Champawat (Uttarakhand), 30 Aug 2007

Hundreds of villagers throw stones at each other, as part of an annual ritual to please Champawat Village’s local diety.

This very unusual fair is celebrated annually at the temple of “Varahidevi”, as a part of “Devi Dhura” festival held in Champawat. This fair is known as BAGWAL MELA.

Village youngsters form two teams and start pelting stones at each other.he only way to shield oneself during the stone pelting ritual is to hide behind a large wooden umbrella.

‘Bagwaal’ begins after prayers at the Goddess Varahi Temple, whose image is kept in a locked brass casket.

“The festival is celebrated to maintain our culture, to perform acts of bravery and to give up oneself to the will of the Goddess,” said Bhuwan Chand Joshi, the chief priest of the Varahidevi Temple.

Thousands of people participate in the festival and term of their serious injuries, as the Goddess’ blessing.

“We are devotees of the Goddess, and therefore, it is our duty to play the game. We are willing to serve the goddess at the cost of our lives. We will participate in the festival next year too,” said Laxman Singh Langaria, a villager.

According to Hindu epic Mahabharat, Bhima, one of the five Pandav brothers who was exiled after they lost a game of dice to their Kaurav cousins, had killed a demon in this village.

The ritual marks Bhima’s triumph over the demon, with locals enacting the battle.

In ancient times, human sacrifices were performed to mark the occasion. But the temple priest and locals decided to stop it after the mother of a person to be sacrificed prayed for his life.

The festivities end in the evening with rival villagers embracing each other and to offering prayers at the temple. (ANI)

News Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com

18 Aug 2007

According to reliable sources, Uttaranchal government, in association with the state forest department, has moved up a proposal to auction the riverside/beach for setting up of more establishments. The government is still working on the proposal with several aspects yet to be finalised, the source said.

The industry, meanwhile, has reacted negatively and is working strongly towards getting its opinion heard and get a few regulations attached to the proposal. Mandip Singh Soin, vice president of Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) submits that the Ganga riverside is an ecological haven and the people who already have their camps set up there are doing great work in preserving the environment. But auctioning will lead to new participants setting up camps, which will only damage the ecology.

He added that people running camps here for long have setup lodges and off-site arrangements for accommodation and it is not possible for them to keep re-establishing this arrangement every year. “Ironically till now there is no upper limit being set by the government authorities on the number of campsites that can be set up in the area,” he commented.

The government was unaware of the possibility of such opportunities a few years ago. It is only after the private players’ success here that the government has begun to make its share through different means and this time it has used the way of auctioning.

News Source: http://www.expresstravelworld.com

Rudraprayag, 13 Aug 2007

Environmentalist Jai Prakash Dabral waged one of the biggest environmental battles at ground zero by motivating people in Tadkeshwar at Rudraprayag to start a Chipko-style campaign which he called the Raksha Sutra.

But Dabral knew that the villager’s peaceful protest would only provide for a temporary solution. And therefore he decided to move Supreme Court and file a PIL against the proposed chopping of trees by the Powergrid Corporation of India.

“The Powergrid Corporation had taken a sanction from the Ministry of Environment for 90,000 trees. After our intervention after they had already cut more than 5,000 trees. We intervened, and were able to save most of the trees. The entire number of tree felling on the entire transmission line has now been reduced from 90,000 to just about 10,000,” says Dabral.

Though the Supreme Court’s directive was remarkable, things only got tougher for Dabral after that.

He started receiving death threats from Tehri’s local timber mafia. But an undeterred Dabral decided to expose the nexus to the SC and the Media.

“Each tree is valued at around Rs 30,000. For 90,000 trees the value would have been Rs 270 crore. Right from the chief minister, the forest minister, the forest department officials, the DFO, the ranger, everybody is getting a share in this,” informs Dabral.

The Environmentalist, who stepped out of the corporate boardroom to keep a promise 12 years ago, has been his motivation till date.

“It was the promise which I had given to my grandmother. I had promised her that when I have done something in life I would positively come back to the hills and contribute to the development of the hills. This is ambition for me. Whatever life I have left, I am going to devote entirely to the hills,” says Dabral.

News Source: http://www.ibnlive.com

Dehradun, 13 Aug 2007

After the decline in the tiger population, Uttarakhand has now reported a sharp drop of 10 per cent in the number of elephants, mainly tuskers, in the state.

