The Hindu Business Line : Himalayan heat

The plan to visit the famed hill stations of Nainital, Kausani, Ranikhet, and roundit off with a jungle sojourn in Corbett, was an idea that was tempered by the thought that rain may play spoilsport in the last week of June. Friends suggested carrying sufficient warm clothing and umbrellas as rains bring on the chill. A Google search suggested ‘heat’ rather than ‘wet’ but was dismissed as incredible! Mental impressions of cool hill climes in summer are not dislodged by variant weather records.

Adequately armed with woollen clothing, being wary South Indians, we arrived at the Delhi rail station to be greeted by the friendly driver Amit. A hot breakfast of idli-sambhar and curd vada at Saravana Bhavan in Connaught Place augured well for the start of an exciting summer break. The drive to Nainital from Delhi is over six hours and passes through vast spaces of nothingness occasionally relieved by skeletal villages. One doesn’t feel the heat in an a/c car, but when the driver stops at a place called Gajraula for a brunch halt, one feels the searing severity of the North Indian summer. The boys in Hotel Meriton talk of failed rains and an unusually hot summer. Refer any reliable tourism book and it will tell you that the season in the hills of Kumaon runs till June, when the rain starts, the rivers fill up and tourism takes a holiday. This was still June, very much the season, but this year the rains took a break and instead nature let loose waves of heat.

Ever the optimists, we hoped for cooler climes in the hilly areas of Nainital.

Hot on our trail

On reaching the boundaries of the Corbett Jungle where the climb to the hills start, the driver said the a/c had to be switched off. We agreed, anticipating the balmy breeze of mountain drives. Instead what hit us was like the column of heat Milton describes in Hell in Paradise Lost. It is at once sapping and all-encompassing. We reach Nainital and check into our hotel, which has no air-conditioning, since this is not required in the hills. A ceiling fan churns up hot air and when one opens the windows to let in some cool breeze, the room only gets warmer. We have a six-day programme and there is no way to escape, Delhi is a far cry and it is only haze and brown mountain vistas that greet your despair.

Strangely, there has been no let-up in the arrival of tourists notwithstanding this severe heat. There is an endless row of cars making up the winding way to Kilbury to get a glimpse of snow-clad peaks. But all that is visible for miles is haze and more haze. The heat has thrown a veil over the place.

We leave Nainital and proceed to the more pristine and less populous Kausani hailed by Mahatma Gandhi as India’s Switzerland. But the drive, buffeted by waves of hot breeze, is torturous, and we take a break at a roadside eatery.

The two Kumaoni boys who run the place offer their room, with a ceiling fan, for us to rest. After an hour, we resume our journey, but throughout one can see the river Kosi, bereft of water, showcasing a collection of well rounded stones. Slim trickles of water collect into shallow puddles and tell the story of how snow-fed rivers seem to have run out of recharge.

The Kumaoni boy Kamal says the weather’s never been like this. “No rains,” he shrugs.

The hotel in Kausani doesn’t even have a ceiling fan, only a table fan. Other guests at the hotel sit outside in the open-air restaurant and talk about how lovely the times in Kausani used to be during previous visits. I recall visiting Kausani 25 years ago in the high noon in June when the caressing chill breeze danced along the silver oak trees, lending a lyrical air to the mountains.

We leave Kausani for Ranikhet with less hope, noticing along the route that the gap between the trees on the hill slopes is wider, like hair on a balding head.

After spending another hot night at Ranikhet, we leave for Corbett, after checking with the hotel on the air-conditioning! Well in the future, hotels will either have to go in for a/c rooms or raise the bar and move to altitudes above 10,000 ft.

But what such a move would mean for the already fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas — with increasing pollution and denudation of high altitude forest and grasslands — makes one shudder.

Den turns ‘Din’

The drive from Ranikhet to Corbett sees plumes of smoke rising from forests all round, and just as we turn a bend, there is a forest fire ahead, with the flames snaking through the carpet of fir detritus. Before it can reach our car I click a few quick pictures. My wife, ever environment-conscious, wonders whom we should inform to put out the fire. The driver assures us that the fire will put itself out, but not before felling a few trees. Later we read that forest fires in this region had destroyed large areas of forest in the Garhwal Himalayas this year.

The Den, a Comfort Inn hotel in Corbett situated in the Kumeria Reserve forest, is a wonderful place. It has a/c! The young and energetic resort manager Manish Pandey says that this property was a favourite with the British who used to spend summers hunting wild cats. “We didn’t even need fans those days, even though this is literally at sea level” he recalls wistfully.

In the night, the noise made by the a/c is disturbing enough to merit changing the name of the resort from the Den to the Din! Morning sees us going into the Corbett National Park, which closes on June 15 since rains usually commence by then, and travel through the forest becomes impossible as many of the main roads become rivers! One can see evidence of this by the number of round stones that are dredged out of the roads every year to make the park motorable. But once a treasure house of biodiversity, this park is dry to the bones. A few sambhar deer, chital and mouse deer can be seen here and there. The reserve is supposed to have 168 tigers, and we feel thrilled when Ganesh, our driver, points out a fresh, large pugmark on the sandy track.

Holiday drives home the point

Is this a holiday gone wrong?

Many would agree since one goes to the mountains in the summer to enjoy equable, pleasant weather. But I feel this holiday opened my eyes to that fact that nothing is a given any more in today’s world. The thought that man can go on endlessly in a ‘business as usual’ mood is violently challenged.

Carbon emissions, ozone holes, poor rains, aridity of soil… our vacation captured all these in a frightening close-up.

Checking in at the Delhi airport and taking in the deluxe comfort of the new terminal, one realises that this comfort comes at a huge price.

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