Paul Routledge, Terrains of Resistance, Praeger, 1993.

USA

The Chipko Movement

Until 30 years ago, Uttarkhand was relatively inaccessible to outsiders, but following the
Indo-Chinese border conflict of 1962, an extensive network of motor roads was
constructed throughout the mountains. Although the motive was strategic, the
consequence was the opening up of the area to contractors, corporations and other
entrepreneurs intent on exploiting the area's timber and forest products (e.g., resin and
medicinal herbs), mineral resources (e.g., limestone, magnetite, potassium), and land
suitable for fruit orchards and cool climate commercial crops and building hydroelectric
sites on the area's abundant river networks.
Road construction necessitated the blasting and quarrying of mountainsides and the
clearing of trees, which in turn led to massive erosion and landslides and the subsequent
loss of soil, forest and water sources as well as fauna (Barthelemy 1982). In 1972, for
example, a Rs. 56 million (U.S. $3.29 million) World Bank project started to construct
1,330 kilometers of new roads and 16 new bridges and renovate 620 kilometers of
existing roads in the Uttarkhand (Guha 1989b). Labor crews (for road building) and
military units also made voracious use of firewood and other forest products, decimating
the forests. This, together with massive exploitation by extractive industries, led to
serious economic and social dislocation of the Himalayan people.

Together with the clearing of trees, resin tapping operations have 'also dramatically
increased; for example, in 1974-75, 41,793 metric tons of chir pine forest resin were
produced, valued at Rs. 74.8 million (U.S. $4.4 million) (Bandyopadhyay et al. 1985).
Also, the local population has been neglected in the extraction and processing of forest
produce, which has mainly been undertaken by private and state contractors. For
example, during the 1970s, 85 to 90 percent of the total resin output was "exported" to
the Indian Turpentine and Resin Company near Bareilly (outside the hill districts), in
which the state government had the majority shareholding (Guha 1989b). Between 1967-
68 and 1978-79 forest revenue from the hill region increased from Rs. 962 million to Rs.
2,020 million (U.S. $56.5 million to U.S. $118.8 million). Little of these profits accrued
to the local population (Guha 1989b).

The region also possesses excellent hydroelectric facilities. Hydroelectric sites along the
Ganges and Jumna rivers and their tributaries were promptly exploited when roads made
them accessible, and now there are 20 hydroelectric projects in Uttarkhand, one of which,
the Tehri Dam, will become Asia's largest earth-filled dam. Its lake will submerge
historic Tehri City in the Himalayas and about 100 villages (25 of them completely) and
100,000 acres of agricultural land, rendering 40,000 people homeless, while separating
others by water from their economic resources and social networks. Also when the roads
came, land previously cultivated by local farmers for their subsistence crops or devoted to
pasture for livestock was bought up by industrial giants and lesser capitalists to grow
apples, apricots, potatoes, ginger and opium (Berreman 1987).

1
Another problem encountered by the hill districts has been increased tourism to
pilgrimage sites such as Kedarnath, Gangotri and Badrinath: 250,000 people motor to
Badrinath each year. Also trekking, hunting, fishing, mountain climbing and touring,
plus the associated hotels, shops and restaurants, have greatly impacted the area,
seriously affecting the fragile mountain ecology. The beneficiaries of this kind of
development are almost exclusively outside entrepreneurs and their political patrons.
Most of the former are absentee owners from the plains, a few are expatriate mountain
people and a very few are elite, educated, wealthy, plains-oriented residents of the
mountains. Usually local people have not even been employed in the enterprises that
development has brought (Mishra and Tripathi 1978).

The impact of these development activities has been to deplete the forests, erode the soil,
dry up water resources, preempt the firewood, the fodder and the building materials and
co-opt or destroy much of the viable agricultural land and pasture, thus leaving the
indigenous people unable to make a living. As a result, in the past 20 years there has
been accelerated emigration of local men from the mountains to the plains seeking work.
Hence many of the villages in Uttarkhand have been described as "maleless," men having
emigrated for work leaving behind women, children and elderly parents. In some parts of
the region, 60 percent of the family income is generated via remittances by male
migrants. Therefore a dual economy exists in Uttarkhand of remittances and an eroding
basis of subsistence agriculture (Guha 1989b).

Uttarkhand has become a colony within the state and country that administer it. It is,
according to activists within the area, an internal colony, a domestic colony, exploited for
and by outsiders. It is a victim of "Fourth World colonialism": the exploitation of an
internal minority by the majority population within a developing or Third World country
(Berreman 1987; Interviews, Almora 1989). The economic and ecological damage
visited upon the region provided a crucial catalyst for the emergence of the Chipko
movement, especially when the socioeconomic character of the area - and hence factors
of location and locale - is considered.