The latest census report of 2005-07 has revealed that the number has come down to 1,346 from 1,510 recorded two years ago. The population of elephants stood at 1,582 in 2003 which clearly indicates that the situation has worsened during the past four years.

But the Uttarakhand Wildlife Department, which conducted the census, is not worried over the report and says there were hardly any incident of poaching.

“There is no cause for concern as of now. But we are very alert as far as elephants are concerned,” said S K Chandola, Chief Wildlife Warden of Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand has two national parks–Rajaji and Corbett- and six wildlife sanctuaries. The tiger population in the state has declined from 251 in 2001 to 241 in 2005 as per the last census.

The census report on elephants, presented to the state government, has said that Haridwar Forest Division is the worst affected area where nearly 100 elephants have gone missing.

Top forest officials fear that some of the elephants have met with accidents like electrocution while others could have migrated to neighbouring states Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

The report said nearly 45 elephants died due to various reasons including accidents out of which 28 were tuskers.

Nearly 119 elephants have also been reported missing in the state with wildlife officials saying they have no knowledge about their whereabouts.

Sixteen elephants died in Corbett National Park which had earlier reported a healthy sex ratio among the pachyderms.

Significantly, train accidents involving elephants have not been reported for the past five years following various measures taken by the railway authorities and the forest department.

News Source: http://www.hindu.com

5 Aug 2007
By Chandan Mitra

Travelling by road is simultaneously an exhilarating and exasperating experience in India. Regular readers of The Pioneer, Darpan and now, Exotica would know that I love long road journeys, usually driving myself. Last week, I took some days off mixing business with pleasure to scour roads less travelled in one of India’s most picturesque States, Uttarakhand (Uttaranchal sounded so much lovelier and musical, but that’s another matter).

The business part was to finalise arrangements for the forthcoming launch of The Pioneer’s seventh edition from Dehra Dun, scheduled for mid-September. The pleasure aspect was spending a couple of days in and around Ramgarh in the Nainital district to scan vignettes of pristine beauty in the Himalayan foothills.

Fortunately, most places we visited are still unspoilt, although Ramgarh and its immediate environs are fast acquiring the obscenity of South Delhi neighbourhoods. This is the fallout of an invasion of people with wads of ill-gotten money scampering to grab property. I hope and pray this incredibly serene, secluded retreat does not go the Shimla or Manali way.

After two delightfully relaxed days in Ramgarh, we decided to travel to Dehra Dun not by the conventional route via Moradabad, but the cross-mountain track through Ranikhet, Gairsain, Karnprayag, Devprayag and Rishikesh. Locals tried hard to dissuade us pointing to the vagaries of the monsoon months, which invariably bring landslides, flash floods and related hazards.

But much as I remain nostalgic about UP, I detest its roads and overcrowded qasbas. Driving even through so-called highways in the western part of the State is a nightmare because people who seem permanently camped on the roadside are an obdurate lot, cyclists and two-wheeler drivers are worse, tractor-trolleys by definition unruly, and the sight of emaciated horses being mercilessly whipped by ekka-drivers even as the underfed creatures are made to gallop with a load of at least a dozen people, disturbs me immensely. Give me a bad hill road any day, in comparison.

And bad it was in the end. The first part of the journey from Bhowali junction to Gairsain, though, was spectacular. We passed through the breathtakingly scenic valley at Ganai, replete with a magnificent river in full monsoon flow, exuding the seductive charm of a sensuous young woman. As we proceeded, we gazed upon the unusual sight of a fierce waterfall emerging from a steep mountainside. It looked like the unkempt tresses of a silver-blonde that swiftly disappeared into the resplendent foliage of the hillside after dropping precipitously for a couple of hundred feet.

A riot of colour ruptured the tyranny of green as we climbed further. Flowers – maroon, flamingo red, yellow and purple -covered the genteel slopes. The gurgle of brooks regularly punctuated the overwhelming sound of silence. In the distance, quaint birds gave out mating calls and I spotted a gigantic albino kite take flight from dizzy heights, presumably having spotted an unwary prey. Nature was in command; man so irrelevant to God’s scheme of things here.

