India’s Chipko movement changed the world’s vision

Source: The post is based on the article “India’s Chipko movement changed the world’s vision” published in The Times of India on 24th December 2022. 

Syllabus: GS3 – Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation.

Relevance: About India’s Chipko movement.

News: India’s Chipko movement has lessons for social movements globally.

What is the reason behind Chipko movement?

The biogeography of Chipko was shaped by both colonial and post-colonial administrations. This is because economically, locals were excluded from such forests, and often dealt with punitively and in an unaccountable manner.

During pre-Independence era

There was a steady attempt by the British authorities and the forest department to carve out large parts of forested areas in the middle and upper Himalayas for extraction. This is because of the British economic interests encompassed shipbuilding, the expansion of the railways, etc. The Britishers have done this by;

a) Limiting local’s access to land: Demarcating lands as reserved and revenue forests to be used by the colonial regime and curtailing local community management and use of these.

b) Converting forests into resources: The colonial government has transformed some of the forests into monocultural plantations like pine to help build the railways, extract turpentine, etc.

Situation after Post-independence

a) The contractor system used by the forest department for felling trees engaged labour from outside, b) The government allocated areas for cutting with little concern for the slopes and villages nearby, often leading to landslides, etc.

Chipko emerged as a reaction to all these pressures.

What are the significances of the Chipko movement?

Chipko became extremely well-known in the 1980s. This is because, 1) The movement had diverse groups of people uniting within it, b) The movement got the attention of people globally. The imagery of women hugging trees captured the imagination of people worldwide, c) Chipko is a showcase of complete social movement,

Note: Silent Valley movement in Kerala led to the creation of the ministry of environment and forests in Kerala.  

Even today, Chipko had an enormous impact on India and the world’s environmental vision and imagination. It offers new lessons to social movements globally.