A Novel Movement for Establishment of Cordial Relationship between Man and Nature

Item

Title: A Novel Movement for
Establishment of Cordial Relationship
between Man and Nature
extracted text: CHIPKO
A Novel Movement for
Establishment of Cordial Relationship
between Man and Nature

Sunderlal Bahuguna

-loo
The Global Perspective*
Essential ecological processes are those processes that
are governed, supported or strongly moderated by ecosystems
and are essential for food production, health and other aspects
of human survival and sustainable development, “Life-support
systems” is shorthand for the main ecosystems involved —
for example, watershed forests or coastal wetlands. The main
tenance of such processes and systems is vital for all societies
regardless of their stage of development.
Agricultural Systems

Only about 11% of the world’s land area (excluding
Antarctica) offers no serious limitation to agriculture; the rest
suffers from drought, mineral stress (nutritional deficiencies or
toxicities), shallow depth, excess water, or permafrost
Unfortunately large areas of prime quality land are being
permanently taken out of agricultural use by being built on.
In addition, close to one-third of the world’s arable land will
be destroyed in the next 20 years if current rates of land
degradation continues.
Soil is a crucial life-support system, since the bulk of all
food production depends on it. Soil erosion is a natural and
continuous process, but in undisturbed ecosystems with a
protective cover of plants the soil is usually regenerated at the
same rate it is removed. If soil and vegetation are not in
balance, as often they are not when influenced by poorly man
aged human activities, erosion is accelerated with disastrous
consequences. Even under natural conditions of vegetation
cover, nature takes from 100 to 400 years or more to generate
10 millimetres of top soil. So once the soil has gone, for all
practical purposes it has gone for good.
Soil loss has accelerated sharply throughout the foodhungry tropics, which are generally more susceptible to erosion
than the temperate zone, due to the land and the nature of the
soils and rainfall. More than half of India, for example,
suffers from some form of soil degradation; out of her total
of 3.3 million km2, 1.4 million km3 are subject to increased soil
(continued on cover 3)

Chipko
Destruction of the forests is the murder of our
future generations and prosperity. Wanton,
barberous, disgraceful vandalism

—Brund H. Schubert
The much talked about Chipko movement which was
born in Uttarakhand and is successfully surging forward is not
merely a symbolic movement against the felling of trees in the
Himalayan region, but in the words of the renowned scientist
Dr M. S. Swaminathan: “It is a practical philosophy as much
as a live issue.” It rebels against the existing materialistic
civilization, which, in order to satisfy its ever-increasing arti
ficial needs has provoked man to conquer nature and rape the
earth. Paradoxically, this very civilization is also fighting hard
for its survival after being engulfed and threatened by various
environmental problems.
This rebellion was clearly manifested on 27 March 1973
in Mandal village of Chamoli District, when the villagers did
not allow a sports goods manufacturing firm of Allahabad to
fell the ash trees auctioned to them by the U. P. Govern
ment. Interestingly, just before this incident the villagers
were not allowed to fell the trees for making yokes,
on the ground that it was not feasible from the silvi
cultural point of view. Naturally, the villagers protested
against the fact that the tree which they nurtured are not made
available to them for tools of production but are sold to con
tractors for the manufacture of sports goods for the sake of
entertainment, and that too, in far away places. They challenged
this commercial science and protested that in case the con
tractor should come with the intention of felling the trees, they
would save them by clinging to the trees. The sports company
had topack off from here and turn towards the Mandakini
Valley of Kedarnath region. But there too they met similar
resistance.

Uttarakhand, which is the source of the two major rivers,
Ganga and Yamuna — the blessings of Northern India—is
fast becoming a pathetic sight of landslides and of erosions and
drying up of the water sources. The capacity of this land to
provide food and shelter to the people of this region is
exhausted. The principle of ecology that man follows the soil
is fully rendered true here. The inhabitants of this region,
mainly the youth power, have run away to every nook and cor
ner of this country in search of employment by selling their
skill and labour. Thousands have settled in Bombay and Delhi
alone. Alaknanda, the main tributory of the Ganges, was in
spate during July 1 970 which washed away almost everything
people had. The stability of the Himalaya, which Lord Krishna
had described as himself personified, started giving way in
many parts of its villages. Many lost their lives owing to severe
landslides at many places. This phenomenon gave a new
perspective to the Chipko movement. The forests should not
be considered merely as the means to earn commercial benefits
but also as a strong defence against erosions and landslides.
This prompted the villagers of Reni in the upper catchment
area of the Alaknanda to save the trees earmarked for felling
according to the so-called scientific working plan of the Forest
Department, which had sold the trees to a contractor. But the
womenfolk of that area chased away the labourers by protest
ing that this forest belongs to them, they are attached to it and
under no circumstances would they allow its destruction.
Past history

