The ‘Chipko Andolan’ (Hug the Trees Movement) originated from an incident in a remote village called ‘Reni’ in Garhwal in the early 1970’s. A logging contractor had been allowed to cut down trees in a forest close to a village. One day, when the men folk of the village were out for work, the contractor’s workers came in the forest to cut down the trees. In the absence of the men, the women of the village reached the forest quickly and clasped the tree trunks with their arms, preventing the workers from cutting down the trees. The forest trees were thus saved. The Chipko Movement quickly spread across all the communities and helped in the conservation of forests.
