What is the current day impact of Chipko Movement?
Forest is an asset that provides survival for many Indian villagers where it is not merely in terms of fulfilling their basic needs but also in terms of livelihood. So when trees were felled indiscriminately for commercial and industrial purposes, villagers sought to protect their forests by following the Gandhian method of Satyagraha by hugging the trees when the axe man comes to cut it.
The fact that the villagers undertook to guard the forests from felling also side by side planting the saplings for the coming generations at the cost of their lives made Chipko Movement a worldwide phenomenon. When people questioned the villagers about their action, the villagers are known to have replied that if they plant a tree now it will bear fruits after many years where their children and grandchildren would eat its fruits even if they are no more. When it comes to understanding the Chipko Movement, women of Uttrakhand village would know it perfectly because this has been the way of looking at their forest which supports their lives, and so their sentiments will always be attached to Chipko movement.
Chipko Movement leader like Mr Sundarlal Bahuguna believed that, “Ecology is the permanent economy” and all his life he taught the villagers to protest against the destruction of the forest. There are many movements that formed to save natural resources inspired by Chipko Movement in India and abroad.