The Stone Goddess

Comments Off on The Stone Goddess   |   News Articles

Trekking route with Mountain Shepherds from Lata through Lata Kharak and Dharansi to Tolma and Suraithota.

Pavel Chakraborty
Outlook, April 2, 2012

A sun-kissed morning, the second of our Nanda Devi outer sanctuary trek, finds us taking a breather at the edge of a jungle path. Bijju, our guide, expertly points out the Himalayan black bear footprints and leopard scats. Only the occasional bird cry distracts him. The Koklass pheasant, Himalayan monal, Rose finch, names right out of Inskipp’s Birds of India. As our gazes wander upwards, there, momentarily framed between the jutting rock face and the golden beam of sunlight, is the slightly shimmering figure of a musk deer. It radiates all the mystique of the surrounding jungle, holds us in thralldom and vanishes as quickly as it appeared. The yin of her movement seamlessly merges into the yang of shiny rock. [more]