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Conservation milestone

The Chipko forest-protection movement

Defending forests through community mobilisation and nonviolent resistance.

When
1970s–1980s
Where
Garhwal Himalaya, India
Surviving members of the Reni group at Chipko’s thirtieth-anniversary gathering in 2004.
Surviving members of the Reni group at Chipko’s thirtieth-anniversary gathering in 2004.

Chipko linked forest conservation with villagers' needs and rights. Women and men resisted commercial felling, with the action led by Gaura Devi at Reni becoming one of its best-known episodes.

01

Background

Forests and livelihoods

Woodlands supplied fuel, fodder and other necessities. Decisions favouring outside contractors could therefore affect everyday survival as well as ecology.[1]

02

What happened

  1. 1973

    Protests intensify

    Organisers developed actions against commercial logging in Himalayan communities.[1]

  2. 1974

    Reni women intervene

    Women led by Gaura Devi confronted a logging operation and protected the trees.[1]

03

Impact & evidence

1970s–1980s

Forests as a source of livelihood

In March 1974, women led by Gaura Devi confronted tree felling at Reni. The action belonged to a wider struggle over who controlled forests and who benefited from their use. For local communities, forests supplied everyday necessities, so commercial extraction could threaten livelihood as well as landscape. The familiar image of embracing trees captures one method of resistance within this larger conflict over rights.[1]

04

Aftermath & legacy

Community environmentalism

Chipko became an influential example of nonviolent ecological action. Its varied local struggles should not be reduced to a single photograph or a story about trees without people.[1]

Sources & image credits (1)
  1. United Nations University — Chipko movement ↗

Ceti at English Wikipedia; CC BY-SA 3.0; via Wikimedia Commons. Image source ↗

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