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INTRODUCTION
AMAZING environmental leaders, you will find writers, scientists, philosophers,
actors, and architects, everyone adding a unique perspective and expertise
to the elephantine crises our planet is experiencing.And specially a common
people.
What unites this list of people is an undeniable dedication to work, that will
benefit people for generations to come. These people are individuals working
for the betterment of the whole. Inspiration is contagious, so drink in some
inspiration and go out in the world and make a difference. We all have the
ability to make an impact and there is no act that is too small!

GAURA DEVI
In 1925, Gaura Devi was born in the village of Latha, in the Garwhal region of
the Himalayas, in the upper Alakananda Valley. Around that time, the area
was covered with pristine forests, dark, deep, thick forests – this was also the
source of their traditional agricultural economy. In keeping with tradition, she
was married off at the age of 12 to Meherban Singh, in the nearby village of
Reni. Singh was a small farmer, with a small piece of land, reared some sheep
and traded in wool. They were by no means rich but they certainly had a
comfortable life devoid of hardship and penury. The inevitable
happened. Meherban Singh died 10 later, and when her son grew up and
had children of his own, they all worked together to keep the family going. As
tension grew between India and China, their trade suffered, but the forests
produce kept her family going. She became a grandmother and step into her
role of a matriarch. She then went on to become the head of the Mahila
Mandal.

On 26th March 1974 , Gaura Devi with just 27 Women and young girls standing in front
of the trees that had been marked for felling, addressed the Forest officials and
lumbermen , “Brothers! This forest is the source of our livelihood. If you destroy it, the
mountain will come tumbling down onto our village.” Unfortunately exactly that
happened on 17th of June 2013. The mountains came tumbling down in Uttarakhand
and with it destroyed everything that came in its way.
In the foot hills of Himalayas in a small remote village in 1925, Gaura Devi was born
into the family of wool traders. As a small girl , she would accompany her
her mother to gather broken branches and twigs for fire at home, to cook and to
keep themselves warm.
Once while collecting the twigs with her mother , she wondered , why they couldn't
cut a big tree then they would not have to collect twigs every day. She was eight
years old then. Her mother had replied, “The roots of the trees are like hands. They
hold the earth to the side of the mountain. They also hold the water from the big rains
and from the melting snow. If anyone ever cuts down our brothers and sisters, our
village will be washed away."
This left a deep impact on her mind. She vowed to take care of the trees and always
called them brothers and sisters , who protected the people of Gharwal and the
Himalayan region.

Later she was married at a young age, had a son and became a widow at the age of
22. However, she was a strong lady and was elected as the president of Mahila
Mangala Dal " Women's Welfare Association ". In seventies the felling of trees had
started on large scale and people in the mountain region had become alert to the
danger posed by excess felling of trees. " Chipko movement " a non -violent style of
protest, where people hugged the trees from all sides to prevent it from being
chopped .
26th march 1974 is known as the historical day in Chipko Movement . In a small village
of Reni in Uttarakhand , all the women under the leadership of Smt.Gaura Devi stood
vigilant for three days and nights to prevent the lumbermen from felling the trees.
Women in the village were alone that day as all the men had gone to near by
Chamoli Village for work. The forest officials accompanied by labourers wanted to
chop the trees during this period as they thought, there would be no resistance as the
men had gone to Chamoli for work . They had failed to reckon the women power .
Gaura Devi stood before them and said, "We are hugging the trees. If you cut the
trees down, you will have to hit us with your axes first.” Officials and labourers had to
relent and go away. It was a great victory for the Chipko movement .

People of Uttarakhand have forgotten the the words of Gaura Devi, who died
in 1991 at the age of 66 years. With her died the resistance against felling of
trees in the Gharwal region. Uneducated villagers understood the value of
trees but educated city borne officials and politicians have no respect for
nature. They have been mindless in their development
schemes. Unsuspecting innocent paid for it with their lives.
A Gharwali song in praise of forests .
"Maatu hamru, paani hamru, hamra hi chhan yi baun bhi... Pitron na lagai
baun, hamunahi ta bachon bhi"
Soil ours, water ours, ours are these forests. Our forefathers raised them, it’s we
who must protect them.

