Nanda Devi :: Latest News

JOSHIMATH, 18 Oct: This past weekend, the last of three international teams departed for Dharansi Pass in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve as part of the Inaugural Nanda Devi Women’s Trek. Stopping over at eminent journalist Harish Chandola’s guest house near Auli, the group of four women including two Americans, a Canadian, and an Indian, acclimatized themselves to the high altitude before joining the second team at Lata, the traditional gateway village to the Nanda Devi peak.

Marking the thirtieth anniversary of the ill-fated 1976 Indo-American expedition that saw Nanda Devi Unsoeld, the twenty-two-year-old daughter of legendary mountaineer Willi Unsoeld perish on the peak that bore her name, the trek itself made history as the first venture of the wholly community-owned and operated Mountain Shepherds Initiative. Itself an outgrowth of the Nanda Devi Campaign, a five-year-old movement that had arisen out of even earlier environmental justice struggles by the people of the Nanda Devi Biosphere for their forest rights, the initiative hopes to set a model for socially conscious ecotourism in the entire Himalayan region. [more]

For the second year in a row a group of students from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC traveled to the Garhwal region of the Himalaya. Dr. Keith Bosak and Dr. Kathleen Schroeder from Appalachian State University lead six students, three undergraduate and three graduate, on a summer field course. The group was also accompanied by Misty Mayfield an instructor at Appalachian State University and Laura Caplins an Appalachian State University graduate. Mayfield who teaches World Regional Geography took this opportunity to expand her practical knowledge of India. Caplins, a member of last years field course, returned to conduct research entitled “A Woman’s Place? Mountain tourism and Women’s Empowerment in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve” partially funded by a research grant from the American Alpine Club. Students received credit for Sustainable Mountain Development and Mountain Geography. From May 11 to June 1, 2006 students took part in a cultural tour of the Garhwal which included academic interaction, trekking, gear donation, community service project, community interactions, and a visit to the Ganges. [more]

In the mountain fastness of Nanda Devi, which gave the Chipko movement to Southasia, the local communities are battling the Uttaranchal authorities to retain benefits from tourists when they arrive – ‘ecotourism’ or not.

It is oddly tempting to describe the area known as the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve as ‘tucked away’ up in India’s newest mountain state of Uttaranchal. In reality, the region towers and sprawls for all to see, so long as one is up at the level of the vultures and eagles. For better or worse, getting to such soaring heights has been a necessary first step for seeing the area over recent decades; since the early 1980s, the Indian government has largely outlawed actual tramping through these hills, in the interests of conservation. ‘Reserve’ may ideally refer to a reservation in favour of natural ecosystems, but it has also meant that the communities in the foothills of the Nanda Devi mountain complex (see photo) have been left in legal limbo, living their lives in a ‘buffer zone’ and legislated outside of these lands. [more]

Early Wednesday morning a study team from Appalachian State University (ASU) departed Boone, North Carolina (NC) for Lata Village, Chamoli District, Uttarakhand, India as their final destination. They are students and professors conducting the latest installment of the summer field courses now a stalwart of the Nanda Devi Campaign’s eco-tourism initiative. This time however the group is bringing with them a “little” something extra. Aside from the desire to further link two mountain cultures the group is carrying with their baggage 98 articles of clothing, 15 packs, 10 pairs of boots and shoes, 3 sleeping bags, 5 headlamps and other assorted trekking equipage. The items were generously donated by NC High Country locals. Also recognizing the need to encourage equitable, community based tourism was local Black Diamond Equipment representative Jimi Combs. Combs provided an assortment of new packs and other hard goods which serve as the capstone for the project’s gift to the Bhotiya people of the Nanda Devi Campaign. The Campaign’s Mountain Shepherds initiative will be the direct benefactor of the gear as the young porters and guides, though highly experienced and steeped in the tradition of their former guide elders, are lacking in the way of equipment.

Gear for the Garhwal worked closely with Mast General Store, a NC High Country purveyor of mountain goods. Individuals were able to bring their used gear to various store locations and drop the items off for later pick up by Gear for the Garhwal volunteers. The project was conceived in collaboration with Dr. Sunil Kainthola of the Alliance for Development when fledging trekking operations faced adverse conditions last summer. Gear for the Garhwal is the latest development in the partnership between Boone, NC activists and the Nanda Devi Campaign. The hope is for the porters, guides, and cooks of the Mountain Shepherds to grow in number as has their cache of equipment. By providing the local Garhwali people donated gear from the United States Gear for the Garhwal has aided in critical infrastructure development. Such infrastructure can be difficult to build even for the largest of tourist corporations but for a community owned and operated organization such investments can often be a huge stumbling block. Local to local, mountain to mountain aid like Gear for the Garhwal is an excellent example of positive, bottom-up change in sustainable mountain development.

