THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE
Travel+Leisure India|August 2022
The Himalayan village of Kalap is an idyllic place with fresh mountain air and pure spring water. SHIVYA NATH travels to this self-sustainable land where people live up to 100 years.
SHIVYA NATH
THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE

AFTER AN HOUR OF scampering down the mountain, the trail suddenly disappeared. Huge boulders lay along the shores, and I found myself transfixed by the gushing, free-flowing, sapphire-blue Supin River—a rare sight in Uttarakhand, where most great rivers have been dammed into lifeless trickles. Above the river hung a heap of wires and ropes, and a small metallic basket, my heart-stopping ride to the other shore! For another 2.5 hours, I huffed and puffed up a steep mountain behind my guide, till I finally caught the first glimpse of my illusive destination. The oak forest gave way to yellow mustard fields and baby pink peach blossoms as I walked into Kalap–a forgotten village in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, accessible only by an eight-kilometre hike from the nearest roadhead at Motwar village.

I first heard about Kalap back in 2014. Anand Sankar, an avid hiker and former journalist, had established The Kalap Trust (kalaptrust.org) to build a school and medical clinic in this remote village, and employed teachers and doctors to run them (though things fell apart during the pandemic). Back then, a trip to Kalap needed some advance notice. With no phone network in the village, Sankar had to send a letter to Kalap with the public bus driver four days in advance! Dehradun, my home town, is the nearest big town (only a 12-hour bus ride + eight-kilometre hike away), but it took me another seven years to make it there.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2022 من Travel+Leisure India.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2022 من Travel+Leisure India.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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