photo credits [unknown] - posted to Facebook Luciano Picchioni.

“The 1st recorded tree-huggers were villagers in Rajasthan, India who sacrificed themselves in 1730 to protect Khejri trees that their community depended on. The trees were materially important to the villagers in their dry desert landscape. They provided fodder for livestock and firewood for cooking, their leaves and bark, flowers and sap were used in traditional medicines, and the shade they created was a welcome haven for farmers who toiled in the blistering heat. Maharaja Abhay Singh, the ruler of Jodhpur, had sent men to fell the trees but a brave woman called Amrita Devi offered to sacrifice her life if it would spare one tree. The axe-men killed her, and her 3 daughters pleaded for the men to kill them too in place of the trees. They paid the same price.These 4 deaths did not deter the tree-fellers, so many other villagers began to offer their own lives in exchange for the survival of a tree, hugging the trees, to stop the axes. In the bloodbath that followed some 363 men, women and children were slaughtered, but when the Maharajah heard of the villagers’ bravery and devotion he banned any tree-felling from their area.”