Children's Painting Competition on the Environment - 4th Prize winner.

Anjali Chendrashekar, 12 years old, India

The Chipko movement

In the 1970s, an organized resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and came to be known as the Chipko movement. Chipko means "to hug" in an Indian language as the villagers hugged the trees, and prevented the contractors' from felling them.

Not many people know that over the last few centuries many communities in India have helped save nature. One such is the Bishnoi community of Rajasthan. The original ’Chipko movement’ was started around 260 years back in the early part of the 18th century in Rajasthan by this community. A large group of them from 84 villages led by a lady called Amrita Devi laid down their lives in an effort to protect the trees from being felled on the orders of the Maharaja (King) of Jodhpur. After this incident, the maharaja gave a strong royal decree preventing the cutting of trees in all Bishnoi villages.

In the 20th century, it began in the hills where the forests are the main source of livelihood, since agricultural activities cannot be carried out easily. The Chipko movement of 1973 was one of the most famous among these. The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in April 1973 in the village of Mandal in the upper Alakananda valley and over the next five years spread to many districts of the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh. It was sparked off by the government's decision to allot a plot of forest area in the Alaknanda valley to a sports goods company. the women of the area, under the leadership of an activist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, rushed to the forests shouting "Chipko! Chipko!" and formed a circle around the trees preventing the men from cutting them down.

The success achieved by this protest led to similar protests in other parts of the country. From their origins as a spontaneous protest against logging abuses in Uttar Pradesh in the Himalayas, supporters of the Chipko movement, mainly village women, have successfully banned the felling of trees in a number of regions and influenced natural resource policy in India. Dhoom Singh Negi, Bachni Devi and many other village women, were the first to save trees by hugging them. They coined the slogan: 'What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air'. The success of the Chipko movement in the hills saved thousands of trees from being felled.

Some other persons have also been involved in this movement and have given it proper direction. Mr Bahuguna coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'. Mr Chandi Prasad Bhatt, encouraged the development of local industries based on the conservation and sustainable use of forest wealth for local benefit. Mr Ghanasyam Raturi, the Chipko poet, whose songs echo throughout the Himalayas of Uttar Pradesh, wrote a poem describing the method of embracing the trees to save them from felling:

' Embrace the trees and

Save them from being felled;

The property of our hills,

Save them from being looted.'

Since then, the movement has spread to many states in the country. In addition to the 15-year ban in Uttar Pradesh, the movement has stopped felling in the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas and has generated pressure for a natural resource policy that is more sensitive to people's needs and ecological requirements.

Los Roques Archipelago ( Miranda region, VENEZUELA )

Yann Arthus Bertrand

The Los Roques Archipelago, 170 kms (105 miles) off the coast of Venezuela, still lives up to Christopher Colombus's description of it as "an earthly paradise". It is surrounded by a coral reef and consists of about 50 small, flat, sandy islands, called los cayos (keys), and many coral coves, all of which enclose a large central lagoon. It is an important reserve for many species including turtles, sharks, dolphins, grouper, large shellfish and birds. In 1963 a scientific foundation was set up to protect the species more threatened by overfishing. In 1972, for the same reason and in order to more effectively protect the region from booming tourism, the Venezuelan government made the archipelago a national park. This may also have been done to guard against treasure hunters and those who plunder wrecks. For two centuries these remote islands were the haunt of buccaneers who lay in wait for Spanish galleons laden with gold from the Americas.

• "I know her... Mother Earth, she breathes in the forests, she flows through the rivers and crashes on the shore with the sea. I feel her arms around me, nurturing me and all she asks of me in return is to love her, care for her, nurture her."

from Pachamama*.

*Pachamama means "Mother Earth" in the old Inca language of S. America.