The Chipko Movement
About this Lesson
This lesson invites students to connect through food, nature, and community activism by exploring the Chipko Movement, a powerful environmental resistance effort rooted in women from South Asia in the 1970s, and with origins over 300 years old. In 1970, in the Himalayan foothills, the movement saw women literally embrace trees to protect their forests, water sources, and food systems from destruction, ultimately winning a decade-long logging ban from the Indian government. Students will explore food systems, environmental stewardship, and the legacy of grassroots activism. Students are empowered to see themselves as part of a long history of people who have fought to protect their communities and the land they depended on.
Lesson Materials
Chipko Movement - Detailed Lesson Plan
Chipko Movement - Teacher Workbook
Chipko Movement - Student Workbook
Lesson HIGHLIGHTS
1 | Discover the origins of South Asian tree-hugging movements through art, from over 300 years ago to the 1970s.
2 | Learn about how women in the Himalayas protected their food systems in the 1970s by hugging trees to fight commercial logging!
3 | Do a scavenger hunt of your favorite foods and learn about the forces controlling what you eat
4 | Investigate how your favorite fruits come from where they are grown to your hands. Meet the people who touch those fruits in their journey to you.
5 | Make your own protest poster and learn about the United Farmworkers in Movement in California, including Dolores Huerta.
6 | Plant your own bean seed and track your seed grow alongside one new habit you want to build to support the earth or your community.