take so much destruction, this will be yet another disaster in the making.

The government should not trample with temple height because the area falls in the avalanche zone and if the height of the temple is increased sooner or later it will impact the temple.

Unfortunately, all the proposals were passed without consulting the grass route activists, locals with a better understanding of the region.

The conversation in the room went grim barring occasional sips of rounds of chai in the warm Gopeshwar afternoon.

He said it is time people of the country need to make a wise choice, how much development at what cost because if the Himalayas are impacted no one will be left untouched.

After talking to him about our beloved Himalayas, we bid adieu to him and hoped that it was time we citizens play our part in questioning the policies and not alone our Himalayan residents.

Finally, it's we who get the benefit out of the destruction in the mountains.

We want electricity, an all-weather road and an easy journey to meet our Gods.

Let's be considerate of our demands from nature because there is a limit to everything.

Here is a link to a film we made on Bhatt sahab and his role during the Chipko movement.

https://youtu.be/UaCkvbDH2EY