From Paul Routledge, Terrains of Resistance, Praeger, 1993. The Chipko Movement Let us protect and plant the trees Go awaken the villages And drive away the axemen. - Ghanshyam Sailani (translated by Govind Raturi) The Chipko movement developed in the mountainous northern segment of Uttar Pradesh, comprising the eight Himalayan districts of that state, immediately west of Nepal. The area is known historically and reverentially as Uttarkhand (see Map 2), the most sacred region of the holy Himalayas, the watershed of the Ganges River. The term has been revived recently and militantly to serve as an expression of ethnic and regional loyalties among residents of the region. To understand the reasons for the emergence of the Chipko movement, it is important to analyze the nature of the area from which it appeared: its geography, culture, history and the process of development that has occurred therein. As with the Baliapal movement a consideration of the factors of location, locale and sense of place provides crucial insights into the reasons for the emergence and character of the movement. First, in considering the background to the movement, I show the importance of location and locale. I then show the importance of locale and sense of place in the formation of Chipko's nonviolent terrain of resistance, as well as discussing the movement's relationship to political parties and the state. BACKGROUND TO THE MOVEMENT Location: The Resource Exploitation of an Internal Colony The origins of the Chipko movement and the importance of locational factors can be traced to the intense resource exploitation that has occurred in Uttarkhand during the past 30 years and the detrimental effects that development has had on the natural environment and the livelihood of the peasant population. The population of Uttarkhand is 4.5 million people, and the hill districts occupy 20,000 square miles. Topographically, climatically and culturally it is a distinct area in Uttar Pradesh (which has a total population of 1 1 0 million and a total area of 1 15,000 square miles) and comprises 4 percent of the state's population, living in 16 percent of its area (Berreman 1987). Uttarkhand, however, contains nearly all the state's forest, mineral and hydroelectric resources plus renowned mountain, tourist and pilgrimage attractions. These resources and attractions have been exploited by entrepreneurs from the distant cities of the plains. Even laborers employed in this process are hired in the plains and transported to the mountains, local labor being ignored (Berreman 1989). Throughout the 1,500-mile Himalayan range, Uttarkhand is the only region without a degree of self-determination, without self-govemance as a state, province or nation. Instead, it consists of eight hill districts among 56 in Uttar Pradesh, governed from Lucknow 200 miles away, mainly by plainsmen with no understanding of the mountains, its people or its ways of life (Berreman 1983). Uttarkhand, however, comprises an ethnically and,ecologically distinct region which, although small in population, is rich in resources essential for the livelihood of the local population even as they are coveted and extracted by outsiders. This process provides the essential context for understanding 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. Recent official figures estimate forest cover to be 37.5 percent in Uttarkhand, but about half of this forest area is degraded with poor tree density (see Agarwal and Narain 1985). Recent satellite data show that of the 34,042 square kilometers of land declared as forests in Uttarkhand, good tree cover exists on only 6.6 percent of forest land, while another 22.5 percent and 13.8 percent are classified as medium and poor forests, respectively (Saxena 1987). Together with the clearing of trees, resintapping 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 ofthem com- pletely) 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). 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. Location and Locale: The Local Economy The people of Uttarkhand comprise two indigenous groups. First are the Hindu (and a few Muslim) subsistence farmers, artisans and other service castes and specialist castes who live in the lower Himalayas (up to about 7,000 feet above sea level) and who speak an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Hindi of the plains but not mutually intelligible with it. These people and their language are referred to as Pahari ("of the mountains"). The Hindu population includes two closely allied landowning high castes, the Brahmin farmers and priests and the Rajput farmers, who comprise 8 percent and 68 percent of the population, respectively (Berreman 1983), and Scheduled castes, who comprise 16.8 percent of the rural population (Singh, 0. 1983). Second, and much fewer in number, are the Tibetan-speaking Buddhist farmers, herdsmen and traders who live at higher elevations and generally to the north, called Bhotiya ("Tibetan"). Regarding the local economy, between 80 and 92 percent of the population of Uttarkhand are employed in agriculture, the figures varying between districts. Activities include cultivation, animal husbandry, forestry and agricultural laboring (Guha 1989b). 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). The farming system is subsistence-oriented, dependent upon the land and the forests, but, as Guha (1989b) notes, cumulative social and environmental changes have undermined the hill economy's capacity to feed itself. The major causes of this situation have been population increase and declining agricultural production, exemplified by decreasing yields, which have been caused by forest degradation (Guha 1989b). Regarding population increase within the hill districts, Tewari (1982) notes that between 1961 and 1981, the density of population per square kilometer ,@@',has increased by 70 percent in Chamoli, by 68.75 percent in Tehri Garhwal and by 62.50 percent and 50.30 percent in Almora and Naini Tal, respectively. 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, livestock and families. In 1981 nearly 20 percent of the households in Chamoli district were headed by women in the absence of males (Jain 1984). 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. Table 5 Literacy Rates in the Hill Districts (1971) District Literacy Female Literacy Population (percent) (percent) Chamoli 28.13 9.00 Uttarkashi 28.13 4.89 Tehri Garhwal 19.05 4.34 Pauri 31.53 14.84 Pithoragarh 31.37 14.57 Almora 28.77 11.37 Naini Tal 32.51 21.05 Source: Tewari (1982). THE MOVEMENT AS A NONVIOLENT TERRAIN OF RESISTANCE As with the Baliapal movement, a consideration of factors of locale and sense of place provides critical insights into the social relations and structure of the movement and its motivational force. Also of vital importance in understanding the Chipko movement is the history of resistance in the area that preceded the emergence of Chipko. Together, these factors serve to inform our understanding of the movement as a terrain of resistance. I first describe the antecedents of the Chipko movement before considering the movement's use of nonviolent tactics. I then analyze the importance of factors of locale and sense of place as they pertain to the movement before finally addressing Chipko as a terrain of resistance. 