Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 29 Jun: The Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand offer picturesque views of various landscapes, glimpses of scared rivers, deep valleys and many more.
Not only the common tourist visits these places but also mountaineers and adventurers.
Ramakant Mahadik, aged 71, has completed cycling along the banks of the main rivers of India. All these expeditions were solo.
He has done lot of cycling including “East to West: from Koteshwar to Kibtu in Arunachal Pradesh”. Cycling in all parts of Sahyadri and Himalayas including Nepal Himalayas, cycling along all seashores of India and Andaman Islands, cycling along major rivers of the country are his few noteworthy achievements, which stand Ramakant apart from other cyclists.
Similarly, solo cycling to Adi Kailas, Om Parvat, Mansarovar, are among his great achievements.
Now cycling along the banks of rivers like Alaknanda, Bhagirathi and Yamuna and to the hill station, Mussoorie, is his dream.
In this monthlong expedition, he is accompanied by his 4 cyclist friends, Raju Patil, Hiten Rane, Amit Mone and Dhananjay Madan. All have good experience of cycling in various parts and unpredictable weather.
Though all these cyclists are engaged in their daily chores, they work for positive social change through the medium of Nature Friendly NGOs.
All these cyclists completed their bicycle journey without support of any vehicle. Not only that, they used their own utensils like cup, spoon and plates instead of paper cups, paper dishes and plastic spoons. Thus, they provide a good example of reducing garbage like cups, plates, which all goes to make garbage in every mountain village.
They started their cycling trip from Haridwar to Mana village, then from Uttarkashi to Gangotri, and to Yamunotri. After completing this cycling expedition, they are heading to Hardwar via Mussoorie and Dehradun to Haridwar.
Till now they have completed about 900 kms journey on their bicycles in this mission.
They interacted willingly with many tourists and locals to create awareness about health and fitness and also spread the message of Clean Surroundings and low use of energy.
They observed that all tourists and many service providers are using paper dishes, paper plates, paper cups for food. All these things are polluting Himalayan Nature and make the Himalayan environment ugly. Concerned departments should work for a solution to this huge garbage creating habit.
Similarly crowd of tourists and pilgrims go beyond limits of carrying capacity, which makes things troublesome. They saw gutters full of waste near the road parking before Gangotri temple, making the atmosphere smelly.
The sounds of harsh horns of vehicles also disturbed and frightened the cyclists. This is noise pollution which is against the tranquillity and peace of Devbhoomi. All vehicle drivers should obey and maintain good road discipline is their small wish.
All these cyclists enjoyed the nature of the Himalayas and its native people with whom they interacted. Their love and simplicity are sweet memories for them.
Today, they are camped at the FRI in Dehradun.