In 1976 only 14.4 percent were urban dwellers; in the rural areas 92 percent of the
villages are small in size, with a population of less than 500 (Tewari 1982). In 1976-77,
it was found that 73 percent of the total land holdings were of one acre or less (Tewari
1982). In Chamoli district (one of the eight hill districts and the place of origin of the
Chipko movement) 96 percent of the district population live in villages. Of the total
population 58.01 percent were gainfully employed; 60 percent of the female population
were working, while only 55 percent of the men were working. Further, 97 percent of the
working women were engaged in cultivation while only 72 percent of the men were
cultivators (Jain 1984).

This has led to two responses by the hill population. First, they have increased their
number of livestock: in 1971 there were 342 animals per square kilometer compared with
474 animals per square kilometer in 1980 (Guha 1989b). Second, due to unemployment,
there has been significant male out-migration, leaving women to look after the land,

2
livestock and families. In 1981 nearly 20 percent of the households in Chamoli district
were

Regarding the subsistence economy, the annual crops grown are wheat, paddy, pulses and
oilseeds. Food grains produced per farm suffice for consumption by an average family of
five members for three to six months per year. For the rest of the year villagers depend
upon forest produce. Forests are also used for making agricultural tools, dwellings and
cooking fuel and for grazing cattle (Jain 1984). Typically, men must prepare the land for
cultivation because of the cultural taboos associated with women's operating the plough.
The labor required to raise the crops, however, is almost entirely that of women. They
are responsible for planting, weeding and harvesting; they look after the cattle and
transport the crops from the fields; they cook, collect firewood and water and look after
the children. Collection of fuel for the hearth and fodder for the cattle can take up to four
to five hours per day (Jain 1984).

Traditionally, the political and ritual life of the community is dominated by men, power
and authority being built around a hierarchy of males. As Sharma (1980) has shown,
women are both economically and ideologically dependent upon men. Women are
economically dependent because men own the land and hold tenancy rights while
women, on the whole, cannot. Ideologically, women face subordination to men via
purdahl practices and elaborate secondary sources of dependence (moral, practical and
ritual) that feed and reinforce their economic dependence upon men. There is a tendency
to educate women to lower standards than men; hence, while literacy is low in the hill
districts, it is especially low among women (see Table 5).

The dependency of the vast majority of the Uttarkhand population upon agriculture and
the forests and, in particular, the important role of women within this traditional economy
provided critical motivational force for the emergence of the Chipko movement, for the
process of development and deforestation threatened both their livelihood and their
traditional culture. In response to this threat the Chipko movement was born.

Movement Antecedents

The process of resource exploitation is not new to the Uttarkhand region, nor is resistance
by the local population to it. Shiva and Bandyopadhyay (1986) and especially Guha
(1983, 1989b) have extensively chronicled forest exploitation in pre- and post-
Independent India and the various forms of peasant resistance that were used in
challenging this process. Resistance is traced back to the Trial Forest Settlement in
Kumaon instituted by the British in 1821. This act is the first restriction in history of use
of Himalayan forests by their inhabitants (Mishra and Tripathi 1978). When, in 1911, the
reserved forest area was greatly expanded to 3,311 square miles and villagers were
prohibited from entering the forest, overt resistance began in frequent clashes between
villagers and forest department functionaries (Mishra and Tripathi 1978; Doga 1983).
Resistance took the form of noncooperation (with the new rules governing forest use) and
marches, which together formed the protest known locally as the dhandak (Guha 1989b).
The dhandak was noted by its absence of physical violence, predating Gandhi's use of

3
satyagraha. The villagers also took to incendiarism. According to Guha (1989b) this
form of social protest represented an assertion of traditionally exercised rights (the annual
burning of the forest floor) circumscribed by the state in the interests of commercial
forestry. It was a direct challenge to the government to relax control over the forests
(since the areas that were burned were almost exclusively chir pine forests being worked
for timber and resin). This resistance culminated in a Forest movement in 1921, whereby
villagers breached forest laws (governing access and use), refused to pay fines, and
conducted incendiarism. Resistance continued until May 30, 1930, when the raja of
Tehri sent his troops to break up a protest meeting of local villagers at Tilari in the Rawai
region of Tehri Garhwal.

