ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to reveal the early phase of the history of the emergence of vernacular public arena in the Uttarakhand in north India by focusing on the initiatives of activists in the Chipko. The Chipko movement began in the village of Mandal in April 1973. The Chipko movement spread to many locations in the Uttarakhand. The academic evaluation of the Chipko movement has changed drastically. The chapter outlines how forest policy in the Uttarakhand changed from the 1970s to the 1990s by using data from forest statistics and the Working/Management Plans of the Forest Departments and clarifies how the Chipko movement played a role in the process of the realisation of the total ban on commercial deforestation in 1981. The Chipko movement has also produced a new generation of professional social activists in the Uttarakhand and in other places in India, and these activists are connected with each other through extensive networks.
