Environmental Leaders(Women)

Contents:a) INTRODUCTIONb) ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAGEc) GAURA DEVId) PICTURE COLLAGEe) SAALUMARADA THIMMAKKAf) PICTURE COLLAGEg) WANGARI MAATHAIh) PICTURE COLLAGEi) INCREASEMENT IN KNOWLEDGEj) PERSONAL INTRODUCTION

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 DEVIIn 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: ಸಾ�ಲು�ಮರದ ತಿಮಕ್ಕ �) 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 MAATHAIWangari 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 deviIn 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.

Thank you

BY : THE STRUDENT OF CLASS “8”A

ADITI SHARMA