The repression resulted in 17 peasants killed and many injured. Despite this setback,
during 1930-31 local peasants conducted a forest satyagraha, whereby villagers
ceremoniously removed forest products from government-reserved forests to assert their
right to satisfy their basic needs (Shiva and Bandyopadhyay 1986). Resistance was
primarily localized and intermittent until a widespread movement crystallized between
1944 and 1948 known as the Tehri Kisan Andolan (Tehri Peasant movement). The
tactics employed by the movement were similar to their predecessors: noncooperation
with government rules concerning forests, strikes, refusal to pay taxes and
demonstrations. Despite this history of resistance, the Indian Forest Act of 1874, revised
in 1927, has remained in effect until the present. The reforms instituted in the 1982 bill
leave 81 of the 84 provisions of the old act intact. The new definition of "forest land" is
"any land containing trees and shrubs, pasture lands and any land whatsoever ... which
the state government declares to be a forest" (Section 2[3]) (Guha, R. 1983: 1943).

The bill is based on the premise that forest dwellers compete with the mercantile and
industrial bourgeoisie for forest produce. The bill's aim is to augment the production of
industrial wood, not to safeguard the environment (Guha, R. 1983). The forests and
forest produce have continually been co-opted for taxation and commercial exploitation
while those dependent upon forests for fuel, fodder and construction material (plus the
soil and water resources that the forests help to sustain) are prohibited from forest access
and use. This ongoing scenario provides the backdrop against which the Chipko
movement appeared.

Since the 1960s local labor cooperatives and small-scale producers' and artisans'
cooperatives were established by villagers with the help of volunteer Gandhian
Sarvodaya workers ("those building a just society") in Himalayan districts of Uttar
Pradesh. The Sarvodaya movement was coordinated by Mira Behn and Sarla Behn, close
associates of Mahatma Gandhi. Their aim was to organize village laborers and craftsmen
to compete (via the cooperatives) with private (outside) contractors and wholesalers.

The movement was organized around four major issues:

(1) the organization of women; (2) the fight against alcohol consumption;
(3) the fight for forest rights and (4) the establishment of local forest-based, small
industries.

4
By 1971, the movement had established one or two cooperatives in each of the hill
districts (Mishra and Tripathi 1978).
The fight against alcohol provided a platform for the organization of women. Women's
complaints about their husbands' abuse of alcohol were taken up by various Sarvodaya
activists, especially Sunderlal Bahuguna and Vimla Bahuguna. The Sarvodaya activists
began to organize women to challenge the sale and consumption of alcohol in their
communities. Using the tactics of picketing liquor shops and conducting demonstrations
the movement succeeded in achieving a total ban on alcohol in five out,of the eight hill
districts (Interview, Silyara 1989). This Prohibition movement, as it was called, between
1965 and 1971, has been called the "mother of the Chipko movemene' (Interview, Silyara
1989). Activists from the Prohibition movement werelater to be involved in the Chipko
movement, including women, students and social workers. Several of the Chipko
movement leaders (particularly Sunderlal Bahuguna) were prominent figures in the anti-
alcohol agitations. Hence from this Sarvodaya movement work the seed was planted
from which the Chipko movement emerged.

The Movement's Use of Nonviolent Tactics

What do the forests bear?

Soil, water and pure air
(Are the basis of life).
- Chipko slogan

As we shall see, the Chipko movement emerged in different places and at different times
in Uttarkhand during the 1970s and 1980s. The movement's tactics involved primarily
nonviolent strategies of intervention and protest and persuasion. In the discussion on the
Baliapal movement these tactics were separated to distinguish between the differing
methods of nonviolence. However, due to the Chipko movement's spatial and temporal
variations I have not differentiated these tactics under separate headings.

A turning point in the ecological history of the hill region occurred in 1970, when an
unusually heavy monsoon caused the Alakananda River and the Bhageerathi and Kali
rivers to flood their valleys, inundating 100 square kilometers of land and causing
widespread material destruction and loss of life (Bhatt 1980). Villagers who bore the
brunt of the damage began to perceive the hitherto tenuous links between the process of
deforestation, and landslides and floods; it was observed that some of the villages most
affected by landslides lay directly below forests where felling operations had taken place
(Bahuguna 1970).

The villagers' cause was taken up by the Dashauli Gram Swaraja Sangh (later to be
named the Dashauli Gram Swaraja Mandal and hereafter referred to as DGSM), a
cooperative organization based in Chamoli district. The DGSM's main objective was to
generate local employment, and it operated a small resin and turpentine unit,
manufactured agricultural implements and organized the collection and sale of medicinal
herbs. (Interview, Gopeshwar: 1989).