For a woman, the mother’s home is a place which she
coulc rely upon in hard times. Since time immemorial, forests
have been providing its inhabitants, food, fruits, fodder and
other dire necessities of life. They had a very affectionate
relationship with the forests. We can have the glimpse of this
truth in the remote Adivasi areas which have remained cut
off due to the absence of modern transport and communication
facilities. They are inaccessible. In the last century when the
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British driven by colonial policy were planting a firm foot in
India, they were quite impressed by our forests, which were just
a commercial commodity for them. So the Government took
over the management of the forests in its own hands, for the
sake of exploitation. The peasants revolted against it. The
monuments erected in memory of Birsa Munda, leader of
revolt in Ranchi (Bihar) and other martyrs on the banks of the
Yamuna in Tilari (UP), stand as proofs of such revolts. In
Uttarakhand, this century began with a mass revolt against the
Commercial Forest Policy, which became a part of the Swarajya
Movement in 1920-21.
With this background the Chipko movement gave a new
meaning to the long-suppressed grievances of the forest
dwellers. In the beginning this movement was limited to eco
nomic wellbeing of the local people, and demanded the end of
the vicious contract system of forest exploitation by establish
ing cooperative societies, settlement of minimum wages, pro
tection of villager’s rights, new forest settlement and supply of
raw material to small local industries on subsidised basis. This
movement was started on the 30th May 1969 during the
Ziladaan of Uttarkashi in the wake of Acharya Vinoba Bhave's
Gramdaan-Gram-Swaraj Movement. On this occasion of forest
day a charter of forest-rights was read in front of martyrs’
memorial at Tilari. The formulation of the charter emphasized
the need for creating an affectionate relationship of the people
with the forests by using the forest resources for their well
being. It soon advanced from the earlier approach.
Protection of environment

The Stockholm Conference created a favourable atmos
phere for accepting oxygen and water as the main products of
forests. Thus the Chipko movement had an opportunity to
shed its local and economical features and emerge as a fullfledged movement for the protection of the environment. After
the Reni incident, the Sarvodaya Brotherhood demanded
complete ban on green felling for at least five years in the
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hilly catchments of the Himalayan rivers. Thus they gave
prime importance to the ecological aspect and shifted the focus
from economic benefits. In the meantime, attention of the
Chipko workers was drawn towards the deep cuts on chir
pine trees for the extraction of resin to produce rosin and
turpentine. They compelled the Government to reconsider the
matter of protection of forests, in all its aspects, by starting
(picketing) in September-October 1974, on the occasion of
auction of the forests, thus creating obstructions in its
proceedings. Fasts were also observed to attract the attention
of the authorities.

But the ecological aspect of this movement came into
light when 5 intellectuals of Uttarakhand made an appeal: ‘The
Swan Song of Chir Pine Trees’ to draw public sympathy on
the issue of protection of trees. On the 30th May 1977, the
people of Henval Valley of Tehri-Garhwal responded to this
appeal by applying bandages of mud to the wounds of the
pine trees and removing the blades fixed on them to extract
resin.

In the meanwhile. Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan,
Kaka Kalelkar, Acharya Dada Dhrmadhikari and other
intellectuals issued an appeal for the protection of the Hima
layas. In this appeal they had given their full support to the
aims of the Chipko movement and demanded a change in the
present commercial forest policy into a policy of conservation.
Although the capital cities of Delhi and Lucknow and the
towns of the Himalayan region turned a deaf ear to this
appeal, the womenfolk of Henval valley pledged to protect the
trees earmarked for felling in the Advani village, by tying
Rakhi (the symbol of protection) around them. They challeng
ed the existing slogans which were in favour of forest auction
and temporary economic benefits from the industries depend
ing on forests and presented a new slogan of permanent eco
nomy. “What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air.
Soil, water and pure air, are the basis of Life.”
4

