3 Environment Movements Across the Globe

What is the meaning of Environmental movements?

An environmental movement can be defined as a social or political movement, for the conservation of the environment or 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 course 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, forests and rivers reflect the natural and social domains and the wisdom of seeing the unity in the living and the non-living world in the Indian tradition.

The environmental movements in India encapsulate all categories of caste, race, religion, class, nations and also categories of species divisions and the divisions of the organic and inorganic world.

Environmental movements in India have contributed to defining the models of development, shifting from a resource-intensive and ecologically unstable state to an ecologically symbiotic state of functioning.

A couple of environmental movements experienced in India so far include Chipko Andolan (Barthelemy, 1982), Save the Bhagirathi and stop Tehri project (Manu, 1984), Save the Narmada Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan) in Madhya Pradesh and Gujrat.

Youth organisation and Tribal people in the Gandhamardan Mines against Balco, the opposition of Baliapal Test Range, Bauxite mining in Kashipur and Niyamgiri; the Appiko movement in the Western Ghats; the campaign against the Silent Valley Project; reclaiming wastelands in Bankura district, and the opposition to the Gumti Dam in Tripura, etc., are some examples.

1. Khejri Movement or Bishnoi Movement

Any debate on environmental movements in India would begin with a remark on the Khejri movement or the Bishnoi movement. It started in 1726. The Bishnoi were people of Rajasthan who are credited for the first use of Chipko tactics against tree felling.

Bishnoi movement began with the royal order of Maharaja Abhay Singh to the cutting of Khejri trees, worshipped by Bishnois, for construction of the fortress.

The villagers under the leadership of Amrita Devi protested against the order as she hugged the trees as a form of dissent. Amrita Devi and her three daughters were beheaded for disobeying the royal order. Just before her martyrdom, Amrita Devi declared, “If a tree is saved even at the cost of one's head, it’s worth”.

Maharaja stopped the order as 363 people from the Bishnoi community lost their lives in the non-violent method for the protection of trees. They are upholding eco-friendly principles to date by saving water by traditional water harvesting systems, indigenous cultivation methods for local areas and not killing any animals. Thus, the Bishnoi movement laid the foundation of the environmental protection movement in India.

2. Chipko Movement

The emergence of the modern Indian environmental movement can perhaps be dated to 1972, the year the Chipko movement began. The Terai region of Uttarakhand (now, Uttar Pradesh) in the Himalayan foothills was a dense forest area that caught the eyes of the timber merchants.

Large scale deforestation followed commercial forestry, which saw the hills denuded resulting in loss of topsoil and occurrence of landslides and floods. Peasant women living in these areas saw their lives getting harder as it took them much longer to collect the daily needs of fuelwood, fodder and water.

Over some time these women were able to connect the loss of the forests with the changes in their lives. The movement begins with the government refused to supply ash trees to the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal (DGSM), for processing plant of forest produces especially for making plough in Chamoli District. Instead, the government gave a green signal for Simon Company to cut ash trees for the production of sporting goods.

The DGSM organised protests against the government decision to promote Simon Company instead of villagers. This boosted the Chipko protest. Thus was Chipko born with Bachni Devi and Gauri Devi leading the protests. The protest movement was organised by Chandi Prasad Bhatt, who aired the slogan of "ecology is the permanent economy."

This movement was also led by other women in the Garhwali area. The Chipko Movement was not a movement just to save forests, rather, it was a movement, concerned with also the maintenance of the traditional ecological balance in the fragile Terai region, where hill people have traditionally enjoyed a positive relationship with their environment.

The collective mobilization of women for the cause of preserving forests has raised issues about the present model of development that encouraged commercial forestry in the hill regions.

 3. Silent Valley Movement

Silent Valley was one of the important biodiversity hotspots in the Southern end of Western Ghats in Kerala. The Silent Valley Movement was against the decision of the Kerala Government to construct a dam for a hydroelectric power project in the Silent Valley forest.

The Malayalam poet and environmentalist, Sugatha Kumari was the prominent leader in this movement. The NGO, Kerala Shastra Shitya Parishad, voiced against the hydroelectric project of Kerala State as it would harm the virgin forest of Silent Valley, which was the home for hundreds of rare species reference.

Prakriti Samrakshana Samithi, an association of writers, artists, academicians, scientists and experts from various fields actively participated in Save Silent Valley Movement. Despite the offer of employment and development in the area, people, especially women opposed the hydroelectricity project.

As a result, the project was cancelled by personal interventions of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1980 and Silent Valley was declared as a National Park in 1984. The strong influence of the Save Silent Valley Movement is still visible through the continuing efforts and awareness of people on environment protection in this area. In the year 1985, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi formally inaugurated the Silent Valley, National Park.

 Written By – Ishika Ladda