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Chami Murmu
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Social work · Jharkhand

Ten women and a forest movement

Chami Murmu began with ten women and a few saplings. Three decades later, her network spans hundreds of villages, and ties the health of the forest to the incomes of the women who protect it.

Chami Murmuचामी मुर्मू
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Chami Murmu receives the Nari Shakti Puraskar from President Ram Nath Kovind. Photo: Government of India, via Wikimedia Commons

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Born
6 November 1971, Bhursa village
District
Seraikela-Kharsawan, Jharkhand
Work
Tree planting, water conservation, women's self-help groups
Honours
Nari Shakti Puraskar; Padma Shri 2024
500+villages reached
2,800self-help groups
~30,000women taking part

A small team of ten

Chami Murmu brought together the environment and women’s livelihoods in Jharkhand’s Seraikela region. According to her official Padma citation, she was born on 6 November 1971 in Bhursa village, into a poor family. About three decades ago she started planting trees and organising her community with a small team of just ten women.

A network across 500 villages

Over time her network spread to more than 500 villages. Alongside planting, the work included watersheds, diversion canals and rainwater-harvesting structures.

She also linked the environmental work to women’s incomes. The citation records 2,800 self-help groups with about 30,000 women, through goat rearing, pig and poultry farming, agriculture and small loans. She has also worked to support the education of poor tribal girls.

Counting trees honestly

Tree figures for her work come from different years, and they should not be merged into one exact total. Her Padma citation says more than 2 million trees in the last decade; a 2020 PIB profile gave 25 lakh; later reports give 28 lakh.

Her story shows that ecology and livelihoods belong together, and that women-led local institutions can grow to a remarkable scale.

Sources