#chipko

[unbfacts]

In 1974, during India’s Chipko movement, villagers, especially women, hugged trees so loggers could not cut them down. In the famous Reni protest that year, Gaura Devi and other village women stood their ground in the forest until the loggers backed off.

[kemetic-dreams]

Where does the philosophy of tree-hugging originate?

The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being slaughtered by the foresters. But their action led to a royal decree prohibiting the cutting of trees in any Bishnoi village. And now those villages are virtual wooded oases amidst an otherwise desert landscape.Not only that, the Bishnois inspired the Chipko movement (chipko means “to cling” in Hindi) that started in the 1970s, when a group of peasant women in the Himalayan hills of northern India threw their arms around trees designated to be cut down. Within a few years, this tactic, also known as tree satyagraha, had spread across India, ultimately forcing reforms in forestry and a moratorium on tree felling in Himalayan regions.

[pursuitofwisdom]

ǝʅƃooƃ :ǝɔɹnos

[goodbearblind]

Le Donne Chipko . Trecento anni fa, tante donne della comunità Bishnoi nel Rajasthan (India), guidati da Amrita Devi, sacrificarono le proprie vite per salvare dall’abbattimento dei loro khejri, alberi sacri, cingendoli con le braccia. Inizia con quest’evento la storia del Chipko. Nel mezzo dell’Himalaya, negli anni ’70, le donne Chipko creano il movimento Hug The Tree Movement. La difesa con il proprio corpo degli alberi è lo strumento di lotta, per difendere la foresta, fonte di sostentamento della loro società. La deforestazione sta causando un disastro naturale, il territorio si degrada e le fonti di acqua si inquinano gli animali selvaggi muoiono. Il messaggio è che le foreste non sono solo una fonte di approvvigionamento di legname, ma generano un ambiente sano e pulito, la salvezza di un ecosistema globale. Nate dal messaggio di Gandhi di lotta non violenta, in India il movimento ottiene il divieto di taglio delle foreste Himalayane per 15 anni. Erano i tempi di Indira Gandhi, ma ancora oggi la protezione dura. La tecnica di lotta? Abbracciare gli alberi e resistere ("Chipko" in Hindi significa "aggrapparsi"). Nel 1973 una donna che stava pascolando le mucche vide alcune persone munite di scuri, chiamò a raccolta le compagne che circondarono questi uomini dicendo: "Questa foresta è la nostra madre. Quando c’è poco cibo, veniamo qui a raccogliere erbe e frutta secca per nutrire i nostri bambini. Troviamo piante e funghi. Non potete toccare questi alberi". Insieme, istituirono squadre di sorveglianza ed il governo fu obbligato a costituire un comitato, che raccomandò la cessazione per 10 anni dei tagli a scopo commerciale nel bacino dell’Alakananda Funzionò gli alberi non vennero questa volta tagliati . Un imprenditore disse , al culmine del duro confronto: "Voi stupide donne di paese, lo sapete che cosa fruttano queste foreste? Resina, legno, e tanta valuta straniera!" Le donne risposero: "Sì, lo sappiamo. Cosa fruttano le foreste. Terra, acqua, ed aria pura, terra, acqua, ed aria pura." (Continua a leggere qui: https://www.facebook.com/100001314808956/posts/1567262713327540/?d=n) #chipko #hugthetreemovement https://www.instagram.com/p/B8vM4HTo0qv/?igshid=tqp2rku1qyn8

[pzirnis]

"Amrita Ka Balidaan"

The tree floats in the air, branches above and roots below, two arms from behind the thick trunk embrace it.  The composition fills the entire space; the dark umbar colored tree dominates the center, on the right a rider in bronze military armor, ax raised high, and on the left  Amrita in village garb, barefoot, embracing a tree, her daughters' severed heads at her feet. Directly below the tree four women, like Egyptian goddesses, stand erect shoulder to shoulder facing the viewer.

 Nutan Mishra a self-taught painter from Sitamarhi, Bihar painted Amrita Ka Balidaan (Amrita’s Sacrifice) as dual homage to a historical three-hundred-year-old event as well as to Chipko, an ecological movement with a large participation by women that began in the 1970s to protect the lower Himalayan mountains of north India from deforestation. A hugged tree is taken as a symbol of the movement.

 Amrita’s Sacrifice took place in the 1730s when a Maharajah in Rajasthan sent soldiers to cut down trees for a new palace.  The villages in the area however were part of the Bishnoi community which considers nature sacred and to be protected.  To stop the soldiers from cutting a tree Amrita Devi offered them her head instead, “Saving a tree was worth the loss of one’s head.” Her three daughters followed suit. Seeing their sacrifice other villagers stepped forward. Over 360 in all, young and old, were thus beheaded before the soldiers stopped and rode away leaving the trees uncut.    

Painted in neon acrylic on Salita, a rough cotton cloth, the 39″ x 39″ painting is a bit of color shock at first but the strong triangular composition, as well as the carefully chosen individual colors, hold the work together.  The yellow background serves as canvas for the dark trunk of the tree, the green of the branches, the bronze of the rider’s armor, the dark green of Amrita’s skirt and the orange of her head covering.  The four elegantly dressed women are all in red tones - magenta, orange,red, and rose.  They reference a black and white photograph from 1973 of village women protecting a tree in an attempt to stop logging in their area.

But instead of presenting them as village women Nutan Mishra chose to portray them as goddess guardians of the forest - thus connecting them with the Bishnoi community’s sacrifice centuries earlier.

Signed by Nutan Mishra, neon acrylic on Salita  (rough cotton cloth), 39in x 39in, 2019.

Acquired in December 2020 by Radford University Art Museum, for display at Radford University's Selu Conservancy

Photograph India Times.

[navigatethestream]

Chipko: Vandana Shiva and the Original Tree Huggers

[unserneueswir]

Die Bishnoi: Eine vergessene Geschichte von Glauben, Natur und Konsequenz

Eine Gemeinschaft in der Wüste Am Rand der Thar-Wüste, wo Hitze, Staub und Wassermangel den Alltag prägen, lebt seit Jahrhunderten eine Gemeinschaft, deren Umgang mit der Natur ungewöhnlich konsequent ist. Die Bishnoi in Rajasthan folgen Regeln, die lange vor dem modernen Umweltgedanken entstanden sind und bis heute ihren Alltag bestimmen. Ihr Name steht für die 29 Gebote, die im 15. Jahrhundert von Guru Jambheshwar formuliert wurden. Diese Regeln betreffen nicht nur das Zusammenleben der Menschen, sondern auch den Umgang mit Tieren, Pflanzen und Ressourcen. Was von außen wie ein ökologisches Konzept wirkt, ist für die Bishnoi Teil ihres Glaubens. https://www.unserneueswir.de/?p=7189 Read the full article

[chipko]

Just realised, I’ve become a dog again. Please send some help to get me through this rough stage