The ambitious plan of the Tourism Department to make ‘Chaainsheel trek’ popular has hit a roadblock of State Forest Department. The Forest Department has taken strong objection to Tourism Department’s move to announce opening of Chaainsheel trek located in higher Himalayan ranges without taking its prior permission.
The tourism department had recently declared that Chaainsheel and Drongiri would be the trek of the year. The forest department has objected to the tourism department’s move of declaring the trek even before taking its No Objection Certificate (NOC). More than 85 percent of the proposed trek lies in forest area. When inquired the forest minister Harak Singh Rawat accepted that the tourism department has not taken the forest department into confidence before going ahead with the plan. “Yes we have lodged a strong objection with the tourism department for going ahead with the trek without consulting us. They (tourism department) have sent us a letter asking us to submit NOC. It is not a healthy precedent,’’ he said.
The minister further said that since the trek passes through forested areas, issues like waste disposal, stay of the trekkers are needed to be discussed. He said that it would have been better had the tourism department included forest department in organisation of the trek.
located about 230 km from provisional state capital Dehradun, Chaainsheel is surrounded by many beautiful Bugyals (high altitude alpine meadows). It lies between Kothighati of Mori block of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand and Rohudu Tehsil of Shimla district in Himachal Pradesh.