Almost reluctantly, we reached Gairsain once touted as the Capital-to-be of a yet-unborn hill State. The nondescript village was chosen by the original architects of Uttarakhand as the future Capital because of its geographical location straddling the geo-political entities Garhwal and Kumaon that are locked in perpetual sibling rivalry. There are decrepit signboards on the way proclaiming this to be “Rajdhani Kshetra Chandra Nagar (Gairsain)”, so named in memory of Chandra Singh Garhwali, the sepoy who led a revolt in Peshawar against British rule in 1931. I was certain that if nothing else, we would find a sarkari tourist facility there and my hunch was right. Gairsain is a sleepy village with the usual cluster of shops and motor mechanics and Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam’s Tourist Bungalow built in shimmering glass and concrete sits awkwardly at its entrance. We walked in to find not a soul on its premises, used the toilet and left without confronting anyone – the babus who were evidently on “duty”, judging by the sheaves of paper lying on the manager’s table, must have been enjoying an early siesta. A forlorn billboard proclaiming the presence of a well-known Delhi property developer was the only other sign of Gairsain’s missed opportunity.

It’s just too far from anywhere to be the State Capital irrespective of its geographical centrality. By that logic, Bhopal or Nagpur, certainly not Delhi, ought to be India’s Capital. Still, Gairsain is beautiful and I do hope it finds place among Uttarakhand’s tourism destinations some day.

With a dynamic and focused Chief Minister like Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, I am certain Uttarakhand will go places. His stewardship of the Surface Transport Ministry during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Prime Ministership was exemplary; Gen Khanduri was the executor of the Golden Quadrilateral project, which, despite the ineptitude and widely alleged corruption of his successors, is making a huge difference to contemporary India wherever it has been completed.

That is why I was pained driving through incredibly damaged tracks on the stretch between Gairsain and Karnprayag, especially a 12-km nightmare from Adi Badri to Simli. The ordeal did not end once we reached Karnprayag, bang on the route to the pilgrim centre of Badrinath and ski resort of Auli. While the drive was significantly better after some time and we reached Devprayag via Rudraprayag and Srinagar in good time, thereafter the road has simply ceased to exist. Evidently, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) undertook to widen the road connecting Devprayag and Rishikesh but abandoned the work with the onset of monsoon. As a result, humungous boulders and massive trees have descended on what used to be the road, officially National Highway 87, making it almost impossible to negotiate especially after sundown. Considering the density of traffic on this route, it is criminal to leave people to travel at their own risk on a road bordered by steep hills on one side and the raging Ganga on the other.

Upon inquiry in Dehra Dun, I discovered that the Government of India has not released stipulated funds to NHAI which, in turn, is unable to pay the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to speedily complete the project. Yet, even the Bhowali-Karnprayag stretch, covering nearly 200 km, has been assigned to NHAI as it now sports the NH 87E (extension) label. What is the point of asking NHAI to take over corridors that it cannot adequately maintain? And why starve BRO of funds to rapidly complete road projects that are crucial both to tourism and defence? I share Gen Khanduri’s anguish over the UPA Government de-prioritising India’s highway hopes. We can cry hoarse over China building a metalled road to the Everest base camp, but the fact is that they have built some splendid six-lane expressways throughout their country. Our present regime, on the other hand, thinks road-building is immaterial because it feels proverbial Hindu fatalism will accept just about every sloppiness. That kind of negligence causes 80,000 deaths every year on our fatal highways.

News Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com

Dehradun, 4 Aug 2007

Rains continued to wreak havoc in Uttarakhand Friday destroying several houses and with water level in Tehri reservoir rising, authorities have warned people living in low-lying areas to move to safety.

Fresh landslides hit Jan-ki-Chatti area blocking the pilgrimage to Yamunotri, said officials of the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre (DMMC) here.

The pilgrimage to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri has been halted for the past two days.

Major rivers like Ganga, Yamuna and Sharda continued to be in spate with Ganga hovering around the danger level at a number of places.

Water level in Tehri reservoir rose by two meters to reach 778 meters and authorities have warned people in low-lying areas along it to vacate their homes.

Similar warnings have also been issued in Dehradun by District Magistrate, Rakesh Kumar, who has asked residents along the swollen Rispana river to shift.

Dehradun recorded 114 mm of rains since Thursday, said MeT Director, Anand Sharma.

Several houses in the Uttarakhand capital have also been destroyed due to heavy rains with water inundating localities like Vijay Colony and Topovan.

Hotels in Badrinath
News Source: http://www.hindu.com