REFLECTIONS💕 Char Dham - four holy spots - done, to the best of my ability, the season and accessibility. Yamunotri (5 kms short, most accessible but a bad knee and black ice in patches made it risky); Gangotri (24kms short, snowbound); Kedarnath (16kms short, snowbound); Badrinath (42 kms short, snowbound). After 20 days of travelling in the mountains I feel tourism in these parts is not sustainable. The pollution of the rivers now begins at its very source. 5 kms from Yamunotri, the purported source of the Yamuna, the river bank is littered with all sorts of trash. Most of the roads have huge stretches prone to landslides and rockslides. The constant road building is devastating the forests and the river valleys. There is major urbanisation up in the mountains to service the pilgrim trade and most of it is unplanned and ugly. You may throw your garbage in the dustbin but that dustbin is emptied on a hillside out of town into the very river you've come to worship!😣 The beautiful pictures you see isn't the whole story.
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| Joshimath in Northern Garhwal, Uttarakhand |
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| Auli, ski destination in Uttarakhand |
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| Skiers at Auli, Uttarakhand |
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| A Himalayan bulbul in a wild berry tree, Joshimath, Uttarakhand |
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| Auli, Uttarakhand |
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| Swiss style chalets, Auli, Uttarakhand |
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| Temple at Mukhwa, Bhagirathi Valley, 2650 m, 25 kms from Gangotri |
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| A porter in the snow at Janki Chatti, 2600m. |
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| Snow-capped mountains near Harshil, 2650m, 24kms from Gangotri, Uttarakhand |
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| Village of Kharsali, on the banks of the Yamuna near Janki Chatti. |
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| Snow covered terraces |
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