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 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. 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 were later 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 antialcohol 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 im lements and organized the collection and sale of medicinal herbs. (Interview, Gopeshwar: 1989). 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) 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). 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 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 a.camp 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. 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 promote 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 con- struction 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 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, 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 issues raised. The camp also provided the women with a chance to develop solidarities with Mahila Mandals from different villages. The DGSM acted as a convener for the discussions on most of the socioeconomic and ecological issues raised by the participants. At the Bachher camp, women discussed issues like water fetching, fodder and fuel scarcity, planting, building soil retention walls, preparing village forestry plans and guarding local forests. Mention was made of a 1987 action where Bachher women hugged trees to prevent felling operations by the Forest Department. Although the organizers were all male, the heart and dynamism of the Chipko movement, as exemplified by this camp, were provided by the peasant women of Chamoli. The DGSM organizes six to nine camps every year, which provide the "glue" for the contemporary Chipko movement in this area. As one activist told me: "Our goal is awareness. We want to develop forests to serve local needs.... Our goal, at times, is similar to the goal of the USV, but our methods are different" (Interview, Bachher 1989). The DGSM is essentially a middle-class organization: its executive committee consists of four Sarvodaya workers, two professionals, three women and two dalits. According to Bhatt, its work now involves seventy to eighty villages in Chamoli district, a larger participation than during the Chipko movement of the 1970s (Interview, Gopeshwar 1989). Some of the funding for the camps comes from the University Grants Commission (a government agency), although the DGSM funds itself via its local cottage industries (Interview, Gopeshwar 1989). It is readily admitted by local Chipko activists that the camps provide a liaison between the villagers and state government officials (Kunwar 1982). The DGSM also started an Integrated Watershed Development project with the help of the Planning Commission and the Department of the Environment of the government of India. The project is concerned with the socioeconomic and environmental development of a 27-village area in the catchment area of the Alakananda River, involving the participation of the local villagers. The project objectives are (1) the prevention of deforestation and overgrazing, (2) a soil conservation program, (3) wall construction to protect plantation sites, (4) incentives to women and youth to participate in development schemes, (5) promotion of social and agro-forestry as a means of soil conservation and source of fodder and fuel resources, (6) improvement of health services, (7) setting up smallscale cottage and village industries based on local resources, (8) improvement of marketing outlets for local crafts, (9) organization of eco- development camps and (10) introduction of nonconventional sources of energy such as bio-gas, smokeless chulas (stoves) and solar ovens (Bhatt 1985). On the other side of Uttarkhand, in Tehri Garhwal district, Bahuguna and other Chipko activists also became involved in various afforestation and conservation schemes dubbed "Invisible Chipko" by Bahuguna (Interview, Silyara 1989). Chipko activists have helped set up Mahila Mandals in many villages (e.g., Kangad, Sevalgaon and Rewatgaon) to coordinate the regeneration of the forests, act as forest guards to prevent felling and plant new species of tree (for fodder, fuel and so on) in cooperation with the local forest department. According to Bahuguna, 50 villages in Tehri Garhwal are involved in replanting, the new Chipko task being to decentralize control of the forests to the local people (Interview, Silyara 1989). Sunderlal Bahuguna and his wife, Vimla, run the Chipko Information Center from their ashram in Silyara. The center is involved in (1)producing pamphlets that are sold to spread the Chipko word and to raise funds for Chipko work, (2) reporting on Chipko resistance and ecological destruction elsewhere in India, (3) providing financial support to other movements and projects, (4) organizing locally to raise consciousness and (5) installing bio-gas units in villages around Silyara (e.g., in 1985-86, 15 units were installed in the area). According to Bahuguna: "It is up to people to plant their own trees. I just raise con- sciousness. I don't want to become the manager of planting trees" (Interview, Silyara 1989). As part of the Nehru Centenary, a central government-funded project, "Regreening the Himalayas," was initiated in Uttar Pradesh (two sites), Himachal Pradesh (one site) and Jammu and Kashmir (one site). The project was set up in cooperation with local Chipko activists, including Bahuguna and Dhoom Singh Negi. The project is designed to plant trees and conserve water by di verting funds to the local villages for use in these schemes. Negi is in charge of the disbursement of the funds. Trees will be planted that produce the five Fs, namely, fuel (hatah, bushes), fodder (oak, grevia), fertilizer (oak, rhododendron leaves), food (wild apricot, walnut, chestnut, yonchok bean trees) and fiber (tree cotton, mulberry, bamboo). Although the project is designed to give control and implementation of the project to the local population, it is managed by a central committee (including Bahuguna and government officials) that makes policy decisions and sanctions the projects and a district comn-iittee (including Negi and Sarvodaya workers) that implements the projects through the local panchayats. Although Chipko activism continues in the traditional realm of tree hugging, the movement has undertaken more project-oriented work, at times in close collaboration with the local government. Further, there are three distinct factions in the movement, located in Tehri Garhwal district (associated with Bahuguna and Negi, among others), Chamoli district (associated with the DGSM and Bhatt) and Almora and Naini Tal districts (associated with the USV). All of these factions have their roots in the Chipko movement of the 1970s and all have continued Chipko work to the present. A fuller investigation into what has been termed a "schism" in the movement (Berreman 1987; Guha 1989b) is addressed below. Locale: Social Relations and Movement Structure 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 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 sig- nificantly 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 e - conomy, 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 Ba@chher 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,