Sunderlal Bahuguna hospitalised
पिछले कई दिनों से बीमार पिता के साथ अस्पताल में हूँ . वार्धक्य स्वयं में एक व्याधि है . पकी हुयी फसल लोक जीवन के लिए उत्सव का विषय है, लेकिन परिपक्व वय विषाद का .
Noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna was on Monday admitted at the Jollygrant Hospital here after he complained of trouble in breathing.
The 86-year-old environmentalist was admitted at the hospital this morning when he had trouble in breathing, doctors at the hospital said.
Though his condition is improving he has lost a lot of weight which is a cause for concern and will have to be kept at the hospital under the observation of doctors for some more time, they said.
Bahuguna's name is closely associated with the Chipko movement of the 1970s and the anti-Tehri dam movement.
The Chipko Movement (India)
The forests of India are a critical resource for the subsistence of rural people throughout the country, especially in hill and mountain areas, both because of their direct provision of food, fuel and fodder and because of their role in stabilising soil and water resources. As these forests have been increasingly felled for commerce and industry, Indian villagers have sought to protect their livelihoods through the Gandhian method of satyagraha or non-violence resistance. In the 1970s and 1980s this resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and became organised and known as the Chipko Movement.
The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in 1973 and over the next five years spread to many districts of the Himalaya in Uttar Pradesh. The name of the movement came from a word meaning 'embrace': the villagers hugged the trees and thus saved them by putting their bodies in the way of the contractors' axes. The Chipko protests in Uttar Pradesh achieved a major victory in 1980 with a 15-year ban on green felling in the Himalayan forests of that State by order of India's then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. A similar ban was later also implemented in the states Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. (In 2005, the ban was still in place regarding felling for commercial purposes except for Himachal Pradesh where it had been lifted again in 2004 despite Chipko's protests.)
The movement spread to Himachal Pradesh in the north, Karnataka in the south, Rajasthan in the west, Bihar in the east and to the Vindhyans in central India. In addition to the ban in Uttar Pradesh, the movement succeeded in halting clear felling in the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas, as well as generating pressure for a natural resources policy more sensitive to people's needs and environmental factors.
The Chipko Movement was the result of hundreds of decentralised and locally autonomous initiatives. Its leaders and activists have primarily been village women, acting to save their means of subsistence and their communities. Men have been involved, too, however, and some of them have given wider leadership to the movement. One of the most prominent leaders has been Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist and philosopher, whose appeal to Mrs Gandhi resulted in the green-felling ban and whose 5,000-kilometre trans-Himalayan foot march in 1981-83 was crucial in spreading the Chipko message.
In the late 1980s, Bahuguna joined the campaign that already for many years had been opposing construction of a proposed Himalayan dam on the river near his birthplace of Tehri. In 1989 he began the first of a series of hunger strikes to draw political attention to the dangers posed by the dam and in due course the Chipko Movement gave birth to the Save Himalaya Movement.
Bahuguna ended a 45-day fast in 1995 when the Indian government promised a review of the Tehri dam project. But the promise was not kept and the following year he committed himself to another fast, only broken after 74 days when the Prime Minister gave a personal undertaking to conduct a thorough review, largely on Bahuguna's terms. The veteran environmentalist, then in his 70th year, told the Prime Minister that the Himalayan glaciers were receding at an alarming rate. If this was not checked, the glacier feeding the Ganges would disappear within 100 years.
In the new millennium, Bahuguna has continued to warn about water scarcity and to campaign for the protection of the forests. He has proposed to the Prime Minister a Himalayan policy in which the mountain slopes would be covered with trees giving food (nuts, edible seeds, oil seeds, flowering trees for honey and seasonal fruits), fodder, fuel and timber, leaf fertiliser and fibre trees. Each family should be given land to grow 2000 trees and a subsidy to rear these trees.
In 2009, Bahuguna was honoured with Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award.
Sunderlal Bahuguna
| Sunderlal Bhahuguna | |
|---|---|
| Born | 9 January 1927 village Maroda, Tehri,(Uttarakhand) India[1] |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | activist, Gandhian,environmentalist |
| Spouse(s) | Vimal Bahuguna |
| Children | Rajiv Bahuguna , Madhuri Pathak , Pradeep Bahuguna . |
Sunderlal Bahuguna (born 9 January 1927)[2] is a noted Garhwali environmentalist,Chipko movement leader and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of Non-violenceand Satyagraha. This idea of chipku movement was of his wife and the action was taken by him.For years he has been fighting for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in 1970s, and later spearheaded the Anti-Tehri Dammovement starting 1980s, to early 2004.[3] He was one of the early environmentalists of India,[4] and later he and people associated with the Chipko movement later started taking up environmental issues, like against large dams, mining and deforestation, across the country.india pays him a tribute for his contribution for the trees.[5]
He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.[2]
Contents[hide] |
Early life [edit]
Sunderlal Bahuguna was born in village Maroda, near Tehri, Uttarakhand on 9 January 1927. He claimed in a function arranged at Kolkata, that his ancestors bearing surname Bandopadhyaya, migrated from Bengal to Tehri, some 800 years ago.[6] Early on, he fought against untouchability and later started organizing hill women in his anti-liquor drive from 1965 to 1970.[7] He started social activities at the age of thirteen, under the guidance of Sri Dev Suman, who was a nationalist sperading message of non-violence[8] and he was with Congress party of Uttar Pradesh (India) at the time of Independence.[9] Bahuguna also mobilised people against colonial rule before 1947.[10] He adopted Gandhian principles in his life and married his wife Vimla with the condition that they would live among rural people and establish ashram in village.[10] Inspired by Gandhi, he walked through Himalayan forests and hills, covering more than 4,700 kilometers by foot and observed the damage done by mega developmental projects on fragile eco-system of Himalaya and subsequent degradation of social life in villages.[10]
Chipko movement [edit]
Chipko movement started in 1973 spontaneously in Uttar Pradesh, in an effort to save trees and forests from felling by forest contractors.[11] In Hindi, "Chipko" literally means "to stick" and people started sticking to trees when it was being cut. Chipko movement later inspired Appiko Movement in Karnataka. One of Sunderlal Bahuguna's notable contributions to that cause, and to environmentalism in general, was his creation of the Chipko's slogan "Ecology is permanent economy." Sunderlal Bahuguna helped bring the movement to prominence through about 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya march [10] undertaken from 1981 to 1983, travelling 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 Ms. Gandhi's subsequent 15-year ban on felling of green trees in 1980.[3] He was also closely associated with Gaura Devi, one of the pioneers of the movement.
