[India News]: New Delhi, Oct 10 : Two Indian women activists will share the platform with Wangari Maathai, this year’s Nobel Peace Price winner, at a United Nations environment meet in Nairobi Monday to highlight women’s struggle for livelihood. Bali Devi, who was part of…
C.S. LAKSHMI The Hindu, September 7, 2003 IT is amazing how many voices in India are still to be heard and how some people work quietly to allow these voices to emerge. From Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh come the voices from the mountains gathered by…
The fading gains of Himalayan conservation Bharat Dogra, June 2002 Rishikesh, June 5 2002, (IPS): The bare slopes where pine forests once thrived is a sure sign that the famous chipko conservation movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which drew world attention to this once…
Jaishree Suryanarayan and Ashish Kothari April 19, 1999 The Setting Tucked away in a picturesque part of the Himalayan foothills, the village of Jardhargaon has a remarkable story to tell. A story of how a community organised itself to conserve precious forests, achieve equity in…
In the 19th century British colonial administrators in India took control of vast areas of forestland, which they subsequently exploited through the Imperial Forest Service. A good part of this forestland had originally been managed communally in accordance with local rules and regulations. With the…
Amit Mitra Down to Earth, Vol. 1, No. 23 April 30, 1993 Part of the Down to Earth special 20th anniversary issue devoted to Chipko “NO WOMAN ever had to hug a tree to protect it,” says Chandi Prasad Bhatt, the founder of Chipko. “It…
The Chipko Movement in the Uttarakhand region of the Himalayas is often treated as a women’s movement to protect the forest ecology of the Uttarakhand from the axes of the contractors. But the reasons behind women’s participation are more economic than ecological. In fact, the…