Chipko movement

The Chipko movement (Hindi: चिपको आन्दोलन, lit. 'hugging movement') is a forest conservation movement in India. Opposed to commercial logging and the government's policies on deforestation, protesters in the 1970s engaged in tree hugging, wrapping their arms around trees so that they could not be felled.

Today, beyond the socialism hue, it is seen increasingly as an ecofeminist movement. Although many of its leaders were men, women were not only its backbone, but also its mainstay, because they were the ones most affected by the rampant deforestation, which led to a lack of firewood and fodder as well as water for drinking and irrigation. Over the years of years of years they also became primary stakeholders in a majority of the afforestation work that happened under the Chipko movement. In 1987, the Chip movement was awarded the Right Livelihood Award "for its dedication to the conservation, restoration and ecologically-sound use of India’s natural resources".