Gaura Devi

Gaura Devi (1925 – 1991) was an Indian Chipko activist in the Himalayas.[1]

Gaura Devi
Gaura Devi
Born1925
Lata village, Chamoli district, Uttarakhand
Died1991 (Aged 66)
NationalityIndia
Known forChipko movement

Life

Gaura Devi was born in 1925[2] in a village named Lata in the state of Uttarakhand. She moved to a nearby village named Reni by the Alaknanda River. By the age of 22 she was a widow with a child. Her new village was near to the border with Tibet.[1] Gaura Devi was elected to lead the Mahila Mangal Dal (Women's Welfare Association) in the wake of the Chipko movement. The organization worked on the protection of community forests.[3][4]

Birth of Chipko

Gaura Devi came to notice in 1974 when she was told that local loggers were cutting the trees on 25 March by a young girl. The men of Reni village had been tricked out of the village by news that the government was going to pay out compensation for land used by the army.[1] It fell to Gaura Devi and 27 other women to tackle the loggers. She challenged the men to shoot her instead of cutting down the trees and she described the forest with her maika (mother's house). They managed to halt their work by hugging the trees despite the abuse of the armed loggers. They kept guard of the trees that night and over the next three or four days other villages and villagers joined the action.[1] The loggers left leaving the trees.[5][6][7][8] After this incident, the Uttar Pradesh Government established a committee of experts to investigate the issue of felling of trees, and the lumber company withdrew its men from Reni. The committee stated that the Reni forest was an ecologically sensitive area and that no trees should be felled there. Thereafter the government of Uttar Pradesh placed a 10-year ban on all tree-felling in an area of over 1150 km².[8]

Gaura Devi died in July 1991, at the age of 66.[9] [10]

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References
  1. Parallelus. "Chipko Heritage". mountainshepherds.com. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  2. "चिपको आंदोलन को गूगल कर रहा 'सलाम', जानें कौन थीं गौरा देवी- Navbharattimes Photogallery" (in Hindi).
  3. "Gaura Devi....A forgotten Hero of Chipko Movement In Gharwal". www.speakingtree.in. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  4. "The Hindu : Lessons from the mountains". www.thehindu.com.
  5. Chipko 30th Anniversary Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Nanda Devi Campaign.
  6. Chipko! – Hill conservationists Tehelka, 11 September 2004.
  8. (PDF) http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/8402/standing%20up%20for%20trees_%20women's%20role%20in%20the%20chipko%20movement.pdf?sequence=1. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. "Delicate hand at cradle, firm in struggle". Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  10. "The Hindu : Lessons from the mountains". www.thehindu.com.
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