Gaura Devi may not have been to school but she had the wisdom of our ancient
teachers and rishis . All our Hindu scriptures, from the Mahabharata to the Ramayana,
the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest
messages for preservation of environment and ecological balance. Gaura Devi knew
this then but sadly, those who have been charged with protecting our people and our
forests, still don’t know this. Indeed, they have morphed themselves from being
protectors to predators.
Forest is like our mother's home. We will defend it - come what may." After Gandhi's
Satyagrah, this housewife of Chamoli, gave the next weapon, in the fight against state
oppression - Chipko movement.
It is always said that forestry is not about trees. It is about people. No one has realised
this more than the women of the Uttarakhand region. Everyone by now knows about
the Chipko Movement. But not many know about the women of the Uttarakhand
region who have made it their lifetime mission to leave undestroyed forests for their
children and grandchildren. One has known old women and men who, towards the
end of their lives, would plant trees which would bear fruits only many years later. When
questioned these old people are known to have replied, "I won't be here to taste the
fruits of this tree. But my grandchildren and their children would taste its fruits." The
women of Uttarakhand would understand this sentiment for this has been their way of
looking at the forests and the lives they support.

The Chipko movement (literally "to stick" in Hindi) was a group of female peasants in
the Uttarakhand region of India who acted to prevent the felling of trees and reclaim
their traditional forest rights that were threatened by the contractor system of the state
Forest Department. As the backbone of Uttarakhand's agrarian economy, women
were most directly affected by environmental degradation and deforestation, and
thus connected the issues most easily.
One woman whom future generations in Uttarakhand are not likely to forget is Gaura
Devi who has mobilised the women of this region to protect their natural heritage.
Gaura Devi was not educated in the conventional sense of the term. She had not
attended any school. Born in 1925 in a tribal Marchha family of Laata village in Neeti
valley of Chamoli district, she was only trained in her family's traditional wool trade. In
keeping with the tradition of those days, she was married off at a young age. She
went to a family which had some land and was also in the wool trade. Unfortunately
at the young age of 22, Gaura Devi became a widow with a two-and-a-half year old
child to bring up. She took over the family's wool trade and brought up her son
Chandra Singh alone. In time, she handed over the family responsibility to her son but
did not sit back to rest. She was aware of the poverty of the region and how it
affected women and how her own experiences of survival had taught her a lot. She
was actively involved in the panchayat and other community endeavours. Hence, it
was not surprising that the women of Reni approached her in the wake of the Chipko
Movement in 1972, to be the president of the Mahila Mangal Dal. It was the first of its
kind to be established. Its responsibilities were ensuring cleanliness in the village and
the protection of community forests. Gaura Devi was in her late forties and her son
was not doing very well. But she had no hesitation in accepting their offer.

SAALUMARADA THIMMAKKA
Saalumarada Thimmakka (Kannada: ಸಾಲುಮರದ ತಿಮಮಕ್ಕ) is an Indian
environmentalist from the state of Karnataka, noted for her work in planting
and tending to 384 banyan trees along a four-kilometre stretch of highway.[1]
Her work has been honoured with the National Citizen's Award of India.
A U.S. environmental organisation based in Los Angeles and Oakland,
California called Thimmakka's Resources for Environmental Education is
named after her.[2]

Ficus (banyan) trees were aplenty near Thimmakka's village. Thimakka and her
husband started grafting saplings from these trees. Ten saplings were grafted
in the first year and they were planted along a distance of 4 kilometres near
the neighbouring village of Kudoor. Fifteen saplings were planted in the
second year and 20 in the third year.[4] She used her own meager resources
for planting these trees.[3] The couple used to carry four pails of water for a
distance of four kilometres to water the saplings. They were also protected
from grazing cattle by fencing them with thorny shrubs.
The saplings were planted mostly during monsoon season so that sufficient rain
water would be available for them to grow. By the onset of the next
monsoons, the saplings had invariably taken root.[4] In total, 284 trees were
planted, and their asset value has been assessed at around 1.5 million
rupees.[1] The management of these trees have now been taken over by the
Government of Karnataka

For her achievement, Thimmakka has been conferred with the following
awards and citations:
• Nadoja Award By Hampi University- 2010
• National Citizen's award - 1995
• Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Awards - 1997 (Vrikshamitra="friend of trees")
Veerachakra Prashasthi Award - 1997
• Honour Certificate from the Women and Child Welfare Department,
Government of Karnataka
• Certificate of Appreciation from the Indian Institute of Wood Science and
Technology, Bangalore.
• Karnataka Kalpavalli Award - 2000
• Godfrey Phillips Bravery Award - 2006. Vishalakshi Award by Art of Living
Organisation

