Nanda Devi Trek: A Pilgrimage to Nature, Culture and Faith !

Nanda Devi Trek - 2019: Book Now

Choose any  trek dates  between 29th April to 17th June 2019

Bonjour !

In case you landed on this page by chasing the set of keywords "Nanda Devi", you should spend some time here to understand the different meanings of Nanda Devi for different set of people. This will help you in identifying the group you belong to ! 

In search of the  meaning of ‘Nanda Devi’ !

Sitoon Idols, Village Lata, Nanda Devi

So today, on the night of December 30^th 2018, when the outside temperature in my village Lata (Gateway to Nanda Devi) is hovering below zero, I outsourced this task to the top three champions of www, Google, Yahoo and Bing. I just typed 'Nanda Devi' before hitting the enter button. The number of searches generated are as under:

Search Engine	Search Results for Nanda Devi*
	1,22,00,000 results

1,890,000 results

1,14,000 Results

*Search result for 'Nanda Devi' on 30th December 2018, 11.44 PM.India Time

Location: Winter village Lata, Nanda Devi Gateway INDIA

Mask of Latu Devta, brother of
Nanda Devi ! Lata Village
Nanda Devi National Park

The search result of 12 million plus on Google reflects the huge amount and wide variety of content available online for the key words ‘Nanda Devi’, while the number of people who actually inhabit the area of Nanda Devi in Niti Valley is less than four thousand souls. As per the laws of probability, it can be stated with .99% levels of confidence that ‘You’ are not amongst those 4 k inhabitants of the Nanda Devi region. So who are you, and what is your definition of ‘Nanda Devi’ and how your definition is similar to or different from the other meanings of ‘Nanda Devi’ that are presently in usage. Let us do a quick and dirty assessment, starting from your privileged perspective first:

• Nanda Devi’ is a domain name which if not available, is used with prefix or suffixes like trek, trekking and camping etc.
• With respect to SEO techniques, the 'Key words-Nanda Devi' are bread crumbs to attract the online traffic searching for a reliable and authentic route to 'Nanda Devi'
• ·‘Nanda Devi’ is a online package for outdoor recreational hiking not necessarily  related to the actual Nanda Devi region. Or “Nanda Devi’ as in a ‘popular trekking destination’.
• 'Nanda Devi' could  be a name of a hotel, restaurant, beauty parlor, transport/travel or trek agency or even of  a residential colony or multi-floor apartment .
• ‘NandaDevi’ an overnight express train between new Delhi and Dehradun
• ‘Nanda Devi’, a State Government of Uttarakhand’s scheme or a program.

Explore Nature, Culture and Faith   Nanda Devi National Park 

Let us  scale down to other meanings of ‘Nanda Devi’ for another set of people:

•  ‘Nanda Devi’, a National Park and Bio Sphere Reserve and protracted area  as summarized in Wikipedia : Nanda Devi, Nanda Devi National Park
•  Nanda Devi:A world Heritage Site for Natural Diversity
• ·Name of a Government post such as Director/Deputy Director, Nanda Devi National Park
• ‘Nanda Devi’, as mentioned in the budget head of a government or non government project
• "Nanda Devi", reminds of the lost nuclear spying device in the headwaters of the Ganges,during the cold war era. 
•  ‘Nanda Devi’ a multi disciplinary research interest

Book Now

Nanda Devi National Park Trek to Nature, Culture and Faith

The real meaning of Nanda Devi !

Now let’s further descend down to grass roots in search of the real meaning of 'Nanda Devi'. Fortunately the plot thickens as one goes further deep in the pursuit  for Nanda Devi. There is a famous couplet by Bihari, a Braj Bhasha Ritikal poet:

या अनुरागी  चित्त  की  गति  समझे  न  कोय,

ज्यों   ज्यों     बूड़े    श्याम    रंग।    त्यों    त्यों   उज्ज्जल    होय। 

Written in the praise of Lord Krishna, it roughly translates to ‘as one goes deeper to associate with the dark color of Krishna, it becomes more  brighter’. Same is the affair with ‘Nanda Devi’

