Pandavas' route to Char Dham may soon open to public

Dehradun, Aug 03: The Uttarakhand government has decided to throw open the ancient trek route of the Chardam yatra, which is believed to be used by the Pandavas around 3,000 years ago.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that the government was inclined to open it for all. "The trek routes will give a new dimension to the state's religious tourism," the chief minister said.

"The expedition team, comprising trekking experts, personnel from the State Disaster Response Force, and the forest department, started their journey from Rishikesh and tookan old "walking route" to all the four shrines, covering a distance of 1,156 km," reported the Times of India.

They crossed 24 different terrains, considered to be among the toughest in the Garhwal hills, before returning on December 24. The expedition was flagged off on October 25, 2021.

Believed to have been used by the Pandavas in the course of their passage to the Himalayas after the Mahabharata war, the arduous treks which took pilgrims and ascetics days to reach the Himalayan temples until the 1950s fell into disuse as easier options of travelling became available to people with the building of motorable roads.

With still easier options like helicopter services to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri becoming available in more recent times, the ancient trails passing through shadowy woods and idyllic hill villages were forgotten completely until the board decided to rediscover them to give a boost to tourism and rural economy, which have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic.

However, before the network of motorable roads came into being, the trek routes to the famed temples were the only option available to people.

Though difficult and time taking, pilgrims trekking to the temples had a range of stopovers built every few kilometres by the Baba Kali Kamli organisation along the way where they could rest and fight the fatigue of the long journey before resuming it.