Environmental Education and the Chipko Movement

In India, environmental education begins early in schools and colleges but it is not confined to issues such as the conservation of plants and animals. It extends to learning about the functioning of the natural system and about the impact of activities of human beings on the environment. 

Further, environmental education involves spreading awareness and educating the public, about environmental challenges through print materials, internet, media campaigns, workshops, camps, seminars and rallies. The Chipko movement, for instance, is a classic example of how awareness about environmental issues brings about a great change  among the masses. 
 

Chipko Movement as an Example of Environmental Education

In India, the Chipko movement represents the strength and power of environmental education when it reaches the masses. A peek into the beginning of the Chipko movement takes us back to over 260 years back. The belief is that the members of Bishnoi community of Rajasthan gave up their lives to save trees from being felled down. The cutting of trees was ordered by the Maharaja of Jodhpur but when he saw the extent to which people were ready to give up their lives for the trees, the Maharaja withdrew his orders. 

In modern India, the Chipko movement represented organized resistance against the destruction of forests across the nation. This movement took place in the 1970s and derived its name from the word ‘embrace’, as ‘chipko’ which means to hug. This name was given because the villagers hugged trees to prevent contractors from cutting them.

The movement began in the mountainous regions that had vast tracts of forest land. In April 1973, the first Chipko action took place in Mandal village of the Alaknanda valley. The campaign spread across several Himalayan districts and was triggered by the government’s decision to assign a plot of forest area, to a sports product company, in the Alakananda valley. The villagers were angry that a similar request they had made to use wood for making agricultural equipments was earlier refused by the same government.

A local NGO Dasoli Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS) gave support to the Chipko movement. It became more successful under the leadership of activists like Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Dhoom Singh Negi and Bachni Devi. These activists,  along with other protestors, went in to the forests and gathered around trees to save them. Their slogans were passionate, as they shouted, 'What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air' and 'ecology is permanent economy!'

Environmental education is vital because it will bring people together in speaking up for the conservation of the nation’s natural resources. The success of this movement is studied in schools across the country because it marked the beginning of proactive participation of the masses in addressing, debating and protesting on significant environmental issues.