Delhi settled Comedienne, Vasu Ritu Primlani has been accused by Thimmakka of misusing
her name. Ms. Thimmakka had filed a private complaint before the Ramanagaram
Judicial Magistrate First Class (JFMC) court on May 9 against a non-resident Indian, Ritu
Primlani, for running the organisation named after her for at least 14 years without her
consent or knowledge. Ms. Primlani had started the non profit organisation more than a
decade prior to the allegations.Thimmakka's adopted son, Umesh has claimed that the
organisation misuses her name to collect donations. Ms. Primlani had visited Thimmakka
back in 2003 where photos were taken of her gifting Thimmakka with a saree. Now she is
said to have allegedly taken Thimmakka's finger prints, while she says Thimmakka okayed
the non-profit back then in front of a judge.
Following the complaint, policeman arrived at Alliance Francaise and Jagriti in Bangalore,
venues where Ms. Primlani was performing her shows, to take her into custody. Ms. Primlani
claims that she was to be taken into custody by a male policeman, after dark, which is
against the law. She says that a dozen policemen had arrived at the venue though they
did not disrupt her show. She claims to be harassed by Thimmakka's lawyers, which is an
indication of extortion.
Though Thimmakka herself was mostly available for comment, she mentioned her meagre
pension of Rs. 400 and has been quoted "What if there is a misuse and my name is
tarnished?". Thimmakka has been of ill health lately and the treatment has taken a toll on
her financial situation.

Ravindra Mehta, senior consultant (Pulmonology), said Ms. Thimmakka was doing much
better on Thursday and was fit to be discharged on Friday. She was admitted to the
hospital following pulmonary infection.
Ms. Thimakka has planted and nurtured several trees, and participated in afforestation
programmes. She is a recipient of numerous awards.
Health Minister U.T. Khader visited her at the hospital on Thursday. He announced that the
government will bear her medical expenses. Minister of State for Kannada and Culture
Umashree also called on her. Thimmakka, aged 101, is a native of Hulikal village in the
Magadi taluk of Bangalore Rural district in Karnataka.
She has an unsurpassed credit to her name – some 1000 plus sturdy banyan trees, which
she has lovingly tended against all odds, from mere saplings to a sweeping canopy.
Saalumarada Thimmakka (“saalumarada” – “row of trees” in Kannada – is an honorific
people have added to her name) and her landless labourer husband Chikkanna did not
have children. So one day more than 60 years ago, they started planting trees.

WANGARI MAATHAI
Wangari Muta Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan
environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at
Mount St. Scholastica (Benedictine College) and the University of Pittsburgh, as
well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the
Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization
focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's
rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she
became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her
contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace". Maathai
was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for
Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai
Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. Furthermore she was an
Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. In 2011, Maathai died of
complications from ovarian cancer.

On 1 April 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central
highlands of the colony of Kenya. Her family was Kikuyu, the most populous ethnic
group in Kenya, and had lived in the area for several generations.[2] Around 1943,
Maathai's family relocated to a white-owned farm in the Rift Valley, near the town of
Nakuru, where her father had found work.[3] Late in 1947, she returned to Ihithe with
her mother, as two of her brothers were attending primary school in the village, and
there was no schooling available on the farm where her father worked. Her father
remained at the farm.[4] Shortly afterward, at the age of eight, she joined her brothers
at Ihithe Primary School.
At age eleven, Maathai moved to St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School, a
boarding school at the Mathari Catholic Mission in Nyeri.[5] Maathai studied at St.
Cecilia's for four years. During this time, she became fluent in English and converted to
Catholicism. She was involved with the Legion of Mary, whose members attempted "to
serve God by serving fellow human beings."[6] Studying at St. Cecilia's, she was
sheltered from the ongoing Mau Mau Uprising, which forced her mother to move from
their homestead to an emergency village in Ihithe.[7] When she completed her studies
there in 1956, she was rated first in her class, and was granted admission to the only
Catholic high school for girls in Kenya, Loreto High School in Limuru.

