Environmental Movements in History 🌳

The Great Environmental Movement “Chipko Movement”

Chipko Movement is an environmental movement that occurred in rural regions of India in the 1970s. The purpose of this movement was to protect trees and land from people who tried to destroy nature and to use the lands in developing the region. The “Chipko” in Hindi means “embrace”. It came from the action that people who tried to protect the trees embraced the trees. In 1963, Indians living in the land began to try to develop their land. As the development proceeded, the land began to be destroyed and, of course, trees and plants suffered from the development. At that time, there were people who attempted to go against the people who wanted the development. They were just villagers who had been living on the land for a long time. Because their lives were highly dependent on nature and the land, they really did not want the land to be destroyed. But, since the government was also trying to develop the land by implementing many policies that prevented the villagers from accessing the land and the trees and even by letting foreign companies to do logging, the villagers did not have much power to protect the land.

However, the villagers did not give up. In 1964, a famous environmentalist called Chandi Prasad Bhatt founded an organization that supported rural villagers against large-scale industry. In April, 1973, when the government let more logging companies get the trees down and to destroy the land, the first protest began. Because of the government’s new policy, the villagers get annoyed with it. At that time, Chandi Prasad Bhatt led the villagers to protest against the logging companies and the government. The result was that the government abolished the policy and the villagers won the protest. This was serious but was very important for them and even for people all around the world since the movement could have influenced in a positive way.