Date: 22nd September 2018. It rained strongly all
through the previous night and the sound of rain drops striking the tin roof of
the KMVN tourist rest house at Dwali would not allow me to sleep soundly. It
woke me up several times during the night whenever the crescendo rose beyond
the sleep permitting decibels. I could sense a worry in my heart, and the
question arose whether I would be able to walk down to Khati in the
morning. Rain is the most ominous event
in the Himalayas for trekkers because all movement along the path comes to a
halt due to dangers associated with mud, rock and land slides. Heavy rains are
a dread. When I got up in the morning, the first thought was to look up in the
sky and assess the threat potential of the clouds. Well, it was a sinking
feeling in my heart at first glance. Possibilities for walking were slim and
depended entirely on the sky clearing during the early part of the day.
Date: 21st September 2018. The previous morning
the 21st Sept, was normal, me accompanied by Dharam Singh (my guide)
had ventured out very early at the strike of dawn at 5.30 am from Dwali to
reach Pindari Glacier which is at 3600 meters and the plan was to get back in
the evening. It was a 24 kms stretch to and fro and promised to be tiring. From
a Pune group which returned the previous evening from Pindari, I learnt that it
had rained at Phurkia the day before, but I took it lightly because there was
no trace of rains at Dwali. Fortunately at about 12 noon, after reaching I
could get a clear view of the snow clad peaks of Baljodi, Panwali Dwar, Nanda
Kot and Shanku in very bright sunlight and spent some wonderful peaceful time
near the Pindari glacier mouth. The path was extremely treacherous and to top
the danger levels the rains started when we reached Phurkia on our way back. We
walked back in the rains till Dwali. The exuberance and sense of achievement
that I felt after completing 24 kms in 12 hours and having pocketed some
beautiful sceneries made me feel invincible though extremely tired, thus my mind
refused to recognise the serious threat that the rain posed. At Phurkia over
lunch we met Debda (Deb Mukhopadhya) and Basuda (Basudeb Majumdar) both
trekkers from Kolkata along with their guides Anand Prasad and Bhupendra
Prasad, brothers from Khati. We were together again at Dwali in the evening. Having
made our independent plans for the next day, we retired to bed after dinner.
The rains had stopped in the evening only to start again in the night.
Date: Back to 22nd September 2018. Dwali at 2600
meters is a mere rest stop with a KMVN tourist rest house and a PWD rest house,
both perched on a hill and overlooks the confluence of two rivers flowing down
from the Kafni and Pindari glaciers which then flows as the single Pindari
River. There are no other inhabitants. The immediate nearby village is Khati below
at 2200 meters with about population of around 1000 persons. The path to Khati
is on the right side of the river and to reach there one has to cross two
temporary wooden bridges, first over the Kafni river and the second over the
Pindari river. The overnight rains in the mountains above had bloated the
rivers and I could clearly see in the morning that it had become atleast five
times its size as well as intensity from the day before. My earlier plan to
start out at 6 am in the morning and that of Debda and Basuda to start out
after breakfast around 9 am were immediately shelved. The guides trio heralded a
gloomy prediction that the bridge over the rivers probably got blown away in the
overnight heavy showers. Moving to the edge of the plot we could see the bridge
over the Kafni existed but the next bridge isn’t visible unless one walks half
a kilometer ahead and turns a curve on the path. We were however discouraged
from exploring for 3 major reasons. One was since the Kafni river was flowing
beyond the edge of the bridge by 5 feet on both sides. The second was
immediately after the Kafni bridge the stretch of 200 meters was prone to rock
and mud slides and we could see huge rocks constantly coming down every few
minutes along with mud up to the edge of the river since the morning. The third
was that it was raining non-stop.
That day there were around two
dozen more men at Dwali, of which 12 were ‘Anwals’, goat and sheep owners
taking their livestock down to the plains, and around 6 were mule owners who
were also going home after delivering their load. After discussion we six
thought it best to allow them to make the first move in the given situation
since they belonged to the place and had more experience with the elements. At
about 9 am we observed a few Anwals going to the Kafni bridge with their
umbrellas to assess whether their livestock would be able to cross it. They
tried to move a few rocks but very soon gave up. Meanwhile we had our
breakfast. The guides said that immediately after the Kafni bridge there was
previous path on the left bank of the Pindari river as well, but now destroyed
after the 2013 deluge and not in use. Afterwards the path on the right bank was
newly constructed. The left bank path was now overrun by the forest. We decided
that if it stopped raining we would think of making a move. However we still
wanted the animal owners to move first.