5
On October 22, 1971, the DGSM organized a major demonstration in Gopeshwar, the
district town of Chamoli district. The demonstrators called for an end to the sale of
alcohol and to untouchability and for giving priority to the local use of the forests. The
demonstration was led by Sarvodaya workers (including Sarla Devi) and a leading local
activist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, and was larger than any demonstration previously seen in
Chamoli district (Guha 1989b). During the following year major public meetings were
held in Gopeshwar and Uttarkashi demanding the replacement of the contractor system
with forest labor cooperatives and the setting up of small-scale industries (Guha 1989b).
In March 1973, the DGSM asked the forest department for an allotment of ash trees in
order to make agricultural implements. The forest department refused the request and
asked the DGSM to use chir trees, which were totally unsuitable for the purpose.
Meanwhile the Symonds Company, a sporting goods manufacturer located in Allahabad
350 miles to the southeast, was allotted ash trees in the nearby forest of Mandal (a few
miles from Gopeshwar) in order to make cricket bats and tennis rackets (Berreman 1985,
1989). In response to this situation the DGSM organized several meetings in Gopeshwar
and Mandal to discuss possible action. Two alternatives were discussed : (1) to lie down
in front of the timber trucks and (2) to burn resin and timber depots echoing the
incendiarism of past forest movements. The Sarvodaya workers present found both
methods unsatisfactory, until Chandi Prasad Bhatt (hereafter Bhatt) suddenly thought of
embracing the trees.
Hence the term and tactic Chipko, meaning "to hug" in Hindi, was born. The villagers of
Mandal resolved to hug the trees even if axes split open their stomachs. Young men even
cemented their oath with signatures of blood (Mishra and Tripathi 1978).

Upon hearing of the villagers' plan, the state government invited Bhatt to Lucknow for
negotiations. The government suggested a compromise whereby the DGSM would be
allotted five ash trees (its usual allotment being twelve trees) and the Symonds Company
would be allowed to take away its quota. The villagers refused to accept this offer and
prevented' by obstruction, the workers and agents of the Symonds Company from felling
a single tree in Mandal forest, and the felling permit was canceled (Berreman 1987). In
June, however, the Symonds Company was allotted trees near the village of Phata in the
Mandakini valley en route to the holy shrine of Kedamath. Upon hearing of this, the
DGSM, in conjunction with a local social worker, K. S. Rawat, organized a
demonstration and again prevented the company from felling any trees (Dogra 1983).

Despite these early protests and successes, the state government went ahead with the
yearly auction of forests in November. One of the plots to be auctioned was the Reni
forest located near Joshimath in the Alakananda valley and inhabited by members of the
Bhotiya community. The DGSM workers contacted a local official in Joshimath, G. S.
Rawat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and meetings were organized in the
villages of the area to discuss resistance to the felling. The felling of over 2,000 trees
was scheduled for the last week of March 1974. On March 25, a massive demonstration
was held in Gopeshwar, where college students threatened to embark on a Chipko
Andolan (Chipko movement) unless the fellings were canceled. In response to this, the
forest department resorted to subterfuge. The conservator of forests (based in Pauri)

6
arranged to visit the DGSM office on March 26, while on the same day the men of Reni
and the neighboring villages were called to Chamoli to receive the compensation, long
overdue, for lands appropriated by the Indian army after the Chinese invasion of 1962
(Das and Negi 1983).

With both the DGSM workers and the local men out of the way, the lumbermen
proceeded to Reni forest on March 26. On their way to the approach road leading to the
forest, they were seen by a small girl, who rushed to tell Gaura Devi, the head of the
village Mahila Mandal (women's club or union). Gaura Devi quickly mobilized other
women in the village, and together they went to the forest and confronted the lumbermen.
Initially met with abuse and threats, the women refused to move out of the way of the
lumbermen (although they did not hug the trees), and the men were forced to retire
(Interviews, Silyara 1989; Kathmandu 1990).

The Reni action was important for the Chipko movement in two ways. First, it was the
first occasion where women participated in a major way and in the absence of men and
DGSM workers. As Gaura Devi recounted: "It was not a question of planned
organization of the women for the movement, rather it happened spontaneously. Our
men were out of the village so we had to come forward and protect the trees. We have no
quarrel with anybody, but only wanted to make the people understand that our existence
is tied with the forests" (quoted in Das and Negi 1983: 390).

