Waylaid In Paradise

A corner of the Himachal hills is suddenly unsafe, feels Subir Roy

Manikaran in Kullu district of Himachal is a sort of a gateway. It has a hot spring and when we visited it several years ago, the ugliest possible hotel of Himachal Tourism. Nobody looking for the beauty of the Himalayas would stop there. They would instead go on further, taking the trekking routes that have now become hugely popular.

An Englishman, his Spanish friend and her 12 year old son recently set out to do that with plans to cross the Pin Parbati pass to go onto Kaza and met with disaster.

 

It was not of the physical kind like landslide or flash flood that can happen so often without notice in the hills. They were instead attacked by who we do not know yet, beaten up, robbed, thrown into a ditch and left for dead. The woman and her son were indeed dead but the Englishman, though critically injured, has managed to survive.

He may eventually be able to tell a tale and throw some light on why over a score of foreign tourists have disappeared from the area, Kullu and Manikaran, in the last few years. Along trekking routes and hamlets in the area and in nearby Kasol recent visitors have seen posters seeking information on these missing persons.

All this is like mayhem in heaven. Other than the natural beauty of the Himalayas that draws people to them from all over the world the additional plus about trekking in these areas has been the total safety. The attitude of local people in upper Himachal, that is those areas that are not in regular touch with the Maruti zipping tourists from the plains towns who descend on weekends, is legendary.

Not only are they the most helpful, your luggage also is totally safe. They will freely advise you to leave it at the bus stand and go prospecting for a place to stay for the night. As fellow mountain lover Rajesh Kalra told me, the real nuisance while trekking in the higher reaches of these areas is the Himalayan shepherd dogs. They sometimes surround your tent at night and keep howling and make you feel quite nervous.

Who could be behind these attacks? The police do not have a clue. They seldom do. In the case of the latest attack, they were alerted by the officials of a hydroelectric project through the latters