Chipko Movement In India

This assignment deals with Chipko movement and it consist of introduction to the topic, it further focuses on the main discussion on this topic which consist how and who led the movement, how this movement gain popularity and support from all over India. It also includes conclusion and suggestion.

Introduction
India has experienced many social movements involving women, peasants, dalits and others. Revolution concerns about social inequality and unequal distribution of resources continue to be an important element in this movement. Over the decades there has been a great deal of concern about natural resources and development that creates new needs that further demands greater exploitation of the already depleted natural

The chipko movement, an example of the ecological movement, in Himalayan foothills is a good example of such intermingled interests and ideologies. When government forest contractors came to cut down the tress, villagers, including large numbers of women, stepped forward to hug the tress to prevent their being felled. All of them are relied on the forest to get firewood, fodder, and other daily necessities. This conflict placed livelihood needs of poor villagers against the government’s desire to generate revenue from selling timber. The economy of subsistence was pitted against the economy of profit. Along with this issue of social inequality, the chipko movement also raised the issue of ecological

The forest contractors of the region usually doubled up as suppliers of alcohol to men. Women held sustained agitations against the habit of alcoholism and broadened the agenda of the movement to cover other social issues. The movement achieved a victory when the government issued a ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan regions for fifteen years in 1980 by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, until the green cover was fully restored. One of the prominent Chipko leaders, Gandhian SunderlalBahuguna, took a 5,000-kilometre trans-Himalaya foot march in 1981–83, spreading the Chipko message to a far greater area.]Gradually, women set up cooperatives to guard local forests, and also organized fodder production at rates conducive to local environment. Next, they joined in land rotation schemes for fodder collection, helped replant degraded land, and established and ran nurseries stocked with species they