Chipko movement founder Sunderlal Bahuguna dies of Covid

Noted  environmentalist and Padma Vibhushan Sunderlal Bahuguna died on Friday. The 94-year-old Chipko movement pioneer was admitted to the AIIMS, Rishikesh on May 8 after his oxygen levels started fluctuating. According to reports, he had been suffering from Covid-like symptoms 10 days prior to hospital admission. He breathed his last at 12.05 PM, AIIMS Director Ravikant said. Bahuguna was on CPAP therapy in the ICU. Condoling the death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the late environmentalist manifested "our centuries old ethos of living in harmony with nature."

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. Om Shanti.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 21, 2021

Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat described it as a big loss not just for Uttarakhand and India but for the entire world. "It was he who made the Chipko movement a movement of the masses," CM Rawat said.Chipko means "to hug". During the 1970s, when reckless cutting of trees began affecting people's livelihoods, villagers in Uttarakhand's Chamoli began to protest. The tipping point came when the government, in January 1974, announced the auction of 2,500 trees, overlooking the Alakananda river. Bahuguna gave a direction to the movement and his appeal to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi resulted in a 15-year ban on chopping of green trees in 1980. Later on, he used Gandhian methods like satyagraha and hunger strikes to protest the building of the Tehri dam in Uttarakhand on the Bhagirathi river.