Trekking misadventure waiting to happen in U’khand

UTTARAKHAND LACKS TRAINED GUIDES AND COMMUNICATION DEVICES DESPITE RUSH OF TREKKERS

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand may witness a Himachal Pradeshlike trekking misadventure if the state government didn’t set up a mountaineering watchdog and improve the high reaches communication facilities soon, ace mountaineer Reena Dharamsaktu said on Monday.

Dharamsaktu heads a government mountaineering institute at Munsiyari in Uttarakhand and had hit the headlines for being part of the all- women Antarctic expedition in 2009.

She was referring to the incident in Himachal Pradesh wherein seven students of Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (SLIET) in Punjab had embarked upon a trekking adventure with a local guide and went missing in the Malana pass. They were, however, located and rescued after four days of suspense.

She said a similar incident could repeat in Uttarakhand too which, though gets a few such expeditions as compared to other trekking states, has had a history of such misadventures in the past. The reasons have been absence of trained trekking and mountaineering guides, a lack of advance trekking gadgets, very weak communication devices to keep in touch with the base camp and unavailability of accurate weather prediction systems for the higher reaches.

In 2007, a troop of nearly 100 people, including foreigners and Indian mountaineers, por- ters, support staff, was stuck in the bad weather in higher reaches of Uttarakhand. The trekkers were rescued only after defence forces with choppers were pressed into services.

Experts said unlike Himachal Pradesh, which gets the biggest pie in the share of domestic mounatinners, Uttarakhand gets nearly 1,000 climbers every year. The state though offers around 60 open peaks such as Bhagirathi, Bandarpunch, Chaukhamba, Jogin, Kamet, Kedar Dome, Meru, Nanda Devi East, Rudragaira for professional mountaineers. However, they said there was need to have a mountaineering watchdog to regulate such activities to minimize tragedies.

“But, the biggest problem is that the mountaineering industry in India is not regulated and the participants are seldom trained by the organizers, ”said Dharamsaktu.

She said one of the drawbacks had been the ban on the use of satellite phones after 26/ 11.

This is good security step but a risky proposition for the trekkers, she said and added there should be some conditional permission to use these phones for the mountaineers. It is not a difficult task, she said.

Sunil Kainthola, who runs a cooperative based mountaineering company in Chamoli highlighted shortage of professional trainers as a major issue which needed immediate attention. Kainthola imparts training to the young tribals of Chamoli who later help foreign adventure tourists to Uttarakhand.

According to the Indian Mountaineering Foundation ( IMF), New Delhi, the extent of applications it received for mountaineering in Uttarakhand had gone down by around 40 to 50% in the past 10 years due to the excessive fee and delayed permissions issues. Besides Himac hal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are also a preferred mountaineering destination.