Something hidden behind those mountains go and find it.

Chandra-Bhaga range from Rothangpass Kullu.

Borrowed from the immense natural beauty of deep valleys and mighty Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh obtains its name from the combination of two Hindi words, Him and Achal, whereas the former means snow and the later one stands for immovable.

The northern tribal districts of Himachal are Kinnaur, Lahual and Spiti respectively. Being very close to the border of Tibet these regions have a strong Buddhist influence and for the same reason sometimes also known as little Tibet. Being a mountain guide I have been associated with these areas for some years. This gave me opportunities to explore these Himalayan country sides clubbed with small settlements and ancient monasteries.

Located, in the great Himalayan range of the Himalayan mountain system, Spiti is also known as lunar landscape. With snow-clad mountains towering more than 6000 meters and almost no rains for the whole year, Spiti is also described as a cold desert because of the extension of Tibetan plateau towards this side.

Sharing international border with Tibet, Himachal have been an important trade route in the past. The famous Hidustan-Tibet road completed in 1856, from Shimla to the border of Tibet in Kinnaur valley attracted rest of the world. Explored and exploited for long, these Himalayan country sides however preserved their rich culture and traditions from centuries.

Open to the rest of world, for just 6-7 months district of Kinnaur and Spiti presents a contrast between lush green valleys and cold desert respectively. Chilgoza pines, silver fir, Junipers and birch trees grow well in Kinnaur valley which also the end of tree line. District Spiti, with a vast and cold desert and a diverse species of wild flowers and medicinal herbs demarks the clod desert of Himalayas. Majority of this flora has been used and narrated in Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu medicinal doctrine.

For an avid adventure and nature lover there is lot to explore and experience. The safari or trekking options recommended by professionals, should start with acclimatization for about 3-4 days before we start off on some serious walks, multi-days trekking options and even a safari where you attain an altitude of 3000 meters and plus. Here Shimla becomes a perfect base and host for this great Himalayan journey.


A tour or a trek to Kinnaur and Spiti valleys takes about two weeks before entering the lush green Kullu valley over Rothang Pass. A drive from Shimla, through small villages of Sarahan, Sangla, Chitkul, Kalpa and Nako, with centuries old monasteries at Tabo, Dhankar and Ki would complete this circuit. Out of two national parks in the state, Pin valley national park is in the district of Spiti and before driving over the famous Kunzum pass the journey is incomplete without a drive or a night stay at Kibber village, known for its village at the altitude at the elevation of 4,200 meters.

Pin valley, in Spiti is a Himalayan national park, about 80736.00 hectares, adoring virgin peaks towering more than 6,000 meters. Whereas rivers down in the deep valleys pouring the glacial deposits into the Arabian Sea. Housing a wide variety of rare Himalayan flora and fauna Pin valley national park hosts woolly hare, red fox, Himalayan ibex, marmot, Tibetan gazelle, Himalayan porcupine, blue sheep, Tibetan wolf and snow leopard. Only few trees like Betula utilis (Bhoj patra) and Juniperus macropoda (Bhutal) can adapt to the hostile winters of Himalayas. It also demarks the end of the tree line giving way to the Himalayan alpine meadows. Also plants and flowers like Agropyron spp., Anemone obteusiloba, Artemisia spp., Canibs Sativa, Crataegus oxycantha thrive well for just 4-5 months in summers.

Flower hunting in Himalayas

Just about every place in Himalayas has its own unique flora and there is no place which is altogether devoid of flowering plants. Each season bring out different aspect of the local flora and there is no one season in which one can see all of a region’s plants in flower. The spring season which coincides with the period of snowmelt brings forth a large variety of blooms and these continue into the early summer although in a somewhat subdued manner. There is a second wave of flowering during the monsoon season in late summer and the protagonists here are quiet different from those of the spring. These two occasions would rate as the best time to go flower-hunting to the higher reaches of the Himalayas. However the lower parts around the hill-stations and the villages are not greatly affected by the winter snow and although the flowering of local flora reaches at peak during the spring and monsoons there are several varieties that only flower in the early or late winter.

There are few parts of the high Himalayas that can be traveled through by vehicle and these are mostly in Himachal Pradesh. For seeing the alpine flora of the higher non-motorable regions it is necessary to take the trekking routes that leads up to the meadows and the high valleys either on foot or to a limited extent on pony back.

The lower valleys however are richly connected by roads especially around hill stations are important hill towns. The best way to see the flora of these areas would also be to hike but it is possible to launch fairly ambitious flower-hunting expeditions in the luxury of car. But wherever you go in the course of a day’s trek anywhere in the Himalayas it is possible to encounter a wide range of habitat each with a widely differing floral wealth. Herein lies the charm of trekking and flower hunting in Himalayas.

