Beena Chaudhary, born in Gola Bazar, Srinagar (Pauri Garhwal), to Shri Rookam Singh, began her journey as a grassroots leader with a vision rooted in community well-being. After completing her Intermediate education, she established Chaudhary Beauty Parlour, which soon evolved beyond a business into a community hub for women’s empowerment and awareness.
Through her parlour, Beena initiated literacy circles, menstrual hygiene workshops, sanitation campaigns, and financial literacy sessions—creating real, lasting change at the local level. Her deep connection to the people and place laid the foundation for what would become Prakriti Paryavaran Sansthan.
Physical, mental, social, moral, economic, cultural, cottage-industry, character, religious, and intellectual advancement of marginalized communities.
Forming self-help collectives offering legal literacy, vocational training, and micro-finance linkages.
Organizing tailoring, beauty-services, and agricultural-technique workshops.
Campaigns against dowry, child marriage, and alcoholism.
Enabling financial self-reliance for women through savings-credit linkages.
Protecting rivers (particularly the Alaknanda/Ganga tributaries), forests, and Himalayan biodiversity.
Running vaccination drives, malnutrition outreach, sanitation projects, and adult-literacy centers.
Promoting village homestays, adventure trails, and preserving the Dhari Devi pilgrimage site.
Fostering secular service, leadership, and participatory governance.
Beena Chaudhary’s enduring goal is an Uttarakhand where empowered communities—especially women—serve as vigilant guardians of sacred rivers, forests, and cultural heritage. Her current priorities:
Election Victory: Beena ran as an independent ward councilor in Srinagar Nagar Palika. Her campaign centered on clean drinking water, proper waste disposal, street lighting for women’s safety, and improved health clinics.
Council Work: As councilor she raised questions in public sessions about budget transparency, organized local “jan sunwai” (people’s hearings) in each ward, and secured small grants for community toilets and solar-powered street lamps.
Launch & Growth: Within a year of her election, Beena brought together over 100 women from neighboring villages into a registered “Mahila Mitra Mandal.”
Activities:
Literacy Circles: Weekly classes teaching basic reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Skill Camps: Monthly workshops on tailoring, natural cosmetic-making, and small-scale poultry rearing.
Legal Aid Booths: Collaborations with local lawyers to provide free counseling on property rights, dowry harassment, and domestic violence.
The June 2013 Uttarakhand floods, triggered by extreme cloudbursts and unregulated construction, drowned thousands and devastated riverside villages.
Beena’s Role: She co-drafted and filed a Public Interest Litigation in India’s Supreme Court, challenging 24 proposed high-altitude hydropower dams that threatened temple sites (e.g., Dhari Devi), fish migration and sediment-flow in the Ganga basin.
Outcome: In October 2013, the Court ordered an interim stay on 23 of these projects, citing violation of environmental impact assessment norms and cultural heritage laws.
Issue: A newly licensed liquor shop near a school and temple in her ward led to increased domestic fights and public drunkenness.
Tactics: Beena and 15 fellow women maintained an 11-day hunger strike outside the ward office, staged sit-ins on the main Srinagar highway, and organized daily “prayer-rallies” with local priests.
Resolution: The District Magistrate agreed to relocate the shop to a commercial zone, far from sensitive areas—setting a precedent that community health concerns must trump liquor licensing convenience.
Allegations: Beena filed a writ petition in Nainital High Court against the GVK group’s 330 MW Srinagar project, charging it with illegal disposal of construction muck into the Alaknanda, damage to the historic Dhari Devi bridge, and undermining highway embankments.
Status: The case (Civil Writ No. …/2013) remains pending, but has led the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to repeatedly caution developers to adhere to sediment-control and heritage-site protocols
Pankaj Chamoli (2012): Upon learning of his disappearance, Beena and 20 local women staged a “kotwali-gherao” (police station sit-in) for three days straight. Only after public pressure did the police locate Pankaj’s body the next morning on Budhani Road.
Iram’s Case: When a young woman named Iram went missing, Beena led nighttime vigils and organized daily press briefings, compelling the Srinagar police to reopen the investigation and eventually arrest suspects.
March 27, 2012: Hosted a public seminar in Chaudhary Gali ward hall on the ecological pros and cons of the proposed Nagar Jal Vidyut (municipal hydropower) scheme—inviting engineers, forest officials, and shrine committee members.
April 31, 2012: Convened a “think-tank” at the Alaknanda riverside, with students and journalists, analyzing river-temperature changes and fish-spawn disruptions near project sites.
May 3, 2012: Mobilized 150 volunteers for a riverbank clean-up drive along 5 km of Alaknanda shore—collecting 2 tons of plastic waste—and led a midday rally with street-theater performances depicting a polluted river’s “death.”
Account Holder Name : PRAKRITI PARYAVARAN SANSTHAN
Bank Name : Punjab National Bank
IFSC Code : PUNB0085400
Account Number : 0854002100015567
Branch Address : SRINAGAR (Pauri Garhwal) Uttarakhand
Account Holder Name : PRAKRITI PARYAVARAN SANSTHAN
Bank Name : Punjab National Bank
IFSC Code : PUNB0085400
Account Number : 0854002100015567
Branch Address : SRINAGAR (Pauri Garhwal) Uttarakhand