Chipko Movement Pioneer and Padma Vibhushan Awardee Sunderlal Bahuguna dies of COVID-19 at age 94

Dehradun: Sunderlal Bahuguna, the Padma Vibhushan awardee and a noted environmentalist, passed away on Friday due to COVID-19 at the age of 94.

He was being treated at AIIMS hospital in Rishikesh. The 94-year-old Chipko movement pioneer was admitted to the hospital on May 8 after his oxygen levels started fluctuating.

As per the sources, he had been suffering from COVID-like symptoms 10 days prior to hospital admission.

AIIMS Director Ravikant said that he breathed his last at 12:05 PM. He was on CPAP therapy in the ICU of the premier hospital.

President Ram Nath Kovind said that his departure marks the end of a glorious chapter in the field of conservation. "A 'Padma Vibhushan' awardee, he was a Gandhian to the core. A legend in his own right, he made conservation a people's movement. My condolences to his family and admirers," the President said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "He manifested our centuries-old ethos of living in harmony with nature. His simplicity and spirit of compassion will never be forgotten. My thoughts are with his family and many admirers. Om Shanti."

Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said that his death is a big loss not just for Uttarakhand and India but for the entire world. "It was he who made the Chipko movement a movement of the masses," Rawat added.

Bahuguna was a life-long environmentalist and was credited for founding the Chipko movement. Chipko movement was the grassroots movement that swept through the Garhwal region in the 1970s with villagers hugging trees to stop them from being axed.

Later in the 1990s, he spearheaded the Anti-Tehri Dam movement and even went to jail for it in 1995.

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