The College of Arts and Science at the U of S is offering two different study abroad opportunities in India this spring and summer. Both of the programs are being offered for the first time.

The first opportunity enables students to study mountain geography and ecology in the Indian Himalayas. This intensive five-week field program, occuring early May to mid-June, enables students to earn six credit-units in Geography.

Travelling through areas of extraordinary beauty, students will have the opportunity to study the tremendous diversity of ecology and physical landscapes, as well as the cultural diversity, of the Indian Himalayas.

Participants will study the characteristics of several eco-zones in the field; visit historical and pilgrimage sites; examine the strategies used by farmers and herders in obtaining their sustenance; learn about the dynamics of environmental degradation; investigate the ecology and the politics of environmental conservation; and consider other environmental concerns related to the increasing pace of modern development.

A highlight of the program will be a four-day ecotourism trek, climbing more than 2,000 metres to the outskirts of the famous Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, and learning of the struggles of the indigenous Bhotiya herders to maintain their way of life. [more]

One of the oldest mountain ranges in the world and one of the newest had an historic meeting this summer. Students from Appalachian State University (ASU) in Boone, North Carolina traveled thousands of miles to Lata Village and the surrounding Chamoli District of Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India for a three week tour of the region. The class was lead by Dr. Kathleen Schroeder and Mr. Keith Bosak of ASU’s Department of Geography and Planning. While on tour the students engaged in trekking, cultural studies, development initiatives, and community service projects. The tour was coordinated in cooperation with the Alliance for Development and the people of Lata Village. [more]

DEHRADUN: Eco-tourism has an 'incredible potential' in India, specially in Uttarakhand, but it has not picked up the momentum it should have, feels Dr Michael Fox, a leading consultant to private and public sector as well as development agencies in the travel and tourism industry, worldwide.

Addressing a workshop on 'Eco-Tourism' organised by SPECS and sponsored by the American Centre here on Friday, Dr Fox said, 'Eco-tourism is a unique component of Uttarakhand's competitiveness as a tourism destination, but it has to be branded and marketed properly to attract maximum tourist interest.'

The workshop was part of the 'Nanda Devi Campaign' for cultural survival and sustainable livelihoods in the high Himalayas. [more]

Interview with Bali Devi

31 October 2004

Bali Devi Rana, Head of the Mahila Mangal Dal (Women Welfare Group) of village Reni (Chamoli Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India) has recently returned from the Global Women’s Conference on Environment, organized by UNEP at Nairobi (Kenya) on 11-13 October 2004, where she shared the inaugural stage with Nobel peace laureate Prof Wangari Maathai. In the 30-odd years since the Chipko Movement, Bali Devi is the first grassroots woman to have attended and addressed an international gathering abroad. The following are excerpts of interview with Bali Devi by UN consultants Irena Dankelman and Biju Negi at Nairobi. [more]

The issues and concerns of Chipko are still alive today

Press Club, Dehradun
21 October 2004

The Alliance for Development organized a press conference at the Press Club, Dehra Dun on 21 October 2004, on the return of Bali Devi and Biju Negi from the Global Women's Assembly on Environment, at Nairobi (Kenya). The following Press Note was circulated to the media on the occasion.

About 200 women from over 50 countries took part in the Global Women's Assembly on Environment. Women as the Voice for the Environment, organized by UNEP at Nairobi (Kenya) on 11-13 October 2004. From India, Dr Srilatha Batliwala (Hauser Centre for Non-Profit Organizations, Bangalore), Ms. Bali Devi Rana (Chipko and Nanda Devi Campaign, Niti valley, Chamoli, Garhwal) and Biju Negi (UN Consultant and Beej Bachao Andolan, Garhwal) took part in this conference. [more]

Women to share environment concerns with Nobel laureate

New Kerala (Indo-Asian News Service)
October 10, 2004

New Delhi, Oct 10 : Two Indian women activists will share the platform with Wangari Maathai, this year's Nobel Peace Price winner, at a United Nations environment meet in Nairobi Monday to highlight women's struggle for livelihood.

Bali Devi, who was part of the historical environmental conservation movement, Chipko Andolan, at Reni village near the Tibetan border 30 years ago, and Srilatha Batliwala, president of the global Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), have been selected for the honour.