The Agony of the women

Due to washing away of fertile soil, the men folk were
compelled to leave their families and wander in search of em
ployment thus making the women bear all the responsibilities,
collecting fodder, firewood and carrying water, which form
their main chores besides farming. They have a direct contact
with these forests. The policy of commercial exploitation is
mainly responsible for the disappearance of broad-leaved trees
and flourishing of coniferous species, which have made the soil
dry and infertile. After the extension of motor roads, even the
remnants of the felled trees are not spared, but become the
prey of machines. Hence the scarcity of firewood in the
forests.
Because of the low conservation capacity of the conifero
us species, the water springs have dried up. Earth is skinned
off when logs of woods are dragged down the hills. Gullies are
formed which wash away the topsoil of the forest, grazing and
agricultural lands. Who else could feel the necessity of stopping
this destruction other than the women directly attached
to the soil? They arc aware of the fact that the loss of fertile
top soil has compelled their husbands to leave their homes
and they have to lead a widow’s life. If only the soil is not dis
turbed, agriculture could be carried on smoothly, and thus they
could make their husbands stay back in their homes. The only
remedy for this is the protection of forests because trees are,
in a way, factories of soil production and water reservoirs,
On the other hand, the government, w'hich in the name
of scientific management carries out the job of felling trees,
deputed a forest officer to lend a piece of advice on forestry to
those illiterate and innocent women. He was greeted with lit
lanterns in broad daylight! They argued that landslides occured
wherever the felling took place and there was no new growth as
claimed. They had with them instances of disasters due to
felling of trees, as a challenge to principles of forestry quoted
in books.
When efforts of the interested parties to lure the
.5 ’

labourers to fell the trees in the Advani forest failed, the forest
officers and contractors resorted to call an unit of 50 armed
policemen on the 1st February 1978, to defend the hired axe
men and terrorize the tree-protectors. But the women clung to
the trees by protesting that they would rather get themselves
hacked, but under no circumstances would they allow them to
fell the trees. The police force was helpless before this peaceful
resistance. After this incident, people were successful in
preventing the fellings in Chanchridhar in Almora District and
Bhyundar in Chamoli.
On 6th August 1978, the people in Uttarkashi, to their
dismay, saw that the flow of the Bhagirathi river had almost
stopped. This was because of a landslide forming a vast
lake above the Bhagirathi and her tributory Kanodia. When
the lakes bursted it created davastating floods. This again
proved that every green tree is a sentry against landslides.
After this nation-wide havoc, the Chipko movement
hoped for a fundamental change in the Government’s attitude
towards the management of forests; but on the contrary, even
before the people could forget the impact of this disaster,
the pine forests were auctioned under the strict guard of armed
police. Peaceful demonstrations and all-Party meetings were
held to express resentment against this brutal action. Among
the trees auctioned, about ten thousand oak trees were to be
felled for the hill campus of Pantnagar Agricultural University.
The population of 50 villages in the vicinity, which was depen
dent on these jungles for their requirements of fodder, firewood
and water held demonstrations. Ultimately the Government
was compelled to cancel its order.
But Chipko faced a big challenge in the Amarshar forest
of Balganga valley when in Dec. 1978 the Forest Corporation,
an Uttar Pradesh Government Undertaking, engaged local
labourers to fell the trees. Sri Dhumsingh Negi, a Sarvodaya
worker, observed fast for five days in protest, which brought
an instant awakening in the rural population and ultimately
the labourers threw away their axes and decided to take up
shovels to protect their fields from erosion.
$

Malgaddi area of the Badiyar Gad, a tributory of Alaknanda was the second front for the movement. Approximately
two thousand trees were earmarked for felling. Only the
previous year, people had witnessed tremendous damage to
public life and property and also tothe agricultural land due
to landslides and floods. Here the mass movement started on
December 25, 1978 in which several women took part and
foiled the attempts of the Forest Corportion to fell the trees
with the help of the police.

