JOIN USCreating memories through trails
Theodore Roosevelt once said, ‘Believe you can and you’re halfway there.’ Putting this into practice are the adventurous members of ‘Indiahikes’. They believe that in order to reach great heights, it is important to initiate the first step. It is a trekking community that aims to discover unexplored places and also modify the routes of the already existing treks.
The club was started by Arjun Majumdar who began going for treks with his friends and his passion to reach new heights encouraged him to later organise treks for other like-minded people. This was how the community was born in 2009 with trekkers from across the world. Komal Shivdasani, an active member, says, “The club focusses primarily on the Himalayan ranges for all treks. It is usually twice or thrice a year that we do a Himalayan trek. However, when it comes to treks around Bengaluru, we keep going for camps or one-day treks frequently. In fact, we have treks being organised all through the year with many smaller groups always on the move, across the country.”
After being with the group for the past eight months and now working as a ground coordinator, Suhas Saya says that there are about 25 treks right from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh that the club organises, apart from which there are several others that are documented on the website. This is in order to help people get an idea of different treks and explore on their own as well.
“I have to interact with the trekkers from time to time and make sure that they are ready for the high altitude treks. Some of the treks that we have covered are to Tulian Lake, Roopkund, Dayara Bugyal and Markha Valley,” says Suhas. Puneeth Narayana, who used to trek to the Western Ghats before he joined ‘Indiahikes’, says that it was his dream to go for a Himalayan trek that attracted him to this community.
He has already done two treks till now and says that they were breathtaking experiences, both entirely different from each other. “There is no age restriction here; as long as a person is fit and mentally prepared, anybody can do these treks. We have seen people as young as 12 years old and as old as 55. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is an important aspect here,” says Puneeth.
There are different graded treks — easy, moderate and difficult — that an individual can choose according to their ability. Kedarkantha, Deorital and Chandershila treks are popular in the easy grade. Vinod Krishna, another active member who has been trekking from the past eight years, says his first experience with the club was in 2009 when they organised a few treks to the Western Ghats. “When I started trekking, I was very sceptical, especially in places where there is water. But it so happened that I headed for a monsoon trek with ‘Indiahikes’. It was raining throughout with a lot of leeches everywhere. That was the moment when something struck me and I was motivated to go for more and more treks to the Western Ghats and do a few Himalayan treks as well,” says Vinod.
Maintaining a harmony with nature and keeping the environment clean and green is an integral part of the club. ‘Green trails’, as they like to call it, is an initiative to reduce the waste produced during a hike and also undo other people’s damage to the environment. Nikshep Trinetra says, “We make sure to collect the waste that we find on our way while going up and coming down, to reduce the waste generated during a trek. This is a small step towards keeping our surroundings green. Our future plan is to explore the North Eastern region of India.”
(The club can be contacted at 9343831803)