Second, the government could no longer treat the Chipko movement as merely the
reaction of local industry deprived of raw materials. From this action, Chipko was to
emerge as a peasant movement in defense of traditional forest rights, continuing a
century-long tradition of resistance to state encroachment (Guha 1989b). As a result of
this development, the state government chief minister, H. N. Bahuguna, agreed to set up a
committee (including Bhatt) to investigate the problems of deforestation in the
Alakananda valley. As a result of this investigation, commercial felling was banned for a
period of ten years in the upper catchment of the river and its tributaries (Bhatt 1980). A
second government committee was formed (headed by K. M. Tewari of the Forest
Department) to investigate existing practices of forest tapping, although at the time
nothing came of its investigations (Doga 1983). However, a forest corporation, or Van
Nigam, was set up to take over all forms of forest exploitation. Supposedly the auction
system was to be abolished and a large proportion of forest lots were to be allotted to
labor cooperatives by the corporation. Over time, however, the corporation reverted to
the old system,.wherein outside agents were subcontracted the task of felling (Guha
1989b).

Following Reni, forest auctions were opposed in different parts of Garhwal. In Dehra
Dun, the auction of the Chakrata division forests had to be called off following protests
led by local students. At Uttarkashi's Hanuman temple, Sunderlal Bahuguna (hereafter
Bahuguna) underwent a two-week fast in October 1974, calling for a change in existing
forest policy (Interview, Silyara 1989).

7
That summer youths from both Kumaun and Garhwal embarked upon a 700-kilometer
trek from Askot (on the eastern extremity of Kumaun) to Arakot on the border of
Himachal Pradesh. The trek took 44 days and was accompanied for part of the distance
by Bahuguna (Interviews, Naini Tal, Silyara 1989).

In Kumaun, the Chipko movement emerged in Naini Tal during 1974. At various places
around the town a prominent role was played by students who opposed forest auctions.
The movement gathered momentum following a major landslide at Tawaghat in 1977,
where 45 people were killed. Activists from the Uttarakhand Sangharsh Vahini (hereafter
USV) opposed the auctions that were scheduled despite the disaster. In October 1977,
large demonstrations were organized in Naini Tal to prevent the auctions, and several
leaders of the USV were arrested. The auctions were rescheduled for November, and this
time the police and Provincial Armed Constabulary were out in force, barricading the
Naini Tal Club, where the auctions were to take place. Protesters sang folk songs and
performed dances and attempted to break through the barricades. Arresting eight of the
leaders, the police lathi-charged the crowd and opened fire on them, although no one was
killed. In the confusion that followed, the Naini Tal Club was burned to the ground,
although it remains unclear who was responsible (Interviews, Almora,Naini Tal 1989).

In the following months, different Chipko actions were organized by the USV. On
December 15, 1977, 5,000 chir trees marked for felling in Hat forest in Almora were
saved. In Chanchridhar forest, protesters camped for over a week to prevent the felling
of 6,000 trees by the Forest Department. Later fellings scheduled by the department were
successfully prevented at Janoti Pauri and Dhyari on the AlmoraPithoragarh road (Dogra
1983). Due to lack of cooperation between the Van Nigam and the labor cooperatives
and the continuing damage inflicted upon local chir pines, the movement began a series
of new actions. On May 30, 1977, in Tehri district, Chipko activists informed the Forest
Department that resinscarred chir trees would be bandaged. A direct action program
commenced whereby, for example, the villagers of Khunjni started to pull out the iron
leaves inserted to extract the resin (Dogra 1983). In Advani forest, close to the Hemval
valley, the Sarvodaya worker Dhoom Singh Negi went on a fast to save 600 trees marked
for auction. Signifying their close relationship to the trees, women tied yellow rakhis
(sacred threads) around the wounded trees, and a reading of the Bhagavad Gita (part of
the sacred Hindu text, the Mahabharata) was organized. Over 500 people came to
Advani forest from around the Hemval valley on a padyatra (foot march) to protect the
forest by hugging the trees. At this time Khari, Advani and Salet villages in the Hemval
valley all had Chipko "fronts"; in Advani 200 were involved, and in Salet 150 were
involved (Interview, Khari 1989).

During early 1978, the Chipko movement witnessed a resurgence in Chamoli. When
felling operations were ordered near Pulna village in the Bhyunder valley, the women of
Pulna surrounded the laborers, took away their implements and gave them a receipt for
their tools, preventing the felling of 621 trees (Center for Sciene and Environment 1988).
Meanwhile in Dungari-Paintoli, women were also the main actors in preventing tree
felling. The men of the village had negotiated with the state government horticulture
department for the acquisition of a nearby community forest in order to set up a potato

8
farm. The women contacted Chipko activists, who intervened, helped by the district
administration, and ensured that the remaining forest (some had already been cleared)
was saved (Center for Sciene and Environment 1988).

