Veteran Indian environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, pioneer of the Chipko movement against senseless cutting of trees in the Himalyan region, died of Covid 19 at AIIMS hospital in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand state on Friday.

A lifelong believer in the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, Bahuguna, 94, was hospitalized on May 8 after his oxygen level started fluctuating. He had tested positive for the coronavirus infection late last month.

In April 1973, Bahuguna had inspired locals in Mandal village to launch a novel form of protest against deforestation that was threatening the ecological balance of the Himalayan region.

Chipko means to hug in Hindi. Under Bahuguna’s instruction, the villagers, primarily women, tightly embraced trees, formed circles around them and stayed up whole night to prevent men employed by a sports goods company from cutting them down. The state government had given a forest tract to the company.

The movement was a success and it soon spread to many other Himalayan districts over the next five years, and also elsewhere in the country.

Finally, the central government  in 1980 enforced a 15-year ban on chopping green trees.

Bahuguna, however, turned down the government’s proposal to honor him with the country’s fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri.

The grassroots level movement and the dedication and passion with which it was executed made the world take notice, and Bahuguna earned respect and acclaim from environmentalists all over.

Later in life, he spearheaded the Anti-Tehri dam movement in Uttarakhand on the Bhagirathi river and even went to prison in 1995.

In 2009, Bahuguna accepted the Padma Vibhushan – India’s second highest civilian honour.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in condoling Bahuguna's death. 

Calling Bahuguna a “Gandhian to the core" and a "legend in his own right", Kovind tweeted that he “made conservation a people's movement”.

Modi said Bahuguna’s death was a “monumental loss for our nation”.

“He manifested our centuries-old ethos of living in harmony with nature. His simplicity and spirit of compassion will never be forgotten,” Modi tweeted.

(SAM)