In the Realm of the Leopard

There is a quaint little place nestled deep into a thick pristine forest on the slopes of the Churdhar Ranges, in the Middle Himalayan Mountain system in Himachal Pradesh. It is called Munalag and it is situated at a height of 2,560m. This was our destination for an extended weekend camping trip. The route was more or less expected to be a road, but the final 12 kilometers was just a mountain track widened from an old jungle mule track to accommodate a vehicle. It was yet to be passed for vehicular traffic.

The route taken was Parwanoo to Shimla, which is about 75 kilometers, and then another 40 kilometers from Sanjauli to Theog. The last stretch is from Sainj to Munalag, covering a distance of around 100 kilometers. The road from Parwanoo till Kufri was a pleasure, as always, while till Theog it was broken, uneven and undulating. The real horror comes once you turn towards Sainj, where it is just a broken dirt road though about 40 feet wide. The Chinese company working on the roads here just widened it, and left it without realizing that it too ought to have been blacktop. Thereafter, till Dabas, it’s a mountain road – though tarred, but broken and narrow. From Dabas, it’s not a road but a dirt track leading you up and further into the mountain thick with Deodars and Baan.

Munalag used to be a major timber logging post during the British Times, and had a mule track connecting it to the border areas of Sirmaur and Solan in HP, with Dakpathar and Chakrata in Uttrakhand, with the erstwhile princely states of Rampur, Theog, Chaupal and Jubbal. Raja Bhagat Singh of Jubbal had made a small retreat here, which was converted into a forest rest house in the year 1950. The place has seen so few visitors that the guest register placed there in 1950 is still in use, and only about 20 odd pages have been used. Hardly any tourists, and most of the entries relate to the forest service officers coming on an inspection. It was in these regions that we pitched our tents and explored the surrounding forests. The treks around Munalag will take you beyond the tree line and onto the smaller peaks with green meadows.

Munalag is truly one of the real old world villages nestled high up into the mountains, where you can see the entire night-sky full of stars, and where the sun rises each day bringing a promise of yet another peaceful and blessed day far away from the maddening crowds. Trips like these remind us to tread off the beaten path on occasion and truly experience adventure and nature.

Vikram Singh
Mohali