ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA:

CHIPKOO MOVEMENT AND NARMADA BACHAO AANDOLAN

JAGRITI RUPANI

NONVIOLENCE AND NONVIOLENT MOVEMENTS

MALVIYA CENTRE FOR PEACE RESEARCH

PROFESSOR Dr. MANOJ KUMAR MISHRA

January 23, 2021

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What is Environmental Movement?

An environmental movement can be defined as a social or political movement, for

the conservation of environment or for the improvement of the state of the

environment. At present Environmental movements in India focuses on dams,

displacement and resettlement effectively articulated their agenda on the human

consequences of tampering with the courses of natural resources, have initiated

protest action against the forces and agencies responsible for environmental

degradation. In India it is also seen that the ethnic practices of worshipping plants,

trees, forest, and rivers reflects the natural and social domains and the wisdom of

seeing unity in the living and the non-living world in the Indian tradition. The

environmental movements in India encapsulate all categories of caste, class, race,

religion, nations and also categories of species divisions and the divisions of the

organic and inorganic world.

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Definitions of Environmental Movements:

According to Rootes, Christopher (1999):

“The environmental movements are conceived as broad networks of people and

organizations engaged in collective action in the pursuit of environmental benefits.

Environmental movements are understood to be very diverse and complex, their

organizational forms ranging from the highly organized and formally

institutionalized to the radically informal, the spatial scope of their activities

ranging from the local to the almost global, the nature of their concerns ranging

from single issue to the full panoply of global environmental concerns. Such an

inclusive conception is consistent with the usage of the term amongst

environmental activists themselves and enables us to consider the linkages between

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the several levels and forms of what activists call „the environmental movement”

(Rootes, Christopher: 1999: 2).

According to Almeida, Paul and Linda Brewster Stearns

(1998):

“There are three levels of collective action: 1) the local grassroots movement level;

2) the social movement level; and 3) a cycle of protest. A Local Grassroots

Environmental Movement (LGEM) as a movement fighting a particular instance of

pollution in a geographically specified region. Local Grassroots Environmental

Movements have a limited range of goals that are tied to specific pollution

problems. A social movement is a broader struggle that involves a formal

organizations or a federation of loosely affiliated networks. Social movements

have a wide range of goals directed at fundamental social and political reform.

Finally, a cycle of protest is a specific period of heightened protest involving

several social movements spread across different geographical areas and sectors of

society. The identification of each level of movement activity is critical to

understanding the political environment in which a Local Grassroots

Environmental Movement operates.” (Almeida, Paul and Linda Brew er Stearns

1998: 38).
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7 Major Environmental Movements in India:

1. Bishnoi Movement

 Year: 1700s
 Place: Khejarli, Marwar region, Rajasthan state.
 Leaders: Amrita Devi along with Bishnoi villagers in Khejarli and
surrounding villages.
 Aim: Save sacred trees from being cut down by the king’s soldiers for a
new palace.
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2. Chipko Movement

 Year: 1973
 Place: In Chamoli district and later at Tehri-Garhwal district of
Uttarakhand.
 Leaders: Sundarlal Bahuguna, Gaura Devi, Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi,
Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Govind Singh Rawat, Dhoom Singh Negi,
Shamsher Singh Bisht and Ghanasyam Raturi.
 Aim: The main objective was to protect the trees on the Himalayan
slopes from the axes of contractors of the forest.
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3. Save Silent Valley Movement

 Year: 1978
 Place: Silent Valley, an evergreen tropical forest in the Palakkad district
of Kerala, India.
 Leaders: The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) an NGO, and the
poet-activist Sughathakumari played an important role in the Silent Valley
protests.
 Aim: In order to protect the Silent Valley, the moist evergreen forest
from being destroyed by a hydroelectric project.
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4. Jungle Bachao Andholan

 Year: 1982
 Place: Singhbhum district of Bihar
 Leaders: The tribals of Singhbhum.
 Aim: Against governments decision to replace the natural sal
forest with
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5. Appiko Movement

 Year: 1983
 Place: Uttara Kannada and Shimoga districts of Karnataka State
 Leaders: Appiko’s greatest strengths lie in it being neither driven by a
personality nor having been formally institutionalised. However, it does
have a facilitator in Pandurang Hegde. He helped launch the movement
in 1983.
 Aim: Against the felling and commercialization of natural forest and the
ruin of ancient livelihood.
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6. Narmada Bachao Andholan (NBA)

 Year: 1985
 Place: Narmada River, which flows through the states of Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
 Leaders: Medha Patker, Baba Amte, adivasis, farmers,
environmentalists and human rights activists.
 Aim: A social movement against a number of large dams being built
across the Narmada River.
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7. Tehri Dam Conflict

 Year: 1990’s
 Place: Bhagirathi River near Tehri in Uttarakhand.
 Leaders: Sundarlal Bahuguna
 Aim: The protest was against the displacement of town inhabitants and
environmental consequence of the weak ecosystem.