My prayerful fast of 24 days, which began on 9 January
1979 in the forest continued after my arrest in Tehri and
Dehra Dun jails upto 1 February. An immediate stay order was
issued by the Government on felling of the trees in three places
and thus it opend the doors for discussion for declaring the
Himalayan forests as protection forests and pending any
verdict in this regard, the felling and auction was discontinued
in Garhwal and Kumaon Divisions. At the same time, the
youth started a mass movement in Dhyadi (Almora) and as a
result of it the felling of trees was stopped.
Demands of the Chipko Movement

During the period of six years, Chipko movement has
developed into a powerful mass-based ecological movement
for permanent economy against the traditional shortsighted
and destructive economy. The main contention of this move
ment is that the main gift of the Himalayas to the nation is
water and its function is to produce, maintain and improve
soil structure. Hence felling of green trees for commercial
purposes should be stopped forth with at least for 10 to 15
years, until green coverage of at least 60% area is restored as
professed in the National Forest Policy of 1952. Mass plant
ation of trees with capability of holding soil and water con
servation should be taken up on war footing to enable the
villagers to be self-reliant for their inevitable basic needs of
food and clothings. Five ‘F’ trees, i.e , trees providing Food
(nuts, fruits oilseeds, honey, etc)., Fodder, Fuel. Fertilizers, and
7

Fibre, should be planted. Such trees should be planted all
over the sloppy agricultural land and forest areas. The local
population would automatically take interest in the plantation
of these trees and would protect them too. The main reason
for the forest devastation is the destruction of natural forests
by planting of such species which would be profit-making.
Naturally local people had no interest in this. Another thing
responsible for the crisis is the plantation of pine, deodar and
other coniferous varieties in the hills and eucalyptus, etc., in
the foothills. All this has robbed the land of its fertility.
India is an agricultural country and here forestry should be in
support of agriculture. We have the example of China which
faced the problem of floods due to the most terrible forest
devastation and yet emerged out of this catastrophe by making
forestry the basis of agriculture. Forest management and
protection requires people's active participation.
Chipko is not only the answer to the problems of Hima
layan people, but of the v. hole mankind. Our population is
increasing whereas crop-land is diminishing. In 1950 there
was 0.241 hectare per capita agricultural land available to
grow food for a population of 250 millions. The world popul
ation was 3910 million in 1975 and in spite of extension of
arable land area, only 0.181 hectare per capita agricultural
land was available. But the population in 2000 will be 6290
millions and per capita agricultural land will come down to
0.124 hectares. The production of foodgrains increased from
276 kg. to 360 kg. per hectare from 1950 to 1971, but it has
decreassed to 354 kg. between 1971 and 1977. So most of the
countries will have to face land-hunger, increase in food prices
and widespread social unrest. Therefore, the only solution of
this global problem is tre-farming. Growing wheat and rice
takes up to 20 times more land area than fruits and nuts, to
feed the same number of people.
Public awakening

The Chipko movement has succeeded in enforcing stop
page of felling of trees for 10 years in 1300 sq. kms. of the
8

upper catchment area of river Alaknanda. Felling of green
trees has been suspended in some other parts which were
adversely affected by the so-called scientific management. To
wit, remedial engineering works are being carried out in some
areas. A separate Department has been set up for carrying
out the task of replantation of the most depleted forests. The
practice of making deep cuts on the pine trees to extract resin
has been stopped. These are some of the minor changes. The
question of the fundamental change in forest policy declaring
the hill forests as protection forests is yet to be solved.
However, the biggest achievement of this movement.
which even its worst critics admit, is the enlightenment of the
layman regarding the importance of the protection of trees,
recognition of the scientific basis behind the conservation of
forests and their efforts in this direction. This fact is evident
in the melodious folk-songs and powerful slogans of the local
cow-herds and grass-cutter women. Sri Ghanshyam Sailani, the
folk singer and poet is the main inspirer of this movement.
His songs awakened the people and he visited the actual sites
of the movement. One of his poems ‘The Call of Trees’,
expresses these sentiments in the following words.
“I wish to live for you, that is why I am here on this
earth; since ages I flourish for your sake and I bow before
you with all the sweetness in my flowers and fruits. I
provide air, water and shade to you. I am food, I am
milk, please do not cut me. I feel pain (Peeda), that is
why I am known as a tree (Ped). Please save me, please
plant me and decorate this earth. I am standing on the
fence of the farms and on the hill slopes. I make
and preserve the soil, do not destroy me, there is a village
underneath.”
Another poet Sri Jeevanand Shriyal has adopted the idea
from the celebrated author Eric Eckholm’s book Losing
Ground, that people follow the soil. It means that everything
including the soil have been washed away from these moun
tains, and no means of livelihood are left. Soil—the flesh and
9

