Amrita Devi Bishnoi’s extraordinary sacrifice

We would all have heard  about the ‘Chipko’ movement in the 1970s. For those who do not know, ‘Chipko’ was the protest movement against commercial felling of trees. This movement began in 1973 in Chamoli district which is in Uttarakhand state of India now. The aim of this protest was to protect the trees of the forest in the Himalayan foothills. When the tree cutters came, the protesters who were against commercial felling of trees went and embraced the tree barks hugging them tight. This made it impossible for the fellers to cut the tree without hurting the person clinging to the tree and thereby the trees were saved. ‘Chipko’ literally meant ‘to stick’ and in this case it meant “sticking to the tree”.

It was the women who were mainly affected by deforestation as they were deprived of fuel and fodder for the cattle and deforestation would stop rain and cause water scarcity. So the protest was mainly led by women. It involved, as already explained, embracing a tree tightly so that the feller could not cut the tree without injuring the person hugging the tree. This would deter the feller and thereby the tree would be saved. This movement was non-violent and it soon spread to other areas of the Himalayan region where people who were very concerned about the environment and ecology wanted to save their trees and this movement was successful in stopping deforestation.

Was this act of hugging a tree an entirely new idea which was carried out by the protestors of the Chipko movement ? Well, the answer is a big ‘NO’. The very same type protest was led by a brave young woman of the Bishnoi community in 1730 which left its indelible mark in Indian history . And it is her true story that I am narrating today.

Now, a little about the Bishnoi tribe. This tribe of Bishnois are the followers of Guru Jambeshwar who lived in the 15^th  century. This Guru preached twenty-nine commandments – 20 (Bis- meaning twenty) and 9 (noi- meaning nine) and hence the followers of the twenty-nine commandments were called Bishnois. These commandments cover social conduct, personal health and hygiene, methods of worship and protection of environment, and the last eight commandments are about  protecting the trees and wild animals and of rearing domestic animals. These twenty-nine commandments and especially the last eight, are meticulously followed by the Bishnoi tribe which is why Bishnoi villages, even in deserts are always green.

Now let us go back in time three hundred years ago….

About 18 km from Jodhpur , in the Thar Desert, is situated the quaint village of Khejarli where mainly people of the Bishnoi tribe reside. And this incident happened there.

Being a desert, the vegetation was very scarce. And this scarce vegetation comprised mainly of the Khejri trees. Khejri is the ‘Vanni’  tree in Tamil and ‘Shami’ tree in Hindi. These trees were very precious to the villagers. It was their lifeline indeed, for it gave them shade, its leaves were fodder for the camels and goats, its pods could be made into sabji, its bark was used to cure skin diseases, its twigs  were used as fuel and nitrogen fixing bacteria lived in the roots of this tree, thereby absorbing the atmospheric nitrogen and making the soil fertile. With all these and more you can realise how invaluable these trees were for the Bishnois.

It was a mid-morning on the 11^th of September 1730. The men of Khejarli had gone for work. Amrita Devi was cooking food and tending to her three young daughters at the same time in her house at Khejarli village. Except for the occasional bleating of a goat here and there the village was quiet.

Suddenly, Amrita heard the sound of the hoofs of horses ‘thud thud thud thud….’ It was a rare thing in the village, for so many horses to come at once. Occasionally a lone horse-rider would wander and come and this was very unusual indeed. Amrita peeped out from the window and was surprised that so many horsemen had arrived – Not one or two but about a hundred. Curious to know what was up, she came out. By this time other women from the other houses and some kids had also come out.

The men from the horses dismounted. They all were carrying axes. “This is strange!” thought Amrita to herself and looked at them questioningly. All the women there started whispering among themselves. The men seemed to be busy tying up their horses and getting ready for something.

Amrita, who was a courageous woman, addressing the person who seemed to be their leader asked, “Who are you and what for have you come here?”  The man did not deem it necessary to answer her question as they started surveying the Khejri trees. They were discussing from where to start cutting the trees.

The men were actually from the palace of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Abhay Singh. He was building a new palace and needed wood to fuel the kilns to prepare mortar for the construction of that palace. These men had chosen to come to Khejarli and cut the trees for that purpose. They did not disclose this to Amrita and the others.

Now, they were moving ahead to the trees. Amrita understood their intention. Her eyes suddenly caught a man moving menacingly towards her favorite Khejri tree with an axe in hand. Sensing the danger, she ran in front of him and turned around trying to block him. She raised her hands and shouted “No! you are not going to cut my tree!”

The man looked at her with disdain. “Hmph.. move, move away. This is the king’s order we are carrying out. You have no say in this…” He continued to move ahead with Amrita facing him and walking backwards. “Please, please listen to me” Amrita was pleading.

“Chal Hut!” (Go, move!) said he. By this time all the women and children and the few men who were there came behind the men and started pleading in loud voices. “This is not fair”, “You can’t come and do this to our trees”, “What you are doing is a great sin!”, “Where is the King? We want to speak to him…” The voices were getting louder and louder.

“Chalo chalo Hato!” (Go, Go, Move!) sounded the leader’s voice from behind.  Addressing the man who was almost near Amrita’s favorite tree, he said, “Jaldi Kāto!” (Cut fast!)

The next moment Amrita was clinging to the tree bark tight. Her hands were clasped on the other side of the bark of the tree in an embrace. Her daughters and all onlookers were now sure that the man could not harm the tree. The man gave a final warning to Amrita. “Hey move away!” he said angrily. “If you don’t move I will cut you also!”

Amrita replied, “Cut, will you? OK Even at the cost of my life I will save this tree!” And she clasped the tree more tightly.

The other villagers got extremely furious. “How dare you threaten her like this? Let us see how you cut…” Saying so each one of them went and grasped a tree each tightly. Amrita’s three young daughters also did the same.

They all expected the king’s men to go away. But what happened there next was horrific. Starting with Amrita’s tree, the trees along with their saviors were slayed in a ruthless manner. Even then, people who were witnessing this, competed to save the trees and went and clung to the trees. By this time, word had spread to the eighty-three villages nearby and lot of men, women and children came running. Every one of them tried to cling to a tree when another was killed. But every one of them totalling three-hundred-and sixty-three were killed. This included the three daughters of Amrita.

What a carnage it was ….. Beyond description!! The place resembled a battlefield after a massive battle.

By this time the king Maharaja Abhay Singh came to know of the news and was shattered to the core. He rushed to the place on his horseback . He was terribly traumatized at the gruesome sight  he saw. Moved beyond words, with guilt overflowing in his heart, he fell at the feet of all the remaining villagers not able to look into their eyes.

But no amount of forgiveness would bring back the precious lives lost. An extraordinary sacrifice…  by the Bishnois led by Amrita Devi – all for the sake of saving trees.

Maharaja Abhay Singh not only apologized, but also issued a decree engraved on a copper plate which ensured prohibition of felling trees and hunting of animals in and around the Bishnoi villages. Even today the Bishnoi community fiercely safeguards the environment and bio-diversity.

In 2001, the Government of India instituted the ‘Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award’ and in 2013, declared September 11 as National Forest Martyrs Day.

And this incident is the precursor of the Chipko Movement of the 1970s.