Google celebrates 45th anniversary of Chipko movement with a doodle

The movement's biggest triumph was opening the eyes of people to their rights to forests, and how grassroots activism can influence policy-making regarding shared natural resources.

Google on Monday commemorated the 45th anniversary of the Chipko movement with a doodle. The doodle depicts four women bedecked in traditional attire, holding hands and forming a chain around a tree, with the fauna which are denizens of the forest portrayed as spectators to this scene of solidarity that is played out on a starry night. In 1973, villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Chamoli district (now Uttarakhand) took to hugging trees to prevent their felling at the hands of contractors and to protect trees from the deforestation that accompanied rapid industrialization in the years following independence.

The word 'chipko', which means to hug, soon became the name of the eponymous movement and the catchphrase for environmentalists the world over. However, the practice of embracing trees, both literally and figuratively, predate the Chipko movement. The Bishnoi community in Rajasthan were the pioneers in protecting forest resources. In the 18th century, a group of people from 84 villages in Rajasthan united under a woman called Amrita Devi and laid down their lives to protest a royal decree that commanded the felling of trees. Taken aback by the self-sacrifice of his subjects, the Maharaja of Jodhpur went on to rescind his order preventing the felling of trees in all Bishnoi villages.