Chipko's Quiet Legacy: Forest Rights, Women's Empowerment, People's Institutions, and New Urban Struggles in Uttarakhand

Chipko’s Quiet Legacy: Forest Rights, Women’s Empowerment, People’s Institutions, and New Urban Struggles in Uttarakhand, India Rajiv Rawat July 21, 2004 A Major Paper submitted to the Faculty of Environmental Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master in Environmental Studies York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada MES Major Paper Rajiv Rawat Abstract Since the emergence of Chipko in the early 1970s, much has been written about this unique environmental movement that once caught the imagination of environmentalists, scholars, and journalists alike. As a largely rural struggle of women peasant farmers to reclaim and protect village forests in the Uttarakhand region of India, Chipko seemed to represent at once a new phase of the global environmental movement and a resurgence of the age-old conflict between people and the state over community resources. However, while much of the academic literature has focused on interpreting Chipko through various disciplinary and ideological lenses and engaging in often acrimonious debates over the character and composition of the movement, surprisingly little attention has been paid to its quiet legacy as a catalyzing force for environmental action, local democracy, and social change. Since Chipko, Uttarakhand has witnessed a veritable explosion of creative and groundbreaking responses to the Himalayan region’s numerous environmental and social problems. Community forest management, women’s empowerment, and civil society institutions have especially witnessed three decades of rapid change and advancement. Each in turn has encountered serious obstacles and controversies at the local, national, and even international levels. As such, this paper will attempt to delve into the broader historic and contemporary contexts of these Chipko themes, while moving beyond the movement’s traditional rural orientation to the associated environmental and political transformations taking place in urban centres. York University 2 Summer 2004 MES Major Paper Rajiv Rawat Foreword This paper represents the culmination of my graduate work in the MES program at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. In addition to a major project report on my involvement in the Nanda Devi Campaign that has been appended to this submission, the final program output meets the learning objectives set out in my project proposal while also fulfilling all three components of my area of concentration. While departing slightly from the overly ambitious original outline, I have strived to compensate with more vigorous discussions of the subject areas that form the foundations of each chapter. On a personal note, the genesis of this paper lay in the need to tell an alternative story about Chipko, one that would be both inspirational and sober in its assessment of the movement’s ideals, goals, and actual outcomes. Acknowledging my interest in presenting a hopeful rather than despairing picture of the movement, I nonetheless endeavoured to look closely at both the central and ancillary issues encountered in Chipko’s thirty-year evolution from an exhilarating era of forest protests to a multifaceted process of social, political, and environmental transformation that continues to this day. As a native of the Uttarakhand region, I also felt a deep responsibility to the struggling individuals and communities that have overcome daunting obstacles to sustain their livelihoods and natural environment. I have often felt troubled by academic scholars who have not always served the best interests of their research “subjects.” Whether for the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, where scientists recommended the closure of the park without considering the catastrophic impact on the local people, to very public spats that further factionalized an already diverse movement and demoralized its supporters, researchers have harmed as well as helped the cause. While perhaps not within their official purview to actively participate rather than observe movements, community- sponsored research requires at least the greatest exercise of caution when presenting critical information about a particular village or community. As such, it is with extreme gratitude and respect that I have humbly written this latest version of the Chipko story, one that I hope sheds new light on the ongoing struggles for the future of the Uttarakhand Himalayas. York University 3 Summer 2004 MES Major Paper Rajiv Rawat Acknowledgements I would like to thank first and foremost the countless activists who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to save, nurture, and protect the sacred land of Uttarakhand while struggling to emancipate themselves and others from social injustice, gender discrimination, and the daily oppression of ceaseless toil, hunger, and neglect. Their sacrifices have generally gone unrecognized by a society given to lauding the prestige of the rich, powerful, and famous, and I am more than proud to acknowledge them here and in this paper. I am especially grateful for the mentorship of Sunil Kainthola, Biju Negi, and Sreedhar Ramamurthy who I have kept in close contact with over vast geographic distances. Closer to home, I wish to express my deepest thanks to my family and colleagues. My parents — Sudhir Singh and Nanda Devi — in particular have nurtured a profound devotion to the motherland, tempered by the sadness of separation and the shadow of cultural loss that is increasingly being felt in our globalized world. My sisters — Mamta and Vinita — have motivated me in different ways throughout my life, encouraging an abiding interest in almost every discipline of study, in addition to boosting a greater self-awareness and assuredness. School, work, and activist friends from Toronto and Boston have also contributed to my well being, and I am forever grateful for their friendship and camaraderie during the best of times and the darkest moments of this millennium’s already turbulent four years. Last but not least, I would like to thank the love of my life, Monique Robitaille, who by joining me in Toronto has turned this past year into the most momentous of the thirty I have spent as a human being on this Earth. Especially in the last leg of this journey, I could not have made it without her. Rajiv Rawat Toronto, Canada July 21, 2004 York University 4 Summer 2004 MES Major Paper Rajiv Rawat Table of Contents Abstract.............................................................................................................. 2 Foreword ............................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements................................................................................................ 4 Table of Contents.................................................................................................. 5 Introduction......................................................................................................... 8 Chipko’s Ironies ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Reconsidering Chipko.............................................................................................................................. 9 The Role of this Report...........................................................................................................................11 Chapter I: Uttarakhand at a Glance ..........................................................................13 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................13 The Land................................................................................................................................................13 The People .............................................................................................................................................15 History in Brief .......................................................................................................................................16 The New State........................................................................................................................................18 Chapter II: Van Panchayats and the People’s Forests.....................................................20 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................20 Genesis of Van Panchayats .....................................................................................................................21 Van Panchayats as Unique Institutions....................................................................................................22 Vestiges of Colonialism...........................................................................................................................23 From Autonomy to Autocracy................................................................................................................24 JFM’s Potential for Good or Ill ...............................................................................................................26 The World Bank’s Role...........................................................................................................................27 Traditional Alternatives in Forest Management.......................................................................................28

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