Best Effort and awareness.
Bharat Dogra and Reshma Bharti
THE protection of forests and rivers is at the heart of protecting the ecology of the Himalayas. But any long-term, sustainable effort must include the concerns of people living near forests and rivers. The welfare of people must be linked to efforts to save forests and rivers. Only deeply motivated people can provide the wide base for social action to protect rivers and forests from the onslaught of exploiters. At the same time, is equally true that only the protection of forests and rivers can provide the foundation for sustainable development of hill-villages, not just from a narrow economic perspective but from a social-cultural viewpoint.
The strength of the Himalayi Paryavaran Shikshaa Sansthaan (HPSS) is that its work is rooted in an understanding of the links between the protection of rivers and forests and the sustainable welfare of the people. Deeply committed to the protection of rivers and forests, the HPSS does not talk of this issue in isolation but relates it to the aspirations of the people for sustainable livelihoods and the welfare of their villages. The HPSS gets enormous strength from the strong feelings of hill women for protecting their villages and livelihoods, which is, in turn, closely related to the protection of rivers and forests.
One of the most important movements for forest protection in the Himalayan region in the post- Chipko phase was the Raksha Sutra Andolan (Protective Thread Movement). While people, particularly women from several villages, near and far, took part in the movement at various stages, the HPSS and its president, Suresh Bhai, played a key role in nurturing and sustaining the movement.
The movement partially draws its symbolism from the famous festival of Raksha Bandhan in which sisters tie protective threads on the arms of their brothers. Similarly, women went to forests where trees faced the threat of being axed, and tied protective threads on their trunks to symbolise their determination to protect them.
This Raksha Sutra Andolan can be traced to 1994 when during the uncertain period of the movement for a separate state, some strong vested interests conspired to cut down a whole lot of trees. The Chipko movement had resulted in government orders which prevented the commercial felling of green trees more than 1000 metres high. However, some exceptions were made for axing dead and dry trees. A few corrupt officials used this exception as a subterfuge to mark even green trees for felling. It was at this stage that activists and villagers got together to prevent such illegal tree felling. HPSS managed to obtain official papers relating to tree-marking (for felling) in various areas, and when groups of people inspected these areas, it became clear that actually green trees were being felled in the name of dry trees.
The Raksha Sutra movement started in Riyala forest of Tehri district, located at a height of about 10,000 feet, in September 1994 when villagers of Khwara, Bheti and Daalgaon with their drums and bugles marched to the forest and women tied sacred threads on trees marked for felling. The Forest Corporation had cleverly given tree felling contracts to influential local villagers including village pradhans so that people would have to confront government authorities and influential local people. Deep inside the forest, however, villagers were able to build up enough pressure so that workers from distant Kashmir stopped the work of felling trees for some time.
However, next year in 1995, around early July, news began reaching activists that tree-felling in Riyala was starting again. A lot of preparation was made to confront the new challenge by holding environment camps in villages like Genvali, Jyundana, Chaili and Sand and by obtaining information on the extent of felling work. On August 10 and August 11 about 300 women tied protection threads on trees and chased away tree-fellers.
Most of this mobilisation was taking place at a height of around 10,000 feet. Soon these remote forests were reverberating with slogans of forest protection.
Forests survive, the nation survives
Every village thrives
In Chaurangighala area, Jethi Devi of Chaundhyaar village and Mandodri Devi of Dikhoti village climbed on a truck which was taking logs of felled trees and did not allow it to move till a decision was taken to stop the felling of trees.
Subsequent investigations by activists revealed that entirely illegal tree felling was taking place. Efforts were made to prepare detailed, wellresearched reports. These were made available to senior government officials and media and grassroots efforts were intensified to mobilise people for Raksha Sutra. The Himalaya Seva Sangh in Delhi helped the activists to draw wider attention to illegal tree felling. The movement received a boost when several forest officials were suspended due to their involvement in illegal tree felling.
The movement for forest protection emphasised the role of forests in protecting rivers as evident from this key slogan:
If trees are high,
Rivers, glaciers stay pristine
As numerous dam projects including tunnel dam projects were started or announced in this region, it became clear that the future of free-flowing natural rivers would be greatly endangered. In many villages, affected by dam construction, the lives and livelihoods of people started getting devastated as fields and pastures were ruined, cracks appeared in houses, water sources dried up and people began to suffer from many new ailments. The threat of landslides increased. Yet, people were not able to articulate their feelings and demands freely, without fear.
HPSS helped the people overcome their inhibitions and raise genuine issues. As Pratima Rawat of Matli Village says, “It is this organisation which helped us to come out and speak about all that we had been suffering silently for a long time. Now we are more alert about the need to protect and assert our rights.”
The emphasis of HPSS on integrating the protection of rivers with the emerging problems of dam affected people helped its mobilisation effort. Some activists of the Raksha Sutra movement like Basanti Negi of Harsil were increasingly drawn into the river protection movement. Women of dam affected villages also tied sacred threads on trees threatened by construction work.
Alongside, HPSS helped to repair and build about 250 traditional water harvesting structures called chaal. It implemented watershed protection programmes in Jalkur Valley in Tehri district and Bhagirathi Valley in Uttarakashi district.
Source :
www.civilsocietyonline.com/aug09/aug099.asp 
