India loses a Himalayan voice for ecology: Green activists
DEHRADUN: India has lost one of the most prominent voices on the Himalayas and its ecology with the death Sunderlal Bahuguna, said environmentalists and green activists, many of whom had been associated with him.
The main contribution of Bahuguna is that he highlighted the Chipko movement at the national and international level, said Ajay Singh Rawat, a historian who has authored books on Uttarakhand’s ecology and interacted with Bahuguna. “It was due to his role the movement in the early 1970s became a rallying point for non-violent environmental movements in India and attracted world attention.”
Rawat said Gaura Devi had led played a key role in the Chipko movement in March 1974 when contractors engaged by an Allahabad-based sports goods company came to Reni village in Chamoli district to cut ash trees; she along with other women hugged trees to save them from being felled.
Rawat said Bahuguna had travelled across the Himalayas, gave lectures on protecting fragile mountains, was against dams and always stressed that development in the hills should be in tune with the ground realities and not what bureaucrats think in their ivory towers.
“I met him 1974 when the first conference on science technology and rural development in mountains was organised at Kumaon University. I remember him telling me that experts on the Himalayas don’t have lab-to-land approach; he said the work they are doing should not be restricted to research papers only but implemented at the ground level,” he said.
“Earlier, I had met him in Tehri town in Thakur Shoorvir Singh palace (Purana Durbar) in 1972. As I was documenting the history of forestry in the state, I asked about the forest uprising in the Garhwal region before 1937. He spoke to me in detail about the Rawain incident of 1930 in which the villagers had rallied to protest against the forest policy of the King of Tehri Garhwal state. This movement became famous because the then diwan of the state, Chakradhar Jayal, ordered the state army to fire at the protesters, in which according to Bahuguna, more than 150 people had died.”
Chipko movement started in 1973 against tree cutting and spread throughout the Himalayas, inspired by Gandhian nonviolence.
PThe movement got attention across the country and the Central government brought in the Forest Protection Act.
Rawat said the Chipko movement made India realise the importance of forests and sustainable development, especially in the Himalayan region.
Chandi Prasad Bhatt, who worked with Bahuguna in the movement, said he was “speechless after hearing Bahuguna ji’s death due to Covid. “I had a long association with him.”
In February when an avalanche hit Reni village, Bahuguna had said, “Whenever you play with the nature, cut forests, whenever you overexploit the rivers with too many dams, nature replies with such disasters. This disaster should remind us of the role of people like Gaura Devi and her message.”
Dushyant Mainali, an advocate who has been taking up legal fights for the cause of the Himalayan environment, said that with Bahuguna’s death, not just Uttarakhand but India as a whole has lost one of the most prominent voices on the Himalayas.
“His work has been an inspiration to generations of green activists and people, and he will continue to inspire us all to keep working for protecting the Himalayas and its environment,” Mainali said.
He travelled across Himalayas, gave lectures on protecting mountains, and stressed that development in the hills should be in tune with ground realities. AJAY SINGH RAWAT, historian