The “Chipko Movement” has it roots in the early 1970s in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand in India. Under the guidance of the spiritual leader Chandi Prasad Bhatt, activists from the Himalayan village of Gopeshwar formed in 1974 a human chain and encircled trees to keep them from being cut down for a factory. The Chipko movement of tree-huggers has grown into a worldwide phenomenon.
Themes:
Regions:
Further Readings:
- Guha, Ramachandra. The Unquiet Woods. Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
- Rangan, Haripriya. Of Myths and Movements: Writing Chipko into Himalayan History. New Dehli: Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Shepard, Mark. " 'Hug the Trees!' Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Gaura Devi, and the Chipko Movement." Excerpted and adapted from the book Gandhi Today: A Report on Mahatma Gandhi’s Successors, by Mark Shepard. Arcata, California: Simple Productions, 1987. Reprinted by Seven Locks Press, Washington, DC, 1987. Posted online at the author's home page, 1998. http://www.markshep.com/peace/GT_Chipko.html.
Day:
0
Month:
0
Year:
1974