In the remote villages of Uttarakhand Himalayas, people often name their daughters as ‘Nanda’, the suffix ‘Devi’ is added after her marriage. ‘For more than a thousand years, the goddess Nanda was intimately associated with the rulers of the central Himalayas. The most ancient local dynasties attributed their good fortune to her, and local kings gave her gifts of land’. Focusing on the importance of the cult of Nanda Devi in the lives of local women,  William Sax, observes that the Devi’s appeal stems from the fact that her mythology parallels the life-courses of the Uttarakhandi peasant women, just as Nanda Devi’s ritual processions  imitate  their periodic journeys between their natal (मायका)  and marital homes (ससुराल). Here is a sample from a traditional Garhwali song, from his famous book on the traditional royal pilgrimage of Nanda Devi ‘Mountain Goddess’.

‘I miss my mait, swami, so terribly much

In my mait are pounded grain-balls, soft and tasty

…I will eat my fill swami, of pears wild and sweet

I will wrap up the fine things and bring them to you’

Highly Recommended

Nanda Devi (7816 m) is the second highest peak in Indian Himalayas, a national park and bio sphere reserve, the Bliss Giving Goddess and still a member of the family with status of a Dhyaan (married daughter or sister). Mythology, interwoven with culture and society and manifested in the forms of customs and traditional institutions ranging from religious to resource management and equity.    The region of Nanda Devi is also famous for its non violent struggle of Chipko Movement.  Where the actual battle of Chipko was fought and birth place of the Gaura Devi. Incidentally Gaura is one of the names of Nanda Devi. Bill Aitken’s ‘Nanda Devi Affair’ is an excellent portrayal  of the overlapping of Goddess  with the ordinary village women of  Uttarakhand Himalayas. 

Nanda Devi National Park: Nature Interpretation from Cultural Perspective 

Nanda Devi; The Tragic Expedition
By John Roskelly

There is another story, a tragic one, of Willi Unsoeld and his 22 years old daughter. In 1948, Willi, a young student from United States, came to Joshimath for a climbing expedition and saw the grandeur of Nanda Devi. He instantly fell in love with the mountain and decided to name his daughter after the peak of Nanda Devi. His wish was fulfilled in 1954 with the birth of his first child. The old porters in Lata, still remember the 1976 tragic expedition, in which Willi’s daughter Nanda Devi Unsoeld died at the summit camp of her namesake peak. Read more

Nanda Devi National Park Trek: A Pilgrimage to Nature, Culture and Faith !

Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan 

Journeys in Search of the Sacred

 and the Sublime

Stephen Alter

The human instinct of exploration has now reached the space and to Mars and beyond. However their is enough left in the neighborhood  to be explored and experienced. Mountains are a source of inspiration for believers as well as non believers. Till recently, only the initiated ones use to follow the mountain trails inspired by and well informed about the previous explorations of the area. Their physical exertion in sync with  their higher order  brain functions is evident from the quality  travelogues they wrote for all of us. Now the times are changing. There is no space for inspiration, no desire  to even look at the available literature. The inspiration now comes from the 'online deals', social media sharing platforms, peer groups and the weird ad strategy to bombard once the victim shows even a tertiary interest in one of these activities.  The etiquette of trekking has changed. The numbers are increasing both in terms of footfall and repeat footfall. The algorithm of Google Analytics are impacting the remote destinations of the Himalayas. Whatever may be the outcome, the fact is that the invaders are the real victims. In spite of investing their time and money, they are unable to connect with the soul of the Himalayas. 

The Himalayan grass roots are actively exploring ways to connect with the responsible travelers. Here is your chance to initiate  and create your own  Himalaya inside yourself. 

Join Interpretive  Trek to Nanda Devi National Park, INDIA

What is interpretive  trek and how it is different from simple trekking

An interpretive  trek is designed to actively engage the visitors during the entire trail. Majority of the visitors choose a destination to experience the wilderness, landscape, flora-fauna, history and culture of that destination. Most often they don’t find any information or points of engagement where they can learn more after arriving at the destination. A nature trail designed for nature and culture interpretation actively engages the visitors using a wide range of informative tools including formal interpretation center, brochures, signage, and active engagement with the native community. 