blood of the hills—is washed away, and in addition, roads
have been laid to facilitate people to run away to the plains.
Similarly, there is one more pathetic song depicting a woman
lamenting over felling of a tree, her true friend.
A unique sense of responsibility towards the Mother
Earth has developed among the children, who have been the
active participants in the Chipko movement. When Dharmendra. a ten-year-old schoolboy of village Silyara was asked
why he had gone to Amarshar forest to cling to a tree, he
promptly replied that he did so because last year all their farms
were washed away due to a landslide and his widowed mother
had wept bitterly that she had no other means of livelihood
to support her 3 children, and that he felt that if trees of other
villages too are felled, landslides would come and the farms
would be destroyed and other mothers would also suffer like
his mother. That was the reason he was taking part in the
movement in order to wipe the tears of other mothers.
There are various slogans expressing the gratitude of man
towards the nature. Besides the slogan that the trees provide
soil, water and air, slogans such as, “Murderers of Trees—
Think: Do not skin off the Mother Earth". “Himalaya has
Awakened Today; The Cruel Axe will Flee Away.”
This movement is not confined merely to protect the trees
but it is a collective move against man’s atrocities against
nature, whether it may be in the form of indiscriminate blast
ing for laying motor roads or mining.
The Himalayan region is a rough, uneven and sparsely
populated area. Himalaya has expressed its wrath during the
2/3 years in the form of landslides in Tawaghat and interior
of Nepal, earthquakes of Lahul-Spiti, Bhagirathi blocade, the
devastating floods in Himachal Pradesh and Laddakh and the
recent avalanches in Lahul-Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. All
these are clear indications of the impending danger to man
kind. The Himalayas have been providing livelihood to the
highlanders through its forests and rivers, but now its endu
rance is exhausted owing to man’s provocations and it has
10

started hurtling rocks. The Himalayas which was known as
the safeguard against any peril owing to its unpenetrable
wall, has become the origin of floods and has shaken the
economic structure of Northern India, ft has declared war
against mankind. Man has no power and wits to face this
calamity, other than change his style of living from A to Z.
Instead of presuming himself the conqueror of nature he should
try and live in harmony with it. Our materialistic civilization
has made us the butchers of nature. In order to satisfy his
passion, man wants to plunder everything at o te stretch. He
wants to slaughter the earth.
The constructive work organisations and dedicated work
ers of the Uttarakhand, under the guidance of Sarla Devi a
disciple of Mahatma Gandhi who is serving the hills for the
last 40 years have presented a plan for hill development, which
they call ‘‘Blueprint for Survival in the Hills”.
Obstacles before Chipko

As is usual, every revolutionary change in any existing
set up generally faces oppositions from the forces of the stat
us quo. The Chipko movement too had to face the same lot
at the hands of forest contractors, industrialists and the
political and the administrative machinery behind them. In
order to prove their argument commercial exploitation of
forests, they have in their repertory an attractive slogan of
instant monetory benefits as also the powerful weapon of law
behind them to suppress the voice of the activists. As far as
ecology is concerned it has become a fashion now-a-days to
attract the attention of the public by means of articles and
lectures. The intellectuals and the scientists have reached
the conclusion that the political era is over and the ecological
era has begun! Politics has miserably failed to solve the vari
ous problems facing mankind. Ecology presents a clear and
firm basis to save the mankind from the crisis. Hence it could
be the source of inspiration for the future mass movements.
Its collusion with the existing set up is inevitable. In the
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Himalayas, our small group is trying hard to cope with
adverse circumstances. We appeal to all nature lovers to start
similer movements in their areas to save the fast-polluting
environment.
We should never forget that our earth is one and any
sort cf pollution, may it be air pollution, water pollution or
land slides and desert formation, these have posed a danger to
mankind. The main reason behind this is that we are shirking
away from nature. It is as if God himself has manifested in the
form of trees to oblige us. Thus Chipko is serving the earth
as a sign of gratitude. That is why the message of this move
ment has crossed the borders of this country and reached many
parts of the world. Richard Barbe Banker, the famous Man
of Trees, Dr Hans Cristoph Reiger of Heidelberg University,
an authority on Himalayan Ecology are some of its staunch
supporters. Gandhiji's British disciple Mira Behn who
during her last days in India, lived in the Himalayas, has been
expressing profound concern over the issue of the preservation
of Himalayan forests even at the age of 88. Himalaya has
been a source of manifold inspirations for mankind.
I sincerely hope that our present efforts to make this
movement the prime instrument for protection of nature,
would receive the physical, moral and intellectual support of
all nature lovers.

