Tree Hugging

Have you ever wondered how conservationists were handed the moniker "tree hugger". Well, I met the woman responsible for the initiation of that concept. Her name is Radha Ghatt, the President of the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Dehli and also Executive Director of an Organization in Sevagram call Servsayoung meaning Service to All. She began her life as a poor rural Himalayan village girl where traditional values dictated early arranged marriage and continued traditional life. For some reason she doesn't fully understand, she felt called to do something larger with her life and clearly shared her plans with her father. As with so many women I have interviewed he played a pivotal role in her liberation. He wasn't thrilled with her choice but he respected it and responded to families who came calling with marital petitions that if she said yes, he would agree. The villages thought him naive and even a little crazy to leave such a decision up to her, and of course she never said yes. As a result he sent her to school (also very unusual) and eventually arranged for a placement in an Ashram that served the numerous mountain villages. While Radha new Gandhi academically, she came to understood his values and philosophy by living in a particular village for over five years. How did she serve? By listening to their needs and trusting in their wisdom to be able to take charge of thier own destiny. In this village the women were complaining that the men were not protecting the forests they needed for food sources. Bahta suggested that perhaps the women could protect thier own forests. Long story short the men were fired, the women took over and all was good until a construction crew came to put a roadway right through the middle of the forest. The empowered village women took it upon themselves to hug the trees and suggest to the construction crew that if they wanted the trees they would have to cut through the women first. Can you imagine both the creativity and courage it took to come up with this peaceful, non violent solution to a very real and dangerous dilemma? As I left my interview with Bahta, she was on her way to a week long village walk along a stretch of border where Maoists were inciting violent protests against the district governmnet and recuriting youth to their terrorist tactics. Bahta's goal was to help the villagers see that they have the power to solve the problems peacefully and persistently without the Maoists. "Aren't you a bit worried about the guns that will be trained on you?" I ask. "Well", Bahta replies,"the danger is real but the cause is necessary. These villagers deserve better. I just want to help them see that they can create it themselves." Bahta is in her 70's--from where does this type of fealessness come?