Post No 3 - Twist in the tale

               The plateau, very long and not too wide, has three kinds of land ownership. First is the biggest of the three, the Forest Department which owns all the forested areas on the slopes on either side of the plateau and such areas being DAF (dedicated forest area), are simply no construction and no encroachment zone. The second is local populace that resides in the villages in the valleys and re-entrants below. They come up during rains and cultivate potatoes (pahari aloo) and green peas. The cultivation lasts for about quarter of the year and then they return back to their permanent homes. Only a few, basically poor and generally landless, stay back in their stone and slate huts (not luxurious kath-kuni kinds though). With younger generation drifting away from hard toil, quite a bit of land has been sold off to Horticulture and such like government departments (third agency) that have experimental and research farms there.

Government owned (sold by locals long ago) farms on either side of the track

Working huts made of stones and slates...minimal and basic: no frills!

        With whatever land that remains, the major issue is the number of stakeholders of each piece of land. This being an asset that is used once a year and that requires toils and effort, the present ownership is a result of a few generations multiplying over the past century or so. Thus, plots as small as 50 square yards may be owned by six brothers or a family of ten adults. Such pieces of land, even if bigger in size, are simply not worth vying for. So many of them shall never agree on a point and like elsewhere, negotiating with them is simply impossible.

        The next hurdle in land acquisition here is the fact that people simply don't sell their holdings or whatever is remaining as of date. Their main landed assets in the villages down below do get bought and sold regularly but this area being a bit remote and with minimal commercial value, doesn't offer lucrative deals to sellers. And then there are prestige issues attached to the ancestral property too!

       Over many meetings with locals, I tried to drive home a logical point, ie, we would not buy but take land on lease. Further, whatever annual returns they get from any chunk of land at present, we shall offer an additional 25% and then increase the rental amount by 10% every year. In addition, whatever fixed assets would get created on the land, shall be left behind after the expiry of the lease. It took me a number of interactions and meetings and trips to that place to convince a few folks who had land free from the above issues (too many partners, size of land etc). But decision-making in mountains, like life in general, is slow and lacks the urgency that may exist everywhere else. Finally, I was able to cut the ice and this was the piece of land that I zeroed on and pushed in the most....

Who will not fall in love with this view!

     By the time my man Friday, Anil Thakur was able to get a nod from the sole owner of the land, it was March 2017. I was, thus, called over to seal the deal immediately but I could not manage leave and by the time I finally reached the place, someone else had simply walked in and grabbed the land on lease and on same conditions that I had been proposing! Phew....the twist hit me hard and I was at loss for thought and words for a while.

     The soldier, inside me, however, never gave up and I motivated Anil yet again to remain at it. Finally, by mid May 2017, this land, next to the earlier chunk, was offered to me....

Finally!

           The hard work had paid off finally but I was faced with a problem of different kind! My initial plan was to construct stone and slate huts as per the local system but the land that I got finally - though it offered better views- was small, narrow and a bit elongated. Many brain storming sessions with friends in the field could not create a layout that was financially viable on such a piece of land. Investment was going to be high because of remoteness of the area and unless one had six to eight units, returns would not be able to sustain the business since working season is restricted to less than five months an year!

         Finally, we had no option but to go vertical and that was how the plan was made. Goal posts do shift in life but focus has to remain at the right spot. While a multi-storeyed building may not have charm of a hut or cottage, the higher elevations threw up unmatched views from the better vantage points. So, that was it and we got down to work as the rains sounded their arrival.

                                           continues!!

Post No 2- How did Fula Ri Dhar (FRD) come into picture...

            Well, certain things are destined and if you are keen, even without being desperate, things do work out for you. Whether the ibid claim is true or otherwise, at least this is what happened to us in this particular case. It was October 2016 and having spent a couple of days at our Dacha at Kasol, we decided to cut short our stay in Parvati Valley and pay a visit to Barot instead. We just had one evening there at Barot - the quiet valley when the season was thankfully low- and it was all peaceful and calm there. On our way back, we decided to take a short breakfast halt at Jatingri/Jhatingri where we had seen a niche by the name, of Green Himalaya Restaurant on our way to Barot the previous day. And so we did.