The Nanda Devi Interpretive Trek is designed along these lines and a first such experiment under responsible adventure tourism in the Himalayas. Any interpretative trek can not be operated without the active involvement of the local community who are the real custodians of the natural and cultural heritage of their region. Involvement of local community not only helps in value addition to the experience of the visitors, it also encourages conservation and benefit sharing with the primary  stakeholders  in the tourism economy of that region. 

Group Strength: Maximum 15 pax

Altitude Gain: 4180 meters

Trek Dates: 29th April to 17 June 2019

Travel Logistics: Available

Duration: Six days ex Haridwar/Rishikesh

Know more about our Campaign for Cultural Survival and Sustainable Livelihoods in the High Himalayas. Our two decade old struggle for evolving a grass root model for sustainable and equitable tourism in the Nanda Devi National Park region.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suppa_Ceremony.jpg
 
Before  Ciao Ciao

Before concluding, here are few videos of the Nanda Devi area. Its always better to spend some time knowing about the history and culture of the area before committing your time and money  to travel to that 'Destination'. The videos narrate our story and it will be great if you can spend some time to know about us, before committing few days in our sacred mountains !

Apply Here for Nanda Devi National Park Trek Reservations 2019

Video One: 

Invocations To The Mountain Goddess, A UNESCO movie by Christopher Rego 

Video Two: 

Nanda Devi; The Hill Goddess A PSBT film on the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and its relationship with the people of the hills and their lives.

Video Three: Janadhaar 
"The Struggle for Community-owned Tourism in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. This feature-length documentary, which is set in India's Garwhal Himalaya, explores the struggle for community-owned ecotourism and sustainable rural development within the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. Janadhaar, which means 'grassroots' in Hindi, highlights the efforts of one Himalayan community to make a difference in both environmental conservation and participatory economic development.' Text Courtesy From our friend Jade Ajani's (aka Baba Ji) Youtube channel

“Toksa”

#nandadevinationalpark #nandadevitrek #auli #kedarkanthatrek #kuaripasstrek   #dayarabugyaltrek #doditaltrek #roopkundtrek #valleyofflowers #responsible tourism #indiahikes #trekthehimalayas #trekkinginuttarakhand #nandadevitrekdifficultylevel #nandadevinationalparktrekroute

Nanda Devi National Park Interpretive Trek

Understanding the Bio-Cultural Wealth of Nanda Devi National Park

Attention Please!

 In case you landed here while searching for a trek package for Nanda Devi National Park, we request you to prolong your stay for few more minutes. We know you are accustomed  to crisp keyword based ad campaigns showing glossy images with ratings and price first. While the power of images is undoubtedly unquestionable, a destination is more than a image. Since you will be investing your time and money, there is no harm in knowing a bit more about the history and  culture of the area you are planing to visit. Especially when the information is coming from the community, who inhabit that area.

First things first!

This is a promotional piece of writing to convince the prospective responsible travelers to visit our area and give us an opportunity to organize their  trek in our Nanda Devi National Park region.

Prologue Dramatis!

After wasting days and days to learn the so-called art of creative writing (SEO centric), from the online Google University; tutorials on top 10 to top 26 ways on ‘How to strategically throw ‘bread crumbs’ to lure the prospective clients to your online ‘Point of Sale (POS)’. We said, ‘what the heck’, where is the need to glossify, as we are what we are (the only intelligent choice), besides why to create space for a tourism researcher to write a research paper on the impacts of ‘glossification’ on cultural and natural capital of our region. Not that we are in a position to hire a skilled content writer for our blog, so Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the prologue to our blogging attempt (read marketing!).

Check the route of Nanda Devi on Google Map 

Let’s define the Product (Destination)

Sitoon Idols in a sacred cave in Lata.

 A reenactment of the exile of Lord Rama.

Interpretative Trek of Nanda Devi

What we hate but cannot avoid is the term ‘Product’, especially when it’s implications (intentions) are to commodify the indigenous culture and everything which we consider in its all encompassing meaning. Thus while using  the word ‘Tourism Product’,  we wish to specify that our objective is to conserve our cultural heritage and to work consciously to mitigate any negative impacts what so ever while trying to explore and HARVEST the economic opportunities by practicing responsible tourism in our homeland.


