Uttarakhand: Valley of Flowers closed for visitors due to landslides

Uttarakhand’s popular Valley of Flowers was recently hit by a severe landslide due to heavy rains, which resulted in huge cracks developing on the trek route. Owing to the same, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, famous for its breathtaking natural beauty and alpine flowers, will remain closed for visitors for now and will reopen only after the cracks are fixed and the road is fine for travel.

Recently, a district administration team also visited the site to check if any tourists got stuck in the valley, and took stock of the situation and explored ways to restore connectivity.Referring to this, Divisional Forest Officer Nand Ballabh Sharma added that the landslide that happened a little ahead of Dwaripul, is recurring in nature. It has a glacier point and a sliding zone. The officer further added that they are not willing to take any chances now, so all routes leading to the Valley of Flowers have been closed.

Meanwhile, workers have already started working to clear the trek route although landslides and rains continue to hit the stretch. The forest guard added that big cracks have developed and boulders might fall on visitors at any time. Earlier, this trek route used to be 10 m wide, but now, there's barely enough space left to stand, after it rained for nearly 5 hours.

There's a strong possibility that the rest of the trek route will be washed away too, and there’s a need for an alternate alignment of the route to facilitate smooth movement of visitors, the forest guard added.
The Dwaripul Zone, where the landslide has occurred, also witnessed major devastation during the Kedarnath tragedy of 2013 and, since then, it has seen recurrent landslides and is in urgent need of slope treatment.

1. Why it is called Valley of Flowers?
   The valley is believed to have been discovered in 1931, when three British mountaineers, led by Frank S Smythe, lost their way and chanced upon this spectacular valley. Attracted by the beauty of this place they named it the 'Valley of Flowers'.
2. How many types of flowers are there in Valley of Flowers?
   The Valley of Flowers is endowed with 520 species of high altitude plants including angiosperms, gymnosperms, and pteridophytes, of which 498 are flowering plants.
3. Which is the most predominant flower of the valley?
   The Himalayan Balsam is the most predominant flower found the valley.