Nanda Devi National Park, adjoining the Valley of Flowers within Chamoli district, is a dramatic high-altitude wilderness dominated by Nanda Devi (7,817 m), India’s second-highest peak. The park’s heart is the remote Rishi Ganga gorge and an inner sanctuary of rock, ice and hanging glaciers, ringed by a wall of 6,000–7,000 m peaks. Human entry is highly restricted; visitors usually experience the park only from designated outer zones or viewpoints, but even from these edges, the sense of untouched Himalayan grandeur is overwhelming.
About this place
History & highlights
Nanda Devi National Park was notified as a protected area in 1982 and, together with the Valley of Flowers, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 (extended 2005). The massif has long held religious significance – Nanda Devi is worshipped as a mountain goddess across Uttarakhand, with the famous Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra symbolising her journey from her maika in Nauti (also in Chamoli region) to her Himalayan home. After overuse by expeditions and grazing in the mid-20th century, the Indian government closed the inner sanctuary in the 1980s to protect its fragile ecology; today, only tightly controlled scientific and eco-tourist access is allowed. The park’s story has become a classic case study in balancing sacredness, conservation and adventure tourism in a world-famous Himalayan landscape.
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