You might be wondering why we are so much obsessed with the negative impacts of tourism when every fifth online startup in India is focusing on tourism. The reason is, such online aggregators are least interested in the sustainability of the destinations, while we as a native community would like to focus on sustainable and equitable tourism. There are lots of studies on the negative impacts of online enterprises selling tourism products, for instance the case of Airbnb. It’s not about drawing inference from a case study alone. Our region has also suffered from the unrestricted mountaineering, which eventually  resulted in the notification of large part of our sacred lands as a National Park in 1982 and an initial ban on human entry for 10 years, which is mysteriously still continuing in 2018. Long story ahh…read more ......This also reminds me about an old letter that my father wrote to a conservationist explaining his grass root perspective from Ground Zero. 

Nanda Devi National Park  ___ Our sacred mountains

In 1982, large parts of our sacred mountains were notified as a National Park. Since time immemorial, our ancestors regarded the peak of Nanda Devi as the Patron Goddess of our region.  While there were valid reasons behind this notification, our summer dwellings at Dharansi were  also included within the core-zone of the Nanda Devi National Park.  Part of the reason was in the inability of the Uttar Pradesh Government to understand the transhumant lifestyle

Nanda Devi from Gorson, November 2006
Image by Kainthola

of our community.  The due procedures required during the notification process were never followed, and the local forest officials misguided our elders through false promises of jobs and alternate grazing pastures. The centuries old tradition of offering prayers to Dubri Devi at Dharansi before collecting Brahma Kamal (Saussurea obvallata) was forcefully stopped. Incidentally, this happened after a couple of years, when our community fought with the Forest Department to save forests. You must have heard of the Chipko  Movement, our region was in the forefront of the Chipko. The same Forest Department which was just an agency for the commercial extraction of the forests during 1970s, returned in its new avatar of the 'sole proprietor of  bio-diversity conservation', in 1982. Well the Chipko boomeranged on us! This is the social history of the Nanda Devi area, which you won’t find on your Google search results while searching for a trek package to our area.

Nanda DeviNational Park is a natural wonder with vertical landscape, deep valleys and gorges towered by a complex of mighty Himalayan peaks, and  remained out of bound of the humanity before the 1934 successful attempt  by Shipton and Tillman. Within the 620 + sq km core zone of the Nanda Devi National Park lies the inner  Sanctuary, a glacial basin surrounded by a ring of peaks between 6,000 metres (19,700 ft) and 7,500 m (24,600 ft) high, and drained by the Rishi gorge. The park is a natural habitat of numerous  large mammals including Musk Deer, Snow Leopards, Himalayan Tahr, and Himalayan Black Bears and over 100 plus species of avian fauna with more than 300 species of alpine flora.

To appreciate the physiography  of the Nanda Devi, we suggest you to watch the Google Earth Fly Through tour on  YouTube,  produced by Ron. B 

You will find tons of videos and thousands of images of the Nanda Devi National Park region but relatively very less  information about the people who inhabit these blessed lands. The guys who are offering our mountains as a destination are totally unaware of our culture, our history and not bothered about our struggles and aspirations. Frankly, its pretty easy to hire a team of content writer and photographer to what they claim  as, 'officially documented trek on their websites'. Culture and history is not their forte as it requires more than SEO optimization while selling the entire destinations from Kashmir to Arunanchal. The aggregator based online tourism has reached its saturation levels. There is no point in challenging this trend as we are confident that the tide will gradually change from  high volume 'meadow trampling' treks to low volume immersive experiences. There are couple of ethical and legal issues concerning the present state of adventure tourism in Indian Himalayas. Here is the link to our open letter addressed to responsible travelers !

Before we conclude this post with defining the salient features of our Nanda Devi National Park Trek offer, we would like to share a full length documentary on our struggle for Community Owned Tourism. Produced by Jade Ajani and David Meek, its a process documentation of our 'Inaugural All women's Trek' (2006) involving various stakeholders. 