At about 10 am, we observed two
persons moving, one Anwal had crossed the Kafni bridge and was running down towards
the Pindari bridge to save himself from the rock slides and the other man was coming
from below and also trying to reach the Pindari bridge. We waited with baited
breath, expecting good news about the bridge. After a while the Anwal returned
alone running, and soon we learnt that the Pindari bridge didn’t exist anymore.
The other man coming from Khati had turned back. We were now resigned to our
fate. What could we do if the rained wouldn’t stop? We just had to wait it out.
The rest house caretaker asked whether he could prepare lunch for everyone. We
all affirmed since there was no other plan in our thoughts. We ate our lunch
quietly with worry in our minds as to how long would be last in this place. The
food available at Dwali would soon be over and with the Pindari bridge
destroyed, there would be no supplies coming up. The reconstruction of the
bridge itself would consume 2 to 3 weeks since it is a PWD task and would be
done through the tendering process. But that would begin only after the rains
stopped which is an unpredictable unknown factor.
And then the madness took over. The insane rush of blood!
Soon after 12 noon, Anand Prasad
the elder brother, God bless him, advocated that if the rains continued
unabated, very soon the Kafni bridge too would be washed away. After that even
the left bank path would not be reachable. He wanted all 6 of us to decide
immediately and make a move. It was about 12 kms to Khati and walking on the
left bank of the river we would be able to make it before nightfall, even with
the rains. If we didn’t reach before it got dark, then there were torchlights
and mobile phone lights to guide us. Debda and Basuda concurred with him immediately
but I wasn’t sure. I wanted Dharam Singh’s opinion but he wasn’t anywhere
around. I couldn’t imagine all the dangers of this destroyed path and thought
Dharam Singh might know. Bhupendra Prasad summoned him and Dharam Singh
surprisingly agreed to the proposal. Now we all were committed to the task,
come what may! The rains wouldn’t stop and neither would we. We hurriedly
settled the rest house bill and got ready. We left Dwali just before 1 pm with
all our bags.
Anand Prasad was always at the
lead and Bhupendra Prasad covered the rear. Our first challenge was the Kafni
bridge. We weren’t certain about its durability now. We walked through the
extended river and slowly crossed the bridge one by one. That over, immediately
Anand told us to run so that we could move beyond the rock fall region. We all
did as told. Without taking our eyes off the ground below we scampered and
crossed the 200 meters stretch without an accident. This was our first victory
over the challenges on the path. Naively assuming the worst to be behind us, we
posed and clicked a few photos with our mobile phones in celebration.
The difficulties on the uncharted track
unfolded themselves one by one. Each one, far more severe in degree of
difficulty, to the one before! I call it uncharted on afterthought because we
walked besides the swollen river most of the way while the actual erstwhile
path must have been several meters above the river bed. The inflated Pindari
river was on our right side making a deafening noise as it fell over the huge
rocks, and the added rain water pushed up the decibels several notches and also
made its current stronger. The 12 kms stretch contained more than a dozen
streams dropping from the mountain slope on our left. Some of these streams
were wide while some were very steep and had tremendous force. At several
places the slope on our left side was a rock and mud slide area and everytime
we came across one, Anand shouted at us to run. At one such place, Debda was
just a few steps behind and had slowed to take a little breath. Anand saw that his life was in danger as a
lot of mud and stone was rolling down from a few meters above. He ran behind to
pull Debda out of its path and they missed getting caught in the middle of the
mud slide by a few seconds. At another place the stream was flowing down
strongly with mud and stones. At a few spots it was stagnant but that could be
a deep sinkhole of wet mud. Anand was at his wits end, unable to decide from
where to tackle it. He was jumping from rock to rock trying to fathom which one
was a rock and which one was merely wet mud. Meanwhile Bhupendra ventured to
its base near the river where it was at its widest. Anand lost his cool. He was
shouting at his brother at the top of his voice to return back and it seems
that some terrible accident was about to happen. But fortunately Bhupendra
managed to climb back again to be with us. Anand then found out a least
dangerous passage which obviously had wet mud and I fell into it and sank up to
my thighs. Pulling my legs out of the mud was an effort. Some of these slopes
where we had to run across trying to save ourselves from falling rocks and mud,
were at steep angle of around 60 degrees and without any foothold or marked
path. We simply had to run when we were told to run. At a few places the river bank
had no space to walk because the flowing water was touching the steep slope. At
each of those spots we had to climb up the slope, into the forest, with nothing
to hold at except lose soil and wet shrubs. The vegetation was thick, some
bushes were thorny, and some were downright harmful causing rashes when they
touched our skin, while a few like the bamboo were helpful. Touching the
vegetation also made our hands and legs vulnerable to attacks by Leaches where
they simply stick on to the exposed skin. I caught a couple of them on my legs.
