Hundreds of men, women and children gathered at the holy Jageshwar Dham in Almora district of Uttarakhand on March 8, on the occasion of Mahashivaratri, not just to offer prayers but also tie raksha sootra (thread for protection) around the region’s famous Himalayan cedar trees, considered sacred. Some of the trees are over 500 years old and they surround one of the largest clusters of 125 temples within one complex in the world, situated at 1,870 metres above sea level.
The raksha sootra was tied around more than 1,000 trees that were to be axed for a road widening project under the State government’s ‘Manas Khand Mandir Mala Mission’ that aims to improve connectivity to about 50 temples in Uttarakhand. Jageshwar is one among them. When the Public Works Department earmarked these trees in a three-kilometre stretch from the Artola village to the Jageshwar chain of temples, locals decided to launch a non-violent resistance, similar to the famous Chipko movement of the 1970s to protect Uttarakhand’s forests from the increasing destruction due to rapid industrialisation.
The protest, which began as letters to government officials. Later, the hashtag #SaveJageshwar became a trend on social media platform X, and petitions were launched via change.org. The massive public outcry drew widespread criticism against the government. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami took to social media and said officials had been asked to look for another route for road construction.