CHIPKO MOVEMENT

Chipko Movement, Uttar Pradesh

Chipko Movement started in April, 24 1973 at Mandal of Chamoli district

of Gharwal division of Uttar Pradesh. The Organiser of the movement

had a belief on the ideology of non-violence as propagated by Mahatma

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Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave. The movement was raised out of ecological

destabilization in the hills. The fall in the productivity in forest produces

forced the hill dwellers to depend on the market which became a central

concern for the inhabitants. The continuous natural distress like flood,

and land slide due to Alaknanda (1970) river and other catashophes

like Tawaghat tragedy (1977) and Bhagirathi blockade (1978)Branch

Rivers of river Ganga caused massive flood in the Gangetic plains.

These floods brought a marked change in the ecological history of the

region. A look into the forest policies and forest resources exploitation

data show that due to over mining of forest resources in different time

periods such natural calamities have occurred. In 1973 the State Forest

Department gave a lease of forest trees to Simon Company, a

manufacturer of sporting goods from far off Allahabad (Mishra

and Tripathy, 1975) The relationship between the erosion and floods on

one hand, and mass scale falling of trees on the other was

recognized. On March 27 decision was taken to „Chipko” that is „to hug‟

the trees that were threatened by axe and thus the chipko aandolan

(movement) was born. This movement has multifaceted conflicts over forest

resources, at the scientific, technical, economic, and, especially, the

ecological levels (Shiva, 1986). Major demands of the Chipko movement

were not merely to protect timber, fuel, fodder and small slumber but the
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preservation of soil and water. Public meetings were held in the region and

the felling of trees by the Company was postponed. In initial days villagers

were lured by the Company from the forest for other entertainment but later

on failed to attract them. In 1974 Sunderlal Bahuguna the “Chipko

Messenger” visited the entire region taking the Chipko message from

village to village. In subsequent period the local people did not allow any

one from cutting trees even for home industries. Thus, one finds a change in

the Chipko movement, from economic to ecological. The Chipko

movement has been successful in forcing a fifteen year ban on commercial

green felling in the hills of Uttar Pradesh and generated pressure for a

national forest policy that is ecologically more sensitive. Women were very

active and came out of their homes to take lead in the Chipko movement.
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Lessons learned

The Chipko movement experimented and established certain original

approaches, like marginality, action research and social investigation. Few

social workers integrated the Chipko movement for preservation of forest

in the sub-Himalayan region of Gharwal. The movement made people

conscious of the value of forest, its preservation and the need for

maintaining ecological balance. The movement has established the

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importance of need oriented programmes, indigenous strategies, self-

reliance, ecological balance and structural changes that resulted in high

degree of peoples participation with the help of appropriate small

scale technologies. It was experienced that the Western model of

development reflected in the form of large scale infrastructure which have

marginalised the women the level of labour delivering products, the Chipko

movement proved that women who produce all subsistence goods can

maintain the status quo by retaining the traditional eco-system. They saw

that conservation of forest seems to be their only source of living and

survival. Chipko movement offered women platform to realise command

over Public power and authority. New ecological concepts were built

through this movement that made women to realise these issues which were

earlier controlled by their male counterparts. This has resulted in

various changes in the gender relations in rural Gharwal region in

performing the household and social responsibility. The top down approach

long adopted by the State in development of women could not bring much

change in the power structure of the rural people. The new concept of

ecological challenges became more concerned for the women (Jain, 1984).

The experiment could make people believe that participation of women in

the development process can be achieved by a mere ideological

commitment and a few organisational devices (ibid). Belief in non-violence,

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cooperation and self-help are the basic axioms of the Sarvodaya Philosophy

helped the Chipko movement moving forward. Further, it was a fact

that women who were away from the intricacies of public power and

political activities genuinely believed in the ideas of cooperation and self-

help. The principle like non-violence as a natural and more effective weapon

imposed on people as a moral pressure helped considerably to make the

Chipko movement a grand success. The ecological crisis in the Himalayas

is not an isolated event. It has its roots in the modern materialistic

civilization which makes men the butcher of Earth.

