Sundarlal Bahuguna, Chipko movement leader, dies of Covid-19

Sundarlal Bahuguna, Chipko movement leader, dies of Covid-19

Sundarlal Bahuguna, Noted environmentalist and Padma Vibhushan Awardee passed away today. The 94-year-old chipko movement leader was admitted to AIIMS Rishikesh, he was suffering from Covid-19  he had been suffering from covid like symptoms for 10 days. He breathed last at 12.05 PM. According to the AIIMS director, Ravikant said that The leader was on CPAP therapy in the ICU of the premier hospital.

Meanwhile, Tirath Singh Rawat called it a big loss not just for Uttarakhand and India but for the entire world he said, "it was he who made the chipko movement of the masses."

The Chipko movement was a Gandhian form of protest against deforestation by locals in the Himalayan region to stop deforestation local women would make a circle around the tree and stop men from cutting them. The first chipko action took place in April 1973 in Mandal Village now in Uttarakhand and spread over the next five years too many Himalayan districts. The movement sparked after the government decided to allot a plot of forest area in the Alaknanda Valley to a sports goods company. With the help from a local NGO, the women of the area went into the forest and formed the circle protecting them from not cutting down the trees. Sunderlal Bahuguna was leading the movement, he appealed to Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi to implement the ban on cutting trees.