Question

Find out about the Great Sparrow Campaign in China and the Chipko Movement in India.

Answer 1

The Great Sparrow Campaign in China:

• Mao Zedong introduced the Great Sparrow Campaign (part of Four Pests Campaign) where people were asked to kill all the sparrows to save grain.
• Millions of sparrows died and this led to a tremendous increase in insect population which in turn destroyed the crops.
• After the crops were destroyed, millions of people in China died of starvation. It became one of the greatest tragedies of China.

Chipko Movement:

• The Chipko movement began in 1970s in the Northern Himalayas as a non-violent movement to save the trees from being cut.
•  The cutting of trees was a threat to the forest ecology and livelihood of the villagers. It was led by Sunderlal Bahuguna in 1980s.
• The greatest achievement of the movement is the 15-year ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan region by the Uttarakhand government.