Sunderlal Bahuguna Biography
Sunderlal Bahuguna Biography: You must have heard about the Chipko movement. Bahuguna, who took the help of the Chipko movement to save the trees, is in fact full of many qualities. Sunderlal Bahuguna, who dedicated his life for the environment, was born on 9 January 1927 in the present state of Uttarakhand. The result of the efforts of Sunderlal Bahuguna was that after the Chipko movement launched by him, the Uttarakhand government banned the cutting of trees for 15 years.
Apart from this, from 1965 to 1970, he organized women’s movement to ban alcohol in the hilly areas. traveled to | In the year 2009, this personality, who awakened the spirit of saving the environment, was also awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India. Even after crossing the age of 90, Sunderlal Bahuguna continues to organize programs for environmental protection.
Chipko Movement
In the 1970s, in the plains of Uttaranchal, a slogan of women resonated for not cutting trees, “First we kanto then forest and trees”. The name of this movement was Chipko movement. This unique campaign of forest conservation forced the government and the timber smugglers to bow down. In this movement, women used to cling to the trees being cut. Their condition was that they should be cut first and then the tree. The initiative to start this movement was taken by Sunderlal Bahuguna.
In this movement, the nearby women and farmers supported him. In 1971, Sunderlal Bahuguna fasted for 16 days to protect the trees. Due to the Chipko movement, he became famous all over the world by the name of Vrikshamitra. There is a glimpse of an ideal in the personality of Bahuguna, influenced by his works, an organization named Fred of Nature of America honored him in 1980. He has received many government and non-government honors till now.
Tehri Dam protest
Sunderlal Bahuguna opposed the construction of Tehri Dam for many decades. For this, adopting the method of Satyagraha, he went on hunger strikes on the banks of the Bhagirathi river several times. In 1995, when he started a 45-day hunger strike, the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao stopped his hunger strike by assuring him of setting up a committee for the construction of the dam. After this, he also conducted a 74-day long hunger strike at Rajghat in the Deve Gowda government. After stopping the work for many years, when the work of Tehri Dam was started again in the year 2001, he was arrested before that.
Sunderlal Bahuguna received awards
- Padma Shri by the Government of India in the year 1981 (refused to accept)
- Right Livelihood Award for Chipko Movement in the year 1987
- Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Progressive Work in the year 1986
- Doctorate in Social Science by IIT Roorkee in 1989
- Padma Vibhushan for environmental protection work by the Government of India in the year 2009.
