The Chipko Movement, which began in the 1970s, was a nonviolent movement focused at preventing the destruction of trees and forests.
The Chipko movement got its name from the word ’embrace,’ because the locals used to hug the trees and defend them from wood cutters.
The Maharaja of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, requested one of his ministers to procure wood for the construction of a new palace in 1731.
The minister and his staff went to a forest near a Bishnoi community to cut down trees.
Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman, demonstrated incredible bravery by embracing a tree and challenging the king’s warriors to cut her first before chopping the tree.
She cared far more about the tree than she did about her own life.
Unfortunately, the king’s warriors ignored her pleadings and cut down the tree, as well as Amrita Devi.
Her three daughters, as well as hundreds of other Bishnois, followed her and died as a result of their efforts to save trees.
Several other rural women were inspired by the episode and began similar movements in various parts of India.
The Chipko Movement gained traction under the leadership of Sunderlal Bahuguna, an activist who dedicated his life to encouraging and educating peasants to fight the government’s destruction of forests and Himalayan mountains.
In 1980, the chipko protests won a big win when Mrs. Indira Gandhi issued an order prohibiting tree chopping in the state’s Himalayan forests for 15 years.
Final Answer:
Sunderlal Bahuguna is one of India’s most well-known and pioneering environmentalists. He founded the well-known Chipko movement. He has devoted most of his life to working for the preservation of Himalayan forests. Chipko Andolan was a movement that began in Reni village in Garhwal to defend trees by hugging them and not allowing them to be cut down.