By Sujata Jena
Bhubaneswar: Veteran environmental activist Sunderlal Bahuguna died May 21 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh. He was 94.
Bahuguna was admitted to the hospital on May 8 after testing Covid-19 positive.
According to the hospital director Ravikant, the nonagenarian leader died at 12:05 pm.
Mourning the death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet, “Passing away of Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna Ji is a monumental loss for our nation. He manifested our centuries-old ethos of living in harmony with nature. His simplicity and spirit of compassion will never be forgotten. My thoughts are with his family and many admirers.”
Professor Nilakantha Panigrahi, the head of the Department of the Central University of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, too said in Bahuguna’s death, “India lost one of the heroes and path makers of environmental movement.”
The researcher who works with environmental movements of Odisha, eastern India, also prayed: “Pray God for peace to the pious soul.”
William Stanley, the general secretary of Oikotree Global Forum, termed Bahuguna as a spiritual environmental saint, “an icon of Earth Justice and a Humble Legend.”
He also said that he had the privilege to visit Bahuguna near the Tehri Dam site when he was on fasting. “We took part in a meeting organised by National Law School, Bengaluru. We have lost a great leader who believed in non-violence,” Stanley added.
Bahuguna was first a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s. The idea of the movement was from his wife and he gave it a shape, sources said.
Chipko in Hindi means “hug” and people started hugging and holding onto trees when they were being cut. One of Bahuguna’s notable contributions to the Chipko movement, and to environmentalism in general, was his creation of the Chipko’s slogan “Ecology is permanent economy.”
Later he was a member of the Anti-Tehri Dam movement that started in the 1980s and lasted until early 2004. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2009, India’s second highest civilian award.
The Chipko movement, or Chipko Andolan, was a forest conservation movement in India. It began in 1973 in Uttarakhand, then a part of Uttar Pradesh and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world. It created a precedent for starting nonviolent protests in India.
Bahuguna was born near Maroda near Tehri, Uttarakhand, on January 9, 1927. He started social activities at the age of thirteen. Early on, he fought against untouchability.
Bahuguna also mobilized people against colonial rule before 1947. He was with the Congress party of Uttar Pradesh at the time of Independence.
Inspired by Gandhi, he walked through Himalayan forests and hills, covering more than 4,700 km on foot and observed the damage done by mega developmental projects on the fragile eco-system of the Himalayas and subsequent degradation of social life in villages.