Fast increasing craving for express travel through the Himalayas, if not planned well, could be disastrous and derail our tourism promotion strategies.
Kedarnath
Kedarnath’s Precarious Future: Reconciling Faith, Development, and Environmental Reality
The trajectory of developmental initiatives around Kedarnath is a clear indication of precarious future of the holy shrine. We need to be mindful while planning and promoting commercialisation in these pristine environments.
Himalayan Pilgrimage: Balancing Devotion with Danger in Uttarakhand’s Skies
Aerial Himalayan pilgrimage is fraught with risks, induced both by terrain and weather conditions. It is therefore required to limit helicopter operations and promote pilgrims to trek.
Santa’s Flying Taxi vs Banta’s Moth in the Dragon’s Throat
Complexities related to terrain and weather conditions in the Himalayan region make Helicopter operations risky. Besides stringent monitoring and regulation, the passengers should be briefed on the risks associated with these Flying Taxi.
The Hidden Danger in the Divine Char Dham Yatra
With wider roads pilgrims from the plains are reaching the Char Dham destinations without due acclimatization which is resulting in heavy loss of human lives and therefore detailed SOP is required to be put in place for Char Dham Yatra.
Regulate high altitude pilgrimage
In the evening hours – on the trek route to Hemkund Sahib – glimpse of the crowd of tired but satisfied people slowly stepping down to reach the road head is commonplace. Some of these are in groups, but then some prefer travelling solo and maintain distance. Others like to gossip and share experiences – […]
Avalanches around Kedarnath
In September 2022 avalanche activity was observed repeatedly in the mountains to the north of Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand. Presence of pilgrims and others in large numbers facilitated pictographic and video records of these, and stories projecting these as posing a major hazard to the township and pilgrims became viral on social media. A […]
ऐसी भी क्या जल्दी है
गर्मियों में लोगो का पहाड़ो की ओर रुख करना स्वाभाविक है, और तापमान में अचानक व अप्रत्याक्षित वृद्धि होने पर आने वाले लोगो की तादात में बढ़ोत्तरी होने में भी कुछ अस्वाभाविक नहीं हैं। यहाँ उत्तराखण्ड में चारधाम यात्रा के नाम से जानी जाने वाली बद्रीनाथ, केदारनाथ, गंगोत्री व यमुनोत्री की यात्रा हर साल मई व अक्टूबर […]
You can’t relax in a hurry
Be it tourism or pilgrimage – time, energy, money and resources spent on it are not really justified if one is unable to relax and enjoy, and gets back home traumatised, drained out and tired. Weekend pilgrimage Weekend tourism has been trending, but then the concept seems getting extended to pilgrimage as well. So, […]
June 2013: The Kedarnath saga
Kedarnath or Shree Kedarnath as it is reverentially addressed by the locals, is amongst the four Hindu sacred shrines located in Higher Himalayan region of Uttarakhand; others being Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri. Not that this region has only Hindu shrines; there is Hemkund Sahib that is revered by Sikhs. Then the region also houses the […]