Sunderlal Bahuguna

Early Life:

Sunderlal Bahuguna was born in British India, in the town of Maroda, in the Tehri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, on January 9th, 1927. He was a Gandhian and an environmentalist, and one of the most well-known campaigners of his day. Sunderlal migrated to Lahore as a youngster after fleeing the region as a teenager because of his pro-democracy thoughts and actions.

Alcoholism and untouchability were the two main issues Lal Bahuguna ji faced after India gained independence in 1947. The Chipko Movement was founded on March 26, 1974, and he committed his life to the cause of trees and the environment.

Inspiration to take up the cause:

Chandi Prasad Bhatt, an environmentalist and Gandhian social activist, formed the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (later renamed Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal [DGSM]) in 1964 to promote small enterprises for rural communities utilising local resources. When the large-scale industry was connected to the terrible monsoon floods that killed more than 200 people in the region in 1970, DGSM became a force against it. In April 1973, the first Chipko protest took place near Mandal in the upper Alaknanda valley. The locals were furious when the government awarded a considerably larger site to a sports goods firm after denying them access to a modest number of trees with which to create agricultural equipment. When their petitions were turned down, Chandi Prasad Bhatt led residents into the forest, where they embraced the trees to resist logging. Following many days of demonstrations, the government revoked the company's logging permission and awarded DGSM the original allotment. Following Mandal's success, DGSM employees and local environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna began to share Chipko's techniques with people in other villages around the region. In 1974, at Reni, when more than 2,000 trees were planned to be cut, one of the next significant protests took place.

Famous achievements:

He was a part of the Chipko movement in the 1970s and then directed the anti-Tehri Dam movement from the 1980s until early 2004. He was been granted several accolades, including the Chipko Movement's Right Livelihood Award. Then he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan for his environmental conservation initiatives. He was also given the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for creative work in 1986.

Hardships faced:

For years, Bahuguna was a key figure in the anti-Tehri Dam rallies. In 1995, he ended a 45-day fast after receiving assurances from then-Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao that a review committee on the dam's environmental implications would be formed. After that, he embarked on a 74-day fast at Gandhi Samadhi, Raj Ghat, during the reign of Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who took personal responsibility for project assessment. Despite a decade-long legal battle in the Supreme Court, work on the Tehri Dam started in 2001, and he was jailed on April 24, 2001. Sunderlal Bahuguna's development of the Chipko motto "Ecology is Permanent Economy" was one of his most important contributions to the Chipko movement and to environmentalism in general. Sunderlal Bahuguna played a key role in bringing the movement to attention by leading a 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya march from 1981 to 1983, moving from village to village and rallying support for the cause.

Message for the future generation:

Vijay Jardhari has spearheaded efforts in the Himalayas to save hundreds of types of seeds such as rice, kidney beans, and other local coarse grains. He described his Beej Bacho Andolan (save seed movement) as an outgrowth of the Chipko movement. Sundarlal Bahuguna's commitment to environmental protection cannot be put adequately in words. I appreciate the ecological, conservationist, and committed social worker as a forester.

References

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