What Everybody Ought To Know About Floods in Nainital

The first time my friend proposed the idea of a weekend getaway to Nainital, I was excited. But on second thoughts, I was unsure and worried. So much so that the next day, I completely dismissed the thought given all that I had heard, read and seen on the Uttarakhand floods in the last few months. After an hour-long debate (which my friend eventually won) and having considered the fact that I had long wanted to go for a weekend break, the train tickets to Kathgodham were booked. By the way, that’s the closest railway station to Nainital.

Thanks to a good night sleep on the train (those 8 hours were well spent), we were quite fresh upon landing in at Kathgodham in the early hours of the morning. Durga, the cab driver courtesy Hotel Pavillion and our abode for the next few days, was there to receive us. With him on the wheel, the 1.5 hour long drive to Nainital was a chatty one. It had to be as the moment we sat inside the car, I began asking one question after the other. Then dawned reality! I came to realise that the disastrous floods of June 16 did not hit all of Uttarakhand but was majorly concentrated in Kedarnath and Badrinath in the Garhwal district. For the uninitiated, Uttrakhand is broadly divided into two regions - Garhwal and Kumaon. The Kumaon region which boasts of hill stations like Nainital, Bhimtal, Corbett, Almora, Ranikhet and Mukteshwar is completely untouched by the natural disaster and hence, is absolutely safe to travel.

Dated 14^th September 2013, my trip to Nainital and Corbett was witness to many such revelations and has done away with all my inhibitions regarding safety in Uttrakhand. And if that’s not enough, hear it from Kamal Singh Bisht, the boatwallah, a native of Nainital, who’s been rowing boats for the last 20 years at Lake Naini in Nainital.

Little did I realise that I would have missed out on the pristine beauty of the lake city had I not listened to my friend (and bore the scorching Delhi summer heat instead). This time, Nainital surprised me with the lush-green surroundings (that just got greener, right after the monsoons), the dreamy mist layered around the mountains and not-to-miss the off-season discounts offered by the many hotels in Nainital.

There’s more to the picturesque city. And to start with, here are my top 5 experiences in Nainital.

Video Credit: Varun Aggarwal