Lessons from Heritage of Environmental Movements in India
Notes from a discussion between environmentalists and activists: Ravi Chopra, Medha Patkar and Prashant Bhushan.
The event was organised by an organisation, Yuva for Swaraj and was moderated by Avik Saha. The recording of the session in Hindi can be checked here
Recent History of Environmental Movements in India
1.Modern history of environmental movements in India goes back to a century ago. When British started taking over the sovereignty of natural resources, the struggles began. It was also the time when British completely had finished their take over on natural resources in Uttrakhand. The local communities who were dependent on the forests but completely lost the rights to British resisted a lot. Later, Chipko movement emulated the Old Kumao Forest movement.
2.In 1908, Gandhi wrote in Hind Swaraj, “if India were to consume resources like British empire, how many earths would we need?” so in some sense, he had already begun the conversation around fight against consumerism.
3. In the 1970s, a lot of such protests and struggles had sprung and were going on to protect the natural resources. For example, there was attempt to stop the pollution in Chariyar river and against Grasim’s polluting the Chambal river in…
