SOL DU – B.A. PROGRAMME SOLVED QUESTION

SOL DU BA PROGRAMME SOLVED QUESTION PAPER JUNE 2017

(iii) What was Chandi Prasad’s contribution in protecting the environment ?

Recount the specific circumstances of the birth of Chipko. Since DGSS was involved in social reconstruction and sustainable development it occasionally came into conflict with the government. However it was commercial forestry (trees cut for commercial purposes) as against social forestry which led to the growth of Chipko. DGSS was refused the use of some trees with which they wanted to make some agricultural equipment. But the same trees were auctioned off to a sports goods company in Allahabad. The local people strongly resented this commercial exploitation of their forest.

To protect the trees from being cut down Bhatt gave a call to embrace the trees (Angalwaltha in Gharwali). Similar action was followed at many places in the Alakananda Valley. At this point Sunderlal Bahuguna not only joined the protesters but also wrote about it in Yugvani. He hailed the efforts of Chandi Prasad Bhatt and the other workers and regarded it as the first step in the process of a transformation in the relationship between man and nature. Thus Chipko was born in the Alakananda Valley with the efforts of DGSS under the leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt. Subsequently the movement spread to Kumaon, Uttara Khand and the Bhagirathi Valley.