ITBP team embarks on trek to rediscover ancient routes
26 Mar 2008
AS PART of its ongoing mission to rediscover long lost trekking routes connected with the old Kailash Mansarovar yatra route and then document all related information, a team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) VIIth Battalion embarked on its Almora-Berinag trekking expedition on Tuesday. Almora District Magistrate Nidhi Mani Tripathi flagged off the expedition.
“It is the fourth such expedition being carried out by our officials and jawans to trace the old trekking routes that once formed a part of the ancient route of the fabled Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra,” said Commandant APS Nimbadia of the ITBP’s VIIth Battalion, based at Mirthi in Uttarakhand’s remote border district of Pithoragarh. Stating that the ITBP has completed three such trekking expeditions to explore the old trekking routes, Nimbadia said two more such expeditions would be carried out after the completion of the present trek.
The total length of the trekking route is around 57 kilometres. Speaking to the Hindustan Times, the Commandant said that the three trekking expeditions that various groups of ITBP jawans had undertaken so far were carried out between the Tawaghat-Gala, Pithoragarh-Mirthi and Berinag-Mirthi routes.
The officer identified the remaining two trekking routes as Almora-Kainchidham and Kainchidham-Kathgodam routes. Referring to the ancient Kailash-Mansarovar yatra route, he said it had a tremendous religious, historical and mythological significance.
“In fact, legend has it that even the great Dogra warrior Jorawar Singh and his army followed the same route before they attacked Tibet and won it,” read a note released by the Commandant. Terming the project as “my brainchild”, Nimbadia said that he hit upon the idea of exploring those long-lost trekking routes because of the huge losses the people in Pithoragarh suffered after the rain-triggered landslides literally wreaked havoc in the region last year.
“The damage caused by the landslides was so huge that hundreds of people were left stranded in the Pithoragarh region for days without food, shelter and water,” Nimbadia said. “Seeing their plight, I thought all those marooned people could have been immediately rescued if we had even a slight idea about those long lost trekking routes forming a part of the ancient Kailash Mansarovar yatra route,” he added.
Stating that around 400-kilometres of area to be covered under the project lay between Kathgodam (the last railhead of Kumaon) and Mangtinala (Pithoragarh), Nimbadia said that once discovered, those trekking routes could also emerge as a haven for hikers. “That might also give a tremendous boost to eco-tourism in Uttarakhand,” he added, and said he would submit the report encompassing all information pertaining to the trekking routes currently being explored to his seniors following the completion of the project.
On being asked if those trekking routes should be publicised as hot spots of eco-tourism, the official refused to comment. “I am not competent enough to comment on that because that is something which falls under the jurisdiction of the Uttarakhand government,” he told the Hindustan Times.
News Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/hindustantimes/
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