Preface;
Acknowledgements;
INTRODUCTION: A MAN TO MATCH HIS MOUNTAINS Ramachandra Guha;
1. CHIPKO'S HOMELAND: A GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION;
Historical Background;
The Natural Environment;
Socio-Cultural Diversity;
2. TROUBLE IN THE FORESTS: COLONIAL LEGACIES;
3. RESISTANCE AND REPRESSION: FOREST STRUGGLES BEFORE CHIPKO;
Forests in the Tehri State: The Beginnings of the Dhandaks;
The Post-Colonial Landscape;
Forests in the New Regime;
A New Committee;
Before the Emergence of Chipko;
The Forest Question;
Nature's Warnings;
The Quickening of Protest;
The Rise of Student Activism;
4. THE FIRST SHOOTS OF CHIPKO;
Towards Direct Resistance;
From Mandal to Phata;
The Government-Society Dialogue;
Towards Reni;
A Day in the Life of Reni;
Conversations with the Government;
After Reni;
5. THE STRUGGLE SPREADS;
The Forest Movement in Uttarkashi;
Beginnings in Kumaon;
The Next Auction;
The Imposition of the Emergency;
6. CHIPKO UNITES UTTARAKHAND;
The Birth of the Uttarakhand Sangharsh Vahini;
Forest Auction in Nainital – Again;
28 November 1977;
The Resistance in Adwani;
Haldwani: The Next Stage of Repression;
7. THE MOVEMENT SPROUTS NEW BRANCHES;
Bhyundhaar: Tree Felling in the Valley of Flowers;
Chanchridhaar: Dunagiri Dwar and the Gagas Catchment;
A Reni Anniversary;
Nature's Warnings;
Notes of Rebellion in Badiyaargarh;
From Almora to Rangodi-Dhyadi;
From Almora to Janoti-Paaldi;
Chipko: Many Expressions;
Doongri-Paintoli: Women vs Men and the Baanj vs the Potato ;
8. THE THREE STREAMS OF CHIPKO:
Three Extraordinary Decisions;
Commendation, Honour, and Doubt;
The Anti-Tehri Dam Movement;
Economy vs Ecology? A Spurious Debate;
Together but Not United;
9. THE STRUCTURE OF A SOCIAL MOVEMENT:
LEADERSHIP, ORGANISATION, AND PARTICIPATION;
Leadership: Multi-Region and Multi-Personality;
Organisation and Participation;
Profiles of Some Chipko Activists and Leaders;
10. THE LIVING LIGHT OF CHIPKO;
DGSM Camps and Campaigns;
The Beej Bachao Andolan;
Maiti Andolan;
Dalyon ka Dagadya and the Paani Rakho Andolan;
Chheeno Jhapto and Mountain Shepherd;
Nainital Samachar and Aniket;
Pahar;
HARC;
Chetna Andolan;
Anti-Mining and Baanj Abhiyan of the Lakshmi Ashram;
Nadi Bachao Andolan;
Raksha Sutra Andolan;
Van Panchayat Sangharsh Morcha;
Conclusion;
Bibliography;
Index.

This book by Shekhar Pathak, says Ramachandra Guha in his Introduction, “is the definitive history of the Chipko Movement”.

In India, modern environmentalism was inaugurated by the Chipko Movement, which began in 1973. Because it was led by Gandhians, included women participants, occurred in “spiritual” Himalayan regions, and used innovatively non-violent techniques of protest, the Chipko attracted international attention.

It also led to a major debate on Indian forest policy and the destructive consequences of commercialisation. Because of Chipko, clear-felling was stopped and India began to pay attention to the needs of an ecological balance which sustained forests and the communities within them. In academic and policy-making circles it fuelled a wider debate on sustainable development – on whether India could afford to imitate the West’s resource-intensive and capital-intensive ways of life.

Chipko’s historians have hitherto focused on its two major leaders, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna. The voices of “subalterns” – ordinary men and women such as Gaura Devi who made Chipko what it was – have not been recorded. Pathak places Chipko in its grassroots contexts. He shows that in leadership and ideology Chipko was diverse and never a singular Gandhian movement.

Every scholar and serious student of Indian environmentalism will need to engage with the empirical richness and analytic solidity of this book.