However, the end of East African colonialism was nearing, and Kenyan
politicians, such as Tom Mboya, were proposing ways to make education in
Western nations available to promising students. John F. Kennedy, then a
United States Senator, agreed to fund such a program through the Joseph P.
Kennedy Jr. Foundation, initiating what became known as the Kennedy Airlift
or Airlift Africa. Maathai became one of some 300 Kenyans selected to study
in the United States in September 1960
She received a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now
Benedictine College), in Atchison, Kansas, where she majored in biology, with
minors in chemistry and German.[10] After receiving her bachelor of science
degree in 1964, she studied at the University of Pittsburgh for a master's degree
in biology. Her graduate studies there were funded by the Africa-America
Institute,[11] and during her time in Pittsburgh, she first experienced
environmental restoration, when local environmentalists pushed to rid the city
of air pollution.[12] In January 1966, Maathai received her M.Sc in biological
sciences,[13] and was appointed to a position as research assistant to a
professor of zoology at University College of Nairobi.

Maathai moved into a small home she had purchased years before, and focused on
the NCWK while she searched for employment. In the course of her work through the
NCWK, she was approached by Wilhelm Elsrud, executive director of the Norwegian
Forestry Society. He wished to partner with the Green Belt Movement and offered her
the position of coordinator. Employed again, Maathai poured her efforts into the
Green Belt Movement. Along with the partnership for the Norwegian Forestry Society,
the movement had also received "seed money" from the United Nations Voluntary
Fund for Women. These funds allowed for the expansion of the movement, for hiring
additional employees to oversee the operations, and for continuing to pay a small
stipend to the women who planted seedlings throughout the country. It allowed her to
refine the operations of the movement, paying a small stipend to the women's
husbands and sons who were literate and able to keep accurate records of seedlings
planted.[35]
Although I was a highly educated woman, it did not seem odd to me to work with my
hands, often with my knees on the ground, alongside rural woman. Some politicians
and others in the 1980s and 1990s ridiculed me for doing so. But I had no problem with
it, and the rural women both accepted and appreciated that I was working with them
to improve their lives and the environment. After all, I was a child of the same soil.
Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from land, but instill in
them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to
understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and we
should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don't
need a diploma to plant a tree.

Wangari Muta Maathai The UN held the third global women's conference in
Nairobi. During the conference, Maathai arranged seminars and presentations
to describe the work the Green Belt Movement was doing in Kenya. She
escorted delegates to see nurseries and plant trees. She met Peggy Snyder,
the head of UNIFEM, and Helvi Sipilä, the first woman appointed a UN assistant
secretary general. The conference helped to expand funding for the Green
Belt Movement and led to the movement's establishing itself outside of Kenya.
In 1986, with funding from UNEP, the movement expanded throughout Africa
and led to the foundation of the Pan-African Green Belt Network. Forty-five
representatives from fifteen African countries travelled to Kenya over the next
three years to learn how to set up similar programs in their own countries to
combat desertification, deforestation, water crises, and rural hunger. The
attention the movement received in the media led to Maathai's being
honoured with numerous awards. The government of Kenya, however,
demanded that the Green Belt Movement separate from the NCWK, believing
the latter should focus solely on women's issues, not the environment.
Therefore, in 1987, Maathai stepped down as chairman of the NCWK and
focused her attention on the newly separate non-governmental
organization.[3

Wangari Maathai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her
"contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".[58] She
had received a call from Ole Danbolt Mjos, chair of the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, on 8 October informing her of the news.[59][60] She became the
first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the prize.
“ Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime
in Kenya. Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to
political oppression—nationally and internationally. She has served as
inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights and has especially
encouraged women to better their situation. ”

In 2012, the Collaborative Partnership on ForestsCPF, an international consortium of 14
organizations, secretariats and institutions working on international forest issues,
launched the inaugural Wangari Maathai Award to honour and commemorate an
extraordinary woman who championed forest issues around the world. The USD20,000
award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions made by an individual to
preserve, restore and sustainably manage forests and to communicate the key role
forests play in rural livelihoods and the environment across generations.
The 2012 inaugural winner of the Awardwas Narayan Kaji Shrestha. Shrestha is
recognized as one of the main architects of the community forestry movement in
Nepal, which he has spent three decades promoting and which has contributed
significantly to restoring forest resources in the country. He guided early attempts to
create a more participatory approach to community decision-making, reaching out
to women and low-caste villagers and initiating the country’s first user-managed
community forestry group. He provided leadership to the national organization that
later became the Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal and continues to
be a guide and mentor to many practitioners and leaders involved in participatory
resource management. The jury also awarded Kurshida Begum of Bangladesh an
Honourable Mention prize for her work helping women in her village form a
community patrol group alongside forest department guards to protect the forests
and biodiversity of the Tenkaf Wildlife Sanctuary from illegal logging and poaching.
Her work has helped women gain an effective voice in their community, provided
them with a steady source of income and has helped her communicate the
importance of forest and natural resource issues to visitors to the sanctuary.