Between 1978 and 1979 in the Badyargarh area of Tehri Garhwal, the Chipko movement
was also active in preventing massive felling by loggers under contract to the Van
Nigam. Just prior to the proposed logging of the Malgaddi forest, Sarvodaya workers,
associates of Bahuguna, visited Badyargarh to address the local villagers' grievances.
These activists included Dhoom Singh Negi and went from village to village informing
people of the proposed felling and its harmful ecological consequences. At the same time
Bahuguna's wife, Vimla, and other women mobilized the village women on the issue.
Although the movement began on December 25, 1978, it acquired momentum only after
Bahuguna went on a fast which was conducted in a shepherd's hut in the village.
The fast acted as a rallying point for the people of the surrounding villages, and
ultimately over 3,000 women, children and men participated in noncooperation tactics to
prevent the cutting of the trees. Again, as in the Advani action, a reading of the
Bhagavad Gita was organized. A feature of this movement was the active participation
of all social groups, explained by the fact that all were affected by the deforestation
process. The Bajgis, a caste of musicians, were invited to mobilize the villagers, using
their dholaks (drums); meanwhile, women also played a prominent part in the agitation,
as did government servants, defense personnel (albeit covertly) and children who went on
strike when their high school was used by police as [Link] while policing the agitation
(Guha 1989b).

Between 1972 and 1979 there occurred 12 major and many minor incidents of Chipko
confrontations with private contractors, workers and forest department personnel in
Uttarkhand. Whereas the first Chipko action saved 12 trees, the second saved 2,500, and
subsequent ones saved even more. Chipko activists (villagers, students, Sarvodaya
workers and teachers) prepared for their confrontations by going village to village,
informing people and encouraging their support and participation. Workshops, training
sessions and recruitment drives were accompanied by rallies, meetings and often
demonstrations (Berreman 1987). Also, as we have seen, picketing and immobilizing of
Forest Department auctions of trees held in towns and cities were a common feature of
the movement. Bahuguna initiated a series of symbolic Chipko marches called padyatras
(evoking the image of religious pilgrimages) throughout the Himalayas to spread the
Chipko word and gain support. Activists participated in research on, and publication of,
issues such as forest, mineral, soil and water conservation. Also reforestation programs
were carried out (these aspects of the movement will be discussed later in the chapter).

At the height of the movement mobilizations (1974-80), it has been estimated that
approximately 8,000 people in Tehri Garhwal district, 7,000 people in Chamoli district
and 8,000 people in Naini Tal and Almora (from a total of approximately 150-200
villages) were involved in the Chipko agitations (Interviews, Silyara, Uttarkashi, Naini
Tal, Almora, Gopeshwar 1989). Interestingly, none of the archival material on the
Chipko movement places an estimate upon the number of people who were involved in
the movement during the 1970s.

9
Regarding some of the tangible outcomes of the Chipko phenomenon, in March 1981 an
interim ban was placed by the state government on all felling of green trees above 1,000
feet above sea level in Uttarkhand (Berreman 1987). Between 1971 and 1981 the output
of major forest produce from the eight hill districts decreased from 62,000 to 40,000
cubic meters per annum (Saxena 1987). Hence, in these terms, the movement was
somewhat successful in curtailing the worst excesses of commercial forestry in
Uttarkhand. However, other threats to the ecological and economic stability of the region
occurred via the location of large dams (e.g., Tehri Dam), increasing mining operations
and the spread of alcoholism. The Chipko movement played a vital role in opposing
these problems.

Commencing in 1983, the Chipko movement, organized by Dhoom Singh Negi, began
organizing against limestone quarrying in the Doon valley, which had begun to cause a
depletion in the area's water sources. The main agitation took place between 1986 and
1988, when up to 2,000 people from ten villages in the district of Thano (including
women, children, students and peasants) became involved. Again, since all people were
affected by the threat to the area's water supply, all castes and classes became involved in
the movement (Interview, Thano 1989). While the movement members were mainly
illiterate, poorly educated women and peasants, the vanguard role was taken by the
educated higher classes. Between September 1986 and March 1987, the road to the
quarry was blockaded nonviolently by activists of the movement.

