
Hi Folks, today on April 22nd, we are celebrating the 51st Earth Day! To mark this event, in this week’s Trivia Thursday, let’s have a look on a few prominent environmental movements that took place in India.
Crux of the Matter
In this week’s Trivia Thursday, let us have a look at some major environmental movements that happened in India:
Chipko Movement
Started in 1973 in Uttarakhand, Chipko movement was a forest conservation movement in India. The word ‘chipko’ means “to cling to” and refers to the rural villagers, mostly women hugging trees as a mark to protect them from loggers.
Silent Valley Movement
Silent Valley is an evergreen tropical forest in the Palakkad district of Kerala. In 1973, a plan to build a hydroelectric project on the Kunthipuzha River would have flooded the rainforest. Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) and other NGOs started a social movement called Save Silent Valley. The rainforest was declared as Silent Valley National Park in 1985.
Bishnoi Movement
Bishnoi is a Hindu religious sect found in the Western Thar Desert and northern states of India. They follow a set of 29 principles/commandments given by Guru Jambeshwar. These include a ban on killing animals and felling green trees, and providing protection to all life forms.
Appiko Movement
The famous Chipko Andolan of Uttarakhand in the Himalayas inspired the villagers of the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka Province in southern India to launch a similar movement to save their forests. In September 1983, men, women and children of Salkani “hugged the trees” in Kalase forest. (The local term for “hugging” in Kannada is appiko.) Appiko Andolan gave birth to a new awareness all over southern India.
Narmada Bachao Andolan
Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is a social movement spearheaded by native tribes (adivasis), farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against a number of large dam projects across the Narmada River. The NBA, with its leading spokespersons Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, received the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.
Take a look at our last week’s Trivia Thursday here: Trivia Thursday: 7 Wonders Of The World