Flying high in the Himalayas!

Some interesting facts about birds

A bird has been described as a “Feathered Biped”. The description is apt and precise, and can apply to no other animal.

Birds are vertebrate warm-blooded animals, i.e. whose temperature remains more or less constant and independent of the surrounding temperature. This is in contradistinction to reptiles. Amphibians and fishes which are cold blooded, i.e. of temperature that change with the hotness or coldness of their surroundings.

To assist in maintaining an even temperature, the body of a bird is covered with non-conducting feathers – its chief characteristic – which in details of structure and arrangement reflects the mode of life of the group to which the bird belongs. Compare for example the thick, soft, well-greased covering on the underside of an aquatic bird like a Duck with the peculiar, narrow, hair like, ‘double’ feathers of the Cassowary to be seen in any zoo.

The feather covering of the body of the word fall into 3 classes: (1) the ordinary outside feathers known as Contour feathers or pennae, whether covering the body as a whole or specialized as pinions or flight feathers (remiges) or as tail feathers (rectrices) which serve as rudder and brake: (2) the fluffy down feathers or plumulae hidden by the contour feathers and comparable to flannel underclothing, weather confined to nestlings or persisting throughout life; (3) the hair like Filo-plumes which are hardly seen until the other feathers have been plucked off. They are particularly noticeable, for instance, in a plucked pigeon.

The body temperature of bird, about 38 - 44 degree Celsius, is higher than that of most mammals. Assisted by their non-conducting covering of feathers birds are able to withstand great extreme of climate. As long as they can procure a sufficiency of food supply, or ‘fuel’ for the system, it makes little material difference to them whether the surrounding temperature is over 60 degree Celsius on the burning desert sand or 40 degree Celsius below zero in the icy frozen north. Their rate of metabolism is higher than that of mammals. They lack sweat glands. The extra heat generated by their extreme activity which would, under torrid climatic conditions result in overheating, fever, and death, is eliminated through the lungs and the air sacs as fast as it is produced. For one of the function of the ‘air sacs’ – a feature peculiar to birds and found in various parts within the body –is to promote internal perspiration. Water vapor diffuses through the blood in these cavities and passes out by way of the lungs, with which they are indirectly connected.

The forelimbs of birds, which correspond to the human arms or to the forelegs of quadrupeds, have been evolved to serve as perfect organs of propulsion through the air. Many of their larger bones are hollow and often have air sacs. This makes for lightness without sacrificing strength, and is a special adaptation to facilitate aerial locomotion. As a whole the perfectly streamlined spindle-shaped body of the bird is designed to offer the minimum resistance to the wind.

Birds are believed to have sprung from reptilian ancestors in bygone eras. Modern researches on the skeletal and other characteristics of our present-day birds tend in a great measure to support this belief. The method of articulation of the skull with backbone, for instance, and the nucleated red blood cell corpuscles of the bird is are distinctly reptilian in character. To this may be added the fact that birds lay eggs which in many cases resemble those of reptiles in appearance and composition, and that the development of the embryo up to a point is identical. In the majority of the birds scales are present on the tarsus and on the toes which are identical with the scales of reptiles.

Among the questions which the ornithologist in India is constantly being asked are the following. I have had to face them so frequently, from such a variety of people and in such a far-flung corners of the country that it might be perhaps be as well to devote a little space to them here.

Q what is the largest India bird, and what is the smallest?

A. It is not easy to say which particular one is the largest, but among the upper ten is certainly the Sarus Crane and Himalayan Bearded Vulture or Lammergeier. The former stands the height of man; the latter has a wing spread over 8 feet. Amongst our smallest birds are the flowerpeckers, e.g. Tickell’s Flowerpecker scarcely bigger than a normal thumb.

Sarus crane is a towering grey bird with a red head that stands as tall as a man. Its distinctive, trumpeting call carries over great distances. Sarus cranes can be sighted year-round in the lower parts of district Kangra of Himachal Pradesh. These birds here are more admired for its closeness to God.

The lammergeier is an impressive and unusual looking bird with a large tail and very wide, pointed wings that can spam up to three meters and which makes look like a gigantic falcon. On a clear day at least once you can see a pair flying over the valleys from the terrace of Wildflower Hall, and quietly soaring along the contours of the mountain slopes, their wings making a peculiar “purrrrr” sound heard when they fly overhead at close range.
Lammergeier feed on carcasses like other vultures but prefer bones to the meat. They pick up the bones, soar high in the air and then drop them onto rock. They can do this up to 50 times in necessary, until the bones splinters and the nutritious marrow inside is eaten. Digestive acids are said to be strong that shattered bones are completely digested.

