Assess any two positive aspects of the Chipko Movement.

(i) The Chipko Movement started in early 1973 in the state that is now Uttarakhand. The movement was unique in the sense that it presented a very unusual form of collective action in which men and women from a village of this state were engaged. These villagers protested against the practices of commercial logging that the government had permitted. They used a novel tactic for their protest that of hugging the trees to prevent them from being cut down. The struggle soon spread across many parts of the Uttarakhand region. 

(ii) Women’s active participation in the Chipko agitation was a very novel aspect of the movement. The forest contractors of the region usually doubled up as suppliers of alcohol to men. Women held sustained agitations against the habit of alcoholism and broadened the agenda of the movement to cover other social issues. The movement achieved a victory when the government issued a ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan region for fifteen years until the green cover was fully restored.