It’s the time to ‘chipko’
charukesi August 16th, 2004
After all that effusive praise, to cut to the chase now. The landslides. The TOI quoted experienced civil engineers: nowadays, engineers do things in haste. But is it just that - faulty engineering?
What else do you expect if we go on cutting down trees this way, said a friend recently while talking about this. No, no, not Ms Roy (Just in case the I told you so tone suggested that). I agree with her completely.
Much as the gleaming expressway is a tribute to development, the landslips and falling rocks are also stern reminders of what mindless and ecologically unfriendly activities in the name of development can lead to. Of which deforestation is the most scary.
‘What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air’.
The Chipko andolan born out of such tragedies in the 1970s was remarkable for the way in which large scattered village communities were mobilized (although its origins can be traced to an earlier century among the Bishnois of Rajasthan). And the protesters got their point across to the Government with a very peaceful, yet defiant on-your-face protest (remember the original Gandhi anyone?). The Chipko protests in Uttar Pradesh achieved a major victory in 1980 with a 15-year ban on green felling in the Himalayan forests of that state by the order of Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.
“The solution of present-day problems lie in the re-establishment of a harmonious relationship between man and nature. To keep this relationship permanent we will have to digest the definition of real development: development is synonymous with culture. When we sublimate nature in a way that we achieve peace, happiness, prosperity and, ultimately, fulfilment along with satisfying our basic needs, we march towards culture.” said Sunderlal Bahuguna , a key figure behind this movement (between 1981 and 1983, he undertook a 5,000 kilometer march through the Himalayas to spread the message of the chipko movement). Yet, he was criticised as being anti-development.
Apparently, the message has not spread.
A decade later occured the tragic landslips the Uttarkhand / Garhwal region (late 1990s). The TOI editorial called it a tragedy waiting to happen, which could not even be passed off as nature’s fury or folly as is usually done.
And a couple of decades later, trees are still felled and entire forests denuded to make way for roads and dams which are certainly crucial for development, but at what cost? Are more such tragedies waiting to happen?