Q What is our most beautiful bird?

A It is difficult to pick out any single species for the highest honour, and depends rather on individual tastes. A large number of birds of many different families, particularly those residents in the areas of humid evergreen forest, possess extraordinarily brilliant plumage.

A Safari through 'the great silk route & 'old Hindustan Tibet road'.

A pictorial presentation of a safari into little Tibet.

Beas, flowing down with its glacial waters
weawing Shawl is the major industry in Kullu valley

Poplar and Cedar pine forest on the left bank of Beas river in Manali
Rahala waterfalls on the way to Rothang pass
A glacier on the right bank of Chandra river, on the way to Kunzum pass from Manali

'Chandertal' - the moon lake.


Upto Kunzum pass.

Kunzum pass. Elevation - 4551mts. from mean sea level.

Losar village - the first permanent settelment after Manali.

Dunes formed by glacial erosion





Approaching Kaza, the divisional headquarter of Spiti

A gorge at Kibber village

Kibber village

Traditional mud houses at kibber village

Fresh snow fall at Pin valley





A diverse alpine flora can be seen in Pin valley



A ropeway is the common way of getting to the other side of Pin river

Kungri monastery in Pin valley

Its me on the right and my friend Jacob at Kungri monastery

A lamp being lit up by using yak butter

Leaving Pin valley

Top floor of Dhankar monastery

A gorge on the way to Nako village



Sumdo, police check post

Maling gorge

Nako village, with fresh snow covered Himalayas in the background





A life in safe hands..........

A traditional house at Nako village

A drive down to Khab

Khab, the confluence of Satluej and Spiti river

A valley bridge being built at Spello

Goddess Bhima Kali temple at Sarahan

Palace of Maharaja of Bushair Province

Sarasawati, the goddess of knowledge

Enterance of the Bhima Kali temple and end of our tour

Notable Peaks of the Himalayan System

Notable Peaks of the Himalayan System (includes outlying ranges)

Peak name: Eevrest

Other names and meaning: Sagarmatha, "Forehead of the Sky", Chomolangma, "Mother of the Universe"

Elevation (m): 8,848

Elevation (ft): 29,035

First ascent: 1953

Notes: World's highest mountain, situated in Nepal.

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Peak name: K2

Other name and meaning: Chogo Gangri

Elevation(m): 8,611

Elevation(ft): 28,251

First ascent: 1954

Notes: World's 2nd highest. Located Located in the Karakoram Karakoram of Pakistan/ China.
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Peak name: Kangchenjunga

Other name and meaning: Kangchen Dzö-nga, "Five Treasures of the Great Snow"

Elevation (m): 8,586

Elevation(ft): 28,169

First ascent: 1955

Notes: World's 3rd highest. Located in Sikkim (India) and Nepal.

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Peak name: Lhotse

Other name and meaning: "South Peak"

Elevation (m): 8,516

Elevation(ft): 27,940

First ascent: 1956

Notes: World's 4th highest. Situated between Nepal & Tibet, in the shadow of Everest.

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Peak name: Makalu

Other names and meaning: "The Great Black"

Elevation (m): 8,462

Elevation (ft): 27,765

First ascent: 1955

Notes: World's 5th highest. Situated in Nepal.

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Peak name: Cho Oyu

Other name and meaning: Qowowuyag, "Turquoise Goddess"

Elevation (m): 8,201

Elevation(ft): 26,905

First ascent: 1954

Notes: World's 6th highest. Situated in Nepal.

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Peak name: Dhaulagiri

Other names and meaning: "White Mountain"

Elevation(m): 8,167

Elevation(ft): 26,764

First ascent: 1960

Notes: World's 7th highest. Situated in Nepal.

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Peak name: Manaslu
Other names and meaning: Kutang, "Mountain of the Spirit"
Elevation(m): 8,156
Elevation(ft): 26,758
First ascent: 1956
Notes: World's 8th highest. Located in the Gurkha Himal, Nepal.

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Peak name: Nanga Parbat
Other names and : Diamir, "Naked Mountain"
Elevation(m): 8,126
Elevation(ft): 26,660
First ascent: 1953
Notes: World's 9th highest . Located in Pakistan.


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Peak name: Annapurna
Other names and meaning: "Goddess of the Harvests"
Elevation(m): 8,091
Elevation(ft): 26,545
First ascent: 1950
Notes: World's 10th highest. Deadliest mountain on Earth. Situated in Nepal.
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