Q.Who was Amrita Devi, and what did she do to try to protect the Khejri trees of her village?

The Amrita Devi Bishnoi movement, traditionally dated to around 1730 at the village of Khejarli near Jodhpur, Rajasthan, is the earliest of the grassroots conservation episodes studied in this chapter. The Bishnoi community follows religious tenets, laid down by their founder Guru Jambheshwar, that place strong emphasis on protecting trees and wildlife, including the Khejri tree (Prosopis cineraria) that the community both reveres and depends on for fodder and shade in Rajasthan's arid environment. When the ruler of the time sent workers to fell Khejri trees near Khejarli, the Bishnoi villagers resisted; Amrita Devi is recorded as having embraced a tree with her own body to prevent it being cut, and was killed along with a number of other villagers who followed her example in the same cause. The episode is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most striking instances of people giving their lives specifically to protect trees, and it is often cited as a historical forerunner of the tree-hugging protest tactic that the Chipko Movement made famous more than two centuries later. In recognition of this legacy, the Government of India instituted the Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award for outstanding contributions to wildlife conservation.