Indian History
1970 was the year when my fate was on the brink of change but what I hoped for fizzled in the blink on an eye. My dream of expanding and building my Sports Company was turning into reality until a bunch of uneducated, over-possessive and exasperated villagers destroyed it because they did not understand the business and its economics. During that year, the Government of Uttarakhand decided to implement a commercial forest policy, which was a policy that could have changed my entire life. Though I do understand that the villagers rely on the forest as a means of livelihood and basic living, I believe that they should also understand the commercial aspect of life. If commercial businesses were started from the woods in these forests, the villagers would find employment and find a way of earning better livelihood. However, they chose not to do so by chasing away entrepreneurs like me. The villagers failed to understand the government’s decision of allocating trees for commercial purposes and decided to raise their voices against this policy.
This senseless idea of protesting would not have crossed the minds of these uneducated villagers if it had not been started in Khejri village in Jodhpur. The King’s soldiers from the community of Bishnoi wanted to cut down trees in order to build a palace for him. This stirred unrest amongst the villagers. In order to prevent this from happening, the villagers decided to put their lives on the line by hugging the trees as a sign of protection for the trees from logging. Their actions did not move the King; instead, he decided to destroy the villages alongside the trees. This resulted in a loss of about 363 lives that year.
When this policy was initiated in Uttrakhand, the natives looked up to the Bishnoi community and were greatly influenced by them. Awareness spread by the Bishnoi alongside the floods, which occurred in the Alaknanda River and affected the area. The floods started from Hanumanchatti and went downstream to Haridwar. The several villages, roads and bridges that were swept away was what drove the villagers to take measures against commercial logging.
This was followed by the downfall of my good sports company. The women of the village began to create groups in order prevent more logging. They started to protest and rally against commercial logging, but I believed that this would be harmless to me since I knew that I had support from the Government of Uttrakhand. As usual, the government decided to sell out about 300 trees to my company, which was known as ‘The Simon Company.’ That really infuriated the villagers, and their discontent grew. Their wrath towards my company grew apparent day-by-day.
The number of protestors outside my factory increased especially in the area where wooden tennis rackets were in the process of production. These revolting villagers had a number of slogans, and they beat drums in order to interfere with production. During that time, I did not have enough security men to protect my factory and, therefore, I temporarily agreed to retreat to make the villagers go. Little did I know that what I thought was a temporary move would become permanent in no time. The villagers grew confident after I drew back my contract and this caused other contractors to retreat their contracts too. There was a good sports company that was located about 80 km away from ‘The Simon’, which also had to retreat in order to halt the restlessness amongst the villagers.
With my optimistic nature and knowing the tricks and support that I had from the government, I knew that this spark by the villagers would eventually cool down. Within a short period, the government decided to auction about 2,500 trees. This news was utter pleasure to me, and I decided to invest all my profits into buying these trees and increase my production of tennis rackets. Conversely, this event marked the end of my business. The government’s bid was very negotiable, and it resulted in most of the companies buying the trees.
On March 25, many lumbermen were assigned to cut down the trees in order to supply them to the sports companies. Upon hearing the news, the villagers decided to take immediate action. Gaura Devi, the leader of the revolting groups and my enemy, brought 27 women along with him to the logging site and they decided to hug the trees just like the Bisnoi people did in order to prevent them from being logged down. The loggers tried their best to pull these women away from the trees. They abused, violated and threatened them to no avail. This act inspired other women from the villages to follow Gaura Devi’s action of not letting go off the trees. This carried on for about four days, and that was the most tedious period of my life.
My hope started to dwindle as days went by without a single tree being cut down. As a result, the loggers and I gave up. The loggers negated their decision to cut down the trees, and that left me in utter despair. The logging practice began to diminish as policies against deforestation were implemented. This event marked the end of my business. People in my factory left due to the lack of income and the production of my rackets eventually stopped. Thereafter, I left Uttrakhand, and I am now looking for a business that could rebuild my personal house.Bibliography
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