My long cherished dream was to visit Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarkhand. Unfortunately, I never had an opportunity to visit these holy places when everything was intact and I visited these holy places after the floods as a result of cloudburst at these places. It was in the year 2013, Kedarnath was destroyed beyond anybody’s imagination because of the floods. Lakhs of people perished in these floods. In May 2014, I had an opportunity to visit Kedarnath, along with my teen-aged children. As usual, we took a flight up to New Delhi and from there took a train up to Haridwar. From Haridwar, we took a bus to reach Kedarnath, there are plenty of buses operating from Haridwar to Badrinath and Kedarnath. But they operate only early in the morning before 7.30 a.m. as the route is again the Himalayan route, and vehicles have to be driven in the most dangerous roads in the world and by evening 6.30 vehicles should stop plying in these regions due to the fear of landslides and loss of lives, unlike Nepal. As a safety measure, we were told that the Government has issued strict instructions not to allow any vehicle to move around this sensitive region beyond 6.30 p.m. Everybody has to follow and follows too, which is good for all.
(Sona prayag-starting point to Kedarnath).
Because of the rough path, the bus takes 12 hours to reach the base point of Kedarnath. We reached base point of Kedarnath by 6 p.m. and we were asked to register ourselves at the counter set up by the Government of India to keep a record of pilgrims visiting the shrine. We reached a place called Sonprayag, which is at the foot hills of Kedarnath Wild life sanctuary and it was already dark and quite cold. We took a small room that was available on rent and had food and retired for the night. We could hear the ferocious noise of River Mandakini (as she is called here, Alaknanda at Badrinath and ultimately The Ganga) all through the night. This noise was quite scary and we could hear some strange animals crying out loud throughout the night, don’t know what animals were these.
(Vehicles that got washed away in the furious floods in Kedarnath).
By 5.30 a.m. the next day, we got ready to start our trek to the shrine of Kedarnath. We were told that before the floods, vehicles were plying up to a place called Gauri Kund and from there pilgrims would trek to the shrine. But after the floods in 2013, the path was completely destroyed and the Government had made arrangements for pilgrims to be dropped a few kilometers before Gaurikund by designated jeeps. So, we were left with no choice but to trek, which initially we thought was very easy, but as we started ascending, we got the real taste of the tough path, it was not at all easy. Army tents were set up throughout the route and all the pilgrims were required to register themselves at each and every check post and were provided with free food throughout the route. But to be very honest we could feel some negative energies while going up, some sort of sorrow which was unexplained. We were climbing with some unexplained sorrow, we were surrounded by some kind of unhappy feeling as if we had lost something. We could see a completely damaged school, and we were told all those tiny children and students including the teachers were washed away in the floods. Water had raised several thousands of feet above the ground level and all those that were lying below and in its path were washed away without any chance for escape. And we were also told that, there were only a few minutes left for people to think and react. With the blink of an eye, everything had gone. Nothing remained.
(The huge boulder behind Lord Kedarnath’s shrine, that covered His abode).
(The boulder which is worshipped first).
When there was cloud burst behind the temple, a huge boulder came and blocked the temple from getting washed away and gushing water bifurcated and started flowing on both the sides of the Kedarnath temple. Temple was flooded completely, but Lord Kedarnath remained seated without getting disturbed. Even today, people worship that boulder first and then Lord Kedarnath.
(Kedarnath peak as seen from the trekking path).
The problem here is, if you eat and trek, it is just not possible, you have to consume only liquids, then it is easier to trek, but we ate the food provided on the way, so we had real tough time trekking this path. The problem here is before the floods, pilgrims were going straight to the Kedarnath shrine located in one mountain range, but after the floods, half of the mountain has fallen and the path is completely closed, so pilgrims had no choice, but to go to the adjacent mountain range by crossing the river Mandakini through a bridge and then come back again to the same mountain, to say it in simple words, it is the “reverse C” like you are going to the neighboring mountain by crossing the bridge and coming back to the same mountain after travelling some distance.
(Horses carrying construction materials for reconstruction of the path).
Weather in the Himalayan mountain region becomes unpredictable after 2 p.m. We were struggling to go up to the shrine, the reconstruction work was going on and to our surprise, we saw one middle aged Sadhu trekking with crutches. He had lost one of his legs up to the knee and was using crutches for his mobility and he trekked faster than us and moved ahead of us, so was a 65 years old man from Maharashtra. We were dumbstruck by their devotion towards Lord Kedarnath (Shiva). We moved up and were just 3 kms away from the shrine and by then it was 6 p.m. and we were prevented from going further by the army men who feared risk to our lives as the weather was getting bad.
It became too dark too soon and we were given accommodation in the army camp free of cost. Food was served to us once again free of cost and by midnight, it started raining and we could feel the thunder and lightning striking at a very close range and all those who stayed in the camps for that night were praying to Lord Kedarnath for their safety. Next day morning, we were told that there was some landslide on the way up in the mountains and the path was blocked due to the heavy rain and snowfall the previous night and we were told to return to our base camps as it would take another week to clear this path since those working there were not sure about the stability of the mountains.
