The term “tree hugger” evokes a simpler time, one long before there was a consensus that climate change posed an existential threat to humanity, when caring about the environment largely seemed to be the preserve of a small group of activists. In popular culture, tree huggers are usually well-meaning, a little eccentric and easily dismissed as hippies. But public imagination is fickle; history is much more violent. The original tree huggers were the people of Khejarli, a village in modern-day Rajasthan in India. In 1730, the Maharaja Abhai Singh gave an order to cut down trees in the village for the construction of a new palace. The villagers, for whom the trees were sacred, hugged them to prevent the soldiers from felling them. It was a massacre. After 363 people were killed, Abhai Singh eventually relented. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Five Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 37 Object Matters A potted history of the bonsai tree. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Dr. Woo Meet the tattoo artist who's inked LA. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Walt Odets The author and clinical psychologist on why self-acceptance is the key to a gay man's well-being. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Chani Nicholas and Sonya Passi Inside the astrology company on a mission to prove workplace well-being is more than a corporate tagline.
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