World Environment Day: Remembering Gaura Devi, Whose Tree Hugs Gave Birth To The Chipko Movement
Nearly 50 years ago, a Himalayan woman stood between contractors and trees, proving that protecting forests is not activism, it is feeling at home.
Published : June 5, 2026 at 7:00 AM IST
|Updated : June 5, 2026 at 7:51 AM IST
Dehradun: The forests were never just trees. For the women of the Himalayas, they meant a perfect metaphor for life. They were a source of food, fuel, fodder, water and security. But the forests embodied solidity and freedom to grow or expand, qualities that are so inherently associated with humans. Importantly, they were a sign of emotional belonging for the women.
Back in the 1970s, when axes arrived to cut those forests down, a village woman stepped forward and declared, “These forests are our maternal home. We will not allow them to be destroyed.”
That woman was Gaura Devi.
She urged women to embrace the trees and prevent the loggers from cutting them down. Today, on World Environment Day, when the world struggles with the challenges of climate change, deforestation, melting glaciers and environmental disasters, Gaura Devi feels more relevant than ever.
A Small Himalayan Village That Changed History
Situated in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, Reni, a tiny village, was one among the many thousand Himalayan settlements that were naturally surrounded by dense forests and mountain winds. Life and nature moved in tandem.
For village women, who visited the forest many times a day, it defined their existence and subsistence. They collected firewood for cooking from the forests, fodder for livestock, organic manure for fields, medicinal plants and water sources, everything meant going to the forest.
Back then, most people thought the forest was their life, not just a resource. But the forests came under threat in the early 1970s when a struggle over rights began.
Environmentalist, writer and social commentator Rajeev Nayan Bahuguna recalls that the Chipko Movement did not begin solely as an environmental campaign.
“At its heart was a question of local rights. During that period, the Himalayan Angu tree, also known as the Himalayan ash, was considered highly valuable. Its wood was used for products including cricket bats. When forest allotments were distributed, local cooperative societies received permission to cut only six trees, while large commercial contractors were granted rights to nearly 600. The decision sparked resentment among local communities,” he explains.
It was a struggle for access to local resources, but it grew into a movement stressing that forests should not be viewed as economic assets, but as the basis for human survival.
It was 1974. Contractors and labourers reached the forests near Reni to begin tree felling. It was that time of the day when most men were away in the fields or engaged in other works.
Gaura Devi saw destruction as imminent. She decided to act and not allow anyone to fell the trees. She gathered women of the village and led them into the forest.
According to Rajeev, Gaura Devi shared a deep emotional bond with forests that resonated with most mountain women. “The forest is our maternal home,” they said.
Since in Indian culture, a woman’s maternal home symbolizes safety, affection, support and identity, these Himalayan women too identified with the forest as their own. So when the forest was threatened, women saw it as an attack on their own existence.
“Gaura Devi and her companions stood in front of the trees and embraced them. They sent out their message loud and clear: Cut us first, then cut these trees,” he adds.
Facing resistance and left with no option, the contractors retreated.
That moment defined the beginning of the Chipko Movement, where women gathered to protect trees by hugging them.
When a Village Voice Reached the World
The Reni movement reverberated across Uttarakhand and beyond. Social workers, local communities and folk artists moved around villages to spread the message. Rajeev recalls how folk poet Ghanshyam Sailani traveled across the mountains, often sitting atop buses, singing songs in Garhwali that urged people to unite and protect forests from destructive policies and exploitation.
“खड़ उठा भाई बंदो सब कट्ठा होला,
सरकारी नीति से जंगला बचौला,
चिपको पेड़ो परा अब ना कटणा दिया,
जंगलों की सम्पत्ती अब ना लुटणा दिया।”
Meaning,
“Rise up, brothers and kin - let us all gather together!
Let us save the forests from government policies.
Embrace the trees; let them be cut no more.
Let the wealth of the forests be plundered no longer.”
These songs transformed Chipko from a local protest into a people’s movement. Gradually, the word “Chipko” became recognised around the world as a symbol of environmental resistance and community-led conservation.
A Movement That Changed National Policy
The impact of Chipko extended far beyond saving individual forests.
Rajeev, the son of Chipko movement pioneer Sunderlal Bahuguna, says the movement influenced major policy decisions. By 1981-82, commercial logging in many Himalayan regions faced restrictions, forest conservation laws became stronger and environmental concerns took over the national narrative.
The enactment of the Forest Conservation Act in 1980 proved a major turning point. Environmental issues gained unprecedented attention and contributed to the establishment of dedicated environmental governance mechanisms at the national level.
An effort that began with one woman and one voice took along many others from a remote Himalayan village and went on to change policies of an entire nation.
Why Gaura Devi’s Warning Matters More Today
Senior journalist Jai Singh Rawat feels that the younger generations will not be able to comprehend the relationship mountain communities shared with forests in the past. “Women spent much of their day in and around forests. Their lives, livelihoods and emotional world were intertwined with nature. That connection seems weakening today,” he says.
Ironically, Reni village has witnessed environmental disasters in recent decades with hydropower projects, extensive construction, mining activities and increasing ecological disturbances altering the landscape.
Rawat argues that Gaura Devi seems more relevant today. He argues that the concerns Gaura Devi raised decades ago are now visible in the form of climate-related crises - landslides, cloudbursts, ecological degradation or consequences of poorly planned development.
“Governments may claim authority over forests, but genuine conservation is impossible without active participation from local communities,” he warns.
The question today is not about how much the Chipko movement succeeded. It is about retaining the same gusto to protect the trees and forests.
No Degrees But Gaura Devi Taught the World
Environmentalist Hemant Dhyani says Gaura Devi may not have been educated but her strength was her intimate relationship with nature.
“She never studied environmental science. Yet she understood something many experts now emphasise. For her, environmental protection began with sensitivity, responsibility and lived experience. We need to cultivate that bond among people today,” he says.
Mountain women, Dhyani adds, have always stayed in the lap of nature as if they belonged there. “It was therefore no coincidence that women became the first defenders when forests came under threat,” he says.
Today, as Gaura Devi is being remembered, it becomes all the more important that the spirit that guided her survives for future generations. Be it to protect local resources, preserve cultural traditions or resist threats to their environment, there needs to be a Gaura Devi among all for the world to be a better place to live.
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