This Day in History: 1974-03-26

Chipko movement revived on this day in 1974 when a group of women in Reni village, Uttarakhand, India, try to stop India’s Forest Department from cutting down a forest that was entailed in traditional forest rights of the village. Using the centuries-old method of protest, they would hug or stick to (‘chipko” in Hindi) the tree and, by extension, their principles. The 1974 Chipko protest was inspired by a similar protest in 1730, in Jodhpur, India, when 294 men and 69 women of the Bishnois branch of the Hindu faith died while hugging Khejri trees to protect them from foresters. This sacrifice is one origin of the semi-pejorative term for environmentalists: “tree hugger.” The 1974 Chipkos were successful in stopping the logging and the movement spread rapidly across the developing world. Today the Chipko movement is recalled as a major turning point for global eco-feminism.