Documentory : Janadhaar-Livelihood issues in the Nanda Devi National Park, India

Introducing the Nanda Devi National Park Interpretive Trek 

Interpretive  Trek vis-à-vis other trekking options

Interpretive treks are value added outdoor nature trail products designed to engage the visitors by providing information on the natural and socio cultural history of the destination. The interpretation continues as the visitor trek along the trail route. An Interpretive trek is designed to deliver what a visitor actually seeks from a destination. 

 Interpretive Nature and Culture trail to Nanda Devi National Park

The Interpretive  Trek to the Nanda Devi National Park has been designed to take control of the tourism operations in the forests and meadows legally owned by the Gram Sabha of Lata under the Van Panchayat Rules (2005). As a community institution, "Van Panchayats in Uttarakhand  were born out of conflicts and compromises that followed the settlements and reservations of forests in the hills at turn of the last century".

Some statistics to share !

Uttarakhand covers an area of 53,483 Sq Km which is 1.63 % of the total geographical area of the country. Statistics suggest that over 60% of the total geographical area in Uttarakhand is under forest cover. This is based on averages, however the total forest cover in the mountain districts is much higher. Out of the total forest coverage over 13 % is under the Van Panchayats. 

Image Source: Jagran 

Uttarakhand is a popular adventure tourism destination, which involves usage of the wilderness and landscape of the forested areas including the entry inside the natural wealth owned by the local communities under Van Panchayats. While there is an increase in the footfalls of adventure lovers creating  economy of billions, the share of the local community is insignificant and its more like a deal between an online aggrigator and adventure to conduct a trekking service without the consent and involvement of the actual owners of those meadows/forests. One one hand the online aggregators are making huge profits, there is an exodus from the very villages where the tourism boom is happening. The recent report by the State Governments' Rural Development and Migration Commission   indicates that over 700 villages in the Uttarakhand's mountainous region falls under the category of  Ghost Villages, with 100% out-migration.   The lack of livelihood opportunities is creating a severe economic distress resulting in the sale of land to builders and colonizers. 


The Interpretive Trek is a humble initiative to address some of the aforementioned issues of livelihood and bio cultural conservation of the Nanda Devi National Park region in Niti Valley of Uttarakhand. Interpretive Trek is a value added offer to showcase the  cultural and physical landscape of the Nanda Devi National park. Its a creative response against the invasion of the common social and environmental space by the forces of irresponsible tourism.

Interpretive Trek Package to Nanda Devi includes:

•  Community led trek to the Nanda Devi National Park
• Visit to the Interpretation Center on bio-cultural diversity
• Interpretive trail to Lata Kharak and Saini Kharak meadows
• Stay at Shepherds Lodge Devangan on the first and last day
• Home Stay at Tolma and camping at Kanook and Lata Kharak
• Pick up and drop arrangements from Haridwar/Rishikesh and Dehradun airport
• Souvenir shop
• Village visit and interaction
• Access to the NDI library

The trek dates are open from 29th April to 17th June 2019. Its designed as a low volume event with maximum 15 pax intake a day. For further details plz visit our  website: 

 Nanda Devi Institute of Adventure Sports and Outdoor Education

Sitoon Idols of Lord Rama, Sita and Laxman
Celebrated every 14 years in Lata

 

Epilogue: As advised by the  online SEO tutorials we have tried to include all the relevant keywords to make this post appear on the first page of Google search. We are aware that it is not possible without adsense, which is out of our budget at the moment. Only few of the blessed ones will be able to reach this page which is fine as our appetite for numbers is relatively small. 

 Some two decades ago we started our  journey with a dream, and this post is a reflection of that dream !

See You Soon !

#nandadevinationalpark #nandadevitrek #nandadevinationalpark

trekà bientôt

 #kuaripasstrek #kedarkanthatrek #dayarabugyaltrek #doditaltrek 

#responsibletourism #indiahikes #auli #trekthehimalayas #nandadevi #valleyofflowers #interpretativetreknandadevi #traveltrianglenandadevinationalpark #valleyofflowers #tripadvisornandadevinationalpark  #trektonandadevi #renokadventuresnandadevi #indiahikesnandadevi #roopkundtrek