Valley of Flowers National Park, Chamoli – History

Valley of Flowers National Park, Chamoli – History

The Valley of Flowers is a high-altitude Himalayan valley that has long been acknowledged by renowned mountaineers, botanists, and in literature. It has been recognized internationally for over a century and is referenced in the Hindu religion. Local people have visited the valley since ancient times. Indian yogis are known to have visited the valley for meditation. However, the place was little known to the outside world due to its inaccessibility. In 1931, Frank S. Smythe, Eric Shipton and R. L. Holdsworth, all British mountaineers, lost their way while returning from a successful expedition to Mt. Kamet and happened upon the valley, which was full of flowers.

They were attracted to the beauty of the area and named it as the Valley of Flowers. Frank Smythe later authored a book of the same name. In 1939, Joan Margaret Legge, (21 February 1885 – 4 July 1939) a botanist deputed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, arrived at the valley to study flowers and while traversing some rocky slopes to collect flowers, she slipped off and died. Her sister later visited the valley and erected a memorial near the spot.

Prof. Chandra Prakash Kala, a botanist deputed by the Wildlife Institute of India, carried out a research study on the floristics and conservation of the valley for a decade, beginning in 1993. He made an inventory of 520 alpine plants exclusively growing in this national park and authored two important books namely “The Valley of Flowers – Myth and Reality” and "Ecology and Conservation of the Valley of Flowers National Park, Garhwal Himalaya. The Valley of Flowers was declared a National Park in 1982 and was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2004.