The Forgotten Village

The Himalayan village of Kalap is an idyllic place with fresh mountain air and pure spring water. Shivya Nath travels to this self-sustainable land where people live up to 100 years.

- Shivya Nath

After an hour of scampering down the mountain, the trail suddenly disappeared. Huge boulders lay along the shores, and I found myself transfixed by the gushing, free-flowing, sapphire-blue Supin River-a rare sight in Uttarakhand, where most great rivers have been dammed into lifeless trickles. Above the river hung a heap of wires and ropes, and a small metallic basket, my heart-stopping ride to the other shore! For another 2.5 hours, I huffed and puffed up a steep mountain behind my guide, till I finally caught the first glimpse of my elusive destination. The oak forest gave way to yellow mustard fields and baby pink peach blossoms as I walked into Kalap-a forgotten village in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, accessible only by an eight-kilometer hike from the nearest road-head at Motwar village.

I first heard about Kalap back in 2014. Anand Sankar, an avid hiker and former journalist, had established The Kalap Trust (kalaptrust.org) to build a school and medical clinic in this remote village, and employed teachers and doctors to run them (though things fell apart during the pandemic). Back then, a trip to Kalap needed some advance notice. With no phone network in the village, Sankar had to send a letter to Kalap with the public bus driver four days in advance! Dehradun, my hometown, is the nearest big town (only a 12-hour bus ride eight-kilometer hike away), but it took me another seven years to make it there.

Exhausted by the hike up, I quickly fell into a deep slumber, until the morning light stirred me awake. Slowly unwrapping myself from layers of blankets, I pulled my feet away from the barely warm hot water bottle, unbolted the door, and stepped out. The sun was just rising above the eastern ridge, and from the wooden ledge of my homestay balcony, I felt like I was floating on the clouds.