Question

What was Chipko Andolan? How did this Andolan ultimately benefit the local people and the environment?

Answer 1

Hint: The Chipko Andolan, also known as the Chipko movement was a forest conservation movement in India. It started in the year 1973 in Uttarakhand, then a part of Uttar Pradesh (at the foothills of Himalayas), and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world.

Complete answer:
The reason for the starting of The Chipko Movement is the anger of the villagers because of the government’s policy that did not allow local agriculturists and herders to cut the trees for their daily needs like fuelwood or for fodder and for certain other purposes.
The benefits that local people and the environment get from this movement are:-
> Firstly this movement forced the government to rethink their priorities in the use of forest produce and include the local people in forest management.
> Secondly, the local people could now continue depending on the forests for meeting their basic needs.
> The environment also gets benefits from it. Earlier the trees wood was used by many industries and the need for industries was in the huge number which leads to the massive decrease in the plants in the forest which in turn result in the ecological imbalance. Now, as the outsiders are not allowed and local people are only allowed to use the woods, few trees are cut down and help in maintaining ecological balance.

Note: The Chipko Andolan is a movement that followed the methods of Satyagraha where both male and female activists played important roles, including Gaura Devi, Suraksha Devi, Bachni Devi, Sudesha Devi, and Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Virushka Devi, and others.