Nelang Valley – A trip to a hidden valley

The Nelang Valley is a hidden valley or a lesser known place located in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Access to this valley was halted in 1962, after the Indian-Chinese war. It opened for tourists in 2015 and still entrance is limited to 6 vehicles per day. Tourists have only the day time to explore it, they have to come back before the night. Night stay is not allowed in the valley due to security reasons. So there are is no commercial activities in the valley, not even a tea shop. Road is not in good shape and there are a lot of water streams on the way, so only 4×4 vehicles are allowed on this route. Still tourists can only go up to 25 km.

This valley is located on the way to Gangotri, a well-known pilgrimage site in India. Surprisingly, I discovered this valley while searching for places on Google Maps. I looked up some fascinating information about this location on the internet. It piqued my interest in going to Nelang Valley. As a result, we scheduled a trip to Gangotri, the Nelang Valley, and a hike to Gaumukh.

After searching on the internet about the permissions, we found a link to apply permits online. But that is just for the application only, we still need to went to the SDM office (Local Administration Office) at Uttarakashi to verify the original documents and stamped the permits. Without stamp permits are not valid.

On First day of our journey we reached Uttrakashi in the evening, And next day after completion of the permit process we depart for the next destination. Our next stay was at Dharali. It is a beautiful village few kilometers before the main entry of the Nelang Valley. It is also the last major stay point on the Gangotri highway. It was a beautiful stay and next day we reached to the main entry point of the Nelang Valley.

A forest department checkout post has been established here and they asked us to show the permit. Finally checking our permit and vehicle they allowed us to go with strict instructions to come back timely by the evening. Now we were driving along with the Jadh Ganga River which is also known as Jahanavi River. This road goes up to the India china border. The interesting thing is that there are no residents in any village in whole Nelang valley. All people of the valley were relocated to the other places during 1962 Indo-china war.

After moving a few kilometers ahead we saw a historical wooden bridge on the other side of the river. As I’ve read about the bridge, so I’ve been looking for it, otherwise it’s not easily recognizable. Actually this was an ancient trade route between India and Tibet. It’s known as Gartang Gali. This bride was made in the 17th century. It is a great example of historical architecture. It looks like a hanging sky bridge on the vertical mountains. I was wishing to walk through that bridge, but no one will give permission for such a risky place. Later on I found a good news that government is planning to develop this as a tourist spot and already started restoration work on it. I am eagerly waiting for its opening.

I have also found some more facts on the internet about this valley and Gartang gully. An interesting fact is that Heinrich Harrer used the same route to reach Tibet after escaping from the British detention center in Dehradun. He was a famous mountaineer from Austria and was a part of 4 members team who came to the India in 1939 to conquer the ‘Nanga Parbat’. But at the same time a war broke out in Europe and Britishers in India arrested the Harrer & team as enemy aliens. Though later on they managed to escape from the detention center and reached Tibet in 1944 on foot by conquering many Himalayan passes and treacherous route.

He spent 7 years in Tibet and also become the tutor of the ‘His holiness Dalai Lama‘. Later he wrote the book seven years in Tibet which was the bestseller of the 1954 in United States. A film based on this book was released in the 1997 with the same name ‘Seven Years in Tibet‘. Brad Pitt played the role as Heinrich Harrer in the movie.

Now I am coming back to our journey to the valley. At a stream crossing we found a forest department vehicle stuck in the crossing. It was rescued after hours of struggle with the help of an excavator. So they refused us to cross the stream, and we’ve got to get back from that point.

Though we missed the core area of the Nelang which resembles Ladakh like terrain. But still it was a fantastic day. Check out the video of our fantastic drive of the Nelang Valley.