The Amrita Devi Bishnoi Movement

The Amrita Devi Bishnoi movement is the earliest of the four grassroots conservation episodes named in the WBCHSE syllabus, and its events are traditionally dated to around 1730, at the village of Khejarli near Jodhpur in what is now the state of Rajasthan.

The Bishnoi community, whose way of life follows a set of religious tenets laid down by their founder, Guru Jambheshwar, places strong emphasis on the protection of trees and wildlife as a central article of faith -- an ecological ethic embedded directly into the community's everyday religious practice, well before the modern idea of environmental conservation existed as a distinct concept. Among the trees the Bishnois particularly value and protect is the Khejri tree (Prosopis cineraria), a hardy species well suited to Rajasthan's arid climate that provides fodder for livestock, shade, and support for the soil in an otherwise harsh desert environment, making it an important resource for the community's survival as well as an object of religious reverence.

According to the traditional historical account, the ruler of the time sent workers to the forest near Khejarli to fell Khejri trees in order to obtain timber, reportedly to supply a construction project. The Bishnoi villagers of Khejarli objected and tried to stop the felling. A woman of the community, Amrita Devi, is recorded as having responded by embracing one of the trees with her own body and daring the woodcutters to fell her along with it -- refusing to allow the tree to be cut down while she was still alive. She was killed in the confrontation that followed, and a number of other Bishnoi villagers -- men and women who came forward to take her place in protecting the remaining trees -- were killed as well in the same cause. The scale of this collective sacrifice, made specifically and consciously to protect trees rather than for any personal or political gain, has made the Khejarli episode one of the most widely remembered acts of environmental protection in Indian history, and it is frequently cited in modern environmental education as an early example of the principle that a community's relationship with its natural surroundings can be strong enough to be worth defending at great personal cost. …