Context:

• Google commemorated the 45th anniversary of the Chipko movement, the non-violent agitation of 1970 aimed at protection and conservation of trees, with a doodle.

Background of the Movement:

• The uprising against the felling of trees and maintaining the ecological balance originated in Uttar Pradesh’s Chamoli district (now Uttarakhand) in 1973 and in no time spilled onto other states in north India.
• The name of the movement ‘chipko’ comes from the word ’embrace’, as the villagers hugged the trees and encircled them to prevent being hacked. However, not many people know that the original Chipko andolan dates back to the 18th century and was started by Rajasthan’s Bishnoi community.
• The incident has been etched in the annals of history for the sacrifice of a group of villagers, who led by a lady named Amrita Devi, laid down their lives while protecting trees from being felled on the orders of then King of Jodhpur.
• After this incident, the king, in a royal decree, banned cutting of trees in all Bishnoi villages.

Modern Chipko movement

• The trigger for the modern Chipko movement was the growth in development that Uttar Pradesh witnessed following the 1963 China border conflict.
• The need for infrastructural development attracted many foreign logging companies, who were eyeing the state’s vast forest resources.
• However, the forests were the lifeblood of the villagers and they relied on it for both food and fuel. In 1970, widespread floods inundated the area and was attributed to the mismanagement due to commercial logging.
• It was then that environmentalist and Gandhian social activist Chandi Prasad Bhatt, founder of the cooperative organisation Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh, led the first Chipko movement near the village of Mandal in 1973.
• The villagers, who were denied access to a piece of land due to government policy, were enraged after learning that it was given to a sporting goods manufacturer.

Source:Indian Express