Ecological movements: Chipko

Modern development has been criticised for its costs: big dams and industries displace people, and the overuse of forests, water and minerals exhausts resources. Ecological movements arose from these concerns.

The Chipko movement began in the 1970s in the Himalayan foothills of what is now Uttarakhand. When contractors came to cut down forests, villagers, many of them women, hugged the oak and rhododendron trees to stop the felling. 'Chipko' means to stick or cling.

A key moment was the 1970 Alaknanda flood. It washed away homes and fields, and villagers came to see the link between deforestation and landslides and floods: cut forests could not hold the soil or water.

At Reni village in 1974, while the men were away, Gaura Devi, head of the local Mahila Mandal (women's group), led the women to the forest and turned back the contractors' men.

Chipko joined several issues together:

• Economy: the villagers' subsistence economy, depending on forests for fuel, fodder and water, against the commercial economy of profit from timber. (This is the 'red' issue of livelihood.)
• Ecology: protecting the forest and the mountain environment. (The 'green' issue.)
• Identity and politics: resentment of a distant government in the plains (in Lucknow) that ignored the hill people's needs.

The red and green issues were linked: for the villagers, saving the forest was saving their livelihood. Chipko was not just about saving trees for their beauty.

It brought together economy, ecology and identity, and inspired environmental movements across India and the world.