Sunderlal Bahuguna (9 January 1927 – 21 May 2021) was an Indian environmentalist from Uttrakhand and a great leader of the Chipko movement. The idea of the Chipko movement was of his wife (Vimla Bahuguna) and he executed the great idea to protect the forest. He has been fighting against Deforestation in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, and later spearheaded the Anti-Tehri Dam movement starting 1980s, to early 2004. He was one of the early environmentalists of India,, and later he and people associated with the Chipko movement started taking up environmental issues, like against large dams.
Awards
1981: Padma Shri Award by Government of India, but he refused it.
1987: Right Livelihood Award (Chipko Movement).
1986: Jamnalal Bajaj Award for constructive work.
1989: Honorary Degree of Doctor of Social Sciences was conferred by IIT Roorkee.
2009: Padma Vibhushan Award by the government of India for environment conservation.
Chipko movement
Chipko movement was started on 26 March 1974 in Uttar Pradesh, in an effort to protect areas of trees and forests from cutting by forest contractors. In Hindi, "Chipko" literally means "Stick" and people started "sticking" and holding onto trees when they were being cut.
Sunderlal Bahuguna's contributions to the Chipko movement, and to environmentalism in general, was his creation of the Chipko's slogan "Ecology is the permanent economy." Sunderlal Bahuguna helped bring the movement to prominence through about a 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya march undertaken from 1981 to 1983, traveling from village to village, gathering support for the movement.
He had an appointment with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and that meeting is credited with resulting in Mrs. Gandhi's subsequent 15-year ban on cutting of green trees in 1980. He was also closely associated with Gaura Devi, one of the pioneers of the movement.
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Chipko movement founder Sunderlal Bahuguna dies due to Covid-19 at AIIMS Rishikesh.
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