Environmental Movements in India: Chipko Movement and Social Forestry

Social forestry means the management and protection of forests and afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural development. The term, social forestry, was first used in India in 1976 by The National Commission on Agriculture, Government of India.

'Chipko movement' is connected with protection of environment including habitat and wild life.

• The main leader of the chipko movement was Sunderlal Bahuguna. The idea of Chipko movement was of his wife and the action was taken by him.
• Chipko Movement, started in 1970's, was a non-violent movement aimed at protection and conservation of trees and forests from being destroyed. 
  
• Hence the main leader of the chipko movement was Pandurang Hegde is a false statement because of the main leader of the chipko movement was Sunderlal Bahuguna.
• So, the correct answer is 'False'.

It is "Forestry of the people, by the people and for the people". It includes raising trees on government owned lands for obtaining food, fodder, wood, fruits etc.

The Chipko movement originated from an incident in a remote village called Reni in Garhwal, high-up in the Himalayas during the early 1970s.

Sunderlal Bahuguna was a prominent environmentalist and leader of the Chipko movement, but he was never elected to the Lok Sabha.

Sunderlal Bahuguna is widely recognized as the primary leader and public face who popularized the Chipko movement.

The Chipko movement originated in the Reni village of the Chamoli district in Uttarakhand (then part of Uttar Pradesh) in the early 1970s.

The Chipko movement began in the Himalayan region of Tehri Garhwal, which was part of Uttar Pradesh at the time.

Social Forestry Programme was adopted in India during 1961. It is concerned with taking the pressure off currently existing forests by planting trees on all unused and fallow land. It aims at management and protection of forests and afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural development.

The "Chipko Movement" has its roots in the early 1970s in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand in India. Under the guidance of the spiritual leader Chandi Prasad Bhatt, activists from the Himalayan village of Gopeshwar formed in 1973 a human chain and encircled trees to keep them from being cut down for a factory.

Social forestry programs often promote fast-growing, useful trees like Mango, Peepul, and Neem, which provide shade, fruit, and other benefits to the community.

The Chipko Movement was started in the northern Himalayan segment of Uttarakhand. The name of the movement comes from a word meaning embrace: where the villagers hugged the trees, saving them by interposing their bodies between them and the contractor's axes. This became popular as Chipko movement. Chipko movement is a grassroots level movement, which started in response to the needs of the people of Uttarakhand.

While Chandi Prasad Bhatt was an early organizer, Sunderlal Bahuguna is the figure most famously credited with initiating and leading the movement to national prominence.