Valley of Flowers National Park

The Valley of Flowers lies in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, in the western Himalaya of northern India. It was declared a national park in 1982 and covers about 87.5 square kilometres. The valley floor sits at roughly 3,200 to 3,600 metres and is ringed by snow covered peaks.

The valley was known to local shepherds for centuries, but it became known to the outside world after the British mountaineer Frank Smythe came across it in 1931, on his way back from climbing Kamet. His book The Valley of Flowers gave the place its English name. In 2005 UNESCO added it as an extension of the neighbouring Nanda Devi National Park World Heritage Site, which had been inscribed in 1988.

The meadows hold several hundred species of flowering plants, including primulas, anemones, geraniums, marsh marigolds, blue poppies and the rare brahmakamal. The display changes through the season, and the peak bloom usually comes from mid July to mid August, during the monsoon. The park is also home to the Himalayan black bear, musk deer and the snow leopard, though these are rarely seen.

There are no roads inside the park. The trek begins at Govindghat, near Joshimath, from where a trail and road lead to the small village of Ghangaria, the base for visitors. From Ghangaria a further walk of about 4 kilometres leads into the valley. Many visitors combine the trip with Hemkund Sahib, a Sikh shrine beside a high lake reached from the same base.

The park is usually open only from 1 June to 31 October, and visitors must return to Ghangaria the same day, as camping inside is not allowed. An entry fee is charged at the forest checkpost, with separate rates for Indian and foreign visitors. Good fitness and rain gear are needed, as the trails are steep and wet in the monsoon.

The valley sits in the upper reaches of the Pushpawati river, a branch of the Bhyundar Ganga near Joshimath in the Garhwal region, about 20 kilometres north west of Nanda Devi National Park across the Bhyundar valley. Smythe was not alone in 1931: Eric Shipton and R. L. Holdsworth were with him on the return from Kamet, and Smythe later wrote his book of the same name.

One grave in the valley tells a sadder story. In 1939 the botanist Joan Margaret Legge, sent by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, slipped and died while collecting flowers on a rocky slope. Her sister later put up a memorial stone, and the small grave near the trail is still a stop for many trekkers.

Later field surveys recorded 520 alpine plant species growing in the park, and the variety of threatened medicinal plants is higher than in any other protected area surveyed in the Indian Himalaya. Many plants flower for only a few weeks, so the colours of early July differ sharply from those of late August.