Sunderlal Bahuguna
environmental activist from Uttarakhand, India (1927-2021)
Sunderlal Bahuguna (9 January 1927 – 21 May 2021) was an Indian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader. The idea of the Chipko movement was suggested by his wife Vimla Bahuguna and him. He fought for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, and later spearheaded the anti-Tehri Dam movement from the 1980s to early 2004. He was one of the early environmentalists of India, and later he and others associated with the Chipko movement started taking up wider environmental issues, such as being opposed to large dams.
Early life
Sunderlal Bahuguna was born in the village Maroda near Tehri, Uttarakhand. He claimed in a function arranged at Kolkata, that his ancestors bearing surname Bandyopadhyaya, migrated from Bengal to Tehri, 800 years ago. Early on, he fought against untouchability and later started organising hill women in his anti-liquor drive from 1965 to 1970. He started social activities at the age of 13, under the guidance of Shri Dev Suman, who was a nationalist spreading a message of non-violence, and he was with the Congress Party of Uttar Pradesh at the time of Independence. Bahuguna also mobilised people against colonial rule before 1947. He adopted Gandhian principles in his life and married his wife Vimla with the condition that they would live among rural people and establish ashram in village.
The public source identifies “Sunderlal Bahuguna” as environmental activist from Uttarakhand, India (1927-2021). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sunderlal, Bahuguna and environmental.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Sunderlal Bahuguna”, the useful work is to connect “environmental activist from Uttarakhand, India (1927-2021)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3595121. VIAF identifies the subject as 58217551. The Library of Congress control number is n89287125. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2021, 2004 and 1965.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sunderlal Bahuguna”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sunderlal Bahuguna primary sources, Sunderlal Bahuguna archive and Sunderlal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sunderlal Bahuguna”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sunderlal Bahuguna” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.