Negotiating these steep slopes going up and coming down is unimaginably tough
and we three outsiders slipped and had to be saved innumerable number of times.
On a couple of occasions we had to walk through the forest. Anand and Bhupendra
were making a lot of loud noises during those stretches, both going
“U-lu-u-lu-u-lu-u-lu” and “Harrrrrrrrrrrh”. When I asked them what they were
doing, Anand replied that he was trying to turn the wild Bears and Leopards
away from us, avoiding an encounter. I was too shocked to be taken aback but all
hair on my body stood on its ends. At another place which was a fast flowing
stream, Anand told us not to lift our feet while walking across the water, but
just to slide push it across, because the flow was extremely strong. We three
outsiders had a terrible time that evening, we fell several times negotiating
the rocks on the river banks, we had to be saved several from, being directly
pulled by Anand and Bhupendra with their bare hands from the jaws of certain
death.
During our talks on the way, soon
our target became the metal suspension bridge on the Pindari river about 2 kms
from Khati. We wanted to reach the bridge before darkness took over the valley.
Several times we asked the Prasad brothers, how far was to bridge, and each
time they replied “15 minutes away”. We had been walking without much rest,
running as well on several occasions. We were extremely tired. The three guides
were carrying our backpacks, but we three were exhausted beyond our belief. At
about 5.30 pm we got our first glance of the metal bridge at about a kilometer
away. Anand said that there was one last stretch which has to be run across and
we better hurry because the light wasn’t too good. Before that we had to climb
up once more into the forest above and then come down, but this time we ran
through the forest once again making a lot of noise. The last rock slide
stretch came up, which we ran across in extremely poor visibility. After that
we once again had to climb into the forest above, but this time we had reached
the final path, the rock paved road just 2 kms before Khati, our destination.
The time was 6 pm. We had covered 10 kms in 5 hours. We were extremely happy,
relieved and grateful that we managed to survive the nightmare. We walked up
the final 2 kms to Khati slowly, to safety of the Krishna Hotel, to welcome
food and rest, and away from the unknown perils of Dwali. We thanked the Prasad
brothers and Anand specifically for singlehandedly saving our lives on several
occasions. His leadership capabilities and courage of the spirit was powerfully
evident during those hours. He knew the track, had judged the risks, had
assessed our capabilities and finally stitched in our commitment to the task
before embarking. Hats off to him.
Date: 30th September 2018. We had experienced a
miracle that evening, infact we were the miraculous survivors. To this day I am
unable to comprehend how we managed this, how we covered those 12 kms in 7hours,
without any accident, walking and running through rock and mud slides, in the
rain, through wild forests and so much danger. A hundred different kinds of
mishaps could have happened to any of us and yet we got through with a few cuts
and bruises. Surely, it wasn’t merely of our doing. The supreme powers walked
besides us that evening.
Later I learnt from Dharam Singh that
the Kafni bridge too had washed away the same evening after we left and all the
men and animals had to wait for a few weeks to get out from Dwali.
From the news channels I came to
know that it had rained heavily across several parts of the country and more
severely in Himachal, Haryana and Punjab during those 3 days from 21st
to 23rd September 2018 causing extensive damage.
I express my gratitude to everyone
who shared this experience with me and because of whom I am still alive;
Mr. Deb Mukhopadhya, Baidayabati,
Hoogly, West Bengal.
Mr. Basudeb Majumdar, Shyamnagar,
North 24 Paraganas, West Bengal.
Mr. Anand Prasad (Guide) Khati,
Uttarakhand, 9410312519 (Post him a message if the number is not reachable, he
will call you back).
Mr. Bhupendra Prasad, Almora,
Uttarakhand, 9410107816.
Mr. Dharam Singh (Guide), Supi,
Uttarakhand, 9536009972.
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