While coming down the mountains through the path which was very very dangerous we were just thinking of staying up in the mountains instead of coming down to the base station and the Indian Army came to our rescue, they brought us down the hills so quickly and effortlessly, we did not know how we crossed the most dangerous path which was very very narrow, only one person could go at a time, unstable mountain on one side and deep valley very next to the narrow path, one wrong step, gone in the water. We did not even realize that we crossed those dangerous paths which we were reluctant cross to come down the hill. Our salute to the brave, helpful and friendly soldiers. There was mild snow fall too while we were getting down the hills. If probably, the Indian Army had come with us while climbing the mountains also, we could have reached the shrine and had His darshan.
While returning, we crossed one junction called Ram Bada, while trekking up the hill also we saw many houses destroyed, some huge vessels lying scattered, some household things scattered. While coming down the mountains, we could clearly see, it was an areal view for us and it was always the Indian Army which was making sure that all the pilgrims were not put to inconvenience. Poor guys, they were around every where, taking the risks.
After Ram Bada, we crossed the bridge and it started raining and we were accompanied by a family from New Delhi. This consisted of small children and senior citizens who had crossed 70 years. Except one male who was in his late 30’s and one senior citizen who was in his late 60’s all were ladies and two small boys were there. This family had driven all the way from New Delhi to Kedarnath by its car. Since it started raining, we entered a tent put up by the army to facilitate pilgrims like us.
We were all hungry and tired and the saviors were the army people. Within no time, they prepared rice and daal and served us hot and delicious food. This tent was erected on a small mound of mud, below which were dead bodies of some of those who got buried alive the previous year. When we were told this, we were shocked. People present in and around the mountain region told us that nothing could be done to pull out the dead bodies which got buried under the mud from the land slides and nobody could keep an account of who all died. By that time, it had stopped raining and we wanted to move ahead as much as possible.
We started going down the mountains, and we were so foolish that we failed to notice nobody around us and we did not even think why nobody was around us. Actually, we were moving in the Kedarnath wildlife sanctuary where wild animals have made their home. It started becoming dark and the senior citizens and the small kids in the group were moving very slow. At one point, it became totally dark and the only mature male member of our group decided to find out the nearest place for us to stay for the night. In the absence of any street light or even the moon light, we were all moving cautiously using our cellphones which had torch light to guide us through the rough path. We could clearly hear the roaring sound of Mandakini who was flowing few thousands feet below very next to us. My children were a bit scared, but I calmed them down and assured them that Lord Kedarnath is with us and he will definitely protect us and guide us to safety. Like this, in the pitch dark night we were going down the hills slowly without any mature male. God is Great, actually, we were moving in the most dangerous area of the mountain region which is a home for leopards and other predators, forget snakes that are in plenty. It was around 8.45 in the night and we were making all sorts of noise, talking loudly, sharing jokes, laughing and doing all sorts of noise that was possible and our cell phones were getting switched off as they were over used and not recharged.
At that point, we saw some people coming towards us with heavy duty torches flashing lights on our faces. They came to us and started counting us. At this point, I asked them who they were and what business they had to take the head count in our group. Then the mature male member of our group who had gone to find an accommodation for all of us, was crying inconsolably and we could not understand what was going on. I suspected them to be some bandits who had captured him and was thinking of the next plan of action, but to my surprise, they introduced themselves as Police from Uttarakhand state and told us that the man was crying because they blasted him for having left all of us carelessly in the dense forest infested with predators and that just two days ago two ladies were dragged away by some man-eater there and their remnants were also not available. This incident took place around 8 in the evening, and they were very sure that some of us would be dead because it was already quite late, later than 8 and we had not reached that place yet and they expected some major tragedy. But by Lord Kedarnath’s grace, all of us had reached Gauri Kund safely without even a small scratch on our body.
They also told us that they have sighted the spirits of the dead moving around in the night in that area. It was merciful Lord who protected us, and brought us to safety. That night, again we were served hot and delicious meal and we took rooms and retired for the night, but my children who were still young at that time were so scared about the spirits of the dead moving around, that they expected some spirits to come and touch them too, but no such thing happened and we all moved down to our base camp the next day, thanking Lord for protecting us, but were little unhappy because we could not have his darshan.
(Helipad to Kedarnath shrine near Gupt Kashi).
In 2016, I went again, but without my children, and this time, we were only two this time, and went up to Gauri Kund, small jeeps were plying up to Gauri Kund from Sona Prayag this time for a fee, and from there first we thought we would trek, but again we felt trekking would be next to impossible as the route remained the same, it was still under construction. So we went back, up to Gupt Kashi and took a helicopter to Kedarnath. It costed us Rs. 7000/- per person for a round trip. The flight takes about 8-10 minutes, you can have a beautiful view of the Kedarnath wild life sanctuary and trekking path too from the sky through the helicopter. They have some restrictions while taking passengers, they calculate the total permissible weight and take in passengers based on each one’s weight.
(Rooms built by GMNL-Uttarkhand, near Kedarnath shrine).
We landed about a kilometer away from the shrine, had His darshan and the weather became bad, if the weather becomes bad, helicopters will stop flying and by His grace we stayed in one of the rooms let out by Gharwal Mandal Nigam Limited, witnessed the memorable aarthi that was performed by 6.30 in the evening. It was a heavenly experience. It was raining outside, there was no power supply and all the devotees who stayed there for His aarthi, carefully went back to their respective rooms and retired for the night. The temperature was very cold and the blankets were of very little help. Next day morning, we took the helicopter ride back to the base station and continue our journey further to Badrinath.
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