Beginning in 1973 in the Himalayan region of India, villagers in the Chipko movement resisted commercial logging by embracing trees. The movement connected forest protection with women's labour, soil stability, water, and rural survival. It became a global example of grassroots ecological resistance.

Chipko drew power from Garhwali and Hindi songs, slogans, and oral poetry that treated trees as kin and protectors. Its language helped modern Indian poets frame forests not as scenery but as living social partners in justice, memory, and survival.