Thick fog was descending from the snowy mountain tops at an unfathomable pace. Soon, the visibility would drop to zero. I carefully took each step as the landscape was strewn with boulders uprooted in a recent landslide. Tiny droplets of drizzle were wetting my face and cheeks. The sound of flowing water reverberated through the atmosphere. The sun had disappeared long back and the mountains were blocking the remnants of evening light from reaching the ground. The wagtails which were pecking around till sometime back had disappeared somewhere. The long, arduous trek had made me weary. There was no option of going back at that juncture. We were far away from civilization…
Ganga begins her epic journey from the glaciers of the Tapovan region of the Upper Himalayan range in Uttarakhand. The river is known as Bhagirathi in the beginning. The source of the river is called Gomukh, which is on the edge of the Gangotri glacier. Continuous landslides and earthquakes keep changing the geography of this landscape. Spread across 30 km, Gangotri is one of the largest glaciers in the Himalayas and forms a part of the Gangotri National Park.
Published in 2023
