Tree Dressing Day

Tree Dressing Day around the world

The Maharaja of Jodhpur & the Chipko movement of the Himalayas

People in every age have had reason to protect their trees. In the Seventeenth Century, the Maharaja of Jodhpur sent his men into the forests near the Bishnoi village of Khejadali, to collect timber for his new palace, but the Bishnoi held their trees sacred. 

Hearing the Maharaja's men start work. Amritadevi, a local woman, rushed to a tree to protect it, and was immediately axed to death. Her example was none the less followed by many other villagers (mostly women and children as the men were away at work). By the end of the day more than 363 lay dead. 

When the Maharaja heard this news, he was appalled and ordered his men back. 

The Bishnoi people and their forests have survived as an oasis of greenery in the now treeless deserts of Rajasthan. 

Two hundred years later confrontations between logging companies and local people gave rise to the Chipko movement in the Himalayas. Women and men hugging the trees of their place, have informed a world wide movement giving courage and example to people to protect their own localities. 

Mount Horai, Xerxes, the tree of Ez Zakkoum