I used to visit Ranikhet region to
take care of my property every few months, whenever my engagements with work
permitted.However, during the previous
year, due to the Corona pandemic, I could visit village Badankhet/Timila only in
November, 2020 during the entire year.So in order to keep my track record of the blog continuing in 2021, I
had posted about this trip in January, 2021 and that was the only blog that I
could post last year.As I myself got
afflicted with Corona in March end/early April, 2021 and the continued
lockdowns and stringent measure in force, I could only visit my village again
in end of October in 2021.With the
advent of newer Corona strain spreading its wings, I am posting this blog in
January, 2022 to atleast keep the yearly tab filled albeit the fact that this
time around I did go around a bit and will be posting a few more blogs in this
series.
Distribution of rainfall during the disaster in October, 2021 (sourced from web)
Devastation caused by the rains during October, 2021 in Naintal (sourced from the internet)
After the curbs imposed by
Uttarakhand Government were eased to some extent, coupled with the fact that
our family had got itself double vaccinated, I decided to visit my home in
village Badankhet/Timila in end of October, 2021 as most of the official
engagements had been rounded up for the time being.We were getting ready for the journey, after being
struck in our home for about a year in Delhi, we were very excited about the
intended trip, sans our kids who had decided to stay put in Delhi because one
of them was busy with his online job and the other with online classes,
internet accessibility being a problem in the village home.However, news started trickling in from the
late evening of 18th October, 2021 about incessant rains hitting the
Kumaon region hard and by the next day, it had attained alarming proportions
akin to 2013 calamity in Garhwal region i.e. when Kedarnath tragedy took
place.By the time the rains slowly
relented by late evening of 20th October, 2021 and a clearer picture
emerged the next day i.e. 21st October, 2021 it could be seen that
Nainital district of Kumaon region was the worst affected (I have placed a
graphical representation sourced from the internet) and most of the roads etc.
in the Kumaon region were very badly affected.All the tourists and trade routes had been devastated and it would take
months to rebuild.Only the State
Highway route running from Ranikhet to Ramnagar/Corbett, across my village,
remained the only source of road communication that linked the hills to the
plains below.We had become apprehensive
about our trip that was to commence on the 25th of October, 2021
because of the road conditions.After
talking to few locals over telephone we were informed that instead of the usual
route running from Delhi-Ghaziabad-Moradabad-Ramnagar-Mohan-Totam-Bhatraujkhan-Ranikhet,
we were required to divert our route a little by diverting towards Marchula
just before Mohan and take to the roads towards Chimtakhal (before reaching
Marchula) and travel through some small nondescript villages before reaching
Bhatraujkhan via Machor.(here is the link to the news about the devastating floods
- News report about the floods in Uttarakhand in October, 2021)
Passing through some pristine nature
Mobile signal towers now perched even in remote villages
Not being familiar with this new
route, although the road upto Ramnagar and a little way beyond it would be the
same, but thereafter we were totally unaware of the road conditions etc., hence
we started very early in the morning from Delhi.Part of the journey has been covered by me in
the video that is embedded below in the blog.The road conditions were excellent, as travelling after a year, we found
that most of the flyovers etc. that had been under construction during the
journey during the previous year had been completed and we went past Ghaziabad
in a jiffy.Earlier, the Ghaziabad part
was a real headache, as traffic, especially two-wheelers would travel on the
opposite direction on the roads, thereby making the passage narrower and
consequently leading to huge traffic jams.But it had become a thing of the past, but a new issue awaited us on the
Highway, it was compulsory use of ‘Fast tag’ to be affixed on the Car, for
smooth passage across various toll plazas maintained by the NHAI on these
roads.After waiting for about half an
hour, we were able to get the ‘Fast tag’ affixed and thereafter, the journey
was smooth.We reached Gajraula well in
time for B’fast at Bikanerwala and proceeded ahead with our journey.The road till Moradabad crossing of the
National Highway is in prime shape, but thereafter it is a mess till one
reaches Thakudwara and this portion consumed a lot to time.Thereafter, we again got struck in a jam at
Kashipur due to construction of a flyover in the township and apparently very
little progress has been made, since my last visit a year ago.However, after having gone past this
irritant, we crossed Ramnagar smoothly and just before Mohan we turned left
towards Marchula and this road leads towards Pauri Gharwal via Manila.The road though narrower, passes through some
really nice landscape, with very few vehicles, but is bereft of facilities like
food joints etc.The road takes a U-turn
from Chimtakhal and passes through nondescript villages like
Godiyon-Kankot-Toliyun-Khabli-Burjangarhi till it joins the earlier taken road
just before Machor village.This road is
about 14-16 Kms. longer than the normal route through Mohan and Totam and hence
it took us about an hour longer to reach our home than usual.It was late in the evening that we reached
home and after having an early dinner, we retired for the night.
A small village perched on a ridge
A typical village with a temple as seen on the road
Birds eye view of Ramganga River flowing by Bikhiyasen as seen from Harara village
We returned back to Delhi on 31st
October, 2021 and by that time the road from Mohan side had been opened for
traffic and hence we descended towards Ramnagar from this side.The place where the road had been blocked
near Totam has been covered in the video.But due to the blockade of the Highway by the infamous Kiasan rally activists
at Ghaziabad border, we had to take a torturous detour and were delayed at the
last leg of our journey by more than two hours and thus concluded our one and
only journey for the year 2021.
