Alaknanda river, viewed from Srinagar, Garhwal. Credit: Karamjeet Singh Nanda Devi Sanctuary The center piece of the Garhwal region is undoubtedly the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. Until 1934, the gorge of the Rishiganga River and the immediate area around Nanda Devi was one of the least known and most inaccessible parts of the Himalayas. In the sanctuary, the mountains stand in a vast amphitheater, seventy miles in circumference and about 6,000 m high. There is no depression in this cirque below 5,200 m except in the west where the Rishi ganga has carved out for itself one of the most formidable gorges in the world. The Nanda Devi Sanctuary is drained in part by the Alaknanda and Saraswati rivers.

Nanda Devi, from Auli Credit: Karamjeet Singh

Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi may not even be one of the highest twenty peaks in the world, but interestingly, at one point in time, she did enjoy the singular status of being the highest mountain in the British empire -- the world's largest empire. The reason for this was that Mount Everest lay in the Kingdom of Nepal and K2 lay in the princely state of Kashmir.

Standing at a fantastic height of 7,816 m above sea level, the Nanda Devi is a mountain that has influenced the population of the region since time immemorial. Scintillatingly beautiful viewed from any angle, it is the patron Goddess of Garhwal and Kumaon.

The Nanda Devi massif stands alone, encircled in a vast ring of lesser peaks seventy miles in circumference. In this ring are no fewer than nineteen peaks over 21,000 ft and no known break below 17,000 ft, except in the west, up the incredible gorge of the Rishi Ganga.