Anti Tehri Dam protests [edit]
He has remained behind the anti-Tehri Dam protests for decades, he used the Satyagrahamethods, and repeatedly went on hunger strikes at the banks of Bhagirathi as a mark of his protest.[12] In 1995, he called off a 45-day-long fast following an assurance from the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao of the appointment of a review committee on the ecological impacts of the dam, thereafter he went on another long fast another fast which lasted for 74 days at Gandhi Samadhi, Raj Ghat,[13] during the tenure of Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, he gave personal undertaking of project review. However despite a court case which ran in the Supreme Court for over a decade, work resumed at the Tehri dam in 2001, following which he was arrested on April 20, 2001.
Eventually, the dam reservoir started filling up in 2004, and on July 31, 2004 he was finally evacuated to a new accommodation at Koti, a little hillock, along the Bhagirathi where he lives today, continues his environment work.[3]
Sunderlal Bahuguna has been a passionate defender of the Himalayan people, working for temperance, the plight of the hill people (especially working women). He has also struggled to defend India's rivers.[14][15]
Awards [edit]
- 1981 Padma Shree by govt of India,but he politely refused saying that "I do not deserve it till flesh and blood(top soil) of India was flowing down to the sea."
- 1986 Jamnalal Bajaj Award for constructive work.[16]
- 1989 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Social Sciences was conferred by IIT Roorkee
- 2009: Padma Vibhushan
Quotations [edit]
- "The rulers should know that the Himalayas are for water and not for revenue."[17]
- "We in Himalaya are facing a crisis of survival due to the suicidal activities being carried out in the name of development... The monstrous Tehri dam is a symbol of this... There is need for a new and long-term policy to protect the dying Himalaya. I do not want to see the death of the most sacred river of the world – the Ganga – for short-term economic gains."[11]
- "The issue, is not development vs. environment. It is extinction vs. survival." (On Tehri Dam protests)[18]
- Philosophy: the three As is what he's guided by—Austerity (''we should consume less''), Alternatives (''every problem has a solution and it's near you. So fulfill basic needs from your surroundings'') and of course, Afforestation (''tree farming will solve many problems'')[19]
- "I treasure Awards of Ridicule, Neglect, Isolation and Insult, which Every social activist is proud of".
Books written [edit]
- India's Environment : Myth & Reality with Vandana Shiva, Medha Patkar[20]
- Environmental Crisis and Humans at Risk: Priorities for action with Rajiv K.Sinha[20]
- Bhu Prayog Mai Buniyadi Paribartan Ki Aur (Hindi)[20]
- Dharti Ka Pukar(Hindi)[20]
References [edit]
- ^ Bahugunabetterworldheroes.com.
- ^ a b Padma Vishushan awardees Govt. of India Portal.
- ^ a b c Bahuguna, the sentinel of Himalayas by Harihar Swarup, The Tribune, July 8, 2007.
- ^ Sunderlal Bahuguna, a pioneer of India's environmental movement... New York Times, April 12, 1992.
- ^ How green is their valley The Times of India, September 22, 2002.
- ^ Banerjee, Sudeshna (13 March 2011). "Bengali Bahuguna". The Telegraph,Calcutta. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- ^ Sunderlal Bahuguna culturopedia.com.
- ^ Pallavi Thakur, Vikas Arora, Sheetal Khanka, (2010). Chipko Movement (1st ed. ed.). New Delhi: Global Vision Pub. House. p. 131.ISBN 9788182202887.
- ^ Shiva, Vandana (1990). Staying alive : women, ecology, and development (Second impression. ed.). London: Zed Books. p. 70.ISBN 9780862328238.
- ^ a b c d Goldsmith, Katherine. "A Gentle Warrior". Resurgence & Ecologist. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- ^ a b c Chipko Right Livelihood Award Official website.
- ^ Big Dam on Source of the Ganges Proceeds Despite Earthquake Fear New York Times, September 18, 1990.
- ^ "If the Himalayas die, this country is nowhere". An Interview with Sunderlal Bahuguna with Anuradha Dutt (1996 Rediff Article). Uttarakhand.prayaga.org. Retrieved on 2012-05-01.
- ^ `My fight is to save the Himalayas' Frontline, Volume 21 – Issue 17, Aug. 14 – 27, 2004.
- ^ Bahuguna uttarakhand.prayaga.org
- ^ "Jamnalal Bajaj Awards Archive". Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation.
- ^ The Rediff Interview/Sunderlal Bahuguna Rediff.com, July 8, 2000.
- ^ Endangered Species No, not owls or elephants. Humans who fight to save the planet are putting their lives on the line. Anita Pratap, New Delhi. TIME, April 27, 1992.
- ^ Back to basics: Sunderlal Bahuguna is guided by three As—Austerity, Alternatives and Afforestation Indian Express, September 27, 2005.
- ^ a b c d "Sunderlal Bahuguna". Retrieved 8 October 2012.
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