Medha Patkar is an Indian social activist and politician who founded the Narmada Bachao Andolan movement to protest large dam projects, especially those involving displacement of local communities in the Narmada Valley without consultation or rehabilitation. She mobilized massive peaceful protests against these projects and joined tribal communities in resisting evacuation. Patkar believes in sustainable development that does not destroy homes, livelihoods, and the environment. She has received many awards for her environmental and human rights advocacy.

2. Medha Patkar
(born 1 December 1954) is
an Indian social activist
and social reformer turned
politician. She is the
founder member
of Narmada Bachao
Andolan and was National
Convener of National
alliance of people’s
Movement (NAPM), an
alliance of progressive
people's organisations. She
was a representative to
the World Commission on
Dams, to research the
environmental, social and
economic impacts of the
development of large dams
globally.

3. Her struggle began with the demand of information
about the development plans of the Narmada Valley

4. How can the government make plans to bulldoze a
culture, a way of life steeped in history without
consulting or rehabiliating the people who would be
affected?? , she asked
The question
became the movement !!

5. Since 1985,
She mobilized massive
peaceful marches and rallies against the project
though repeatedly beaten and areested by the
police.
Joined the tribals in resisting evacuation and
resigning themselves to drown in the rising
waters.

6. “I am not anti-tecnology,
I am all for it:
beautiful,harmonious,
equitable,sustainable,
egalitarian,non-
destructive technology,
not this gigantic
technology which is
apocalyptic, destroying
thousands of
homes,hearts.habitatas,
ecology, geography,
history, and finally,
benefiting so few, and at
such great cost. this is
mindless ans rhis is
violence”

7. Worked to obtain just
compensation for
people affected by
dams which have
already been built on
the Narmada as well
as opposing other
dams in the Narmada
Valley.
1997: helped tribal
communities stop
construction of the
Upper Veda and
Lower Goin dams

8. As an outgrowth of
her work to stop
dam construction,
helped establish a
network of activists
across the country-
The National
Alliance of
People’s
Movements

9. Received numerous awards:
• Deena Nath
Mangeshkar Award
• Mahatma Phule
Award
• Goldman
Environment Prize
• Green Ribbon Award
for Best International
Political Campaigner
by BBC
• Human Rights
Defender’s Award
from Amnesty
International

14. Gujrat
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra

16. Sunderlal Bahuguna (born 9 January 1927) is a noted Garhwali environmentalist, leader
of Chipko Movement and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence
and satyagraha

17. For years he has been fighting
for the preservation of forests
in the Himalayas, first as a
member of the Chipko
Movement in the 1970s, and
later spearheaded the Tehri
Dam movement starting 1980s,
to early 2004.He was one of the
early environmentalists of
India,and later he and people
associated with the Chipko
movement later started taking
up environmental issues, like
against large dams,
He was awarded the Padma
Bhushan, India's second
highest civilian honour, on 26
January 2009.

18. Chipko movement
Chipko movement started in 1973 spontaneously in Uttar
Pradesh, in an effort to save trees and forests from felling by
forest contractors. In Hindi, “Chipko" literally means "to stick"
and people started sticking to trees when it was being
cut. Chipko Movement later inspired Appiko Movement in
Karnataka. One of Sunderlal Bahuguna's notable contributions
to that cause, and to environmentalism in general, was his
creation of the Chipko's slogan "Ecology is permanent
economy." Sunderlal Bahuguna helped bring the movement to
prominence through about 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya
march undertaken from 1981 to 1983, travelling from village to
village, gathering support for the movement. He had an
appointment with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi and that meeting is credited with resulting in Ms.
Gandhi's subsequent 15-year ban on felling of green trees in
1980. He was also closely associated with Gaura Devi, one of
the pioneers of the movement.

19. He has remained behind the anti-Tehri Dam protests for decades, he used
the Satyagraha methods, and repeatedly went on hunger strikes at the banks of Bhagirathi as a
mark of his protest.[11] In 1995, he called off a 45-day-long fast following an assurance from the
then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao of the appointment of a review committee on the
ecological impacts of the dam, thereafter he went on another long fast another fast which lasted
for 74 days at Gandhi Samadhi,Raj Kot during the tenure of Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda,
he gave personal undertaking of project review. However despite a court case which ran in the
Supreme Court for over a decade, work resumed at the Tehri dam in 2001, following which he
was arrested on 20 April 2001.
Eventually, the dam reservoir started filling up in 2004, and on 31 July 2004 he was finally
evacuated to a new accommodation at Koti, a little hillock, along the Bhagirathi where he lives
today, continues his environment work.
Sunderlal Bahuguna has been a passionate defender of the Himalayan people, working for
temperance, the plight of the hill people (especially working women). He has also struggled to
defend India's rivers
Anti Tehri Dam protests