            We sat down in the all-wood cafe, waiting for someone to ask us and take the order but a group of young lads (including cook and waiters, as we were to discover later), had been glued to the TV while a kabaddi match between India and Bangladesh was being telecast. There were players from HP and interest was justified though a bit too stretched from a pure business point of view. Finally, after 20 odd minutes, the match ended and we were spoken to for the first time. In a way, that is what is special about Pahari laid-back style of life (and I like it!). Over the next half an hour and as we consumed the breakfast, the manager (later, it turned out that he was only playing proxy for the actual guy!) patiently answered our queries and created a point of interest by mentioning the beauty of Fula Ri Dhar (FRD) that lay just above the place where we had been sitting and enjoying our breakfast. We had taken a hatchback during that trip and even though we wanted to drive up the un-metaled, gravel track leading to the FRD straightway, we were informed about the non-feasibility of such a drive due to damaged road condition; an SUV could have gone up though- we were told.

               Two months later, I was back there in our Pearly (Storme) and up we went- me, the ad-hoc manager and two strangers. The road beyond Jhatingri is steep, narrow, slippery when wet and prone to weather swings. Once we hit the first settlement, Dev Dhar, about 02 Km from Jhatingri, we came to the top of a long plateau that rose further up as if in huge steps. There were two settlements and then a higher plateau where govt potato farms stood sandwiching the road. We walked for two hours after hitting the road head about 4 Km from Jhatingri. Views were simply mesmerizing.

 It is actually a long plateau with steps (if not classical steppes) on top.

I have been there so many times now and mist rising from the valley below always creates a beautiful feeling

Aerial shot (not mine though)....Jhatingri is about 2 Km below the farthest edge (where two small white structures are visible) and the road head is on to the left of the red hut in the middle.

 And a decision was made then and there.....we shall have a niche up there soon!!

         The hunting began in all its earnest from that day onwards. Anil Thakur, the officiating manager of Green Himalayan that day, became my adjutant in the mission and he kept calling me back every now and then to come and see what he would have shortlisted. It was a long and a bit strenuous hunt that did eventually bear some fruits but not without seeing a twist at a point when no such twist could have been welcome.

The story continues!! 

Fula Ri Dhar (FRD)

           "Fula Ri Dhar", in colloquial Himachali dialect, translates into a Mountain of Flowers or to be more precise, Fula (Flowers) Ri (wali, as in Hindi) Dhar (Mountain). And it is a mountain range that separates Barot Valley from the Joginder Nagar belt in Himachal Pradesh (India). It lies HERE.

         Ghatasani is just a small pass on the Mandi-Joginder Nagar (or more broadly, on the Pathankot-Mandi) road. It lies about 40 Km from Mandi towards Pathankot/Palampur/Joginder Nagar. At Ghatasani, lies the junction from where we turn upwards to proceed towards Barot  Valley (25 km). Coming from Mandi/Chandigarh/Delhi side, we turn right, ie. About 5 Km ahead and 20 Km short of Barot town, we hit a small village, Jhatingri, that sits at the highest point between Ghatasani and Barot. One restaurant, one tea shop, half a dozen other shops that sell grocery and day-to-day needs and most importantly, two wine shops- all together, make Jhatingri. A couple of offices, a school and a huge ground (labelled as FREE PARKING) add to the asset portfolio of this small place. Here, in the middle of this settlement, an un-metalled track ascends to the higher reaches towards the north of the village. This four-odd km long track then culminates, at a flat plateau that is called Fula Ri Dhar or Phoola Ri Dhar!

         Why I am writing about this place and how significant it is for me, I shall touch upon in the posts that would follow soon.