The people have tried to prevent indiscriminate cutting of trees through a silent revolution. Chipko and Appiko are two such movements.
The seeds of Chipko popularly known as the 'tree huggers' were sown in the early 1980s in northern India and the forests of the Himalayas.
The villagers hugged the trees, saving them by interposing their bodies between them and the contractors' axes. In India, the Chipko movement which has been active since 1973 is one of the most successful examples of people-orientated environmental restoration in parts of the Himalayan region. The main aim of this movement, in which women play a key role, is tree protection and plantation. Like the Chipko movement, the Appiko movement was launched to save the tropical forests of the Western Ghats. This simple non-violent action became popular and people have joined this movement spontaneously.