As the week-long Himalaya Day celebrations culminated in Uttarakhand on Sunday, the face which comes to mind time and again is that of renowned environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, who has been associated with the famous Chipko movement and has spent a good part of his life working for the conservation of the mighty Himalayas.
Even now, at the age of 91 years, he is known for his keen enthusiasm and his strong beliefs regarding the protection and enhancement of the Himalayan region. At the Independence Day celebrations at Raj Bhawan this year, I had the good fortune of meeting him yet again and enriching myself by his company. His devoted wife, Vimla Bahuguna, was with him, as usual.
His view has always been that we have to look after the well-being of the Himalayas not only for Uttarakhand but for the entire country. It may be mentioned here that in 1981, Bahuguna refused to accept the Padma Shri since the felling of trees was rampant in the Himalayas. “It was after I refused the honour that the Government banned the felling of green trees,” he remembers .
Bahuguna believes that all middle Himalayan States need to come together.
“If we want to save the Himalayas, and more importantly, this water reservoir of India, we need to protect people, their land, livelihood, wildlife, forests and rivers.”
For decades now, this dedicated environment activist has been reiterating the need for adopting tree farming in the Himalayas to secure the ecological future of the Himalayan region as well as the entire country.“Fruit trees, floral trees and nut trees should be planted across the Himalayas to protect this natural water reservoir of the country,” he says.
According to him, trees like mulberry, walnut and chestnut prevent soil erosion and nurture water resources in the mountains.
I would like to mention here his famous “5 F- Formula” for the Himalayas-Grow Trees for Food ,Fodder, Fertiliser, Fibre and Fuel.
I believe that it would be a fitting tribute to Bahuguna and the work that he has been doing all his life if we resolve to follow his beliefs and vision about the Himalayan ecology. His views may sound simple but they are viable and implementable.
Bahuguna was born on January 9, 1927 in Maroda village near Tehri. A keen follower of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and Satyagraha, he fought for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first of all as a member of the well-known Chipko movement in 1970s. In the early 1980s Bahuguna made the Chipko movement even more popular by undertaking a 5,000-kilometre march through the Himalayas. He visited hundreds of villages in the region to spread awareness and gather support for the cause.
Later, he spearheaded the anti-Tehri Dam movement up to early 2004. He then began taking up environmental issues, like mining and deforestation across the country. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.
Bahuguna sees himself as "a guard of the ecology of the Himalayas.”
Bahuguna has always worried that "we may soon be facing a grave water, environmental, developmental and security crisis" in the Himalayan region.
Bahuguna says that besides being ecologically sensitive, the Himalayan region was also important geo-strategically and from the viewpoint of border security. In view of this, the Government needs to plan a strategy which aims at protecting the region, its inhabitants , land, forests and wildlife .
Heeding his advice and experience would be one of the important ways in which we can walk on the path of conserving the Himalayas and nurturing them, respecting them and utilising their resources in a well-planned ,balanced manner.This Defender of the Himalayas has many a lesson to give us and many a story to narrate from the treasure of experience he has gathered throughout his life .It would help greatly on this Himalaya Day to recall these lessons and implement some of them if possible. Not for nothing is he called the “Earth Warrior”!