The final time the mountain ranges encircling Kashmir had been meticulously mapped on foot was between 1822-23 by William Moorcroft, a British veterinarian working for the East India Company. Cut to 2025, Mahmood A Shah, a passionate trekker in his early fifties, has develop into the primary native to measure the Great Himalayas and Lesser Himalayas by circumambulating the ranges on foot. His espresso desk guide, Valleys of Jammu & Kashmir, launched in July this 12 months is a peak-by-peak, pass-by-pass, meadow-by-meadow and lake-by-lake account of what’s hidden up within the mysterious and imposing mountain ranges of Kashmir.
“When I was a school-going kid. I would always stare out from the school bus window at the peaks and ranges following us in a distance. I was always curious to know what was hidden up in these mighty peaks and the layers of mountain ranges. I wondered how the world looked from these towering peaks. It took me 25 years of trekking to realise the dream,” says Shah, a bureaucrat at present working as Managing Director, Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL). He travelled anti-clockwise from the Pir Panchal vary of decrease Himalayas to the upper Himalayas.
The writer, Mahmood Ahmad Shah at completely different excessive perspective factors in Kashmir throughout his treks.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The guide has 114 photos of high-altitude and untouched passes, serene and bewitching meadows and jewel-like lakes perched above 3,000 meters above the ocean degree. “I have featured 54 high altitude lakes, many rarely-travelled and unknown to even locals. I have been to 112 alpine lakes. There is mystery attached with the higher glaciated reaches, as new lakes emerge and many vanish,” says Shah, who did his education from missionary Tyndale Biscoe School in Srinagar.
He needed to trek the Tulian Lake, an alpine lake above 3,684 meters the Anantnag-Pahalgam axis, thrice to take photos. “Overcast skies and foggy weather did not allow me to capture the grandeur of the lake,” says Shah. The little-known lakes lined within the guide embody Bodh Sar, Tri Sar, Laksukh Sar, Bhag Sar, and Katori Sar.
With the dream to demystify the mountains, Shah’s guide supplies the longitude and latitude of locations recorded on Global Positioning System (GPS) and the hours required to scale a peak or high-altitude lake. “This information will make it easier for prospective trekkers to reach these destinations now,” says Shah. The guide is interspersed with anecdotes and musings in regards to the vacation spot to convey the distinct flavour to readers.
Mahmood Ahmad Shah’s Valleys of Jammu & Kashmir
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
One of his memorable and picturesque treks is from Kishtwar in J&Okay into Kargil in Ladakh. This trans-Himalayan trek route covers greater than 85 kilometres and is dwelling to robust passes and peaks stuffed with rugged and slipping stones. Zorawar Singh, a Dogra normal, selected the identical route to beat Ladakh in 1834. “This trek has rare passes like Batkul Pass. It requires crossing glaciers, which is relatively easy, and rubble walking, very difficult. It is dotted with lakes, a blue colour spectacle when the skies are clear,” says Shah.
An avid trekker, Shah first tried his fingers at scaling mountains in 1988 throughout his faculty days. “I went up to the Amarnath shrine for the first time. It gave me life lessons. Never go ill-prepared into the mountains, as they throw risks. One bumps into the unknown. Weather is mercurial in the mountains. It gets hostile when you expect it least. A sunny day can end up in a snow blizzard. There is something unique about people living in the upper reaches. They live in narrow gorges with big hearts. They readily offer you tea as you knock on their door for shelter during inclement weather,” says Shah.
What makes the guide exceptional can also be for the truth that Shah trekked into mountains on the peak of militancy, when gunmen would equally discover it protected to remain within the higher reaches of mountains. This exactly was the rationale that trekking got here to a grinding halt in Kashmir, particularly after militants kidnapped six overseas vacationers and their two guides within the Lidderwat space of Pahalgam, Anantnag, on July 4, 1995. “I have been lucky to survive all kinds of threats during my mountain escapades,” he says.
The writer, Mahmood Ahmad Shah at completely different excessive perspective factors in Kashmir throughout his treks.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The writer is gloomy for additionally being witness to altering wildlife of meadows, depleting sights of hangul and markhor in higher reaches. “Overgrazing and human interference has started disturbing the landscape and animal sights too. Forest cover has disappeared, deforestation has increased, excessive grazing and regeneration is not happening. It’s sad to witness the decline,” says Shah. “Footfall needs to be controlled if these meadows, passes and lakes have to survive in the long run,” he provides.
Animal presence and flower unfold have all the time been parameters of the well being of mountains in Kashmir. The 360-degree panoramic view supplied by the writer within the guide is quick changing into a bible for trekkers in Kashmir. Garry Weare, an Australian trekker and writer of books like A Long Walk within the Himalaya: A Trek from the Ganges to Kashmir, says the photographs captured by Shah had been solely potential “when the Gods were in complete alignment with of vantage points”. He stated the photographs replicate the uncooked, untamed magnificence of those historical peaks, passes, and lakes, steeped in legends nearly as historical because the mountains themselves, says Weare.
He says Shah’s pictures continually reminds us that Kashmir isn’t a wilderness space. “Pilgrims, armies, and traders have crossed the high passes Kashmir for centuries,” Weare provides.
As the guide takes us away from the normal flower beds and snow-laden slopes of Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonamarg, Shah says there may be cause to be on prime of mountains: to get excessive. “I don’t drink or smoke. I only high I get is from the mountains. The more I go into the mountains the more happy I feel,” he provides.
Valleys of Jammu & Kashmir is out there on Amazon and distinguished guide shops, like Gulshan Book Store, in Srinagar. It is priced at ₹3,500.