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NARMADA BACHAO AANDOLAN

Narmada Banchao Andolan Gujarat Narmada is one of the major rivers of

Indian Peninsula. The scope of the Sardar Sarovar project a terminal

reservoir on Narmada in Gujurat in fact is the main issue in the Narmada

Water dispute. The Narmada basin covers 94,500 sq.kilometres between the

Bindhya and Stapura ranges in Central India. The 1300 kilometres long

Narmada valley contains large alluvial plains in Madhya Pradesh.Narmada

River on the west is sacred to the Hindus, widening into a 25 kilometreslong

estuary as it flows into the Gulf of Cambay. It is one of the World‟s

largest multipurpose water projects. The Narmada River Development

Project involves the construction of 30 large Dams and many small ones on

the river and its 51main tributaries. The project basically aims to increase

food production and hydro-power generations in Gujurat, Madhya Pradesh

and Maharashtra.The construction of dams and reservoirs will displace

estimated one million people and will submerge 350,000 hectares of forest

land and 200,000 hectare sof agricultural land (India Today, 1992). The

Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujurat is being strongly opposed by the tribal

people due to the fact that it will submerge almost 40,000 hectares of land

and 250 villages.

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Similarly, the reservoir behind Narmada Sarovar Dam will

be the largest manmade lake in India submerging 91,348 hectares and

displacing 120,000 people from 255 villages, which includes 13 forest

villages (Shiva,1991). Of the total affected persons by submergence

of around 80% are agriculturists (Doria, 1990). Around 30% amongst to

be submerged belongs to SCs and STs and about 75% are marginal farmers

or labourers. Over 90 per cent are illiterate and vulnerable to

exploitation.With respect to the funding of the project, the World Bank

supported with an approved loans in 1985. For various reasons the Central

and State Government could not meet the resettlement and rehabilitation

guidelines and social and environmental issues went unaddressed (Kothari

and Singh, 1988). Finally, in1997 the World Bank decided to cease funding

the project but the Indian Government pledged to complete it (Miller and

Karunar, 1993).The Narmada Basin extends over an area of 98796 sq. km

and is divided into five well defined physiographical zones. The area has a

tropical climate with high variations in rainfall, temperature, and humidity.

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The average annual rainfall in the catchment area is 12.89. The total

cultivable command area of the Narmada Sagar Project is 174967 hect. The

cropping pattern to be benefited out of the project includes Khariff, Rabi

and summer crops. In addition, the project also aims to generate 212 MW

power in the initial stage and 147 MW in final stage. The Narmada basin is

one of the richest areas of the country for valuable forests and variety of

wildlife. The Narmada basin has two world famous national parks like

Kanha and Satpura; and five Sanctuaries, Kheoni, Panchamukhi, Bori,

Ratapani and Sidhore. Narmada basin also falls on route to several migratory

birds flying to South from North. It was conceived that the massive

deforestation due to the project will affect the feeding and breeding of the

wild life. The compensatory forestry will not be able to compensate the eco
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system to the normal situation. Ecological pressure and micro climatic

changes caused by deforestation will inevitably threaten the wild life.

Save

The Narmada movement began in the 1980s as a struggle for just

resettlement and rehabilitation of people being displaced by the Sardar

Sarovar Dam, but subsequently the focus was shifted to preserve the

environmental integrity and natural eco systems of the valley. The

withdrawal of World Bank funding was amoral victory for the movement.

Anti-project movement was very high among the residents of basin area in

Madhya Pradesh, while in Gujurat dissatisfaction was observed among

people whose lands have been encroached without adequate compensation

and inequitable compensation by the Government (Appa and Sridharan,

1992). By linking the problems of environmental changes and degradation of

the Valley with issues of economic equity and social justice, the movement
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forced the bank to withdraw from the project (Estana and

Prakash,1992).Narmada Movement justifies the fact that an environmental

movement can go beyond social and cultural cleavages since it touched the

human survival. Therefore, this platform unites people above age, sex,

religious, ethnicity, casteand class identities. Women became the prominent

leaders and participants. The encroachment of rights of people in case of

Narmada project was strongly protested by the people who protected their

age old livelihood resources.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCE

ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA- www.yourarticleliabrary.com

ENVIRONMENT- www.clearias.com/environmental-movements-in-india/
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CHIPKO MOVEMENT- PDF United Nations University

CHIPKO MOVEMENT- www.slideshare.net

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN- PDF United Nations University

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN – www.wikipedia.org