/ The Organisation

The Himalayan Chipko Foundation was registered under the Society Act in February 2006. We were functioning as an informal group since 2001.

Our aim is to bring social change through people?s initiatives and knowledge based activism. We have used public interest litigation (PIL) as an effective medium for achieving our goals.

In the construction of Tehri Dam transmission lines we are able to save about 85% of the 90000 trees from being felled despite the government sanction for the same. This mega dam is coming up in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and is expected to generate power for the entire state. The impact on the environment would also massive. It is therefore imperative that project is strictly eco-friendly.

We are also trying to create a guideline for construction of transmission line so that least environmental damage is done while constructing the transmission line in hilly and forest areas.

We also want Supreme Court of India to decide on the construction of transmission lines away from human habitats because they impact adversely on the health of the people living near them. Our PIL also desires a rehabilitation and resettlement guideline for the affected people.

We have filed three PILs in Supreme Court to expose the modus operandi of the timber mafia which is damaging the forests of the Himalayas with the support of corrupt forest officials. One PIL relates to the misuse of Hak Hakook - rights of the villagers to use forest timber for their traditional usages. The timber mafia gets trees allotted far away from the village. They fell trees much more than the sanctioned number. None of the wood reached the beneficiaries.

The second PIL relates to the sanction of trees by villagers for their personal use from their village forest. More trees were cut than the sanctioned number. Here too the beneficiaries were not aware of the permission being taken on their behalf. Nor did they get any wood from the felled trees.

The third PIL relates to the forest area of Joli in Dwarikhal Block in Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand where systematically tree felling has been going on for the past five or six years. About 4000 trees have been felled and the timber contractors/ mafia have used every possible method to erase the evidences. This PIL has been filed and is yet to be listed.

We have also raised the issue of the damage to pine trees, due to excessive resin tapping which eventually leads to unwarranted felling of trees.

HCF has also drawn attention to the need for eco-friendly road construction in hills. It has, for instance, called for putting a stop to the practice of rolling excavated earth down from the hill slopes that results to irreparable environmental damage. This allows the timber mafia to cut the trees below the alignment of the road because eventually every thing gets flattened.

We have also filed a PIL to prevent the deaths of elephants which had increased in the last 7 years and to restore their migratory routes/corridors from the bank of River Yamuna to Nepal.

Save Tarakeshwar is another HCF initiative. Tarakeshwar is a unique micro eco-system in the Himalayas.

For our dream projects see appropriate link.