The expedition to Mt Bhagirathi in 2003 (15th Sept-15th Oct)

Dr Shadhana Ningthoujam
Referring back to the Epic Mahabharata, Maharaja Bhagirathi’s heavy penance in order to liberate his ancestors from their sins paid off and Brahma allowed the Holy Ganga to flow down from Vaikuntha and after long penance and meditation to Lord Shiva, Lord Shiva agreed to receive and soften the powerful flow of the Holy Ganga coming down from Vaikuntha and thus the Holy water washed away the sins of his ancestors by flowing down from the abode of Lord Vishnu to the earth. This is the belief of the Hindus and the uniqueness of the water also seem to corroborate the mythological story.
The team consisted of 15 members, 10 members for climbing group and 5 as the supporting group, Dr Ningthoujam Shadhana, as medical officer of the expedition, performed her duty of medical checkup of the entire team at Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi. And the IMF president Mr NN Vohra was kind enough to exempt our equipment hiring charges and he was very supportive of us too.
On the 13th September, 2003, we started for Uttarkashi by hiring two Toyota Qualis. On the 14th September, we reached Uttarkashi and stayed at the Bhandari Annex (Five storey building hotel) where we bought all the necessary food stuffs and kitchen items, on the 15th Sept our president Mr. Yambem Laba, expedition leader, G Anita and Mr Surjit along with other team had gone to NIM for hiring high altitude equipments, tents and sleeping bags etc for the Mt Bhagirathi II expedition. On the way 45 kms from Uttarkashi towards Gangotri near the Gangnani a dangerous landslide had occurred. From there we crossed by foot and caught another bus from the other side to continue our journey.
On the way to Gangotri, we came across apple orchards, we bought apples and enjoyed eating fresh apples and reached Gangotri at 2.30 pm and stayed at Manisha hotel Gangotri which is 3140 meters above sea level. We weighed all the equipments, ration, and food stuffs and distributed to all the trekkers to carry on their back, sharing weights among the climbers to lighten the burden. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the flow of Ganga River and huge boulders which looked sharpened and concave by the heavy flow of Ganga, producing loud sound echoing off and on.
We offered puja and tarpan over the Ganga for our ancestors and our beloved 18 patriots ‘who sacrificed their lives for the State on the 18th June, 2001. That month of our expedition fell on tarpan period (i.e the time to offer puja,a way of gratifying the ancestors and freeing them from any unfulfilled desires so that they can complete their journey to the heavenly abode with peace, satisfaction and happiness, we offer black sesame seeds, rice and water and seek their blessings; it is the ritual of satisfying our ancestors by offering them prasadam or food also), we never missed anything to offer for our beloved departed souls of our family and for the State, who have sacrificed their lives. The Pandit who did puja for us gave two red coloured cloths to Bijaya and Shadhana and told us that he felt that the puja was very satisfying and there would be good result.
Our leader Mr Yambem Laba also offered tarpan and he also performed the ritual of immersing the ash and flowers in the Holy Gangotri for his cousin who expired before the Bhagairathi II expedition. Gangotri is very well known and the shrine of Gangotri is world famous and attracts large number of tourists every year.
On the 15th September, we started trekking from Gangotri and offered our prayers at the famous temple then passed the temple and paid the expedition entry fee to the Gangotri National Park check post. On the same day, we reached Bojbasa 3792 meters above the sea level and stayed one night there. Bojbasa is one of the tourist places for adventure lovers. Many environmentalists had taken saplings of Bojpatra trees, plenty of trees are grown there and the people collect the bark of Bojpatra trees which are used for Horoscope writing purposes. I myself was ignorant about this tree; such experience is life changing and added knowledge to us.
On the next day, 16th September we started at 7.30 am for Nandanvan through Gomukh glaciers, where Holy River Ganga originated. It looked like the mouth of a cow, the water flowing out from it, thus the name was given as Gomukh, the shape and others surrounding are all in ice form. Gomukh, has been the terminus of the Gangotri glacier where the continuous melting of ice of this glacier results in the flowing of the clear and pure water of the Bhagirathi river. Here we are faced with one of the dangerous treks for the support team to climb over the glacier’s path-slow pace, breathless and difficult trek, we crossed with the help of rope and we depended for our life on each other.
(To be contd)