Kedarnath Wildlife
Sanctuary -- A Travelogue Situated in
the heart of the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary,
Chopta has inspired many a nature-lover over the
years.
The
sanctuary makes an excellent trekking route,
very often it is termed as the
‘Switzerland of the Himalayas’ and a
‘Photographer’s Paradise’. Therefore, it
shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that
I opted for Chopta when my boss gave me the
option to go anywhere in the Garhwal
Himalayas.
What
guided my choice for the place was the
presence of rare musk deer in the area.
Trekking through Kedarnath Sanctuary in
Chopta, one gets to see the same, pale
yellow cottages with bottle green tin roofs,
standing in the lush green meadows (...and a
few tourists adding life to it, for sure). I
wanted to click it differently, and bring
out the lesser-clicked beauty of the virgin
snow that other lenses seemed to have
missed.
This, and the time you spend waiting at the
bus stand, turns out to be more than twice
the time your personal vehicle would take to
cover the same distance. Moreover, a few
buses in the hills are in extremely bad
condition. Breakdowns are not uncommon, and
once that happens, you can end up wasting a
lot of time. But the biggest reason for
using on my own vehicle is photography.
You might (read will) find a series of
fascinating frames every hundred metres. and
I would not like to miss some of those
frames for anything in the world!
We left on the scheduled date from Delhi,
and after a drive of six hours and 225 km,
we were in Rishikesh. We decided to spend
the night in the holy city and started off
early next morning.
The road to Mandal passes through some of
most picturesque villages of the region and
a telephoto lens is a valuable asset if one
wants to capture the snow-covered peaks.
It is almost an hour to reach Mandal, which
is the last village on the periphery of the
Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. It is also the
last halt for motor-driven vehicles in
winter. We could barely go 4kms after Mandal,
and we chanced upon fresh snow, an
indication that it was time to get down and
start up your thrilling adventure trekking.
This part of the jungle is full of wildlife.
The most commonly-found species are the musk
deer, muntjac, or the barking deer,
Himalayan black bear, the leopard and fox.
These animals prefer to stay near the snow
line in winter because it too cold up in the
hills, and too risky down in the village.
We could see a large variety of lichens
growing on the rocks, a few so thick and
heavy that they were hanging like curtains
from tree trunks. The snow on the road was
uneven – a few centimeters to a few inches
deep. This side of the mountain did not face
the sun, which was probably why everything
here was dark and slippery. It was around 3
p.m., and the warmth of the sun was forcing
the snow of the previous night to slide down
the pine leaves- the sound of which often
sent shivers down our spines as it were so
close to that of an animal creeping up on
us, stealthily.
On the second day, driving along the rivers
Ganga and Alaknanda, we passed the towns of
Deoprayag (302 km; all distances are from
Delhi), Srinagar (340 km), Rudraprayag (374
km), Gauchar (396 kms), Karanprayag (408km),
Nandaprayag (429 km), Chamoli (439 km),
Gopeshwar (449 km). We decided to halt in
Gopeshwar for the night and leave for Chopta
the following day after making sure we had
all our provisions.
The
sanctuary makes an excellent trekking route,
very often it is termed as the
‘Switzerland of the Himalayas’ and a
‘Photographer’s Paradise’. Therefore, it
shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that
I opted for Chopta when my boss gave me the
option to go anywhere in the Garhwal
Himalayas.
We left on the scheduled date from Delhi,
and after a drive of six hours and 225 km,
we were in Rishikesh. We decided to spend
the night in the holy city and started off
early next morning.
We could see a large variety of lichens
growing on the rocks, a few so thick and
heavy that they were hanging like curtains
from tree trunks. The snow on the road was
uneven – a few centimeters to a few inches
deep. This side of the mountain did not face
the sun, which was probably why everything
here was dark and slippery. It was around 3
p.m., and the warmth of the sun was forcing
the snow of the previous night to slide down
the pine leaves- the sound of which often
sent shivers down our spines as it were so
close to that of an animal creeping up on
us, stealthily.