The Chipko movement

What was the movement about? In the 1970s, throughout India people protested against the cutting of trees. The name of the movement comes from the word 'embrace', as the villagers hugged the trees, and prevented the contractors from cutting them.

The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in April 1973 in the village of Mandal in the Upper Alakananda valley and over the next five years spread to many districts of the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh.

It was sparked off when the government decided to give a plot of the forest area to a sports good company. This angered the villagers.

The women of the area went into the forest and formed a circle around the trees, preventing the contractors from cutting them down.

Since then, many women in villages across the country have banned the cutting of trees.

They coined the slogan, “What do the forests bear? Soil, water, pure air.”

The success of the Chipko movement in the hills saved thousands of trees from being felled.

www.oktatabyebye.com/picture-gallery/12763-ra.. www.hinduonnet.com/.../2003061400050100.htm www.uttarakhand.ws/v/destinations/lansdowne-k... www.anshulg.files.wordpress.com www.traveleaseindia.com