Incredible Himalayan Landscape

HImalayas: the world alone evokes emotions. And it has rightly been said that you don't visit the Himalaya twice. Although you do visit them twice practically but once you've been there, you heart just can't leave that place and thus no visiting twice.

Anyway, I was scouring through my pictorial database and I thought of writing a post about vast landscape of Himalaya through pictures. There will be traffic jams, rugged terrain, well-built highways, breathtaking landscape and white nothingness. All in one place, Himalayas that is.

In India, HImachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Uttarakhand can boast of being the home of Himalayas and because all these states are close to International Borders, hostile borders If I may say that, thus the Himalayan landscape has undergone a major change of late.

There are well-built roads, some of them as good as your city roads during summers. And when roads appear, it is but natural for tourists to follow along with the Armed Forces. On one hand, excessive inflow of tourists to these reclusive hermitage of explorers is devastating to Mother Nature but at the same time it is good for the local economy which otherwise has to depend on meager resources to earn their livelihood.

Among all these, the valley of Kullu-Manali in Himachal Pradesh has had the highest impact of both the growing number of tourists and environmental degradation. So much so that the National Green Tribunal, established to safeguard the environmental concerns against haphazard development, had to step in limit the number of tourists to the this place called Rohtang Pass, which is a popular tourist destination.

Without saying much, I would let you see the beauty of this place. Sit back and enjoy the virtual journey

Come summers and this tiny lake would disappear. Tourists swarming from every direction will make the entire landscape similar to the one that you see on a busy day in your city

Come October and these lanes would look like this. Devoid of any traffic on them and you may question about the need of such roads in this region

Landscape as seen from the ridge right atop the Rohtang Pass

And lastly, the dreaded traffic of Rohtang Pass. Count the number of vehicles.