"At a time when even the government was not aware of the importance and need to protect forests and biodiversity, we were tending to the Nanda Devi forests," Devi said. [more]

A Biosphere Tragedy All Over Again?
Villagers raise serious questions about the park system in Uttarakhand

Reported by Harish Chandola, special to nandadevi.org
September 9, 2004

Community representatives catch up with a IUCN official exploring the idea of designating the Valley of Flowers as a World Heritage Site. Contesting the park system and the so-called "new methods" of environmental management, the villagers lay bare all the inequities and injustices imposed by the government in the name of conservation that have ironically endangered their stated goals. [more]

Nanda Devi's "Painting Hopes" exhibition goes online:
Aims to raise funds for local youth of the Niti Valley

By Rajiv Rawat
Campaign Press Release, July 6, 2004

This summer, art for social change and community empowerment were the themes that propelled a unique collaboration to benefit the local communities in the majestic environs of Nanda Devi and highlight the folk arts of the Uttarakhand Himalayas.

From June 19-24, over twenty artists from the Uttarakhand Kalakar Samiti (Uttarakhand Folk Artists' Organization) made their way to Lata village in the Niti Valley to attend a week-long camp, drawing inspiration from the region's scenic beauty and people to paint 32 separate pieces reflecting their inner and outer artistic visions. [more]

Nanda Devi Biosphere gets Ecotourism Award

(Dehra Dun, July 4) Uttarakhand is basking in the recent glory achieved by the Nanda Devi Biosphere. This mountain paradise named after the Goddess, Nanda Devi, in district Chamoli has been named second runner-up in the destination category for the prestigious 2004 Condé Nast Traveler magazine's Eco-tourism Awards. The reputed American travel magazine, which has its headquarters in New York, presents the awards. The July issue of Condé Nast has published this year's results. [more]

Nanda Devi ranked third best green destination

By S.M.A. Kazmi
Indian Express, 3 July, 2004

EHRA DUN, JULY 2 Nanda Devi in Garhwal hills, one of the most sought-after Himalayan peaks, has been ranked the second runner-up in the destination category for the prestigious 2004 Conde Nast Traveller’s Eco-Tourism Awards.

As many as 91 candidates vied for awards in three categories — destination, tour operator and lodging — on the 10th anniversary of the competition.

The award has been won following voluntary efforts of tribal body Nanda Devi Campaign’s members residing on the periphery of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, and not due to efforts of the state government, that opened the park selectively for tourism. [more]

Nanda Devi Recognized by Condé Nast as a Remarkable Ecotourism Destination: A Major Boost for Local Community Efforts

By Rajiv Rawat
June 29, 2004

The mountain paradise of Nanda Devi has been named runner-up in the destination category for the prestigious 10th Annual Condé Nast Traveler’s Ecotourism Awards.

Based on the elements of nature preservation, local contribution, and guest education, the application put forward by the villagers' Nanda Devi Campaign came in third out of 91 entries.

The awards are covered in the July issue of the world’s preeminent travel magazine that recently hit newsstands in North America. [more]

Foreign tourists smitten by Chamoli charm

By Raju Gusain
Hindustan Times, 23 June 2004

Experts on community based tourism (CBT) can take a cue from the example of Lata village in Chamoli district. The unique feature of the inhabitants of this small village of 'Bhutia' people in the Niti Valley is that most of its occupants live in at least two villages at various times of the year. They migrate to Lata during summer and return to Lamtal in the winters.

This time the uninhabited Lamtal village came alive even in summer with the visit of a group of students from Canada. Consisting of 12 members, the troupe included students mostly from McMaster University (Canada). They brought life back to the deserted place and as the villagers provided them boarding, lodging and guides/porters the locals too were financially benefited in return. [more]

High heaven: a trek to the top of the world

The Independent (UK)
8 April 2004

The Nanda Devi Sanctuary is even more difficult to reach than the North Pole, but this Himalayan mountain valley has lured explorers for centuries. Hugh Thomson describes his daring ascent to paradise. [full article]

