Prioritise water conservation and forest protection on Sunderlal Bahuguna's first death anniversary

Sunderlal Bahuguna, the person most closely associated with the movements and campaigns to protect Himalayan forests, died on this day, May 21, exactly a year back at Rishikesh at the age of 94.

His first death anniversary is being observed on May 21, 2022.

The veteran environmentalist and the Chipko ( hug the trees) movement was also a freedom fighter and regarded Mahatma Gandhi as his most prominent teacher and mentor. He devoted his life to applying principles of non-violent struggles in the context of increasingly important tasks of protecting forests and rivers.

Along with his wife Vimla ( who was more formally trained in Gandhian principles and methods by Sarla Behn, the European disciple of Gandhi), and several deeply committed Gandhian activists and villagers of the Garhwal region of Western Himalayas, he was involved in many struggles to protect trees marked for felling and to prevent the construction of gigantic dams despite warning of risks by scientists.

Born in a village along the bank of the Ganges river in Tehri Garhwal, as a schoolboy he met Sridev Suman, a freedom fighter who later sacrificed his life during a jail sentence, and decided to follow his example of a deeply committed social life.

After independence Sunderlal and Vimla settled in the remote village of Silyara to serve the villagers of the surrounding areas, leading an austere life.

Following the Chinese invasion leading Gandhian Vinoba Bhave called upon Gandhian social workers in the Himalayan region to play a wider social role and so Sunderlal started travelling more widely in many parts of Uttarakhand, particularly in the Garhwal region. This led to increasing involvement with social and environmental concerns.

Both Sunderlal and Vimla were involved in anti-liquor movements and in asserting rights of the weakest sections and challenged various forms of discriminatory practices. Enduring relationships were established with several younger activists like those in the Henvalghati region.

Around the late seventies, a series of Chipko movement activities were launched in Henvalghati for saving forests like those of Advani and Salet which generated a lot of enthusiasm. The action shifted then to even more remote forests like those of Badiyargad, where Sunderlal Bahuguna went on a long fast in a dense forest area in very difficult conditions.

Side by side he maintained a dialogue with senior persons in the government. The then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi regarded him highly and respected his opinion and work. Persuaded by the activist, the government agreed to stop green felling of trees in vast Himalayan areas.

Following this success Sunderlal went on a long and difficult march from Kashmir to Kohima, including Bhutan and Nepal, covering a vast part of the Himalayan region to spread the message of saving forests and the environment with the involvement of people. During this march, taken up in several stages, several times he faced threat to life but did not stop and completed the march. This march helped him greatly to understand the conditions of people and the environment in the Himalayan region.

He emphasized the protection of sustainable livelihoods along with the protection of the environment. He was involved closely in resisting displacement and organizing forest workers. He was also involved in several constructive activities relating to the regeneration of degraded forests.

Soon he was in the thick of the movement for opposing the harmful social and environmental aspects of dam projects in the Himalayan region particularly the gigantic and highly controversial Tehri dam project, which was described as a project of unacceptably high hazards even by officially constituted committees. This proved to be a very long and difficult struggle. Sunderlal Bahuguna left his ashram in Silyara and camped on the bank of the Ganges river for several months, accompanied by Vimla, for several years.

Although this long struggle did not succeed in stopping the high-risk dam, it certainly helped to spread awareness of these important issues far and wide.

Sunderlal Bahuguna became a source of inspiration for forest protection and environmental struggles in many parts of India and even abroad. In the Western Ghats region, for instance, he inspired the great Appiko movement for saving forests. He visited the region and this proved to be an important turning point in the mobilization for the movement.

He was honoured with several prestigious awards, including the Padma Vibhushan.

He contributed to many constructive causes such as Bhoodan (gift of land) movement for making available some farmland to landless rural livelihoods.

He played a very important role in evolving an alternative development strategy for the Himalayan region rooted in a combination of combining environment protection with sustainable livelihoods.

He spent his last days in Dehradun at his daughter Madhuri’s home, with both Madhuri and Vimla providing very affectionate care over a long period of deteriorating health.

Our true homage to him will be to work for combining environment protection and sustainable livelihood. Vimla Bahuguna says in a message “Water conservation and forest protection should be two biggest priorities in the coming years. Only talking is not adequate. People must make real changes in their life in keeping with the objective of protecting environment.”

In addition, she adds, it is very important to reduce inequalities and to give much more attention to providing relief to weaker sections, particularly the poorest.

However many more trees and forests are being cut indiscriminately in the Himalayan region and elsewhere. At the time of writing, thousands of deodar trees in the highly ecologically sensitive Uttarkashi-Gangotri stretch, close to the origin of the Ganga river, are threatened. Many more hazardous and ecologically destructive projects are being planned on rivers. The urgent need for more extensive and continuing efforts to check forest fires are being neglected even as rapid increase of alcohol consumption is being encouraged.

Clearly, the message of Sunderlal Bahuguna needs to be recalled and remembered much more today.

(The writer had been close to Sunderlal Bahuguna. His recent books include Vimla and Sunderlal Bahuguna—Chipko Movement and the Struggle Against Tehri Dam Project, Man over Machine-A Path to Peace and A Day in 2071)