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National Forest Martyrs Day is observed on 11 September every year for forest personnel who died protecting India's forests and wildlife.
The date commemorates the Khejarli sacrifice of 1730, when members of the Bishnoi community of Rajasthan resisted the felling of Khejri trees; 363 people were killed.
The resistance was led by Amrita Devi Bishnoi, after whom the Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award, instituted in 2000, is named.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change designated 11 September as National Forest Martyrs Day in 2013.
Khejarli is treated as one of the earliest recorded instances of community-led environmental protection in India.
Guru Jambheshwar founds the Bishnoi sect in the Marwar region, laying down 29 tenets that include protection of trees and wildlife
Khejarli: Bishnois led by Amrita Devi resist the felling of Khejri trees on the orders of Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur; 363 are killed
Government of India institutes the Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change designates 11 September as National Forest Martyrs Day
Nodal ministry for forests and wildlife; designated 11 September as National Forest Martyrs Day in 2013 and confers the Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award
GS Paper III > Environment and ecology - conservation; GS Paper I > Indian society and culture
General Awareness > Important Days, Environment, Awards
The 1730 killing of 363 Bishnois resisting the felling of Khejri trees in Marwar, Rajasthan
Prosopis cineraria, the keystone tree of the Thar Desert, protected by Bishnoi custom
The text setting out Guru Jambheshwar's 29 tenets for the Bishnoi community