Chipko Remembered amidst Nostalgia and Conflict

By Biju Negi
31 March, 2004

Thirty years is not a short time, even if it is not a long one either. In Lata and Reni, the two villages in the Niti valley of Chamoli Garhwal, which had been both the vanguard and the rearguard of the movement then, an entire generation was in the process of moving over. Bold young women and men of that time were now bent with age. women who were little girls back then, were now married and gone to other villages, while the energetic little boys of the 1970s are today languid and middle aged. Much had, indeed, changed – for the good or worse. If one thing had not changed, it was the memory of that fateful night in March 1974 when Gaura Devi, the head of the Mahila Mangal Dal at Reni then, led 26 other women into the forest in the dead of the night to confront the forest contractor’s labourers and dared them to use their axes. In the face of their quiet determination, the axemen relented and left the forest. [full report]

Protests over Government Hijacking of Chipko Celebrations

Staff Correspondent Joshimath
Dainik Jagran, 27 March, 2004

The thirtieth Anniversary of Chipko Andolan in Reni, the village of late Gaura Devi, the inspiration of this Andolan, was celebrated with great pomp and show. However the villagers of Lata protested the fact that it was made into a governmental celebration that had kept people out. They showed their anger by shouting slogans against the government and forest department, which raised tensions and divided the people into two groups. The son of late Gaura Devi himself announced the accusation on this platform that some people are playing games with collecting money in the name of his mother, which is very unfortunate. (Hindi, English Translation]

The Story of Chipko: Forgotten at Home, Remembered Abroad

Laksmi Prashad Pant
Dainik Jagran, 26 March, 2004

On the occasion of the thirtieth Anniversary of Chipko, high class society remains uninformed. Except for a small celebration planned for Reni, there is only silence throughout the whole of Uttarakhand. (Hindi Only]

Chipko Ke Baad Jhapto Cheeno

Atul Sati
Yugwani, March 2004

A story from Uttarakhand's leading Hindi monthly on the struggles of the people of the Niti Valley. [Hindi]

The Story of Nanda Devi is on the Internet

Feature Desk
Dainik Jagran, 15 February, 2004

In the old days people listened to stories from their elders sitting around the fire. Nowadays with information technologies these stories are told through the internet and social workers and students take the place of elders.

Away from the chatting culture of cybercafes in the capital Dehra Dun, the story of Niti valley in the border district of Chamoli is being presented on the internet, like the stories of olden days. (Hindi, English Translation]

Chipko commemorates Gaura Devi incident

(Dehra Dun, January 31) On 26 March 1974 Gaura Devi with other women at Reni village in Chamoli Garhwal drew worldwide attention by adopting a noble non-violence method of saving trees by hugging with trees and saying, "First cut us, before cutting our trees."

The women forced the contractors to abandon the forest without cutting a single tree. [more]

Dehradun: On the eve of the Republic Day, Gram Sabha Lata in Chamoli District hosted the first Nanda Devi Women's Festival. The striking feature of the festival was the recognition granted to achievements of the region's women.

It was a memorable sight to watch Bhotia women in their traditional dress attending the fair with unprecedented enthusiasm. [more]

Pursuing Environmental Justice through Community Based Ecotourism: The case of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve

Presentation at the 100th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers
Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2004

Keith Bosak presented the Nanda Devi story where he examined the struggles of the Bhotiya communities through the lens of Environmental Justice movements in the US.

The abstract of the presentation is appended below:

"Between 1976 and 1982 the Nanda Devi area of the Garhwal Himalaya was a major destination for adventurers. In 1982, the area was closed to all visitors as a result of environmental degradation and named a UN Biosphere Reserve in 1988. The local Bhotiya people worked as porters and guides for expeditions and also grazed sheep and harvested medicinal herbs from the area. The closure prohibited their access to the core zone of the park, putting an end to these livelihood activities. The Bhotiya drafted an Ecotourism Declaration in 2001, which asserted their rights to use the resources of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) in a sustainable manner through community-based ecotourism. In many ways the struggle of the Bhotiya is a struggle for Environmental Justice (EJ). The NDBR is seen as a locally unwanted land use and as such, the Bhotiya have used many of the same discursive tactics as the EJ movement in the US to re-assert their rights to the NDBR. This paper uses a discourse analysis of the Ecotourism Declaration to illustrate how the struggle of the Bhotiya to establish community-based ecotourism in the NDBR is at its heart a struggle for environmental justice."

From Chipko to Nanda Devi: Memories of an Ongoing Environmental Movement in the Himalayas

Presentation at the 10th Annual Eco Art & Media Festival
York University, Toronto, ON, March 2, 2004

Rajiv Rawat presented the story of Chipko in its 30th year, from its humble origins to today where the ongoing struggle for community rights in Nanda Devi has involved some of the same women that saved the trees at Reni.