Editing Chipko movement (section)

== Background ==
Inspired by [[Karan Singh]] and the Jyoti Kumari movement, in the year 1964 Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh ("Dasholi Society for Village Self-Rule"), was set up by [[Gandhian]] social worker [[Chandi Prasad Bhatt]] in [[Chamoli Gopeshwar]], with an aim to set up small industries using the resources of the forest. Their first project was a small workshop making farm tools for local use. Its name was later changed to DGSM from the original ''Dashauli Gram Swarajya Sangh'' (DGSS) in the 1980s. The organisation had to face restrictive forest policies, a hangover of [[British Raj|colonial era]] still prevalent, as well as the "contractor system". Under this system, pieces of forest land were commodified and auctioned to big contractors, usually from the plains, who brought along their own skilled and semi-skilled laborers, leaving only the menial jobs like hauling rocks for the [[hill people]], and paying them next to nothing. On the other hand, the hill regions saw an influx of more people from the outside, which only added to the already strained ecological balance.<ref name="mark">[http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/GT_Chipko.html "Hug the Trees!" – Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Gaura Devi, and the Chipko Movement] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104170445/http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/GT_Chipko.html |date=4 November 2011 }} By Mark Shepard. ''Gandhi Today: A Report on Mahatma Gandhi’s Successors'', Simple Productions, Arcata, California, 1987, reprinted by Seven Locks Press, Washington, D.C., 1987.</ref>

Hastened by increasing hardships, the [[Garhwal Himalaya]]s<ref name="u">[https://archive.org/details/ofmythmovements00hari <!-- quote=Chipko. --> Starting..] ''Of myths and movements: rewriting Chipko into Himalayan history'', by Haripriya Rangan. Published by Verso, 2001. {{ISBN|1-85984-305-0}}. ''Page 4-5''.</ref><ref name="mark" /> soon became the centre for a rising ecological awareness of how reckless [[deforestation]] had denuded much of the [[forest cover]], resulting in the devastating [[Alaknanda River]] floods of July 1970, when a major landslide blocked the river and affected an area starting from Hanumanchatti, near [[Badrinath]] to 320 kilometers (200 miles) downstream till [[Haridwar]]. Numerous villages, bridges and roads were washed away. Thereafter, incidents of landslides and land [[subsidence]] became common in the area which was also simultaneously experiencing a rapid increase in civil engineering projects.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Vftlst082acC&dq=Alaknanda+River+floods&pg=PA3 Ecological crisis] ''Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit'', by [[Vandana Shiva]]. Published by Pluto Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-7453-1837-1}}. ''Page 3''.</ref><ref>
[http://pauri.nic.in/Nextpage154.htm Landslides and Floods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001002003/http://pauri.nic.in/Nextpage154.htm |date=1 October 2011 }} [[Pauri]] district website.
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