On March 20, the contractor of the quarry sent goondas (hired thugs) to attack the camp,
injuring several of the activists present. Following this incident, in June-July, 1987, 150
people participated in the destruction of the quarry road to the site, and public meetings
were held in the nearby villages to promot support for the action. Padyatras were
organized around the area. Subsequently, action groups from Delhi who visited the area
to study the problem filed a public interest litigation petition with the Supreme Court in
1987, and in August 1988 the court decided to close the mine (Interviews, Khari, Thano
1989; Bandyopadhyay 1989; Bandyopadhyay and Shiva 1987a).

Across the hill districts in Almora, Naini Tal and Pithoragarh, the USV was also active
around local issues. The USV was particularly active around forest issues between 1977
and 1980, when it organized the picketing of tree auctions and the setting up of local
labor cooperatives. Since the early 1980s it acted as a mass organization to put pressure
on the state government to change existing economic, political and ecological policy and
also demanded a separate hill state. While opposing the construction of large dam
projects (such as the Tehri Dam) and demanding the abolition of the contractor system,
the USV attempted to promote forest-based industries and the development of the hill
districts for use by local people. Activists traveled to villages across the eastern part of
the Garhwal Himalaya, conducting seminars, meetings and demonstrations, stressing that
economic and political issues must be addressed before ecological considerations are
approached. As one USV activist told me, "The forests are for the people, not the people
for the forests" (Interview, Almora 1989). The USV increasingly concentrated upon
employment issues, although, according to USV activists, because of the organization's

10
involvement in the forest struggles of the 1970s, locally it is synonymous with the
Chipko movement: "In Almora, the USV is known as Chipko" (Interview, Almora 1989).

In 1984 the USV began organizing demonstrations, public meetings and the picketing of
liquor stores in Almora, Naini Tal and Pithoragarh districts as part of an antialcohol
campaign. The movement involved not only local villagers but also the Uttarakhand
Kranti Dal (UKD), a Naxalite faction, and other youth and women's organizations. The
antialcohol campaign was linked to demands for the generation of employment in the hill
areas that continues today (Pathak 1984; Interview, Almora 1989).
In other areas Chipko actions have been directed against the state policy of social
forestry. For example, in Chamba district during February 1988, 5,000 eucalyptus
saplings were uprooted in a forest department nursery in Bhatiyat, while in September
1988, three Chipko activists were arrested at Sihunta for uprooting eucalyptus and chil
saplings from a forest department nursery. They were protesting the commercial and
social forestry policy of the Forest Department and especially its failure to plant trees
suitable for fuel and fodder (Center for Science and Environment 1988). Elsewhere
Chipko activists opposed the Vishnuparyag Hydel project near Joshimath; organized
against the setting up of a detergent factory by Hindustan Levers on the banks of the
Bhagirathi river near Uttarkashi; demonstrated against the opening of liquor shops in
Chamoli district; and, most recently were involved in the opposition movement against
the Tehri Dam in Tehri Garhwal.

Another important aspect of the Chipko movement was the active reforestation program
that has continued since its inception in 1974. This was inspired by the movement
ideology, which stresses the ecological dependency of the local people upon the forests
and the need to sustain and replenish the local forest environment. In Chamoli district,
under the aegis of the DGSM, over 1 million trees have been planted since 1974, of
which 73 to 88 percent have survived (Center for Science and Environment 1988). This
success was achieved largely through the work of ecodevelopment camps, which were set
up by the DGSM to impart environmental education to the population of Chamoli district.
One of the important features of the camps is the joint participation of the poor and rich
alike, DGSM workers, college and university students, teachers, personnel from scientific
institutes, government officials, voluntary organization workers and local villagers. The
camps are organized around a schedule of education, discussions, plantation work (via
shramdan, or donated labor), communal eating (where all castes eat together) and
communal folk singing. The principal problems of the villagers are discussed in the local
dialect, and various village organizations are set up to deal with problems. The camps
also serve as a catalyst for interaction between the government development machinery
and the local people. Until 1979 the camps were all-male affairs, but since then female
participation has increased dramatically (Kunwar 1982).

At an environmental camp that I attended in Bachher (18 kilometers from Gopeshwar) in

October 1989, approximately 75 percent of those present (about 350) were peasant
women from villages scattered across Chamoli district. Many were heads of their village
Mahila Mandals (women's clubs). Of the total participants, approximately 20 percent
were Brahmin caste, 50 percent Rajput caste and 30 percent Scheduled castes. The camp,

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which lasted for three days, provided a forum for the peasant women to discuss problems
of village services and local ecology and to devise solutions and strategies to address the
issuesraised. The camp also provided the women with a chance to develop solidarities
with Mahila Mandals from different villages.

