As founder of the Chipko movement, Sunderlal Bahuguana is credited with having given birth to one of the biggest mass movements on environment in the history of modern India. Today, at 83, Bahuguna is fighting for the settlement of the Tehri Dam oustees. When the government, in 1981, decided to award him the Padma Shree in recognition of his efforts and achievements, Bahuguna turned it down, stating: ‘‘I don’t deserve the award as long as the Himalayas continue to bleed’’. Bahuguna spoke to Aasha Khosa. Excerpts from the interview:• What is the present status of the Chipko movement, the people’s agitation on environment which made everyone sit up and take notice of the common man’s power in saving the environment?One phase of the Chipko got over in 1981 when the governments banned felling of trees in Himalayan states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. During the hearing of a case, a Chandigarh court summoned our mission-in-charge, who explained how important it was for the Himalayas to remain covered in trees — not just the timber trees which are a legacy of the English but the trees which yield foodstuff like walnut, fruits and fodder. Himachal Pradesh should realise that the trees don’t just yield timber but are also directly or indirectly responsible for the air we breathe and the water we drink.Frankly, the Chipko agitation, as a people’s movement, is at a standstill today. We need massive support and cooperation from the environmentalists. Our work never went beyond enforcing a ban on tree felling. We need activists. I myself have been bogged down with the Tehri Dam for the last 13 years. But let me take the credit for inspiring Pandurang Hedge, a university student from Karnataka who came to me for field work and went back to the Western Ghats to launch Apiko, which means Chipko in Kannada.• In the West, the Chipko movement is a case study. Many experts felt that rousing the masses for a movement to save trees was a major achievement for a traditional society like ours. However, it was felt that science and big money should have helped to further the cause.These big ideas of environmentalists in the West don’t influence me. When people there ask me what made me do what I am doing, I tell them that I was influenced by an illiterate woman’s logic. On asking this woman how she mustered the courage to hug the trees at the danger of being shot, she replied: ‘‘If I see a danger while walking through a jungle with my son, my instincts would be to first hug my son. The same way, I hugged a tree.’’• The Chipko activists had also taken up the cause for prohibition.Chipko’s greatest strength was that the women held centrestage in the movement. This is in conformity with Indian values — a woman is the nurturer. The prohibition movement has been very effective, it has saved our future generations from wasting their lives.• Why couldn’t the Chipko movement become popular in the rest of the country?India does not need big environment movements since people have a basic reverence for nature. They just have to realise that they cannot live without the basic forms of nature.• Industrial development has become imperative. How do environmentalists remain in tune with the cause for development?Development, as we are seeing it today, just yields temporary gains. By constructing a road or a dam, we are trying to convert nature into money. Soil, water, forests and air should be treated as basic capitals which cannot be encashed by any means. Without these, we’ll all die. Instead of concrete roads, we need to encourage planting of trees in the Himalayas. Otherwise, we’ll mine the earth of all its water.• What is your plan for the Himalayas?We have to do away with the culture of conifer trees in the Himalayas. Instead, we should give cash incentives to villagers for tree planting. They could grow nuts, fodder and fruits to generate alternative food sources, while at the same time contributing to nature. Somehow, we seem to be trapped in the mindset that the Britishers’ did what was best. They planted timber trees and our bureaucracy has inherited this tradition. We need to change. Farming and animal rearing should be made viable and given priority in the hills.• Why do you think the Narmada oustees’ case received global attention while the Tehri struggle went largely unnoticed?Tehri is one of the poorest districts in the country. We did not have any history of peoples’ movements there. Then the government harassed our workers and scared them away. But I have been trying to make my point by staying put on the ghats of the Ganga for 13 years. Moreover, unlike the Narmada, Tehri is geographically situated in a corner. The Himalayas are unfortunate in the sense that everything flows down from it. Even the locals are deserting it.• Is this because of lack of development projects which could have created job opportunities?No, I don’t think so. Unless people are made to realise that tree planting can help them make a living, nothing can check their migration to the cities. Roads only take away people. Trees could be an incentive. Even the creation of Uttaranchal has not helped us because the leaders in Dehra Dun are more in touch with Delhi than with the people in the hills.
