Encounter 19 · 19 of 42 · 26 March 1974
They hugged the trees
On 26 March 1974, in Reni forest, village women put their arms around trees marked to be cut. The contractor’s men were already there.
Reni, Chamoli, Uttarakhand · place approximate
Chipko had already been gathering in the Garhwal Himalaya. In 1973, at Mandal, villagers had faced a felling. In Reni, on 26 March 1974, men from the village had been drawn away to Chamoli. A contractor’s party arrived with a permit for a marked stand. Gaura Devi, head of the village women’s group, walked to the forest with about two dozen women. They held the trees.
What they knew
- The trees were marked. The contractor had a permit.
- The men of the village were not there.
- Chipko (to stick, to hug) was already a method nearby.
What they could not know
- Whether the men with axes would stop.
- Whether anyone would be hurt.
- Whether the permit would still stand in the morning.
Gaura Devi was head of the village women’s group. The men had been called to Chamoli. When the contractor’s party arrived, she and about two dozen women walked to the marked stand. They put their arms around the trees.
She is later remembered as saying the forest was a mother’s home (maika), and that they would hug the trees. The sentence exists in several wordings. First record of the exact line is not a 26 March notebook in our hands. The stand is not in doubt. A community of women, not a lone heroine, was in the forest that afternoon.
They stayed until the cutting party left. That afternoon did not yet contain a national environmental law. It contained a slope, a watershed, firewood, and a day’s bodily risk for people who used the forest and did not own the permit.
What was at stake
A slope, a watershed, firewood, a day’s bodily risk.
The next move
They stayed. The felling did not go ahead that day.
What they had
- Arms
- A forest they used
- Each other
What happened
Chipko spread and was later written as environmental history. Gaura Devi’s name is now printed. The 1974 afternoon was a group of women and a contractor who went home.
Who is in the forest when the men have been called away?
Private. No one else will see it.