Chipko's variegated roots

Book review of The Chipko Movement: A People's History

The denial of access to ash trees to the contractors of Symonds Company in the vicinity of Mandal village, Chamoli district, on March 27, 1973 seemed like a local event. The same trees had been sought after for making farm tools by the local Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal, a Gandhian voluntary group.

But this collective action soon grew in symbolic importance.  It soon got a name that became world famous: Chipko. Chandi Prasad Bhatt had used the pahari or hill term angalvatha, but it was Chipko, the Hindi term, that gained currency.

A year later in Reni, Gaura Devi faced down a