An important and interesting aspect of Chipko is that women have been involved in a
way and to an extent unusual in India. A combination of factors that pertain to the social
relations of the locale is responsible for this. First, women in this Himalayan area have
unusually high status as contrasted with women in other parts of India, including freedom
of action and movement, and this status accompanies their heavy contribution to the
agricultural subsistence economy, a contribution that is greater than that of the men.
Second, men are frequently away from their families and villages, seeking employment in
the plains. Women, therefore, remain as the able-bodied adults responsible for their
families and villages, accustomed to responsibility and to meeting the requirements of
community survival. Third, even when men are present, the women do most of the work
that entails direct, daily use of the forests and, therefore, most acutely feel the impact of
the forests' devastation (Berreman 1987). For example, women are dependent upon the
forest for fodder, compost and wood (for new houses, thatches, containers, rope, and so
on) and can earn extra income from the sale of forest produce such as wild herbs,
mushrooms, walnuts and almonds. As the forests have disappeared, women have had to
walk up to eight to ten kilometers to meet their daily needs from the forests (Kunwar
1982).
Women are involved in sowing, harvesting, winnowing, animal husbandry, collecting
fuel, fodder and water, grinding and pounding grain, cooking and looking after the
children. They had a vital stake in becoming involved in the Chipko movement
(Bahuguna 1975). From the history of the movement the extent of women's participation
(for instance at Reni, Gongari Paintoli and Bhyunder valley) is apparent, and their
involvement at Reni and Gongari Paintoli provides an interesting comparison regarding
gender relations in the movement.

At Reni, women acted simply because there were no men in the village when the loggers
came to fell the trees. In Gongari Paintoli, by contrast, women stood up against the
decisions made by the men in the village. According to one researcher, conflict between
women and men in the latter case arose because of different meanings attached to
development and to power and authority within the development process by the different
groups. Men, who sat in village councils and other village bodies and head their families,
viewed the government officials with a great deal of respect and fear. They dared not
oppose these officials.
Women, on the other hand, never had any contact with government officials or other
outsiders and had no model of interaction with them. They understood only that felling
trees was harmful for their well-being, and they simply acted according to their
convictions (Jain 1984: 1793).
Also, for poor men, the prospect of more hotels, shops, construction work, schools,
hospitals and other such developments meant increased income and employment for
them. Conversely, women, who produced most or all of the subsistence goods necessary
for village survival, wished to maintain the status quo by retaining the traditional

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ecosystem. The commercial and conservation argument that revolves around the Chipko
movement is important since in the hill economy the commercialized sectors are
dominated by men and the subsistence/conservation sectors by women (Interview,
Kathmandu 1990). This contributed significantly to the widespread involvement of
women in the Chipko movement and led some authors to classify Chipko as a women's
movement (Jain 1984; Shiva 1989).
The social relations of the locale also influenced the movement's structure. While women
formed the majority of Chipko activists, they did not provide any ideological leadership
to the movement. Because women are involved in heavy labor activity and do not have
time for educational activities, they have not been socialized into leadership roles.
Chipko, then, reflects the local situation where, due to their great stake in the local
economy, predominantly uneducated women became involved in the movement and
some educated men took up the leadership of the movement (Interview, Kathmandu
1990).
However, the roles of some of those men - Bhatt, Bahuguna, Negi and Sailani, in
particular were critical to the movement. My own experiences at the environmental camp
at Bachher support this point. While 75 percent of the participants were women, the
camp was organized and directed by male DGSM workers and Chipko activists. At the
environmental camps, as well as during many of the Chipko actions, women provided the
backbone of the movement and at times its inspiration. The village women were most
involved in the replanting schemes and guarding the forests. For example, in Kangad
village, women acted as forest guards against the lopping of branches and cutting of
firewood (imposing fines on villagers who fell trees in the protected oak forest near the
village) and refused to let the forest department plant commercial tree varieties (Center
for Science and Environment 1988). Hence, while not a women's movement, Chipko is a
peasant-based movement, with an ecological purview, led by Sarvodaya activists, that has
significant female participation.

Another aspect of the hill economy pertaining to people's involvement in Chipko is that
both the young and the old members of the village communities share in the agricultural
work performed by both women and men. Because of their consequent close ties to the
land, they share in the efforts to protect the environment through participation in the
movement. Also high school and university students from the plains, as well as
Uttarkhand, are involved in the movement, often bridging gaps of age,

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