Environmental Activism In India

Growth of Environmental Activism in India

India is a land of rich biodiversity. The ancient literature and the Vedas have considered the earth as a mother. The noble prize winner Rabindranath Tagore in one of his essays Tapovan writes: “Indian civilisation has been distinctive in locating its source of regeneration, material and intellectual, in the forest, not the city. India’s best ideas have come where man was in communion with trees and rivers and lakes, away from the crowds. The peace of the forest has helped the intellectual evolution of man. The culture of the forest has fuelled culture of Indian society. The culture that has arisen from the forest has been influenced by the diverse processes of renewal of life, which are always at

Even today significant amount of our population depends on natural resources like forests, rivers, land etc. for their livelihood and sustainability. Thus people have always come together to protect these resources. The Bishnois community in Rajasthan that dates back to the 15th century can be considered as the first environmentalist of India. Their guru Jambheshwar made it compulsory for them to ‘not cut green trees’ and ‘be compassionate to all living beings’. He preached that environment is the vital source of human survival. Centuries later it was only after the Chipko movement (1973) in Garhwal region in the state of Uttaranchal that environmental protests and activism gained momentum and the larger issues of forests, building dams, mining, pollution was being taken up by the activists and also the state became more conscious regarding these

P. (1994): ‘Environmental Movements in India’, American Geographical Society, Vol. 84, No. 1, p. 33]

The need for such movements grew after 1864 when the British took over India's forest covers and established their own forest department. They forced indigo plantations in eastern India and cotton plantations in western and southern India. This was followed by the Deccan movement for land and forest rights, however, they were regarded as part of the anti-colonial movement and the environmental message was subsumed.

This was one of the serious concern for the environmental activists. Pre-independence, the environment movements were submerged into the larger anti-colonial movements and after independence these movements were overshadowed by larger political and economic good of the country. Such movements were often termed as anti- development or anti-state. The core environmental issue often seemed to get dissolved in these