Visiting Ranikhet again after a long hiatus (Journey through a new route via Chimtakhal)

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Visiting Ranikhet again after a long hiatus

(Journey through a new route via Chimtakhal)

After a long journey - taking a short break

             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 18^th 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 20^th October, 2021 and a clearer picture emerged the next day i.e. 21^st 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 25^th 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 31^st 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.

Here is a link to a video of the destination -

© S Roy Biswas