On 28 March 2005, Maathai was elected the first president of the African
Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council and was appointed a goodwill
ambassador for an initiative aimed at protecting the Congo Basin Forest
Ecosystem.[64] In 2006 she was one of the eight flagbearers at the 2006 Winter
Olympics Opening Ceremony. Also on 21 May 2006, she was awarded an
honorary doctorate by and gave the commencement address at
Connecticut College. She supported the International Year of Deserts and
Desertification program. In November 2006, she spearheaded the United
Nations Billion Tree Campaign. Maathai was one of the founders of the Nobel
Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace laureates Jody Williams, Shirin
Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire.
Six women representing North America and South America, Europe, the
Middle East and Africa decided to bring together their experiences in a united
effort for peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's
Initiative to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights
around the world.

Wangari Maathai died of complications arising from ovarian cancer while
receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital on 25 September 2011

INCREASEMENT IN KNOWLEDGE
Amrita devi
In India there is an ancient legend about a girl, Amrita Devi, who died trying to protect the
trees that surrounded her village. The story recounts a time when the local Maharajah’s tree
cutters arrived to cut the villager’s trees for wood for his new fortress. Amrita, with others,
jumped in front of the trees and hugged them. In some versions of the tale their dramatic
efforts prevented the forest’s destruction; in others Amrita dies in her valiant attempt.
It is this tale that inspired the actions of a group of mostly rural women who in the 1970s
launched similar spectacular protest movements in India. For rural women, saving the
environment is crucial to their economic survival. As primary food, fuel, and water gatherers,
women have strong interests in reversing deforestation, desertification, and water pollution. The
women who eke out a living in the Himalayan foothills, using its forests as sources of food, fuel,
and forage for their animals, face a particularly severe challenge. The Himalayas, a young
range subject to erosion, need forests on this steep slopes to allow the absorption of water and
prevent flooding. Disintegration of Himalayan forests started over a century ago. In the 1960s,
India’s push for national economic development cleared even more trees to export the wood
to earn foreign exchange.The hill soil washed away, causing landslides, floods and silting in the
rivers below the hills. Crops and houses too were destroyed, and women had to trudge further
and further for their fuel, fodder and water. All in all, it was the women who were the main
victims of India’s deforestation policies.

Against these harmful deforestation policies a movement called Chipko was born.
“Chipko” in Hindi means to cling, reflecting the protesters main technique of throwing
their arms around the tree trunks designated to be cut, and refusing to move.
Women’s participation in the movement can be traced to a remote hill town where a
contractor in 1973 had been given the right by the state to fell 3000 of trees for a
sporting goods store. The area already was dangerously denuded. When the
woodcutters were scheduled to appear, the men were enticed away from the village
leaving the women at home busy with household chores. As soon as the woodcutters
appeared, the alarm was sounded and the village’s female leader, a widow in her
50s, collected twenty-seven women and rushed into the forest. The women pleaded
with the woodcutter calling the forest their “maternal home,” and explaining the
consequences of felling the trees. The woodcutters, shouting and abusing the women,
threatened them with guns. The women in turn threatened to hug the earmarked
trees and die with them And it worked! The unnerved laborers left, the contractor
backed off. In 1974, women in a nearby area used the same tree hugging technique
in order to protest the clearing of their forest lands. And in 1977, in another area,
women tied a sacred threads around trees fated for death.....a symbolic gesture in
Hindu custom confirming the bond of brother-sister relationships. They declared that
their trees would be saved even if it cost them their lives.
Women in the Chipko Movemnet in India discussing deforestation

In the 1980s the ideas of the Chipko movement spread, often by women
talking about them at water places, on village paths, and in markets. Women
decided they were not powerless; there were actions they could take and a
movement which would support them. Songs and slogans were created.In
one the contractor says:“You foolish village women, do you know what these
forest bear?Resin, timber, and therefore foreign exchange!”
The women answer:
“Yes, we know. What do the forests bear?
Soil, water, and pure air,
Soil, water, and pure air.”
As an organized effort, the Chipko movement has had some success.
Sometimes it won moratoriums through government bans or court battles;
sometimes it managed to replant trees in areas close to village homes. In 1987
Chipko was chosen for a “Right to Livelihood Award,” known as the “alternate
Nobel” prize honor. The honor was rightly deserved for this small movement
dominated by women which had became a national call to save forests.

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