Gaura Devi (1925-1991) organized the women in her community to protect their environment and their heritage. Though her name has largely remained unknown, she contributed to a powerful example of ecofeminist organizing.
Gaura Devi (1925-1991) organized the women in her community to protect their environment and their heritage. Though her name has largely remained unknown, she contributed to a powerful example of ecofeminist organizing.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Constance Zimmer. And this is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting Eco Warriors: women fighting for conservation and ecological justice.
Today’s Womanican organized the women in her community to protect their environment and their heritage. Though her name has largely remained unknown, she contributed to a powerful example of ecofeminist organizing. Please welcome Gaura Devi.
Gaura Devi was born in 1925 in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The area is marked by the high peaks and low valleys of the Himalayas. Her family worked in the wool trade and she was trained in it before she married at a young age.
By the time she was 22 Gaura was a widow and the mother of a two-and-a-half year old child. She continued working in the wool trade to support her family.
In 1962, the Sino-Indian War broke out, contesting the border region of the Himalayas. Once it ended, the region saw a great increase in development, aided in part by infrastructure built during the conflict. Foreign logging companies wanted access to the Himalayan region’s rich forests. Local villagers were dependent on these forests and tended to them. When the government gave the logging companies access, it also denied villagers the right to any lumber or to manage the lands. As a result, loggers clear cut forests, causing erosion and flooding.
Slowly villagers began to rise up throughout the region, in a nonviolent wave that would come to be known as the Chipko movement. The Hindi word chipko means “to hug” or “to cling to” because that was the main strategy villagers used to stop loggers from cutting down their trees. Essentially, they were tree huggers.
Gaura was already involved in her community. But she became inspired by the movement and led campaigns to spread awareness about the importance of forests. Gaura’s real moment came in 1974. The state had authorized commercial loggers to cut down 2,500 trees in the area. Villagers in the surrounding area held rallies and peaceful demonstrations and public meetings to protest the impending deforestation.
But, the state had a plan. They lured the men of the Reni village away to another village under the false pretense of work and compensation, hoping that with them gone there would be less resistance when contractors and loggers came.
With the men gone, the loggers began amassing near the village. What they didn’t expect was a young girl. The girl saw them, and hurried to tell Gaura all about it. When the officials and loggers arrived they found Gaura Devi and two dozen other women she had quickly recruited to protect the trees.
They stood there, hugging the trees, and didn’t move. Even when the officials hurled insults and abuses at them. Even when they pulled out weapons.
The contractors decided to wait until the women got tired. It took four days, but finally, the contractors gave up, and left. Gaura had protected 2,500 trees from being cut and shortly after, and had attracted a lot of attention doing so. Most importantly, the action led to the state government issuing a ban on commercial deforestation in the area, which lasted for 10 years.
Gaura’s action also pushed the Chipko movement even further and led to policy changes. It became solidified as a peasant and women’s movement, which continued protesting environmental destruction for decades. Gaura also continued to organize women for protests and rallies after the incident.
Though the Chipko movement became lauded and key in the understanding of environmental resistance in India and around the world, Gaura Devi’s name remained largely forgotten.
Gaura passed away at the age of 66.
All month, we’re talking about eco-warriors. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Jenny and Liz Kaplan, who invited me to guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!