There is a lot to learn from how the hinterland and how it has influenced environment policy in the past. How people have risen against what they feel is being done wrong in the name of development. Delhi’s ongoing movement against axing 16,500 trees to make way for ‘modern’ government colonies is also inspired by one such rural ecological movement that managed to bring about a 15-year ban on cutting trees in the Himalayas in 1980.

It was in 1973 in the village of Mandal in Alakananda valley that residents came together to hug the trees to prevent their being cut down. Historically called the ‘chipko movement’ it was sparked off when the government allotted forest land to a company manufacturing sports goods.

When the people, of what is now known as the State of Uttarakhand, heard of this, along with voluntary organisation Dasoli Gram Swarajya Sangh they came in large numbers to halt the venture. The women formed a circle around the trees, hugging them to prevent outsiders from cutting them down.

So strong was the movement that not only did Prime Minister Indira Gandhi comply with their demand, but it also set the ecology rules for the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas.

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