Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib - page 2 Also read the previous page The Valley of Flowers itself is a classic U-shaped valley -- a work of the Tipra-Kharak glacier. Over millions of years, glaciers have advanced and receded many times. Today's Himalayan glaciers are only a pale shadow of their former selves as they have been receding ever since the last Himalayan Ice Age. However, the rich morainic soil left by the glaciers proved to be ideal and numerous varieties of alpine flowers took bloom.

The magic of the Bhyundar Valley or the Valley of Flowers. (Download Realplayer)

Famous Cobra Lily of Valley of Flowers Credit: Raj Shirole

The rainy season -- in August and September -- is the best time to visit the valley, as around 300 varieties of alpine flowers bloom and turn the valley into a veritable Shangri-La.

The famous resident of the Valley of Flowers is undoubtedly the Cobra Lily. Named for obvious reasons, the lily is quite common throughout the valley, although a good specimen is difficult to find.

Another rare flower in the region is the Himalayan Blue Poppy. It can also be found on the roadside along the trek to Hemkund. It is beautiful to look at and stands out against the backdrop of rocks.

However, the tremendous attention that the valley has received may well lead to its doom. Fearing environmental degradation, the government of India declared it a National Park in 1981, and declared it off-limits to the migratory graziers whose animals, according to the short-sighted officials and environmentalists, would graze in the valley and destroy the ecological balance. No attempt was made at the time to understand the role played by the graziers and their flocks in the extremely delicate alpine eco-systems. The officials worked on the evidence that sheep ate up vegetation and so, obviously, the solution was simply to ban the sheep.

Flowers at the Valley of Flowers Credit: Karamjeet Singh

What has happened over the last decade and a half is simply the invasion by a tenacious weed named Polygonum, and since the sheep, which had a liking for it, were so conveniently removed by the declaration, it has swamped the more delicate alpine flowers which made the valley famous.

The tall plant, with numerous pink flowers, has now been shorn of it's natural predators. It is tough and has great regenerative capacity, like other weeds. Thus unsurprisingly, weed control measures have met with little success. Instead, the pastel hues of the alpine meadows have given way to large, broad patches of pink as the ever expanding Polygonum elbows aside the smaller and more delicate varieties of alpine flowers that so charmed Smythe and generations after him.

Violets Credit: Raj Shirole

The Ministry of Environment needs to reconsider the situation in terms of grazing, not only for the sake of the Valley of Flowers, but also for relevant and non-intrusive Himalayan policy planning in the future.