This article was presented rn a Seminar held at the Indian Irstitole of
Technology. Be mbay on June 5, 1979, on the occasion of the World
Environment Day.

Women Against the Axe
“Bhago! Bhago! (Go away! Go away!)”. I could hear
the shrill voices of women in the distance as T sat in my hut.
I had been camping there since the previous evening, about
30 kms. from Tehri town in Bhilangana valley.
The neighbouring hut that morning, last November, was
occupied by the manager and workers of a millionaire forest
contractor from Dehra Dun. He had purchased 2,700 pine
trees from this forest in an auction held two months ago by
the U.P. Forest Department. He knew full well we would have
to face opposition from the Chipko activists, because we had
earlier informed the state government that felling trees in this
vulnerable catchment area would bring disaster. But the
government, the contractor and the forest officials, who make
money when the trees arc felled, had turned a deaf car to all
this.
So some days ago a group of hired axemen from Nepal
reached Ghonti—a roadside village—and within days their
number had gone up to 200. The local people declared their
non-coopcration with them. The first to do so were the
students. They formed a group and marched up to Ghonti,
shouting slogans all the way: “The Himalayas will awaken
today. Cruel axe will be chased away” (“Aaj Hamalaya
jagega, Krur Kulhara Bhagega”). Fellers of trees—think; do
not skin mother earth. (“Ped gerane walon, socho. Dharti Ma
ki Khal na nocho”). The muleteers also refused to transport
the rations to their camp.
Women’s participation

But it was the village women who were most vociferous
in their protest. Their fuel and fodder comes from the trees.
They formed a procession and chased away the hired axemen
by shouting “Bhago! Bhago! we won’t allow you to chop these
trees. Wc have been rearing them for years. We will shed
13

our blood to save them,” The men are forced to leave
their homes now and go to the plains to earn their livelihood.
So the whole burden of family life—looking after the children
and cattle and work in the fields has fallen on the women.
Sometimes they have to walk more than 20 kms. a day to
bring a head-load of leaf fodder for fuel. The drying up of
drinking water resources has further increased their difficulties.
hence their struggle to save the forests as a source of fuel.
fodder and drinking water sources, which are fast being
depleted as a result of ‘scientific management'.
Chipko’s solution

The Chipko movement has therefore put forward a
practical solution by demanding a new policy. The forests
should be protected. All commercial green fellings should be
banned for 25 years till a 60 per cent green coverage is restored
in the hills, as enunciated in the National Forest Policy of
1952. Existing conifer forests should be turned into mixed
forests by planting broad leaf species. In fact what is needed
is a massive planting of trees to give us the ‘five Fs’—food,
fodder, fuel, fertilizer, and fibre.

With these needs in mind the Chipko activists had gone
from village to village asking the people to be prepared for
the crusade against tree-felling. A number of enthusiastic
local youths joined them, ready for direct action—Chipko
(hug the trees).
Now the Divisional Forest Officer had come himself to
force the axemen into the forest with the help of the revenue
police. ‘‘What has happened to our protests?” Asked the
villagers. ‘‘We have looked into it” was his haughty reply.
“The marking has been done according to the rules and the
trees will be felled. Those who object will be arrested.” He
further admonished them not to listen to the Chipko activists
who, he said, would run away when trouble came leaving
them to the police locker. He even tried threats and allure
ments to wip the people over, but they did not yield.
14

So, as planned, 200 axemen marched through the village
and were unanimously welcomed by women and children alike,
with slogans of “Cruel axe will be chased away.”

“Why do you provoke these children to take part in the
movement at the cost of their studies? “I was asked by the
Forest Officer. “They are the true sons of the Earth,” I replied,
“and they know that we are leaving a desert behind for them.”
He was staying in the village to boost the spirits of the axemen
and the contractor’s workers.

