Where did the Chipko Movement First Started in India?
By Balaji
Updated on: February 17th, 2023
The Chipko movement first started in India in the state of Uttar Pradesh. A nonviolent social and environmental movement called the Chipko movement, commonly called the Chipko Andolan. In the 1970s, rural peasants of India, particularly women, launched it. Its objective was to stop logging that the government was funding. The movement started in 1973 in Uttarakhand, an area of the Indian Himalayas that was a part of Uttar Pradesh at that time.
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1. First Chipko Movement in India
First Chipko Movement in India
In the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, a part of Uttar Pradesh, the Chipko Movement was started in 1973. Later, it became the center of many more major international environmental efforts. It provided a benchmark for the start of nonviolent protest in India. The Hindi phrase Chipko, which means “to hug or to cling to,” captures the activists’ primary tactic of hugging trees to prevent loggers.
- This non-violent effort assisted in reducing the rate of deforestation, exposing entrenched interests, increasing public knowledge of the value of protecting trees, promoting ecological awareness, and demonstrating the strength of the collective will of the populace.
- The inner roads built during the battle attracted a lot of multinational logging businesses seeking access to the region’s enormous timber resources.
- Clear-cutting of forests decreased agricultural yields, induced erosion, depleted water sources, and worsened floods in many nearby villages. Commercial logging operations were usually poorly managed.
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