The Valley of Flowers, Chamoli, Uttarakhand

The Valley of Flowers National Park (87.50 km², latitude 30° 41' - 30° 48'N and longitude 79° 33' - 79° 46'E) is located in Chamoli Garhwal, about 595 km northeast of India’s capital Delhi in the state of Uttaranchal. The Valley of Flowers was declared World Heritage Site in July 2005. Its altitude ranges from 3,200 m to 6,675 m. Such a variation in the altitude provides a great diversity of landscape and microhabitats.

The Valley of Flowers

The credit to popularize the Valley of Flowers among masses generally goes to a British mountaineer- Frank S. Smythe and his colleague R.L. Holdsworth who incidentally reached this valley after a successful expedition of Mount Kamet in 1931. Fascinated by its beauty and grandeur, Frank S. Smythe revisited this area in 1937 and published a book "The Valley of Flowers” in 1938. But according to Manmohan Sharma’s book on the Valley of Flowers published in 1985, it was Colonel Edmund Smythe, an explorer and Education Officer in the Indian Army who visited this valley much earlier in 1862.

However, there are no doubt that F.S. Smythe’s lucid writings made this valley world famous. A small paragraph from the Valley of Flowers (1938) is quoted below:

For a small beautiful flower- Primula, Smythe writes "In all my mountain wanderings I had not seen a more beautiful flower than this Primula. The fine rain drops clung to its soft petals like galaxies of seed pearls and frosted its leaves with silver”.

In 1939 Joan Margrett Legge from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew of England visited the VOF for plant collection. Unfortunately while collecting plants she fell off a cliff and died. The scripture at her tomb `I will lift up mine eyes unto the Himalaya from whence cometh my help' reminds us of her faith in the Himalaya. B.N. Ghildiyal in 1956 made a trip to this valley and published its floral account in 1957. Recognizing the valley's popularity and its floral wealth all over the world, the then Government of Uttar Pradesh designated its 87.50 km² area as a National Park in 1982, hoping to preserve the ecological integrity of the entire Bhyundar Valley, and also to conserve its floral diversity. Prior to 1982, the entire Bhyundar Valley was used as a summer grazing ground for migratory pastoralists.According to the local people every year two or three flocks (Tolis) of sheep and goats would camp in the valley from early June to late September.

Each 'toli' contained about 700-1000 sheep, goats and a few horses. Besides, buffaloes and cows of Bhyundar village numbering about 40-50 would also be left in the valley. The shepherds used two routes viz., one from the present entrance to the valley via Pairra and another from Hanuman Chatti (from Badrinath side) to upland valley of Kunt Khal from where they would descend to upper slopes and further down to the centre of the valley. The major camping sites were Bamini Dhaur, Kunt Khal, Bistoli, Lower Drunager, Tipra and Sewachand. The shepherds would use about 5 ha area at each place where their livestock would halt at night and let loose to roam freely on the slopes or flat lands during the day hours. After notification of the park the villagers have shifted their grazing activities to the lower and side valleys away from the National Park viz., Kanjila, Roopdhunga, Semartoli, and Rajkharak.

Accessibility

The ascent to the Valley of Flowers begins from the small settlement of Govindghat (1800 m), 22 km beyond Joshimath en-route to Badrinath. After crossing a suspension bridge over the Alaknanda a 3 km trek brings one to the small village Pulna with basic facilities to tourists. The next 9 km trek from Pulna to Govind Dham (Ghangaria) is for the most part along the Bhyundar Ganga. This route is punctuated with waterfalls, wild flowers, forests and beautiful landscapes. On the way there is one more small migratory village- Bhyundar, named after the river and surrounded by dense broadleaf moist temperate forest. The last stretch is a steep ascent to Govind Dham, 3 km beyond which lies the Valley of Flowers.

At Ghangaria there are two suits in the Forest Rest House and a bed capacity of 50 in Tourist Rest House. They have lodging facilities only on pre-reservation. Few tents are pitched nearby for tourists by Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam. There are almost 20 lodges which costs differ as per the facilities and in-flow of tourists. There is a big Gurudwara at Ghangaria and its door is open for all.

Reference: Research work by Dr. Chandra Prakash Kala
Website: http://geocities.com/cpkala/