Some time later, there was beating of drums from the
hill top and a big procession was on the march. I could hear
their slogans. They were Chipko men. They joined the group
of women below who were also shouting and together they
formed a cordon to stop the axemen, who were led by the
manager of the contractor, a cunning man. “We won’t cut
trees till you allow us to”, he said to win the people over. But
instantly voices rose from all sides, “Turn him out. He is the
queen bee.” He was forced to lead the procession back.
Villagers triumph

However the Divisional Forest Officer had assured them
that he would meet the District Magistrate and come back
with armed police to teach the marchers a lesson. So the
axemen camped in the fields for the armed police. The
villagers triumphantly declared: “Tomorrow people from
all other villages will come.” Sure enough next day the hills
again echoed to the slogan. “Himalaya has awakened to day.
Cruel axe will be chased away.” The axemen marched back to
Ghonti. The women forced the contractor’s men to vacate the
hut and they had to remain under the open sky for two and a
half weeks.
After some days the Conservator of Forests came to
enquire into the objections of the villagers. The young village
leaders showed him the steep slopes on which the trees had
been marked for felling. Hanging over the slopes were big
boulders which would roll down if the trees were removed. A
15

few years back a big boulder had rolled down crushing a house.
The housewife, who was cooking, luckily escaped, but every
thing was damaged. After that the villagers planted and con
served oak trees and did not even chop pines to meet their
urgent needs.
But according to forestry working plans, prepared on the
basis of century-old principles of commercial forestry, 2,700
trees were to be felled in this area. The Conservator of Forests
said in a defensive tone: “There were safeguards in the work
ing plan. It said that difficult zones should be left out at the
discretion of the marking officer. “Now”, he added, “the
government will have to compensate the contractor. So you
should let him cut the trees on the less steep slopes.”
“But who will compensate our losses?”, asked the
villagers, “after the landslides, the loss of irrigation channels,
and the drying up of water springs. If we allow the contractor
to chop the trees from the less steep slopes, from where shall
we meet our needs?”
To our surprise the Magistrate along with the police
party, which had come at the instance of the Forest Officer.
was now waiting for us in the Chipko Camp. There was a
meeting. The women said boldly: “We have no faith in your
so-called scientific felling. We have seen how Tonkhand (a
village in Bhilangana valley) was devastated after last year's
tree felling by the U.P. State Forest Corporation. It is we who
have saved these trees, these are natural forests. You have no
right to cut these for timber and profits.”
This was followed by the popular slogan of the hill
women: “What arc the benefits of the forests? Soil, water and
oxygen. Soil, water and oxygen, are the basis of sustenance.”
And we could hear from the distant hills the melodious Chipko
tunes: “these oaks and pine trees, do not cut, do not cut.
Protect them. They give us sweet cold water and fodder for
the cows. These are the pillows of Ganges and Yamuna. These
are the soul and heart of men and animals. Do not cut. Do
not cut.
16

The officers tried to justify the Government’s policy but
they had no reply to the questions raised by the illiterate
village women struggling for their survival. The officers return
ed with the clear understanding that under no circumstances
would the villagers allow them to chop the trees.
But the village leaders did not sit idle. They knew the
danger could return at any time. They organised ‘Bhagwad
Katha’ on the spot. This is the story of Lord Krishna,
depicting the relationship of man with this innerself, society
and nature. And this also provided an opportunity for educa
tion in ecology and the techniques of Satyagraha. At the end
of the Katha hundreds took a pledge to protect their forest.

‘There is a conspiracy

of silence between...the UP

Government itself...the UP administration and the forest

contractors to continue this criminal and traitorous loot of
precious natural resources, and deprive future generations
of any hope of survival on a sustainable level of existence.3

—Sarala Devi
22 September 1978

17

MINIMUM BASIC DEMANDS FOR STRUCTURAL
CHANGES IN THE EXISTING FOREST POLICY
AND PRACTICES, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE HIMALAYAN ENVIRONMENT

The Chipko movement, which began in May 1969 as
people’s forest rights movement, with the basic demads to
reorient the forest policy towards a clear “forests for the
people” position, has progressed in a dynamic manner. The
main thrust of its demands has undergone redical changes in
view of the advances in research and new thinking in the inter
national environmental movement and the frightening mani
festations of environmental degradation in the Himalayan
region. It was hoped that the mounting evidence of traumatic
floods, massive soil erosion, depletion of glacial formation,.and
a host of other warnings in the past few years will force govern
mental attention to the need of urgent and radical changes in
the forest policy and practices: but the hope has been belied
excepting on the plane of verbal gestures, and minor tinkering
here and there. Most unfortunately, this is being done in the
name of ‘scientific management’, although eminent world fores
try experts have recognised that the status of scientific research
in tropical forests is very nebulous and that the only ‘science’
actually applied in forest management in India, in reality
represents a ‘tradition’ establised by the colonial adminisiration
roughly about a century ago.
In this background, we iterate our basic demands as given
below:
1. Recognising the very basic fact that water and soil
are the most important resources of the Himalayan
region for the country as a whole besides the local
peasant communities, and that timber is indeed the
dead product of the forests, the status of the entire
Himalayan forests should be declared as protected
forests, i. e. conservation must solely become the aim
offorest management.
18

