Read the passage given below.

 

Gandhiji led India to freedom using non-violent means. In 1973, a similar movement took place in India for a different purpose. Villagers in Chamoli district of Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand) protested against the felling of trees by hugging trees which were to be cut down for industrial purpose. The word ‘chipko’ in Hindi means to embrace or cling to. This gesture of villagers gave the name Chipko movement to this resistance. It was a non-violent method of protesting against mass urbanisation and industrialisation.

The Chipko movement draws inspiration from the Bishnoi community of Rajastan. In the 18th century, this group of people, led by a woman named Amrita Devi sacrificed their lives to protect the trees which were to be felled on the orders of the King of Jodhpur. The people of the community understood that cutting down trees would lead to landslide and floods. The movement was one of its kind in recorded history and influenced many such movements elsewhere.

The environmentalist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, founder of the cooperative organization Dasholi Gram Swarayiya Mandal, led the first Chipko movement in 1973. Soon Sunderlal Bahuguna, another social activist, inspired the villagers to protest against the deforestation of the Himalayan forests and created the slogan ‘Ecology is the permanent economy’. In 1974, in a village called Reni, the government official who had come to fell 2000 trees faced a group of women led by Gaura Devi, who encircled the trees and managed to push the officials back successfully. The event later led to a ten year ban on the felling of trees in the Alakananda river valley.