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Recognising the proven fact that Himalayan forests
have been denuded far beyond the limits suggested by
the National Forest Policy and National Land Use
Policy resolutions, there should be a total ban on
green felling so long as the minimum 60% forest
cover recommended by the above policy resolutions
is actually restored.
With a view to cieating an economy of permanence
and self-reliance, the forest regeneration programmes
should given priority to trees bearing food, fodder,
fuel, fertilizer, and fibre (in the same order) and in
conversion of the existing corniferous into mixed
forests.
The plantation schemes should be planned and imple
mented by the local communities and they should
have real hand in forest management and control of
the community forests.
The much-propagatcd ‘social forestry’ programme
is a complete misnomer, indeed an eyewash if it is
not under social control, i.e. of the local commu
nities. Moreover, ecology cannot be fragmented
according to the levels of bureaucratic control.
Any integrated forest policy worth the name has to
base itself on natural regions.
Contrary to the false propaganda unleashed against
the Chipko movement with a view to undermining
its popular base, we maintain that local people’s
needs of building timber, etc. should be met on high
priority basis but we assert that such demands can
be met from the dead trees and a minimum of green
felling.

19

loss, while an additional 270,000 km2 are being degraded by
floods, salinity and alkalinity. An estimated 6000 million
tonnes of soil are lost every year from 800.000 km2 alone; with
them go more than 6 million tonnes of nutrients—more than
the amount of that is applied in the form of fertilizers.
Forests

Besides supplying timber and other products, forests,
have a vital effect on processes of great significance for people.
They influence local and regional climates, generally by making
them milder, and they help to ensure a continuous flow of
clean water. Some forests, notably tropical cloud forests,
even incrase the availability of water by intercepting moisture
from clouds. Watershed forests are particularly important
because they protect soil cover on site and protect areas down
stream from excessive floods and other harmful fluctuations in
streamflow. By thus reducing the silt load of rivers, watershed
forests also help prevent the clogging of reservoirs, .irrigation
systems, canals and docks, and the smothering by sediment of
coral reefs.
Yet watershed forests are being widely devastated—by
clearance for agriculture, by logging and cu'ting for fuel by
overgrazing and by badly managed road building. The results
can be extremely expensive.
Sedimentation as a result of careless use of watershed
forests can cut drastically the economic life of reservoirs,
hydroelectric facilities and irrigation systems. The capacity
of India’s Nizamsagar reservoir has been more than halved
(from almost 900 million m3 to fewer than 340 million tn3)
Although they have not been calculated (indeed, probably
cannot be), the global costs of sediment removal, river dredg
ing reconstruction of irrigation systems and loss of investment
in expensive structures like dams must be huge. Only 10%
of the world’s population live in mountainous areas, but
another 40% live in the adjacent plains; so the lives and levelihoods of half the world directly depend on the way in which
watershed ecosystems are managed.
Courtesy World Conservation Strategy.

Prayer For The Trees
We thank thee oh God!
For thy trees.
Thou com -st very near to us
Through thy trees.
From them we have
Beauty, wisdom, love.
The air we breath.
The water we drink.,
The food we eat,
And the strength.
Help us oh God!
To give our best to life
And leave the world a little more beautiful
And worthy for having lived in it.
Prosper thou, our planting
And establish thy Kingdom of Love
And understanding on Earth.
Amen-

Richard St. Barbe Baker
(Man of the Trees)

Price : One Rupee

April 1980

Published by Chipko Information Centre, Parvatiya Navjeevan
Mandal, P.O. Silyara, Tehri-Garhwal, U.P., and printed at Shanti
Printers, Lctxmi Nagar, Delhi-110092

Media: CHIPKO.pdf

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